y«» »»»»»»» Please andle this volume with care. e University of Connecticut Libraries, Storrs «. » » » ■»■» hbl.stx F 104.W6B7 Annals and family records of Winch 3 T153 DDbDDDED M o W 5, A^7?i. / ? i^/^—en^ d ^NNALS FAMILY RECORDS WTNCHESTEK, COOTT., Exercises of the Centennial Celebration, On the 16th and 17th Days of August, 1871. BY JOHI.vBOYD. \ HARTFORD: PRESS OF CASE, LOCKWOOD & BRAINARD. 1873. TO THE MEMORY OP THE PIONEER SETTLERS AND EARLY RESIDENTS OF WINCHESTER, TO THEIR WIDELY-SCATTERED DESCENDANTS, AND TO THE NATIVE AND ADOPTED CITIZENS OF THE TOWN, ^lus ^Memorial IS REVERENTLY AND MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. PEEFACE. As early as 1856, the compiler of these Annals conceived the plan of collecting materials for a history of his native town, and its early settlers. His life-long residence, reaching back to 1799, and the custody of its re- cords during no inconsiderable portion of the last fifty years, made him more familiar than most living men, with its documentary history and its traditions. Frequent calls by descendants of Old Winchester families, and by genealogists, for information derivable from the town records, im- pressed him with the belief that a compilation of historical events and family records, however imperfect, would be received with favor alike by citizens of the town and descendants of emigrating families. It soon became apparent that the settlement and growth of one of the most recent of the original towns of the State, was attended with no thril- ling incidents or romantic tales, with which to embellish its transition from barbarism to civilization. If its territory had ever been possessed by an aboriginal race, that race had long ago disappeared, leaving no trace be- hind. The dispirited remnants of the once warlike tribes of the Narra- ganset region, had only roamed through its tangled forests, and made temporary halts along the shores of its lakes and the banks of its streams. They claimed no right of domain, and contested no settler's possession of its soil. No fort nor block-house was ever needed for protection or de- fence of its pioneer settlers ; and no hostile armament ever approached its borders. Lacking historical material of this nature, in its origin, and destitute of sensational events in its slow and prosaic growth, the idea of a reada- ble town history seemed preposterous. And yet there are unrecorded in- cidents and traditions in the growth of every community, which, however uninteresting to the outside world, may deeply interest residents and the descendants of residents, of that community. There are traits of char- acter, and memories of worth or unworthiness, customs, and habits of thought and action, that should not be lost to posterity by want of brief record. There is also a growing desire among the descendants of New England families, to trace their ancestry and family connections ; not so much in search of an illustrious origin, as with the desire to establish a connection with progenitors and kindred of solid worth. viii ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. With the purpose of aiding in these researches, the following circular letter was printed, and largely distributed among the descendants of early settlers and residents of the town : CIRCULAR. Dear Sir: — I am making a compilation from the Winchester Records, of all the facts ascertain- able in reference to the settlers and inhabitants of the town prior to 1800 ; — and am desirous of incorporating therein such other facts as may be furnished by the descend- ants of old Winchester families, in reference to their origin and expansion. Such a compilation will have a value proportioned to the accuracy and extent of the informa- tion it will afford to future inquirers in reference to their family history ; — and this must mainly depend on the prompt and liberal aid of those taking an interest in the perpetuation of family history. The items desired are, the births, marriages, and deaths, of all members of inhabit- ant families — the dates of their settlement in, and their departure from the town — their prior and subsequent residence — the names, residences, and other particulars before enumerated, of their ancestors as far back as can be ascertained — and the names of all descendants; — also the offices and appointments in church and state, and the profes- sions or occupations which any of them held or followed, together with peculiarities of character or history. Family Bibles should be made the basis of reports, and such other facts added there- to, as are attainable. Communications, while they are comprehensive, should be brief and well digested — and must be promptly furnished to be available. As the labors of the compiler will be arduous, and without remuneration, he feels assured that no son or grandson of old Winchester will withhold the aid he can fur- nish towards perfecting the work proposed. Yours truly, John Boyd. West Winsted, Ct., June 12, 1857. The responses to this call were so few, and the materials furnished so scant, as to discourage any attempt in the way of perfected genealogies. Nevertheless, a systematic digest of the materials of family history fur- nished by the public records, supplemented by reliable additions from other sources, seemed to promise essential aid to genealogists, and to the widely scattered descendants of Winchester families. By adding personal no- tices of every known early settler and resident of the town, and incidents of town history, in the form of Annals, it was hoped that a readable book could be compiled, which would prove interesting and instructive to citi- zens of the town and their widely scattered descendants. The plan adopted was, to trace out the land title of the township, to note the action of the proprietary body, the subdivision of the lands into divisions, tiers, and lots, and the assignment of these lots to individual proprietors or purchasers. The carrying out of this plan required a dili- gent search of the land records and assessment lists, to ascertain the or- der and dates of immigration, the location of immigrants, by means of descriptions and references in recorded deeds, and by personal inquiries of cotemporaries and descendants, for such items of family history as the records do not furnish. PEEFACE. i x "With "these data obtained, and with the aid of town, society, and church records, the compiler entered on his task. How successfully he has ac- complished it, amid the constant interruption of official duties, it is the province of others to judge; while it is his right to assume that few crit- ics will discover more of its demerits than he is painfully conscious of. In his treatment of the work his endeavor has been to make it reada- ble and instructive to residents and the descendants of residents of the town, by embodying with statistical and historic facts, incidents and illus- tiations unappreciable by the outside world. If in this he has assimilated to the illustrious Boswell, the work will probably be not the less accepta- ble to the readers for whom it is specially designed. The home reader will hardly object to being conducted slowly along the path of the first settlers, as one of their number, learning about the divisions of the town- ship domain into tiers and lots and their landmarks; silting at the primi- tive fireside of Caleb Beach ; partaking of Joel's collation of bear's meat or venison, supplemented by a wooden bowl of toast and cider ; calling of an evening at landlord Mott's hostelry and hearing the news of the outer world, and perchance witnessing the descent down the chimney of his stalwart boys ; going to meeting at the old Sab-a-day house, or, later, at the new meeting-house, and joining in the prayers and praises of the assembled worshipers ; discussing at the store or tavern the merits or demerits of the half-way covenant and the impending Revolutionary crisis ; attending the trainings, school exhibitions, and public whippings at the post ; watching the growth of the settlement, and becoming ac- quainted with each new settler. The experiences of a town in small things as well as in large, make up its history. Its legendary anecdotes, apocryphal though they may be, re- lieve the dullness of description or narrative, and illustrate manners and customs. Their absolute truth or falsity should not trouble the con- science of the sober-sided, unimaginative reader, who eschews all levity and humor as of the evil one. All that is demanded of such an one is, to receive them as traditions which, in the nature of things, cannot be authen- ticated or belied. For assistance and encouragement in prosecuting this work, a grateful acknowledgment is due to D. Williams Patterson, Esq., late of Winsted and now of Newark Valley, N. Y., for essential aid in collecting and arrang- ing the family records, for persistent urgency in stimulating the jaded, not to say indolent compiler, to perseverance in prosecuting his task. To Deacon Ira Hills, of Vernon, N. Y., the oldest living native of the town, and the most filial of her sons, and to Mrs. Nellie M. Swift, of Colchester, Conn., both descendants of the early settlers of the town, and both residents elsewhere during most of their lives, we are indebted for 7 a X ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, many interesting reminiscences of men and customs of the past. We have copied liberally from the sprightly sketches of the latter, and from the former have obtained valuable material. We are also indebted to the venerable Father Marsh for extracts from his manuscript historical ser- mon, deposited in the archives of the Connecticut Historical Society. With these aged worthies it is fitting to associate Deacon Abel S. Wet- more, of the active generation now on the stage, as versed with traditional lore beyond any other living native of the town. Credit is also due to Dr. Henry H. Drake, Recording Secretary of the Centennial Association, for securing and arranging accurate reports of the centennial exercises herein published, and for his efficient services in obtaining a list of subscribers exceeding in number the most sanguine an- ticipations of the compiler; also to C. A. Alvord, a native, and S. A. Hubbard, a former resident of the town, both now of Hartford, and to George M. Carrington, of Winsted, for the kind interest they have taken in the work, and the assistance they have rendered in its preparation for the piv ps. Before this work was projected, most of the generation connecting the present with the primitive stock had passed away. Among those then living and now departed, a tribute of grateful remembrance is due to Rev- Abel McEwen, D. D., of New London, whose analysis of character and fund of anecdote were unrivaled. A series of sketches of early Win- chester men was commenced by him, but soon discontinued by reason of infirmities of age, of which we have availed ourselves. To the late Dr. Truman S. Wetmore, the compiler is also specially obliged for valuable information obtainable from no other living source. Also to the family of the late Deacon Lewis M. Norton, for free access to his manuscript vol- umes of Goshen genealogies, — a work of great interest and value, which should be made available to the public, in printed form. The compiler originally contemplated publishing these Annals as early as 1862, but on ascertaining the expenses of publication and the probable patronage the work would receive, it appeared very doubtful whether the actual pecuniary outlay would be refunded, and therefore the project was abandoned. The occurrence of the town centennial in July, 1871, created a new interest in the history of the town. A publication of the centennial exer- cises was demanded, of which the Historical Address formed a part. This was an epitome of this work ; too long to be fully read to a public audi- ence, and yet too brief to prove a satisfactory exposition of the town his- tory. Under these circumstances the compiler decided to bring his whole work before the public, and by an arrangement with the town, engaged to publish in connection with it the other centennial exercise-. PREFACE. XI The engraved portraits embellishing this volume are, with two excep- tions, of deceased natives or citizens of the town ; and all of them were provided at the expense of friends of the parties. Others would have been in like manner provided, had there existed satisfactory portraits from which to engrave them. It is hardly an excusable weakness in a writer to deprecate criticism of a production which he has deliberately brought before the public, but it is hoped that the limited public for whose perusal the work was designed, and to whom it is dedicated, will consider that it was compiled in snatches of time amid other occupations, then laid aside for several years, and on finally taking it up for immediate publication, finding much to add, more to suppress, and the whole to correct and condense, and at an age when mental and bodily vigor is essentially impaired, will excuse its defects and the seeming unreasonable delay in carrying it through the press ; and will find in its pages items of town and family history, and of tradition, which would have been lost had they waited for a more able chronicler to era- body them, CHAPTER I . PRELIMINARY HISTORY— LAND TITLE. The oldest conveyance of land recorded in Winchester bears date November 28, 1729, by which John Kilbourn, of Hartford, conveys to Jonathan and David Hills, of Hartford, "all (his) right, title, share, and interest in and to a. large Tract of Land, commonly known as the Western Lands, belonging to the Towns of Hartford and Windsor, as it abuts on the Towns of Woodbury and Litchfield, west on the Colony Land, north on the Colony line,' and east on Farmington and Sirnsbury, or however butted and bounded." This title was derived from a hasty and ill-advised grant of the General Court, made in January, 1686, to the towns of Hartford and Windsor, in anticipation of the annulling of the colonial charter, and the sequestration by Sir Edmund Audross of the unoccupied lands of the colony. Besides several minor tracts undisposed of in Hartford and New Haven counties, the colony owned the whole territory of Litchfield county lying north of New Milford and Woodbury. On notice of the arrival of Audross at Boston, with authority from the crown to revoke the colonial charter, and to assume the government of the colony, the grant referred to was made by the panic-stricken General Court. The series of votes, of which this grant was one, bore a resem- blance to an assignment in bankruptcy, and had some badges which, in strict legal construction, might have been esteemed fraudulent had the usurpation of Andross been sustained. The first vote constituted Major John Talcott and Ensign Nath. Standley trustees of all the bills secured to, and all claims due the colony, to be improved by them for paying the colonial debts, and to pay over the surplus, if any, to the several counties, for the encouragement of Grammar Schools. Another vote granted to Wethersneld, Middletown, and Farmington, all the vacant lands between Wallingford bounds and the bounds of those towns ; another vote granted to the Town of Kenil- worth, " all those lands north of their bounds and Guilford, and west of Haddam" ; and by. another vote, granted to Hartford and Windsor, " those lands on the north of Woodbury and Matatock, and on the west of Farmington and Sirnsbury, to the Massachusetts line north, and to 2 10 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. run west to Housatunnuck River (provided it be not, or part of it, for- merly granted to any particular persons) to make a plantation or villages thereon." Andross, after repeated but fruitless efforts to induce the General Court to make a voluntary surrender of the charter, came to Hartford in October, 1 687, dissolved the charter government, and assumed supreme control. The charter, however, was never surrendered to him, nor was it ever set aside by the English Courts, on the writ of quo warranto then pending. His usurped government, after a period of about sixteen months, came to an end on news of the deposition of James II., and the accession of William and Mary to the British throne. On the flight of Andross early in 1689, the charter government was resumed, and the old magistrates, and civil and military officers, were reinstated, until a new election under the charter coidd be held. The land grants referred to had not been perfected by the issue of charters, which by law were indispensable to their validity, nor was any action taken in reference to them for nearly twenty years. It is probable that the General Court, while composed mainly of those who voted the grant, were unwilling, by a revocation, to incur the imputation of having made a fictitious disposal of the lands, and that the grantees, while the well-known intent of the grants was fresh in their remembrance, were slow to repu- diate the implied trust by any overt acts of ownership. By the town records of Hartford it appears that nearly twenty-two years after the grant, and after most of those then on the stage had passed away, it was voted in town meeting, " that whereas, a grant was made to the plantations of Hartford and Windsor, on the 26th of January, 1686, of those lands on the north of Woodbury and Matatuck, west of Symsbury and Farmington, to the Massachusetts Line North, and to run west to Housatonuck or Stratford River ; that two or three persons be appointed to join with two or more from Windsor, to survey, or view, the said tract of land, and make return of the quantity and quality thereof, and to bring in a map of the same." In January, 1708, another com- mittee was appointed by Hartford to compound with claimants of any part of the lands, to settle the boundaries, and, if need be, to sue, defend, eject, and recover, in course of law, all disputants of their title or trespassers on their lands. In 1710, a committee was raised to devise measures to secure the propriety of the lands, and to move the assembly " to grant them such deed in writing, or other thing " as might be deemed necessary. Other votes, of a similar nature, were passed from time to time, with a view to establish a possessory right, and in 1715 it was decided to lay out one or two townships, probably with a view to fortify their right of ownership by compliance with the only expressed condition of the original grant. Pursuant to this policy, the township of Litchfield — originally PRELIMINARY HISTORY. H named New Bantam — was surveyed and' laid out about 1717; and it being found that parties in Farmington had secured Indian titles to por- tions of this territory, they were compromised with, by allotting to them one-sixth part of the township, in consideration of their release of all claim to any other portion of the granted territory, and of procuring a confirmation to Hartford and Windsor of all the lands in the township claimed by Farmington Indians. Litchfield having been surveyed and its lands disposed of to settlers who had entered on the same, the location and survey of a new township, north of Litchfield, was resolved on, and a committee appointed for that purpose. This committee reported their laying out of a township of about the dimensions of Litchfield, embracing a gore from the east side of Corn- wall, the whole of Goshen, the west half of Torrington, and the south- west corner of Winchester. The report was accepted in 1723, and a committee was appointed to dispose of the lands, admit settlers, and con- vey the lands to jmrchasers. At this stage of the proceedings, the General Assembly seems for the first time to have interposed to check the fillibustering operations of these powerful and arrogant towns ; and the state of things imperiously demanded prompt and energetic action. Not Hartford and Windsor alone were interested in establishing the defective grant of 1686, but also the towns of Wethersfield, Middletown, and Killingworth — the grantees of smaller tracts. Farmington had become specially interested by its compact secur- ing to it a sixth part of the township of Litchfield. Prominent men in other towns had purchased fractional shares of the territory from Hartford and Windsor proprietors, and were thereby brought into the combination, which became so strong that civil process against the trespassers could not be executed in Hartford county, which then comprehended the disputed territory. In this emergency, the Assembly, at the Spring session of 1723, directed the King's Attorney for New Haven county to prosecute the trespassers in the name of the Governor and Company. John Sey- mour, Samuel Catlin, William Baker, Thomas Moore, and Job Ellsworth, of the committee appointed by Hartford and Windsor to dispose of the allotments in the Goshen township, appear to have been the first parties prosecuted and arrested.* * Doctor Trumbull, in his History of Connecticut, assigns an earlier period for the arrest and imprisonment of trespassers on the western lands, and ascribes to the men of Hartford and Windsor the famous uprising and jail-delivery in 1722, with the pur- pose of rescuing those trespassers. Recent investigations of the Colonial and Court Records of that period, by Hon. J. Hammond Trumbull, go to show that this high- handed outrage was perpetrated by men of Windham and Tolland counties, in no way concerned in the Hartford and Windsor controversy, but neighbors and friends of Captain Jeremiah Fitch, a popular and influential man in eastern Connecticut, who, after a protracted suit at law in defence of a land title, and, as he and his neighbors 12 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. The apprehension of a vigorous prosecution of these and other offenders, may have induced the following whimpering vote, passed in Hartford town meeting, in April, 1773: " Voted, That Joseph Talcott, Esq., Lieut. Thomas Seymour, and James Ensign be a committee, in conjunction with a committee of Windsor, to represent to the General Assembly, in May next, the true state of our western lands by grant and purchase, and pray their favorable construc- tion of our right thereto, and pray them for a further confirmation thereof by patent, or otherwise enquire of them their further intentions with us, as their children, who freely pay all obedience to them as our father." This language indicates a change of tone and policy. The asking of a confirmation of title shows a growing doubt of the validity of their action in appropriating Litchfield and attempting further appropriations of terri- tory. ' Another vote of Hartford, October 7th, 1 723, reciting the original grant, and the great expenses and charges of the towns in buying out the native claimants, and assigning as the reason why the Assembly refused their grant, that many members of the Assembly apprehended the quan- tity of land embraced in their grant of 1686 was far greater than was understood or intended at the time ; therefore they appointed a committee to act with a Windsor committee in applying to the coming October session of Assembly " for a confirmation of said lands ; or, if the General Assembly shall remain unwilling, for the reasons aforesaid, to grant a patent of the whole of said lands, the said agents are empowered to con- cert with the Assembly for obtaining a patent for a part of said lands, releasing the rest as said agents shall judge most conducive to the benefit of said towns and the quiet settlement of said lands." The vote then goes on to limit the agents to a proposed division, by a compromise line from the northwest corner of Litchfield, north, to the Massachusetts line, the eastern division to be confirmed to Hartford and Windsor, and the western to be relinquished to .the colony. This division would have conceived, a wrongful judgment rendered against him, was committed to Hartford jail, on an execution for costs. His neighbors, against some of whom similar actions were pending or threatened, — there being scarcely a farm in that region over which there were not two or three conflicting titles, — were indignant at his committal, and determined to liberate him. On the 22d of October, 1722, these, neighbors and some East Windsor men — about fifty in all — in open day crossed the Hartford ferry, marched up to the jail, and demanded the release of Captain Fitch. The jailor refusing, a battering-ram was improvised out of a timber near at hand, the door was broken in, and Cap'. Fitch and the other prisoners were set. free. The party then retreated to the ferry, which they seized, in spite of the sheriff's posse hastily assembled, and made good their retreat without further interruption. Capt. Fitch was afterwards tried as a participator in the riot, and acquitted of any knowledge, act, or part in the matter. He subsequently obtained a reversal of the judgment against him, the costs of which were the basis of his arrest and imprisonment. LAND TITLE. 13 given to the towns more than three-fourths of the territory, and to the colony less than one-fourth. Though not acceeded to, and probably not expected to he, the propo- sition became a basis of negotiation. At the October Session, in 1724, the Assembly appointed a committee to examine the claims of the towns, to receive propositions, and to report. " The Committee," in the words of Dr. Trumbull, " found it an affair of great labor and difficulty to examine the claims, and obtain such conces- sions and propositions as they judged reasonable, or as the Assembly would accept. After laboring in the business nearly two years they made their report. The Legislature, wishing to preserve the peace of the colony, and to settle the lands as expeditiously as might be, on the report of their committee resolved, (May Session, 1726), " that the lands in controversy should be divided between the colony and the towns — that the colony should have the western, and Hartford and Windsor the eastern division." The line of division coincided with the dividing line between Cole- brook, Winchester, and Torrington, on the east, and Goshen and Norfolk on the west. The township of Litchfield was conceded to the two toAvns, and their grants to New Milford and to Benjamin Fairweather were confirmed. The survey of the new township north of Litchfield was abandoned, and the area absorbed in other townships afterward laid out. The territory conceded to Hartford and Windsor embraces the towns of Colebrook, Hartland, Winchester, Barkhamsted, Torrington, New Hartford, and Harwinton, making an area of 291,806 acres, to which is to be added the township of Litchfield, with an area of not less than 35,000 acres. The territory reserved to the colony embraced the towns of Canaan, Norfolk, Cornwall, Goshen, Warren, and about two-thirds of Kent, making not far from 120,000 acres. To the excess of area conceded to the two towns is to be added the advantage of location in considering the concession made to them by the Assembly, in order to quiet their tumultuous spirit, and secure a speedy settlement of the only remaining unoccupied territory of the Colony. Yet, the concession of this splendid domain was so unsatisfactory to the two towns that the ratification of the compact, was not perfected until August 30, 1729, when a patent of one moiety of the 145,303 acres was duly issued to Hartford, and of the other moiety to Windsor. The lands being surveyed and divided into townships, Hartford and Windsor proceeded to a dissolution of partnership by deeds of partition dated February 11, 1732, by which the inhabitants of Hartford became the sole owners of Hartland, Winchester, New Hartford, and the eastern 14 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. half of Harwinton, and the inhabitants of Windsor of Colebrook, Bark- hamsted, Torrington, and the western half of Harwinton. A law of the Assembly was enacted, providing for a subdivision by each of the towns among its taxable inhabitants, of their individual rights, by assigning to each his whole interest in one or other of the townships. The law also provided that the land-owners of each township should have a corporate existence as " proprietors " of the respective towns, with powers to survey and allot to each individual his pro rata share, according to the lists of 1720, of the land in the township to which he was assigned. Under this enactment the seven proprietary townships were so organ- ized as to constitute each tax-payer of Hartford and Windsor on their lists of 1720, or their heirs or assigns, a proprietor of an undivided share, in proportion to his list in some one of the townships ; and the quantity of land to which each was entitled on subdivision was at the rate of more than three acres to the pound of his list. CHAPTER II. "PROPRIETORS OF WINCHESTER." In the preceding chapter we have briefly detailed the events which resulted in settling the title of the western lands and vesting the township of Winchester in a proprietary body. It would seem as if, on this con- summation, after a controversy of more than forty years, our proprietors would at once have organized and opened their lands for sale or settle- ment; but it appears they were in no haste to do so. In 1744, May 14, eight years after Hartford and Windsor had made a division of their ill- gotten territory, the proprietors of Winchester were called together, and were organized by choosing William Pitkin as moderator, and Thomas Seymour as clerk and register of deeds. The names of individual proprietors, and the amounts set to them, was made out in these words : Here follows a list of the names of the original proprietors of the township of Winchester, in the count}' of Hartford, with the severall sums annexed to their names by which the respective rights and shares of ed. proprietors of the township of Winchester afores'd are to be apportioned and holden or divided to and amongst them, their heirs and assigns, according as the same is sett and apportioned in the deed of partition made of that part of those lands called the Western Lands, which was sett out to and among the inhabitants of Hartford, viz.: £. s. d. £. s. d. Wm. Pitkin, Esq., Heirs, 251 : 0:0 Joseph Keeney, 44 : 0:0 Mr. Richard Lord's Heirs, 161: 0:0 John Porter, 33: 0:0 Eev. Mr. Thos. Buckingham,. 100: 0:0 William Cole, 52: 0:0 Wm. Whiting, Jan., 21: 0:0 Capt. Thos. Seymour, 206 : 0:0 Peter Pratt, 41: 0:0 Joseph Wells' Heirs, 20:10:0 Nath'l Jones, 39:10:0 Sam'l Church's Heirs, 31: 0:0 Dan'l Smith, 23: 0:0 Stephen Andruss, 35: 0:0 Sam'l Burnham, 24 : 0:0 Henry & John Arnold,! 93 : 0:0 Thos. Hopkins, 97: 0:0 Wilterton Merrill, 134: 0:0 Jacob Merrill's Heirs, : 64: 0:0 Thos. Burr, 91: 0:0 Aaron Cook's Heirs 171: 0:0 Col. Wm. Whiting, 35: 0:0 John Pratt, Jun., 55 : 10 : Capt. Jos. Wadsworth, • 44 : 1 : John Ensign, 38:10:0 Mr. John Whiting, 125: 0:0 Win. Roberts, Jun., Heirs,. .. 29: 0:0 John Pellett, 21: 0:0 Joseph Easton, 40:10:0 Wm. Williams, 105 : 10 : o Tim. Phelps' Heirs, 71: 0:0 John Cole, 40: 0:0 16 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. £. s. d. Thos. Wells, 79 : 10 : Jona. Barrett, 49 : 0:0 Thos. Pellett, 46 : : Jos. Keeney, Jun., 49 : 0:0 Isaac Kellogg', 48: 0:0 Richard Olmsted, 73 : 0:0 John Shepard, 64 : 10 : Jona. Olcott, 41: 0:0 Ensign Nath'l Goodwin, 124 : 10 : James Ensign, 121 : 10 : Edw'd Dodd's Heirs, 22 : 0:0 Thos. Judd's Heirs, 61:10:0 Eben'r Webster, 38 : 10 : Thos. Day's Heirs, 38 : 0:0 Jas. Bidwell's Heirs, 18 : 0:0 John Skinner, 138 : 0:0 Josep Root, 1 : 0:0 Thos. Meekin's Heirs, 24 : 0:0 Jos. Sedgwick, 2S : 0:0 Jona. Burnham, 21 : 0:0 Richard Goodman, 77 : 0:0 Caleb Watson, 21 : 0:0 Lem'l Deming's Heirs, 15: 0:0 Obadiah Spencer, 161 : 0:0 Thos. Dickinson's Heirs, 51 : : Aaron Cook's Heirs, 51:10:0 John Kellogg's Heirs, 54 : 0:0 Thos. Burnham, Jr., Heirs,. . . 29 : : James Porter 27 : 0:0 Richard Gilman, 58: 0:0 Caleb Benton 41:10:0 John Camp's Heirs, 2: 0:0 Rev. Mr. Benj. Colton, 100 : 0:0 Thos. Burr, Jun., 51 : 10 : Joseph Gilbert, 53 : : Sam'l Hubbard, 25: 0:0 Thos. Hosmer, 193: 0:0 Richard Burnham, Jr., 56 : : Thos. Whaples, Ephraim Tucker, John Hazletine, Richard Seymour, William Day, John Goodwin, John Williams' Heirs, William Pratt, Jacob Webster's Heirs, Mr. John Haynes' Heirs, John Benjamin, Jun., Thos. Bnraham's Heirs,. Jona. Bull, Jona. Ashley, John Pantry, Caleb B. & Thos. Bunce's H'rs, Joseph Cook, David Forbes, James Williams, Jun., John Burnham, Jr., Sam'l Burr, Jos. Farnsworth, John Butler, John Easton's Heirs, Charles Kelsey, Samuel Spencer, Joseph Butler, John Abby, Phebee Russell, Ozias Goodwin, Ichabod Wadsworth, Tim. Porter, John Kilborn, James Poisson, Jonathan Taylor, Thos. Day, Jr., Heirs, £. s. d. 26: 10:0 32 : 0:0 21 : 0:0 61 : 10:0 23: 0:0 52: 10:0 46 : 0:0 31 : 0:0 38: 0:0 121 18 51 0:0 0:0 0:0 44 : 10 : 52 : 0:0 109 : : 115: 0:0 77 : 0:0 75 : 0:0 43 : 0:0 30: 0:0 45 :10:0 25 : 0:0 29 : 0:0 90 : 0:0 38 : 0:0 60 : 10: 66 : 10:0 27 .0:0 8:0:0 78: 0:0 10:0 0:0 0:0 0:0 10 :0 0:0 62 : 52 51 18 27 18 After an interval of more than six years, another meeting was called and held at Hartford, October 8, 1750, which appointed a committee "to proceed to and view the lands, and make report to the next meeting; and to warn the Indians not to set fire on any of the lands, upon peril of suf- fering the penalties of the law in case they so do." The next meeting, held in January, 1751, voted, "That whenever twenty proprietors should signify their wish to proceed to the settlement of the township, the clerk should call another meeting." The next meet- ing, held in October, 1753, appointed a committee to form a plan for dividing and settling the township, but without result. More than two "PROPRIETORS OF WINCHESTER." 17 years later, January 22, 1756, another committee was raised, to view the lands, survey and renew the bounds and corners thereof, and to report to the next meeting a plan of laying out and settling the same. The plan reported and adopted at the next meeting, Novenibei*, 1757, was to lay out two acres on the pound to each of the proprietors, in two divisions ; ' and that Col. Samuel Talcott, Capt. Thomas Seymour, William Pitkin, Jr., and Mr. John Robins, Jr., be a committee, before the next meeting, to adjust and make up the interests of each of the proprietors, for the more speedy settling and laying out of said two divisions ; and in January, 1758, a committee was appointed " to make and draw a lott for the proprietors, for their precedence and succession in laying out the two divi- sions in manner and form following, viz. : By making so many uniform papers as there are to be allotments, and on each of said papers write the name of the proprietor to have his share or allotment governed or laid out by said draft, and in a just and proper manner cause said papers to be drafted out of some covered instrument, as Providence shall direct the lotts, No. one, two, three, &c, in order as they come out, and make a return thereof to the proprietors under their hands ;" and any proprietor owning by purchase or otherwise, to have all his rights added together in one allotment. The committee was instructed to divide the township into six tiers, running northerly and southerly, parallel with the eastern line of the township : the first five to be one mile and six rods wide (including a reservation for a six-rod highway, northerly and southerly, where it will best accommodate), and the sixth, or westernmost tier, so broad as to take up the rest of the land. They were then to begin at the southwest corner of the township, and lay out the lot first drawn by lines at right angles to the tier lines, and so proceed northward, in course, as the lots were drawn (each lot containing one acre to the pound of the proprietor's interest) not less than three and a-half miles, unless the next lot will extend more than three and three-quarters miles northward ; and then begin at the south end of the next tier east, and then to proceed northward, as in the first tier ; and then to proceed with the third tier east in the same manner. In laying out the second division, the committee were to begin at the northeast corner of the township, and lay out the first lot to the same proprietor who had the first allotment in the first division ; and then to proceed southerly, laying out lots to the proprietors of the corresponding lots in the first division, in successive tiers, of the same extent southward as those in the first division were to extend northward. In the first division the committee were instructed to locate the rights of Caleb Beach, Landlord Mott and his son Mott, and of Ebenezer and Joseph Preston, so as to take into their allotments the lands and buildings then occupied and improved by them. They were also to reserve, in the 3 18 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. second division, two mill lots of six acres each — one on the Still river, embracing the Gilbert Clock Company's works, and the other " The Old Forge Privilege," on the lake outlet, now owned by the Winsted Manu- facturing Company. On the fourth Monday of May, 1758, the committee reported their action, and exhibited a plan of their survey and allotments of the two divisions to a meeting of the proprietors, which was accejited and ordered to be recorded. The third and final division of lands in the township was ordered in November, 1763, and the committee reported their laying out of the same December 1st following; which report was accepted and ordered to be recorded. The undivided land in the northwest, or Dan bury quarter, was laid out in three half-mile tiers, and one tier of one hundred rods, running northerly, from the first division lands to Colebrook line, parallel with the west line of the town and reaching easterly to the third or west- ernmost tier of the second division, and allotments of one acre to the pound were made on a new drawing of lots, beginning at the southerly end of the westernmost tier and proceeding northerly to Tolebrook line ; then beginning at the north end of the second tier End proceeding to the south end, then proceeding northerly on the third tier, and returning southerly on the one hundred-rod tier to its southerly end. The remain- ing allotments were made on the west, south, and east shores of Long Lake, so as to appropriate all the undivided lands of the township, except a section about a mile square at the southeast corner of the township, afterwards taken on execution by parties who had made the " Old North Road," by order of the General Assembly, — and known as the " Henshaw Tract." Reservations of six-rod highways were made, running northerly and southerly, " where they would best accommodate," in all the tiers ; and located reservations, four rods wide, were made easterly and westerly, at irregular intervals, across the tiers ; but the reservations in the aggregate fell far short of the requirements of the town. So far as the general plan and mechanical execution of this survey is concerned, it seems excellent. The tier lines — except a blunder in their bearings in the first division — were accurately laid out and well defined. The lines of marked trees between the lots and on the tier lines, are still readily found and traced, wherever the primitive forest remains. The center bounds, with stones containing the initials of the original owners, are generally still to be found in sections outside of the villages. But the system of triple division of owners' rights operated very unfairly on the small proprietors, and this injustice was aggravated by the width of the tiers on which the rights were laid. This operation may be illustrated by examples. "PROPRIETORS OF WINCHESTER." 19 Joseph Root had a proprietary right of one pound on the list of 1720 It entitled him to three acres of land. One of these was set to him unless he had sold his right to some larger proprietor, in a strip of land in the first division, one mile long and half a rod wide ; another acre in the second division, of the same dimensions, and the third acre in a strip half a mile long and one rod wide. John Camp's heirs had a two-pound interest, which in like manner was allotted to them in two detached strips of one rod wide and a mile long, and a third of two rods wide and half a mile long. In this way all the small proprietors found their allotments made in three detached driblets, instead of in one saleable plot ; and only eighteen out of one hundred and six proprietors had allotments in parcels of one hundred acres or more. The reservations for northerly and southerly highways could be located within each tier, where the road would best accommodate, but the located reservations for easterly and westerly highways could not be used unless the nature of the ground was adapted to a traveled road. As a conse- quence of this, so hilly and precipitous is the territory of the town that scarcely one of these reservations has been opened for public travel, and not one in its whole extent. The result is that probably no town in the State has afforded as little encouragement to its settlers in the matter of highways. In another respect there was a meanness in the allotment of the land which it is to be hoped is unparalleled. It had been the uniform custom of township proprietors to make a liberal reservation of lands to aid the settlers in the support of the gospel and of common schools. Our step- fathers gave not a rood of land for support of schools, at home or abroad, and as to religious endowments, they allotted three hundred acres each to two of their own resident clergymen, who, not being subject to taxation could not regularly come in for their shares of the ill-gotten spoil. CHAPTER III PHYSICAL CONFORMATION. The physical conformation of the township was so forbidding as to offer few inducements to settlers, especially to the dwellers on the rich mead- ows and uplands of the Connecticut Valley. At all events, not one of the original proprietors ever came to occupy his new domain. The intervale lands of the township along the streams were narrow and lean, hemmed in by abrupt hills, mainly abounding with rocks of all sizes, projecting above the soil. Mountain ridges, with precipitous cliffs, ran through the town in northerly and southerly directions. The forests made up the deficient size of their trees by their number and variety. The lordly pine was rare. The hemlock predominated in the eastern section, and the sugar-maple and beech in the western. The chestnut, though in few parts of the town so frequent as others, was the patriarchial tree, majestic in size, and venerable in age. Many of them are still to be found from four to five feet in diameter at the butt, while the stumps of others show a still larger size. The birch, ash, bass, white wood and black oak everywhere abounded. The hickory and white oak were rare. The elm grew to some extent on the intervale lands. Beneath the hem- lock forests, thick and almost impenetrable growths of laurel, or calmia, were often found covering many acres. The shores of ponds and marshes were lined with thorny vines, as impenetrable as the chaparral of more southern latitudes. The mountain ridges are low continuations of the Green Mountain ranges, generally precipitous on the eastern side, and sloping westward. The first of these forms nearly a continuous range through the town, parallel with its eastern boundary, and a mile distant therefrom, with only one opening of less than a half mile, where east and west roads are practicable. A second range, more irregular in its direction and less continuous, borders .the west side of the two lakes, and extends north- ward to Colebrook. Spurs of this range occupy a considerable portion of the northwest or " Danbury Quarter " of the town. Picturesque views, some of them of great beauty, are obtained from every mountain summit. The highest elevation in the town, west of Long Lake, in the old Winchester parish, commands a view of the Talcott and Bolton PHYSICAL CONFORMATION. 21 Mountains in the east, and the mountains of Berkshire in Massachusetts, and the Taconic range in New York. The geological formation is wholly primitive, and mainly of Gneiss rock in contorted strata, generally dipping westward, at a considerable angle. Pure granite occurs in veins and boulders in the western portion of the town. Veins and boulders of fine-grained gneiss, colored by an intermixture of epidote, and well adapted to building purposes, are found in the eastern section. Ill-defined veins of limestone are found on the extreme eastern border, but not in quantity or quality to make them available. Metallic veins are unfrequent. A vein of specular magnetic oxide of iron, near the top of Street Hill in the northeast part of the town, was partially worked late in the last century, and abandoned. The ore was bloomed at a forge in Colebrook, and found to produce a good quantity of bar iron. Other veins, or beds, of larger size, in the same vicinity, are so impregnated with sulphur as to be worthless. These veins were traced by Doctor Percival, in a southwestern direction, to the highlands in Putnam County, N. Y., where they have been exten- sively worked for smelting in the blast furnaces at Cold Spring on the Hudson. Recently a very rich specular ore has been found in the Danbury section of the town, bordering on the Connecticut Western Railroad. The location has been explored by Professor Hall, of Albany, who describes it as an imperfect vein or bed in the contorted Gneiss Rock, which promises to grow wider as the shaft is carried downward. It is between three and four feet thick at the surface, descending into the hill nearly perpendicularly, and trending easterly and westerly. The ore is free from admixture of sulphur or other deleterious substances, and a large portion of it will yield from eighty to ninety per cent, of metal. It is held by joint-stock owners, whose explorations have, as yet, been very imperfect. Its location at a high point of hill, sloping rapidly down to Mad River and the Connecticut Western Railroad, gives it a high prospective value. Indications of this, or other veins of similar quality of ore, are frequent in the adjacent region. Minerals are rare in this formation. Garnets and schorl are occasion- ally found. Quartz crystals, of considerable size, but imperfect forma- tion, are found in a decomposed vein, near the Dugway School House and elsewhere. Rose quartz, in beautiful specimens, but not in situ, have been found in the borough of Winsted. Large and beautiful specimens of flesh-colored feldspar, with crystalline faces well defined, have been thrown out from the rock cuttings of the Connecticut Western Railroad.* * For description of the geology of this region, see " Percival's Survey," page 119, and onward. 22 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. The soil of the township is mainly a reddish, gravelly loam, adapted to grasses, corn, oats, and potatoes, but not to other cereals. Clay lands are found occasionally on the higher ridges. The alluvial along the water courses is generally sandy loam of little fertility. Nearly all of the lands are devoted to dairy and stock-raising purposes. The smoother dry lands, where not choked with stones, are occasionally broken up and subjected to a rotation of potato, corn, and oat crops, perhaps more to improve their grass-growing capacity than for direct profit. Milk for the New York market is the staple product, save in the vicinity of the villages, where market products are in demand. Springs of the purest water everywhere abound, and rarely is a dwell- ing to be found, out of the borough limits, which has not its aqueduct. Long Lake, extends from near the Torrington line northerly, a distance of three and a half miles, and forms the dividing line of the two parishes for that distance. It is surrounded by mountainous ridges on the eastern and western shores, and at the northeasterly end pours its waters over eleven factory wheels, down a ravine, into Mad River, distant half a mile from its outlet, and one hundred and fifty feet below its surface, in the center of West Wins ted village. It is alike the pride and the source of the prosperity of the town. In June, 1771, the proprietors of Winchester granted to Richard Smith, the proprietor of the " Old Forge," at Robertsville, a right " to draw off or lower the Long Pond in Winchester one and a half feet, for the benefit of his iron works, during the pleasure of proprietors." During the same year, David Austin became the owner of the land at the outlet of the lake, and soon after built a grist-mill and saw-mill on the premises now owned by the Heury Spring Company, and with the con- currence of Mr. Smith lowered the channel of the outlet, and erected a dam and bulkhead, so as to raise the surface of the lake some four feet, and to draw the water through a gate at the bottom of the channel, thus securing a reservoir six feet in depth over the whole lake surface, and controlling the drawing and closing of the bulkhead gate at his own pleasure. The uncontested exercise of this right for a long series of years secured to him a good title to control the water of the lake. This individual control, and a prudent drawing of the water during working days, and working hours only, almost threefolds the working power of the stream running night and day through the week. The seasons when a regular supply of water, during the whole year, has failed, have been very rare indeed. It is this certainty of a regular supply, alike in flood time and drought, which has attracted manufacturing enterprises, and sustained them in successful operation. In 1806, or 1807, the frail wooden dam which raised the water above its original level, gave way on the east side of the bulkhead, during a PHYSICAL CONFORMATION. 23 spring freshet. The danger of an outflow, most disastrous to the works on the stream, and the village at the foot of the hill, was imminent, but the disaster had been apprehended, and a good working force of men and teams was on the ground when the break occurred. Hardly had the rush of water through the breach begun, when a tree trunk was floated to the breach, and securely fastened at each end. Spars and plank from the neighboring mill were at hand, and a temporary dam was forthwith improvised by the use of swingling tow, straw, and gravel. During the following summer and fall, a solid causeway, between two substantial stone walls, and wide enough for a roadway, was laid down and raised to a safe height, some three rods outside of the original dam, and a new bulk- head of a permanent character was erected on the line of the causeway. This raised the high-water line about one foot higher than before. In 1860, the borough of Winsted was authorized by the Legislature to raise the high-water level of the lake four feet above the previous high- water mark, and to take water therefrom by aqueduct, and convey and distribute the same into and through the borough, in such quantities as the conveniences of the borough should require. The same season, an imperfect embankment was raised to the required height, which during the following year was perfected by raising the former causeway to the same elevation, and protecting it by a thoroughly-built outer wall and two wide waste-weirs. This raises the surface, and expands the shores of the lake, so as to make a reservoir of about twelve feet in depth from high- w r ater mark to the bottom of the bulkhead gates. The Little Pond is a smaller body of pure and limpid water, covering a surface of about fifty acres, lying about a third of a mile northwesterly of Long Lake, at an elevation of ninety feet above, and discharging its waters into it by " Sucker Brook," running southerly between the two bodies of water, a distance of one mile. Neither of these lakes are fed by large streams of water, but both are mainly supplied by springs. Both of them, in early times, abounded with trout of large size, some of them reaching a weight of six to seven pounds. Perch, roach, bull-heads, and eels were abundant. About 1815, pickerel were introduced from the Southwick Ponds, by Colonel Samuel Hoadley. The Farmington river " Dace;" as they are called, were introduced several years since as live bait, by pickerel fishermen, and escaping from their hooks, grew and mul- tiplied, reaching the size and shape of a shad. Like the pickerel, it is a gamy fish, and these two intruders had exterminated the trout, and largely thinned out the smaller fish, when, about 1860, the black bass was trans- ferred by E. S. Woodford, Esq. "and has become the gamiest champion of our lakes. Mad River, which rises in Norfolk, runs its rapid course southeasterly, receiving the lake stream, and emptying into Still River, in the borough 24 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. of Winsted, has until recent years been little used above the junction of the lake stream, except for saw mills. It now furnishes water for a cutlery establishment, and for two of the largest tanneries in the state, and will, when proper reservoirs are built near its sources, furnish an important addition to our water power. The Connecticut Western Rail- road, by an average grade of about eighty feet ascent to the mile, finds its way through the town, along the banks of this stream, to its summit level in Norfolk. Still River, rising in Torringford, runs with little fall along the border of the Naugatuck Railroad to its junction with Mad River, and thence still northerly through the borough, furnishing near the borough line the power of two of the best water privileges of the town. The fall of water from the lake surface to the northern limit of the borough, exceeds 225 feet, all of which is profitably employed for manufacturing purposes. The other streams in the Winsted section of the town are small, and unfitted for manufacturing purposes. In the west section, the two head branches of the Naugatuck River have their source. The eastern branch proceeds from a small pond near Norfolk line, and runs southerly to Wolcottville. and affords good water power as it approaches Torrington line. The other runs along Hall Meadow, and passes through the south- east corner of the town to its junction with the east branch at Wolcott- ville, where the united streams take the name of Naugatuck River. CHAPTER IV. INDIANS— GAME— THOROUGHFARES . The Green Woods section of Litchfield County, though abounding with game, seems not to have been a permanent abiding place of the Indian, save along the Tunxis or Farmington River on the east, and the Housatonic on the western border. The Scaticoke Indians dwelt along the Housatonic, their chief residence in Kent. The Weatogues, of Sims- bury, crowded out from the Tunxis valley by the white settlers, took refuge on the meadows of the Housatonic in Canaan. On the east, a small tribe, or fragment of a tribe, probably crowded out of Farmington, took up their abode in New Hartford, near the gorge where the Farmington River breaks through a mountain ridge, which spot was designated by the early settlers as " the Kingdom," and even- tually by the specific name of " Satan's Kingdom." A portion of this tribe moved up the Farmington, to the foot of Ragged Mountain in Barkhamsted. Modern wiseacres assert that their council fire was the mythical " Barkhamsted Light House," of which so much has been said and so little known. The head man, or the last man of this tribe, named Chaugum, lived and reigned to near the close of the last century. His descendants in the female line, a race of bleachcd-out, basket-making, root-gathering vagabonds, with high cheek bones and bow-and-arrow eyes, have continued to dwell on the Ragged Mountain domain, and kept up the council fires until a very recent period. A daughter of Chaugum married a runaway servant of Secretary Wyllys of Hartford. They settled in the Danbury quarter of Winchester, and their descendants are the only known representatives of the aboriginal race in this town. Not a single mountain, lake, or river, bears an Indian name. The flint arrow-head is occasionally found on the intervale lands, and in con- siderable numbers along the south shores of Long Lake, together with some other stone implements, indicating a resort there for fishing and hunting. There was also a cleared spot around a copious spring of water on the east shore of the lake, on land of Deacon Joseph W. Hurlbut, where numerous arrow-heads have been found. 4 26 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. Game was abundant at the early settlement of the town. A hunting lodge was erected on the bridle-path from New Hartford to Norfolk, near the south line of the town, before any settlement was made, and a deer park was enclosed near the reservoir pond, on the west branch of the Naugatuck, at a very early period. Bear's meat was by no means a rare dish among our early settlers. It was in some famdies almost then- ordinary fare. The records of Justice Alvord show frequent prosecutions for killing deer, out of season, up to 1790. Wolves abounded as late, or later, than the Revolutionary War. Mr. Levi Norton, while living in the red house between the two ponds, after 1783, returning from a neighbor's after nightfall, encountered a drove of these border ruffians on his own clearing, and was saved from an attack by the timely help of his powerful mastiff, which, on hearing his cry of alarm, rushed from his house and put them to flight. Panthers, or " painters " as they were called in olden times, w r ere not uufrequently shot by early settlers. Wild cats are still indigenous to the mountain range east of the lake, and running southerly into Torring- ton, as well as the Danbury quarter, where one was killed in November, 1871. Foxes and raccoons are still sufficiently numerous to afford good sport to huntsmen. Wild turkeys were brought in by our hunters as late as 1810, and probably later. A full-grown female hedgehog, or porcupine, the mirsing mother of a living brood, was killed as late as 1860, on the Colebrook border. Speckled trout, of large size and rare beauty, abounded in all our lakes and streams. In the boyhood of the writer, almost every ripple of Mad River, within the borough limits, had its trout ready to seize the bait or fly of the fisherman. In the lake some of them have been taken weighing five to six pounds. Perch, roach, and bull-heads of large size, and in great numbers, formerly occupied our lakes, but since the intro- duction of pickerel they have essentially fallen off in size and numbers. Fresh water eels may be caught in large numbers, in weirs along the lake stream, when descending at the fall equinox to deposit their spawn in some lower region, and in the following August their offspring, from three to six inches long, return in immense numbers. The basin of the Still River Falls, near Colebrook line, is for several days alive with them. They may be seen laboriously crawling up every rock which is moistened by the spray of the fall, and endeavoring to reach their ancestral lake or dam. At the foot of the Niagara Falls this phenomenon may be wit- nessed on a large scale at the same season of the year, or later, and probably in other places where the fall is too high and the current too swift for the young eels to stem it without contact with the rocks. From these slippery reptiles the transition is natural to their finless congeners. Of these the rattle snake is the only one of a venomous GAME— THOROUGHFARES. 27 character. They were numerous when the country was new, and are not yet extinct. One or more of them has, within twenty-five years, been killed in the wood-house of a residence on Main Street, in the borough of Winsted, and others in the contiguous region. The milk snake still, on occasions, robs the birds' nests in the shrubbery around our houses, and is sometimes suspected of milking our cows in the fields. The peaceful striped snake is not unfrequently caught in a disabled state for running away by reason of his gormandizing propensity for swallowing toads and frogs, and, when caught in the act, incurs the penalty of a bruised head, though in other circumstances he may, in these lax times, be carefully let alone, notwithstanding the scriptural malediction. Before the survey and allotment of the Winchester lands, settlements in Goshen, Norfolk, and Canaan had begun, rendering it necessary for settlers from the eastern towns to pass through our township to their new homes. The Lawrences, and other settlers of Canaan, about 1738 to 1740, came from Windsor and Simsbury, first entered the wilderness by way of New Hartford, the northeast part of Winchester and southwest part of Colebrook, to the center of Norfolk. They left their families and stock at points along the way, where openings in the forests could be found for grazing, and went forward with their axes and cut down the trees and cleared a trail from one such opening to another, and then moved their caravan. Tradition says they made one of their halts on the Hoyt Farm in Colebrook, and went forward with their trail to a natural meadow at the northerly border of the small pond, a mile east of Norfolk Center, where they found a dead loon, and hence the name by which the location is still known. They returned, and brought forward their fami- lies and fiocks to this oasis. From Loon Meadow they cleared their way to the foot of Hay Stack Mountain, and thence along the Blackberry River, to the land of Canaan, which to them must have been a happy land indeed after the toils and privations of their journey. Where this trail passed through Winchester is not definitely known. It was, doubtless, the first that penetrated the town, and continued to be the traveled path in the direction of Albany for more than twenty years. The General Assembly, at its May Session in 1758, "being advised that the road or way now often traveled through the towns of Simsbury, New Hartford, and Norfolk, to and through the northwestern parts of Canaan, towards Albany, is in many respects ill-chosen and unfit for use, and that some new and better road through said towns, or some of them, or the towns adjacent, may probably be discovered more direct and con- venient, as well for carriages as traveling, to the great accommodation 28 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. and benefit of his Majesty's subjects, and especially in time of war, occasionally traveling or marching, either from the eastern or central parts of the colony," therefore — u Resolved, that Colonel John Pitkin of Hartford, Seth Wetmore of Middletown, Mr. Wells of Glassenbury, and Colonel David Whitney of Canaan, be appointed a committee, as soon as. conveniently may be, to repair to and through said towns (and towns adjacent if need be), and with all care and diligence to view and observe said roads now used ; and also, with the utmost care to explore and find out how and where any other shorter and better way, in whole or in part, may be practicable, and their full description thereof, with their opinion thereon, to make report to the Assembly at their session in October (then) next."* This committee, at the May Session in 1 759, reported a new line of road, not departing in any instance more than two miles from a straight line, extending from the Court House in Hartford, to Colonel Whitney's in Canaan, and a plan of the intervening towns, with the line pricked thereon. The Assembly accepted this report, and directed the committee " to lay out and make plain and certain, the said new country road from the mansion house of Samuel Humphrey in Simsbury, to Colonel David Whitney's in Canaan." In May, 1760, the committee having discharged their duty, the Assembly ordered the way to be cleared and made passable for traveling before November 20, 1761, by the towns and proprietors of townships through which it ran, and in case of non-compliance by any such towns and proprietors, the committee was to take such other measures to that end, at the expense of the delinquents, as would without fail accomplish the service, before May 1, 1762. This thoroughfare, known to a former generation as " The North Road," and now almost a myth, had in its day an importance and renown which justifies our detailed history of its origin and progress. According to tradition, it was a wonder of the age that a direct and practicable route could be found and opened through the jungles and over the succession of steep rocky hills and mountains of the Green Woods for travel, and the movement of troops and munitions between Hartford and Albany. Jt soon became, and continued until 1800, the great and almost the sole thoroughfare of the colony in the direction of Albany. Continental troops passed over it for frontier service. Detachments of Burgoyne's army, as prisoners of war, marched over it to the quarters assigned them. * Colonial Records, vol. 9, pp. 94-5. THOROUGHFARES. 29 There is a tradition that Col. Ethan Allen, while on military service in the Revolutionary War, presumed to desecrate the Sabbath by traveling over this road, instead of spending the day in sacred meditations at the hostelry of Landlord Phelps, or Roberts, on Wallen's hill, or of Land- lord Freedom Wright, further westward, when a little bushy-headed Grand Juror, of our town, emerged from his log cabin on the road-side, siezed the bridle-rein of the Colonel's charger and attempted to arrest him as a Sabbath-breaker. The Colonel, sternly eying the legal digni- tary, drew his sword, and flourishing it aloft, irreverently exclaimed, "You d — d woodchuck ! get back into your burrow, or I'll cut your head off! " Grand Juror Balcomb, finding what a Tartar he had caught, prudently abandoned his captive and retired to his cabin. It should not be inferred from the amount of travel that this road was an Appian Way. On the contrary, direct as it was, it went up and down the highest hills, on uneven beds of rocks and stones, and passed marshy val- leys on corduroy of the coarsest hemlock log textiu-e, commencing at the Northend village in New Hartford, it ran westerly up a steep hill, then turned northwesterly through the Bourbon region, crossing the Green Woods turnpike, a little west of the toll-gate, then northerly by zigzags to the top of a lofty hill, then over Wallen's Hill by the northeast school house, down to Still River near Daniel Wilson's, then up Dishmill Hill and onward by the Rowley Pond, to Colebrook, and onward through Cole- brook center to Pond Hill, in Norfolk, and thence by Norfolk center and Canaan toward Albany. Another bridle-path entered the township from the vicinity of Burr- ville and passed northwesterly by Landlord Mott's Tavern to the south part of Norfolk before any settlement Avas made. In 1762, a committee of the Assembly, previously appointed, reported a highway along this route, " beginning at a rock about three rods west of the fore door of the house belonging to Rev. Mr. Gold in Torringfbrd, and running in a north- westerly direction a little more than a mile to Still River, about a hund- red rods south of Yale's Mill, (at Burrville,) thence in a northwesterly direction by Spectacle Pond and Mott's house, to a stake and stones in Norfolk line." This was the South Road, by which emigrants from the southeastern towns wended their toilsome way to the western townships, in process of settlement. It was so "hard a road to travel" that good Landlord Burr, living near the Hayden brick yard, used, as it was said, to detain his traveling guests until after morning worship that they might have the benefit of his prayers in aid of their arduous efforts to get up the old dug-way road, west of Burrville, an aid greatly needed. The first of these roads was for many years the only way of access from 30 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. the east to the Winsted section of the town. By the second, many, but not all of the immigrants, came into the " Old Society." Several of the earli- est pioneers came in from Torrington and Goshen, at the extreme south- west corner of the township, and located in Hall Meadow and the Blue Street region. The later roads will he adverted to as the settlement of the town progresses. CHAPTER V. RESUME— PIONEER SETTLERS. We have, in the preceding chapters, opened the way for the long-de- layed settlement of our town. It seemed necessary to show, first, why the large domain of our western lands — the only unoccupied territory of the colony, Litchfield excepted — remained unsurveyed and unavailable for settlement from 1686 to 1729, a period of forty-three years. Second, if possible to learn why, after the two giant towns had secured and di- vided between them what may be aptly called their conquered territory, our Hartford step-fathers should still have held their assigned portion of the spoil from sub-division and settlement, twenty-nine years longer ; and third, to solve, if possible, the wisdom of the sub-divisions finally made. If the wisdom consisted in working out the problem — given, the settle- ment of a new town ; required, how not to do it ? — we have nearly reached a solution. The triple division gave to each rich proprietor, at the rate of one acre to the pound, three detached farms of large size and compact forms ; to each forehanded owner, three small farms, two of them with average length and width as one to six, and one of half the same length and twice the width ; to the poorest men, two driblets a mile long, and from half a rod to five or ten rods wide, and one of half the length and twice the width. There was not sufficient variation in the quality of lands to render the triple division expedient, for the wdiole area of the township was hilly and mountainous, except narrow intervales of gravelly or marshy lands along the streams. The rich owners, with hardly an exception, held their lands, awaiting a rise in their value, to grow out of the life-and-death struggle of poor settlers on adjoining lands. None of the forehanded or rich owners ever personally occupied their land, and the poor owners could not if they would ; they could only sell out for mere songs their driblets to owners of larger tracts of adjacent lands. Not one of the one hundred and six original proprietors to whom allotments were made, ever occupied his lands or dwelt in the town, and only one son* of a proprietor ever had * Thomas Hosuier, Jr., was an early settler on a portion of his father's land. He removed to Canaan after about ten years, and left no descendant behind him. 32 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. a permanent residence among us ; and only three known descendants* of a proprietor now reside in the town. We have already adverted to the scant and, to a great extent, unavail- able reservations of land for highways, and to the endowment of two Hartford ministers by grants of three hundred acres of land to each ; and the want of any endowment to aid the poor and almost starving settlers in supporting the gospel and common schools among themselves. A show of liberality, on a small scale, is made in the reservation of two mill lots, apparently designed to encourage the erection of mills to grind the corn and rye of the early settlers. If they were reserved for this purpose, they were not so appropriated. Both of them were disposed of by leases of nine hundred and ninety-nine years, without conditions, for the benefit of the proprietary body. During the twenty-nine years that the Hartford proprietors were matur- ing a plan of division of their joint lands, many individual owners sold and conveyed away their undivided rights, by deeds, which were recorded in the proprietors' records. Caleb Beach, named of Goshen, became the owner of one of these undivided rights, by a, deed dated May 21, 1750. Either despairing of a division ever being made, or hoping against hope for such consummation in the future, he at once, or in a very short time after his purchase, appropriated a small tract of land and erected thereon the first dwelling house in the township. It stood on the east side of the Hall Meadow road, about half a mile north of Torrington line, and about forty rods east of the line of Goshen, and some thirty rods south of the new house of Rufus Drake. This house or shanty disappeared more than a hundred years ago, and was replaced by a one-story frame house with stone chimney, erected on the same site, which is still standing — venerable in its marks of age, and still more venerable from its associations with the first human habitation in the town. In the proprietors' vote of January, 1758, ordering the survey and allotment of the first and second divisions of land, the committee were instructed " to lay out to Mr. Caleb Beach or his assignees, his share or allotment in the Division where his house now is, so as to take in his house, barn, and orchard, if his allotment shall be wide enough to take [them] in." The lot set out to him or his assignees under these instruc- tions, is a lot of sixteen and two thirds acres, within lot No. 6, in the first division. He conveyed away his right to this allotment, March 18, 1756, and probably soon after moved back to Goshen, where he died January 13, 1760, aged sixty-one years. His will was probated and recorded in the Litchfield Probate Court, and contained the following bequests of his earthly possessions : * Solomon R. Hinsdale and his child, and Mary P. Hinsdale, descended from Wil- liam Pitkin. PIONEER SETTLERS. 33 " Imprimis, to my present beloved wife, Hannah, I give and bequeath one chest and one bed, and one great spinning-wheel, and one double spinning-wheel, to be her own and at her dispose. Item, To my eldest daughter, Sarah Andros, the wife of Elon Andros, of Wallingford, I give and bequeath to her, out of my estate, but five shillings ; she having received her portion of my estate before. Item, To my sons Caleb and Hezekiah Beach, of Goshen, I give and bequeath my plough irons, and drag teeth, and plow chains, viz : to my eldest son, Caleb, two third parts; and to Hezekiah, one third part, to be their own and at their dispose. Item, To my son, Joel Beach, of Torrington, I give and bequeath three steel traps, with the chains belonging to them, and my shaving knife, to be his own and at his dispose. Item, To my daughter, Margit Beach, I give and bequeath three chests, one table, six puter platters and plates, three puier basins, four pater por- ringers, one pair of tongs, one fire shovel, and one tramel, one pair of andirons, one brass warming pan, one brass skillet, a brass kettle, one iron kettle and three iron pots, to be her own and at her dispose." Mr. Beach was grandson of Thomas Beach, an early planter of Mil- ford, son and youngest child of Deacon John, of Wallingford, and brother of Deacon John, of Goshen, from whom Beach street took its name. He was born at Wallingford, in 1 699, where he married the first of his three wives. Thence he first removed to Goshen, and afterward to Winchester. Caleb Beach, born at Wallingford, in 1699; died January 13, 1761. He married first, May 26, 1726, Eunice Tyler. She died January 10, 1733. He married, second, October 4, 1733, Margaret Thompson. He had a third wife, named Hannah. CHILDREN BY THE FIRST WIFE. I. Sarah, b. at Wallingford, Oct. 26, 1728 ; m. Elon Andrews, of Wallingford. II. Caleb, b. " May 10,1732; m. Lois Preston. CHILDREN BY THE SECOND WIFE. III. Hezekiah, was in Goshen in 1760, and moved to New Ashford, Mass. IV. Joel. V. Margaret. Joel Beach, third son of Caleb, and inheritor of his traps and shav- ing knife, came into the town with his father, at about fifteen years old, and is named as of Winchester in the record of his first marriage, in 1 757. He afterwards lived in Torrington until 1761, when he purchased his life- long residence on Blue street, a little south of the stone school-house. He is described by a cotemporary* as " a conservative of the first water, — conservative in his dress, in his food, and in all his habits — six * Rev. Abel McEwen, D. D., of New London. 5 34 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. feet four or five inches high, gaunt and erect, with a pock-marked, weather-beaten face, large hands and feet, clothed in butternut colored coat, vest, and small clothes, garnished with long pewter buttons, stock- ings of black and white sheep's wool, cow-hide shoes of enormous size ; crowned with a broad-brimmed, round-topped hat of dubious color ; his costume on week days, Sundays, and training days, always the same, from early manhood to extreme old age. His fare was simple, consisting of bears' meat, venison, and wild turkey, when game abounded, and beef, pork, and mutton in after years, with toast and cider, mush and milk, and bean porridge, as his only luxuries." He was, withal, a mighty hunter, never failing to bring down the deer, fox, or wild turkey with his six foot shooting-iron. He was also a fish-fancier, and had stoned up a tank around a copious spring on the side of the road in front of his house, in which he kept a speckled trout of great size. There is another legend that a neighbor, with a long hooked nose, tinged at the end with deep red, coming along the road one day, stooped down to drink from the tank. The trout seeing the red protuberance, as it touched the water, and fancying it a gaudy insect, sprang upward and seized it. The nose recoiled, but too late. The fish was drawn out of the water, and dropped on dry land. Great was the rage of the man of the nose for a few moments, but as he surveyed the poor floundering fish, and reflected that he had got the worst of it, pity superseded wrath. Looking around and seeing no witness of his success- ful angling, he kindly restored the fish to the water and went on his way a happier man for his magnanimous act. Mr. Beach's wife was also a dead shot. One day, near sunset, she discovered a panther* in a tree near the house. Her husband was away but his loaded gun was at hand. She seized and primed it, took deliberate aim, and lodged a bullet in its brain. Mr. Beach was always a hard-working, temperate, and inoffensive man, who, in the words of the cotemporary before referred to, " had but little of religious theory, but in old age he became pious ; and thence, down to the grave, his zeal for duty and worship glowed noiselessly but unquestioned. He died November 28, 1820, aged eighty -four ; leaving his original farm, neither increased nor diminished by a single acre." He married, at Torrington, October 18, 1757, widow Abiah Filley, of Torrington. He married, second, October 15, 1767, Amy Johnson, of Torrington. * The Felis Concator, vernacularly named the " painter," was indigenous to this region, and is said to have been killed in Guilford or its vicinity, within the past fifteen years. PIONEER SETTLERS. 35 CHILDREN BT SECOND WIFE. I. Hezekiah, b. July 19, 1768; bap. at Tor., Oct. 16, 1768. II. Joel, b. Oct. 3, 1769; bap. at Norfolk, Nov. 26, 1769. Killed by discharge of a gun, Oct. 19, 177k III. Benjamin, b. Dec. 7, 1770. IV. Jeremiah, b. April 19, 1772; d. Sept. 25, 1776. V. Joshua, b. March 23, 1774. VI. Seba, b. Sept. 24, 1776. VII. Caleb, b. Nov. 27, 1777. VIII. Phebe, b. May 15, 1779; d. June 2, 1780. IX. Susanna, b. Jan. 18, 1783. Caleb Beach, seventh son of Joel, lived in the town landless, until his death, March 10, 1851. He married, June 25, 1797, Sarah Blakeslee. CHILDREN. I. Elizabeth, b. July 3, 1798; d. December 2, 1804. II. Jonathan, III. William, IV. Seba, V. Caleb, b. November 19, 1799. b. January 25, 1802. b. January 8, 1804. b. January 6, 1806. VI. Susan Serepta, b. December 10, 1807; m. July 18, 1837, Friend Holcomb. VII. Hezekiah, b. July 13, 1810. VIII. Sarah, • b. July 31, 1812. ,LX. Julia, b. April 25, 1815. X. Phebe, b. May 26, 1817. XI. Clarissa, b. June 2, 1819; m. December 31, 1837, Major Thorp, of Barkhamsted. Samuel Gilbert, from Coventry, became a landowner and resident of the town in 1752, and is named of Winchester, in a deed of 1754, when he probably moved into Torrington, where his son, Samuel, was baptized August 25, 1754. Ebenezer Preston, from Wallingford, and Joseph Preston, from Farmington, became owners of an undivided right of land in 1754, under which they entered upon, and improved, a small tract of land adjoining Torrington line, extending from Blue Street Road eastward to the north, and South Road in the second tier, which, under a vote of the proprietors, was allotted to them in the division of 1758. Here was their first dwelling place. They afterward lived, in various parts of the town, to a good old age, leaving sons and daughters, none of whom — nor any of their descendants bearing the name — now reside among us. The race was not a thrifty or vigorous one, physically or intellectually. :) ( ; ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. From the scant records of the family it is not possible to determine the relationships to each other of those of the name who were early residents. Martha, wife of Ebenezer Preston, d. May 16, 1770, and he m. February 20, 1771, Martha Catling and had CHILDREN. I. Phebe, b. July 20, 1773. II. Rebecca, b. August 27, 1774; bap. Tor., Sept. 18, 1774. Joseph Preston (senior), died in 1774. Joseph Preston d. in Winsted in 1824, aged 85. He is believed to have been son to Joseph, the pioneer. He and his wife, known as " Uncle Joe and Aunt Keziah," lived early in this century, in a log shanty on Sucker Brook. They were a simple-minded couple, who lived by basket-making and renovating splint-bottomed chairs. They once lost the day of the week, and made Sunday a day of labor. They started for meeting on their old pillioned horse on Monday, and learning on the way their unintended desecration of the Sabbath, returned home and spent the rest of the day in penitential and devotional exercises. Jonathan and John Preston, father and son, from Waterbury, named of "Winchester in 1767, lived on a lot 41 first division, until 1769, after which their names disappear. Samuel Preston, son of Ebenezer, owned and occupied a part of his father's land in 1768, and afterwards, until 1790, lived in the extreme south-west corner of the town. He was bap. Tor., Sept. 17, 1769; m. Jan. 4, 1770, Elizabeth Gleason. CHILDREN. I. Martha, b. Oct. 7, 1770. II. Salman, b. Oct. 25, 1772. III. Samuel, b. Dec. 20, 1776. IV. Milla, b. Aug. 22, 1779. V. Elizabeth, b. Feb. 16, 1785. Landlord Adam Mott, originally from Windsor, erected his hostelry on the bridle-path that preceded the Old South Road, as early as 1754. It stood opposite the Hurlbut Cemetery, and on or near the site of the house of John Neth. The building was neither imposing nor spacious. Its walls were of unhewn logs, its roof of hemlock bark, with an opening PIONEER SETTLERS. 37 in the ridge for the escape of smoke from the capacious stone chimney which ascended to the level of the garret floor. The landlord had two strapping boys, who slept under the roof, and occasionally worked off their superfluous animal force by a wrestling match before getting into bed. One cold winter night, when the hearth was all aglow with coals and embers of the consumed firewood, the boys, in their shirt tails, grappled for a trial of strength. They struggled long and vigorously. At length one of them got the dead lock of the other, at the edge of the yawning chimney. Both of them went headlong down the crater, into the coals and embers in the fireplace. Whether the tavern fare of the next day was called pork or bear's meat tradition does not say. It is presumable, however, if it was of the last night's roast, that it loas done brown. How a tavern could be sustained in this uninhabited region is hard to conceive. Landlord Mott, however, took courage and made the best of his business. To an inquiry as to how he succeeded in retailing his first keg of rum, he replied that he was doing remarkably well : that hunters, when they came along would fill their bottles, and that nearly every day he bought a glass of tanzy bitters of his wife, and that she would then buy one of him, with the same fourpence-halfpenny. The bark-roofed tavern, in the course of years, gave way to a red lean-to mansion of the old Windsor order of architecture, and this in its turn to a pleasant modern cottage, drawing its water from the original well. Landlord Mott became poor, and died in his native Windsor. He had children (as appears by deeds on record), Jonathan, Adam, junior, Lent, and Eunice, wife of Aaron Neal of Farmington, and may have had others. Jonathan Mott. son of Adam, senior, came into the town with his father, and lived in a house on the slope of the hill, southeast of the tavern, which has long since disappeared. He died in 1818, aged 103, and was buried at the town's charge. His wife died in 1820.* They had a son, Simeon, baptized at Torrington, Dec. 23, 1653. * On the anniversary of his 100th birthday the old man proposed to have some kind of a celebration, and requested that Uncle Reuben, Aunt Eunice, and Br. Daniel iCoe be invited to come around, which was done. Having been a "Singing Master" n his young manhood he thought nothing could be more appropriate to the occasion than the singing of " Old Hundred," during the performance of which he wielded the wand, which was his witch-hazel staff". He got through with that part of the pro- gramme quite satisfactorily, Br. Coe joining most vehemently, but when he came to try the minuet (and try it he would) he thought he could have gone through it much better if he had not been so long out of practice. 38 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. Adam Mott, Jr., succeeded his father in the homestead until 1767, and afterward lived west of the old Everitt Tavern. He went to Ticon- deroga in 1775, in Captain Sedgwick's Company; served in Captain Beebe's Company in 1776, at Long Island, and was in other service during the Revolution. He removed to Vernon, N. Y., in his old age, where he was frozen to death at the age of about one hundred years. He married Jan. 3, 1760, Abiah Filley. She died Oct. 19, 1784, and he married (second), February 14, 1786, Anna Cyrena Filley. She died June 5, 1806. CHILDREN BY FIRST WIFE. I. Elizabeth, b. Nov 12, 1760; bap. in Tor., March 30, 1761. II. Ira, b. Feb. 13, 1764; bap. Tor., March 20, 1764. III. Diantha, b. June 12, 1766. IV. Lodema, b. Sept. 9, 1768 ; bap. Tor., June 18, 1769. V. Sabra, b. Nov. 1, 1770. VI. Orange, b. Oct. 17, 1772. VII. Loammi, b. May 5, 1775 ; in. Ap. 18, 1795, Polly Clark. VIII. Abiah, b. July 18, 1780. IX. Anna, X. Elihu, XI. Wakeman Ira, XII. Sophia, XIII. Alva Gleason, b. Ap. 18, 1798. CHILDREN BY SECOND WIFE. b. Sept. 14, 1786. b. Ap. 13, 1789. b. Dec. 1, 1791. b. June 15, 1794 ; d. Jan. 6, 1808. Lent Mott, son of Adam, senior, had land from his father near the old Everitt Tavern, on which he early resided. He served in the Northern Campaign, in 1775, and probably did other service. The name of his first wife, the mother of two of his children, does not appear. He married (second), January 1, 1766, Mary Filley. CHILDREN. I. Samuel, b. Goshen, Feb. 21, 1762 ; bap. Tor., Dec. 31, 1769. II. Mart, bap. Tor., Dec. 31, 1769 ; d. W., July 15, 1783. III. Josiah, b. Dec. 11, 1767 ; bap. Tor., Dec. 31, 1769. IV. Jerusha, bap*Norfolk, June 2, 1770. V Jemima, b. Ap. 19, 1771. VI. Lent, b. May 12, 1773 ; m. Nov. 16, 1798, Lucy Ives. VII. Jerusha, b. Feb. 7, 1776. VIII. Stlvanus, b. JulyS, 1778 ; removed to Vernon, N. Y. IX. Ithamar, b. Feb. 26, 1781. PIONEER SETTLERS. 39 Loammi Mott, son of Adam, junior, married, April 18, 1795, Polly, daughter of Samuel Clark, of Winchester, and moved with his father-in- law, about 1800, to Stockbridge, Mass. CHILDREN. I. Merritt, b. Jan. 3, 1796. II. Willard, b. June 28, 1800. III. Lodema, b. Feb. 3, 1803, at Stockbridge, Mass. Ira Mott, son of Adam, junior, owned land on the Brooks Street Road in 1784, and on Blue Street in 1788. The foregoing list comprises all the pioneers and their families who settled in the township before the survey and allotment in 1758, of whom we have any record or tradition, except Moses Miller and Joshua Merrills, who for a short period owned land on Hall Meadow, and in their deed conveying away the same, are named of Winchester. CHAPTER VI. PIONEER SETTLERS. The Motts and Prestons seem to have been the only continuous resi- dents of the town up to the division of lands in 1 758, and for nearly three years afterwards. William Filley, the next settler, called in the deed "late of Tor- rington, now of Winchester," bought in 1761, seventy acres of land on Hall Meadow, south of Rufus Drake's, which included the land and house previously occupied by Caleb Beach, the first settler. He married in Torrington, June 11, or 13, 1759, Dinah Preston, of Winchester. He was drowned in a deep pool, called the tub, in the west branch, August 3, 1774, aged 39. He was son of William Filley, of Torrington, whose widow, Abia, married Joel Beach. His brothers and sisters, who inherited his estate, were Abraham, Remembrance, Abia, wife of Adam Mott, Jr., Mary, wife of John Curtis, of Torrington and Marcy. Deacon Abraham Filley, inherited a portion of his brother Wil- liam's estate and resided in the town most of his life. In 1772 his home- stead was a part of the Col. Ozias Bronson farm. In 1774 he was of New Hartford, whence he removed to Winsted and had charge of Doolit- tle's mill ; and afterwards- lived and died in Old Winchester. He is said to have made a wooden clock with a pen-knife. In his later years he be- came a maniac, and was confined in a detached building. He and his wife Mary owned the conveuant in Torrington church, June 6, 1762, and were admitted to full communion November 27, 1768. His children were : I. Isaac, baptized in Torrington June 6, 1762. II. Jesse, " ' " Sept. 9, 1764. III. Levi, " " May 31, 1767; was taxed from 1789 to 1802; residence not known. IV. Rhoda, baptized in Torrington, April 9, 1769. V.Roger, " in Winchester, May 25, 1771. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 41 Remembrance Fillky, baptized, Torrington, August 11, 1754 ;* in- herited in 1774 a portion of his brother William's estate, which he ex- changed for other lands. Before 1787 he lived on Blue Street, nearly one and a half miles north of Torrington line ; and afterwards in Hall Meadow, near Rums Drake's. He served in the revolutionary war, and in his old age became a pauper. He married, August 20, 1774, Anna Cyrena Gleason, who was proba- bly divorced from him, and afterward became second wife of Adam Mott, Jr. He married (Al), December 28, 1783, Hannah Hubbard. CHILDREN BY FIRST WIFE : I. William, b. May 2, 1775. II. Ardnah, b. February 23, 1777. CHILDREN BY SECOND WIFE : III. Charlotte, b. February 28, 1786. IV. Abigail, b April 24, 1788, V. Hannah, b. June 25, 1790. Thomas Hosjviek, Jr., son of Thomas Hosmer, Esq., of Hartford, one of the original proprietors, came into the town soon after 1761, and set- tled on the farm now owned by Abel S. Wetmore, which, after improving until 1771, he sold to Samuel Wetmore, Jr., of Middletown. His dwel- ling is supposed to have been on the Old South Coventry road, near the house named to widow Blake on the engraved map of the town. He was a ieading man in the township and identified with all measures for its improvement during his residence. He sold out and removed to Canaan, in 1771, the year of the incorporation of the town. It is noteworthy that he was the only known descendant of an origi- nal proprietor who ever settled on an ancestral lot ; and that not one of the original proprietors ever occupied his land. No record of Mr. Hosmer's family is found, except his (probable) second marriage (March 2, 1774) to Hannah Averet. Cornelius Merry, of Hartford, is grantee in a deed of January 14, 1762, conveying to him the John Pantry lot, first division, the western half of which became the Robert McEwen farm, now owned by Marcus Munsill ; and the eastern half, on which his dwelling stood, on the Old South Coventry road, near Hurlbut Cemetery, became the property of John Hills. In a deed of 1770 he is named of Hartland. John Smith, Jr., of Derby, is grantee in a deed of 1763, aud John Smith, of Winchester, in another of 1754. He lived adjoining the Ebe- * Son of William Filley, who, with his wife Abiah, joined the church in Torrington, July 17, 1754. 6 42 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, nezer and Joseph Preston lot, near the Torrington line, until 1771, when his name disappears. David Austin's name first appears as grantee in a deed from Cor- nelius Merry, of 17 64, in which he is described as of Winchester. He probably came from Suffield. For thirty years or more he was perhaps the most prominent and enterprising citizen of the town. His first resi- dence was on the Pantry lot above mentioned. In 1769 he purchased I he Ensign lot, extending east and south from the outlet of the Long Pond so far as to embrace the pond stream and all the village of Winsted between Lake Street Bridge and Clifton Mill, a region then literally a howling wilderness, unapproached by roads and nearly unapproachable by reason of its jagged mountain ridges and heavy growth of timber, shrubs, and brambles. In 1771, he opened a cart-path through the forest, down to Sucker brook, and thence over the hills west of the Pond to its outlet, by which he conveyed the materials for the first grist mill in the town. This mill, and a saw-mill contiguous, were erected at the turn of Lake Street near the summit of the hill. The mill stood where the road now runs, a little northeastward of the Henry Spring Company's ; hop ; the road as first opened running down the hill close to the old white dwelling now known as the Factory House. The water of the lake was raised some three feet above its natural level, by a frail dam of hemlock logs and plank, about three rods south of the present causeway, and let out by a new channel through a bulk head — the decayed parts of which are still to be seen in their place — and conveyed across the road nearly opposite the old stone-chimney mill-house and thence on the east side to the junction of Rockwell and Lake streets, and then again turned across Lake street and poured on the wheel of the mill. This mill was, for about twenty years, the eastern terminus of civilized habitation towards Mad River valley. Mr. Austin's first residence in Winsted was in a log house nearest to the pond outlet. He subsequently built the stone-chimneyed lean-to house now known as the mill-house already mentioned. In one of the rooms he kept a small store of goods, at the same time personally attending his mill and saw-mill and his other concerns. A contemporary says of him : " The Deacon* commonly tended his own mill. In times of drought, when other mills failed, he ran his day and night, and had so disciplined himself that he would turn a grist into the hopper, lie down to sleep on a bench, with his old turnip watch ticking at his head and wake at the precise moment when the last kernel was running out." *He was chosen first deacon of the Congregational Church, on Wallen's Hill (An- cient Winsted) in 1785. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 43 It seems passing strange that with such results attained and with a sure prospect of increasing wealth and ease, a man of his advanced age should desire to renew his pioneer life on another field. He was induced by crafty misrepresentations to exchange his Winsted property, now worth hundreds of thousands, for wild lands in the State of Vermont which he had never seen, and which proved to be nearly worthless. He closed the bargain in 1796 and removed with all his family to Watertovvn, Vermont, where he spent his remaining days in straightened circumstances. His name appears in the records of the town as one of its prominent officers and efficient agents during the revolutionary period and his subsequent residence. His wife was a help-meet for such a man — industrious, thrifty, and prudent. Their hospitality was characteristic of the hard times in which they lived. The apples handed round to visitors were divided into halves or quarters, according to their size. A venerable citizen who, were he living, would be a hundred years old, once told me of his working the Deacon's saw-mill and living in his family when a young man and about to be married. On leaving, Madam Austin presented him with a com- plete assortment of garden seeds of her own raising, with the injunction thereafter to save his own seeds, and never to come to her for more, as she never gave to any person a second time. CHILDREN OF DAVID AND MART AUSTIN. I. David, b. Aug. 5, 1761. II. Daniel, b. Mch. 25, 1764 ; d. Oct. 13, 1775. III. Mart, b. July 8, 1766. IV. Ruth, b. Mch. 16, 1769. V. Asa, b. May 24, 1772 ; d. Feb. 12, 1776. VI. Danikl Harmon, b. Feb. 2, 1778. VII. Asa, b. May 7, 1781 ; d. Jan. 23, 1785. VIII. Phebb, b. Oct. 4, 1783. David Austin, junior, built and resided in the house adjoining the pond outlet. He married, September 30, 1782, Sarah Adkins. He moved to Vermont with his father. CHILDREN. I. Sarah, b. Feb. 22, 1785. II. Betsey, b. Dec. 7, 1786. III. Asa, b. Aug. 12, 1788. IV. David, b. July 16, 1791. V. Orin, b. May 1, 1793. VI. Patty, b. May 13, 1795. Benoni Hills, 1 born in Suffield in 1701 ; removed to Durham in 44 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, 1724-5 ; to Goshen about 1740 ; afterwards to Torrington, and finally to Winchester, where he died, "ripe for heaven," June 24, 1793, in his ninety-second year. Several years before his death he selected two rough stones of Mica Slate, and shaping them to his liking, engraved in rude letters on one of them " Benoni Hills, this is my house," and on the other, "O eternity, death is come," to which is added, "June 24, 1793, B. II. aet. 93." Working at these stones was the special enjoyment of his leisure hours. He brought them with him from Torrington, and gave special directions to have them placed over bis grave, where they now stand, in the old Winchester burying ground. He married, December 19, 1723. His wife, b. June 3, 1700; died October 21, 1776. CHILDREN. I. Hannah, b. Suffield, Oct. 5, 1724; m. — Wilson; died Tor., March 29, 1812. II. Zimhi, b. Durham, Dec. 16, 1725; d. Goshen, June 4, 1760. III. Beriah, b. D., Aug. 31, 1727. IV. Medad, b. D., Ap. 27, 1729 ; d. Ap. 9, 1808. V. Mary, b. D., Jan. 1, 1731 ; d. Jan. 28, 1732. VI. John, b. D., Dec. 13, 1732; d. Charlotte, Vt., March 15, 1808. VII. Mart, b. D., Sept. 25, 1734; m. Epaphras Loomis. VIII. Seth, b. D., Sept. 13, 1736. IX. Rachel, b. D., July 8, 1739 ; m. Dr. Joel Soper; d. Augusta, N. Y., Jan. 7, 1832. X. Bela, b. Goshen, Aug. 24, 1741 ; d. May 29, 1756. XI. Ann, b. G., June 11, 1743; m. Lunian Beach; d. Norfolk, Jan. 22 1777. Seth Hills " of Winchester," is grantee in a deed of October 9, 1765, conveying to him fifty acres bordering on Torrington, in the third tier, first division, which he had probably occupied earlier. Mr. Hills was first deacon of the church, and first representative of the town ; a man of hardy constitution, indomitable energy, sound, good sense, and sincere piety ; his integrity without a stain. He served as Wagon Master in the Saratoga campaign ; was present at Burgoyne's surrender, and assisted in clearing the field of the dead and wounded when the battle was ended. He sold out his homestead in 1798, and in the winter of 1798 went to Vernon, Oneida Co., N. Y., then without a white inhabitant, save two or three who went with him, where he cut down four acres of the heavy forest, on which to build his future home, and in the following autumn, with the assistance of his son Ira, then a lad of sixteen, burned, cleared, and fitted it for seed. He removed his family in the winter of 1799, and with the beginning of a new century, at the age of sixty-four, began the settlement of a new puritan town. His former neighbors, to the number AND FAMILY RECORDS. 45 of nearly forty families, rallied around him, and laid the foundation deep and strong. A church was soon organized, made up mainly of Win- chester members, of which Mr. Hills, Levi Bronson, and Samuel McEwen, all Winchester men, were the first deacons. He married, November — , 1760, Abigail Soper. He died, Vernon, N. Y., dune 3, 1826, aged nearly ninety years. CHILDREN. I. Statira, 3 b. July 6, 1762; m. Mch. 30, 1780— first, John Marshall of Tor- rington ; second, Andrew Everitt, 1799. II. Jesse, 3 b. May 17, 1764 ; m. Jan. 9, 1790, Mary Wheeler. III. Elisha, 3 b. May 8, 1766; d. June 11, 1766. IV. Elisha, 3 b. Dec. 9, 1769. V. Candace, 3 b. June 1, 1772. VI. Hannah, 3 b. May 19, 1776. VII. Seth, 3 b. Ap. 20, 1779. •VIII. Ira, 3 b. June 22, 1788. Captain John Hills is named of Winchester, December 6, 1776, and doubtless came in earlier. He lived in a house that stood in or adjoining the Hurlbut Cemetery. He was a gunsmith by trade, and his shop stood near his house. He sold his homestead to James Atkins in 1781, and afterwards removed to Charlotte, Vt., where he died March 15, 1808, aged seventy-six. He was great grandfather of Deacon Abel S. Wet- more, now a resident of this town. He and his wife Jerusha, had I. Jerusha, 3 II. Lorrain Lewis, 3 III. ZlMRf, 3 IV. Esther 3 (twin), V. John 3 (twin), VI. Lorrain, 3 VII. Claraman (dau.), VIII. Olive, 3 IX. Lewis, 3 X. Roger, 3 CHILDREN. b. Nov. 26, 1755 ; m. May 12, 1774, Abel Wetmore; d. May 1, 1780. b. Feb. 6, 1758; d. Oct. 14, 1763. b. Oct. 2, 1762; m. Mille Catlin, Jan. 17, 1782. b. June 1, 1766. b. June 1, 1766; d. July 21, 1766. b. May 30, 1768; d. Mch. 7, 1772. b. Oct. 5, 1770. b. July 23, 1773. b. Sept. 8, 1775. b. Jan. 9, 1779; d. Oct. 1, 1780. Beriah Hills came into the town after 1769, and lived on Torring- ton line on the east side of the road, hi the third tier, second division, running north from Fyler's. He was for several years appointed "to read the psalm" in the old meeting house, and died March 25, 1778, in his fifty -second year. His wife Mary survived him. Their 46 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, CHILDREN WERE : I. Mary, 3 bap. in Torrington, Mch. 20, 1748. II. Bekoni, 3 " " Dec. 24, 1749. III. Lois, 3 " " Feb. 2, 1751-2. IV. Chamkry, 3 " " Feb. 17, 1754 ; m. Lois Grant. V. Bela,* " " Aug. 22, 1756. VI. Roger Eno, 3 " " Mch. 4, 1759. VII. Zimri, 3 " " Ap. 23, 1763. VIII. Huldah, 3 " " Aug., 1767. Medad Hills of Goshen, third son of Benoni, a gunsmith, who made muskets for the state during the Revolution, was a large landowner in Winchester, and resided at one period in the Norris Coe house. He had a son, Hewitt, who came into the town in 1788, and became one of its most prominent citizens. He will be spoken of hereafter. Jesse Hills, son of Deacon Seth, lived on the farm recently occupied by Samuel Hnrlbut second, which he sold to Elijah Blake in 1798, and removed to Windham, Green Co., N. Y., and afterwards to Vernon, N. Y., and a few years later to Kirtland, Lake Co., O., where he died April, 1841, aged 81. He had a second wife. children by first wife. I. Laura, b. Oct. 14, 1790; m. Benj. D. Allen. II. Huldah, b. Jan. 19, 1793; m. Augustus Allen. III. Lucy, b. Sept. 11, 1795 ; m. Ira Brown. Chauncey Hills, second son of Beriah, " a noted stammerer," lived in his father's homestead bordering on Torrington line, until about 1 802, when he sold out to Luke Case and William Bunnell, and removed to Litchfield, Herkimer Co., N. Y. Benoni Hills, oldest son of Beriah, had no real estate during the life of his father. One of his daughters married Chauncey Humphrey. He married, October 28, 1773, Elizabeth Agard, and had children. I. Theodosia, b. Feb. 1, 1775. II. Elizabeth, b. Oct. 20, 1776. 111. Amanda, b. Tor., June 18, 1780 ; hap. Aug. 27, 1780. Setii Hills and Ira Hills, third and fourth sons of Deacon Seth, moved with their father to Vernon, N. Y. To the latter, the compiler is AND FAMILY RECORDS. 47 indebted for much valuable information respecting the family, and respect- ing Vernon families generally which originated in Winchester. The Hills' in a body seem to have pulled up stakes and abandoned the town at the great exddus about 1800. Nut a single, descendant of Benoni Hills' bearing the name has lived in the town for several years. Descend- ants in the female line are not unfrequent. Deacon Abel S. Wetinore is descended from Benoni 1 in the fifth generation. In 1751 Captain Josiah Avered, of Woodbury, (Bethlem Society) became the owner of undivided lands in Winchester, and was soon after disabled by the kick of a horse, and confined to his bed until his death in 1765. His property being almost exhausted during his protracted con- finement, his widow, Mrs. Hannah (Hinman) Avered, or Everett, as now spelled, soon after his death removed with her aged mother and seven children to the wilds of Winchester, while there were as yet but three families in the central part of the old society. They stayed in a house on the farm now owned by Deacon Abel S. Wetmore, until a clearing had been made and a house erected on their land about two miles north of the center, on the old South Country road, as it then ran toward Norfolk. This house is the oldest now standing in the town.* It has never been painted, and had not, when built, an iron hinge or latch on any of its doors. Here this energetic and godly woman reared her young family, and so discharged the duties of a mother and revolutionary matron, that her chil- dren and fellow-townsmen might well rise up and call her blessed. Her aged grand-daughter, Mrs. Swift, now of New York, has permitted the copying from her reminiscences the following account of the experiences of the pioneer family : " It is evident that my grand-mother removed from Bethlem in 1765; and with her children, came also her mother, Mrs. Mary Noble Hinman, who died in Winchester, at 92 years of age. The date of her death is not known. Her grave is on the left hand of her daughter's, as you face the head-stone of the latter. She is said to have been born in Northampton, and to have removed to old Milford at the age of 1 6, and that soon afterward, on a Sabbath morning, she and her sister went into the forest to collect thorns with which to dress themselves in order to at- tend church at New Haven. This sister was ancestress of Presi- dent Day. " During the severe winters of that period, the hungry wolves howled in the little enclosure of my grand-mother's cottage during the nights, and *It was crushed to the ground by the weight of snow in the winter of 1870-71. 48 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, were seen to jump over the fence when any one opened the door. Many are the incidents related in my childish ears, of the sutferings of the family during the revolutionary war, particularly in the ' hard winter ' of '83. " No grinding could be done at the mill — snow fell every other day for six weeks — and the wind and drifting seemed only a continuation of the storm ! Grain and corn were boiled for family use. Wood was drawn on the tops of the drifts, on a hand-sled by my Uncle Andrew (the youngest son) on snow shoes, and received by his sisters through a win- dow at the back of the house. My Uncle Noble at this period was a chaplain in the army, and my father (Josiah), also away getting his pro- fession, and afterwards in command of a company on the Canada frontier. " During the hard winter a piece of check-woolen for soldiers' shirts was put into the loom, but it was impossible to weave it on account of the cold ; so it was all wound out in balls, then doubled (one thread white and the other blue) and twisted on the ' great wheel ' ; and thus prepared, my grand-mother and her four daughters sat in a circle, — enclosed by blankets suspended from the joists over head around the high fire-place — and knitted the yarn into stockings for the army. One night during these times, my grand-mother and her children sat up amid the bowlings of the winter blasts, in consultation whether they should break up house- keeping and each take care of themselves. After retiring and passing the remaining night sleepless, grand-mother arose in the morning, and told her family that ' by the help of God they would keep together.' " When she was 84 years old, she often rode on horseback from her home two miles to the village, went to the store, then stopped at my father's to rest, and then rode home alone. She was 89 at her death. " During the war my Aunt Diana, one Monday morning, received an invitation to a wedding just one week from that evening ; she must, there- fore, have a ' new gown.' The only store in the town was south of the burying-ground, near Torrington line, nearly four miles distant. My grand-mother rode over the hills to the store, where she found a pattern of chintz, which she could have for eleven and a half yards of checked woollen shirting for soldier's wear ; but could not buy it with k continen- tal bills.' The old lady returned about one hour before ' sundown,' and told her story. v We had,' says my aunt, ' wool, cards, wheel, net, loom, and blue dye all in the house, but not a thread of yarn. That night, be- fore I went to bed, I carded, spun, washed, and put into the dye-tub, one run of yarn, and so the work went on ; the cloth was wove, the ' gown ' pattern purchased, made up, and worn to the wedding at the week's end. I have often seen this gown ; and in 1 843 I slept under a bed-quilt, made principally from its remains, in a good state of preserva- tion. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 49 "On another occassion, years afterwards, (within my own memory) this Aunt Diana, being engaged at her cheese-tub, heard the cry of a chicken at the open door; looking out, she perceived a large hen-hawk pounced on a poor fowl, her back towards her. With a long cheese knife in her hand she sprang lightly forward and sat down over the hawk, took him by the head and, with her knife, cut it off. ' He acted as if he felt ashamed when I was doing it,' she said, when she told me the story. Often have I played with its great talons. " Aunt Diana, — afterwards wife of Deacon Theophilus Humphrey, of Canton — was almost 91 years old at her death, December 11.1843. She was remarkable for her piety and talents — was educated beyond what was common at that early period — had spent three years at school in New London." Richard Everitt, one of the founders of Dedharn, Massachusetts, had a son, Israel," born duly 14, 1657 ; who had a son, Josiah," born August 3, 1768 ; who had a son, Josiah, 4 born August 5, .1710, at Guilford, Con- necticut ; who married Hannah Noble Hinman. He died in Bethlem ; will proved March 19, 1765. She died in Winchester, May 19, 1803, aged 88. CHILDREN : I. Elihu, 5 b. March, 5, 1741, d. October 25, 1759. II. Mart, 5 b. February 13, 1743; d. March 9, 1760. III. Aaron, 5 b. April 3, 1745 ; d. December 4, 1761. IV. Rev. Noble, 5 b. March 3, 1747. V. Doct. Josiah, 5 b. February 27, 1749. VI. Hannah, 5 b. January 1, 1751 ; m. March 2, 1774, Thomas Hosmer. VII. Diana, 5 b. February 14, 1753; d. December 11, 1843; m. Dea. Theophilus Humphrey. VIII. Andrew, 5 b. July 30, 1755 ; / Twins d. Jan. 31, 1835. IX. Mabel, 5 b. " " " ) d. February 24, 1804 ; m. May 30, 1776, Daniel Corbin. X. Amelia, 6 b. May 14, 1757; d. October 22, 1843; m. May 15, 1782, Doct. Sol. Everitt. Rev. Noble Everitt, graduated at Yale, in 1775, served as a chap- lain in the revolutionary army, afterwards settled in the ministry at Ware- ham, Massachusetts, and died in the discharge of his pastoral duties De- cember 30, 1819. Doctor Josiah Everitt, 5 married December 5, 1776, Esther Hin- man. She died September 30, 1783, in her 30th year. He married (2d) February 23, 1785, Nelly, daughter of Captain Samuel Pease, of Enfield, Connecticut; born December 23,1762; she died, November 2,1791; 7 50 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, and he married, (3d) September 26, 1794, Hannah Stanley, who died, June 27, 1826. He died, February 5, 1829, aged 80. He studied medicine with Doctors Bird, of Bethlem, and Hall, of Woodbury, and settled in Winchester as a physician, living first in the store building, re- cently torn down, that stood in front of Mr. Theron Bronson's new store at Winchester centre, and afterwards, through his remaining life, in the house now occupied by his son, Noble J. Everitt, a quarter of a mile south of the centre. He served as captain of a company of Connecticut troops in the Northern army in the first year of the revolutionary war. CHILDREN OF DOCTOR JOSIAH 5 AND NELLY (PEASE) EVERITT. I. Nelly Minerva, 6 b, July 30, 1786 ; m. Doct. Zepheniah Swift. II. Josiah Noble, 6 b. December 10, 1788 ; m. Roxy L. Cook, daughter of Elisha Cook, Esq. III. Chester P., 6 - b. November 12, 1790 ; d. April 24, 1807. CHIDREN OF DOCTOR JOSIAH 4 AND HANNAH (STANLEY) EVERITT. IV. Hannah B., 6 b. June 7, 1798; m. March 8, 1825, Rev. Henry Bushnell. V. Mart, 6 b. December 29, 1799 ; d. May 29, 1807. Andrew Everitt, 5 married, May 18, 1780, Abigail North. She died, June 2, 1795, aged 31 ; and he married (2d), December 26, 1799, Statira, daughter of Deacon Seth Hills, and widow of John Marshall. He resided with his mother in the old homestead until her decease, and continued to own and occupy it until 1809, when he sold it, and removed to Vernon. New York, where he died. CHILDREN OF ANDREW 5 AND ABIGAIL (NORTH) EVERITT. I. Elihtj, 6 b. December 16, 1780; d. September 11, 1781. II. Elihu, 6 b. January 21, 1783; m. Roxy, daughter of John Marshall. III. Andrew Hinman, 6 b. October 27, 1788; d. March 9, 1791. CHILDREN OF ANDREW 5 AND STATIRA (HILLS) EVERITT. IV. Andrew Hinman, 6 b. November 26, 1800. V. Truman, 6 b. December 26, 1801 ; d. October 9, 1804. VI. Elisha, 6 b. February 15, 1805. Jonathan Coe, 5 of Torrington, purchased 100 acres of land at the south end of the third tier, first division, lying immediately north of the farm of Deacon Seth Hills, in 1764, which remained in AND FAMILY RECORDS. 51 his family ninety -nine years. In 1765 he conveyed one half of this lot to his son Oliver, and the other half to his son Robert. He was born in Durham, Connecticut, about 1710; son of Robert' and Bar- bara (Parmele) Coe ; grand-son of John 3 and Mary (Hawley) Coe ; great-grand-son of Robert 3 and Coe ; and great-great-grand-son of Robert 1 Coe, who was born in Suffolkshire, England, in 1596, and came to New England with his wife. Anna, in 1634; settling successively in Watertown, Massachusetts ; Wethersfield and Stamford, Connecticut ; and in Hempstead, Newtown, and Jamaica, Long Island. He married in Durham, September 23, 1 737, Elizabeth Elmer, and was one of the first settlers of Torrington. They came to Winchester when old. She died June 28, 1794, aged 84 ; he died April 23, 1795, aged 84. CHILDREN. I. Oliver, 6 b. in Torrington, September 3, 1738. II. Robert, 6 b. in " March 28, 1740. III. Jonathan, 6 b. in " August 20, 1742; m. April 15, 1767, Eunice Cook; she d. April 12, 1818 ; he d. August 21, 1824. IV. Elizabeth, 6 b. in Torrington, September 5, 1743. V. Jerusha, 6 b. in " March 27, 1746. VI. Martha, 6 b. in " January 5, 1748-9. VII. Ebenezer, 6 b. in " December, 2, 1750; d. in Torrington, Octo- ber 18, 1784. VIII. Ltjcretia, 6 b. in " June 9, 1755; m. March 18, 1776, Daniel Murray, she d. June 1792. Oliver Coe, 6 moved on to the south half of the above lot at or soon after the date of his deed and occupied the same until his death, Decem- ber 31, 1775, at the age of 37. He served in the continental army under Captain Sedgwick, and Colonel Hinman, at Ticonderoga, in 1775 ; was discharged November 20th ; was taken sick on his way home near Lake George ; procured a horse on which he reached home November 28th ; and was confined to his bed with the camp or typhoid fever, until his death, five weeks afterward. He left a widow and six children, from three to thirteen years old, all of whom were sick with the same disease. These facts are gathered from a memorial to the assembly by his admin- istrator, asking a reimbursement of the expenses of his sickness and death on which a grant was allowed of £14 6s. He married, October 7, 1762, Mary Agard, of Torrington. CHILDREN. I. Abner, 7 b. in Torrington, April 12, 1763; m. May 20, 1784, and had Wealthy, b. Oct. 16, 1785 ; moved to Burk, Vt., had five more children ; and d. Aug. 15, 1846. II. Oliver, 7 b. November 7, 1764. 52 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, III. Marv, 7 b. September 2, 1766; d. September 13, 1766. IV. Justus, 7 b. September 1, 1767; m. 1789, Ruth Bailey; they moved to Jewett, N. Y., where she d. March 4, 1838; and he in June 1850. V. Mary, 7 b. December 6, 1769 ; m. Doctor Abraham Camp, of Mt. Mor- ris, N. Y. ; she d. 1846. VI. Job, 7 b. April 22, 1772. VII. James, 7 b. May 31, 1774. Robert Coe, 6 settled on the north half of the hundred acre lot afore- said, and remained until 1768, when he sold out to his brother, Jonathan Coe, Jr. He afterwards owned and lived on the Levi Bronson farm near the southeast corner of Norfolk, until 1788, when he removed to Cooperstown, New York. He married, December 26, 1764, Chloe Thrall. CHILDREN. I. Joel, 7 b. May 4, 1765. II. Arm and a, 7 (son), b. July 3, "1767. III. Abijah, 7 b. October 23, 1769. IV. Ariel, 7 b. October 31, 1772. V. Roswell, 7 b. February 5, 1780. Jonathan Coe, Jr., 6 known as Ensign Jonathan Coe, moved with his father and mother in 1768 on the farm until then occupied by Robert Coe, where Jonathan Coe, senior, died. He removed to Winsted in 1796 and resided until near his death in the house afterward occupied by Col. N. D. Coe. He married, April 15, 1767, Eunice Cook. She died April 12, 1818; he died August 1, 1824. Ensign Coe may be considered the father of the Methodist denomina- tion in the town ; having been perhaps the earliest convert and a con- sistent and earnest supporter of the order through his life. CHILDREN. I. Lovina, 7 b. February 11, 1768 ; m. October 26, 1788, Asahel Miller. II. Jonathan, 7 b. March 23, 1770. III. Eunice, 7 b. March 27, 1772; m. January 20, 1793, Abiel Loomis. IV. Roger, 7 b. July 27, 1774, (see 1795). V. Rhoda, 7 b. March 27, 1777 ; m. Eben Woodruff, of Barkhamsted. VI. Huldah, 7 b. January 3, 1779 ; m. May 16, 1796, Major Lloyd Andrews. VII. David, 7 b. February 11, 1781. VIII. Daniel, 7 b. February 2, 1783. LX. Eben, 7 b. July 9, 1785. Oliver Coe, Jr., 7 owned and lived on the Henry Drake farm, near Torrington line, in the second tier, first division, from 1805 to 1814, when he moved to Hudson, Ohio, and died there August 14, 1825, aged 61. '*Pc*W T&-C AND FAMILY RECORDS. 53 He served on several tours of duty in the revolutionary war, and on the breaking out of the Indian war again enlisted for three years, and served in General Harmer's campaign down the Ohio, and was one of seven sur- vivors of Col. Harden's detachment which was cut off by the Indians on the headwaters of the Scioto in the fall of 1791. He also served as military guard of the surveying party that surveyed the Ohio Company's purchase ; after which he returned to the place of his nativity and be- came a thrifty and wealthy farmer, enjoying in a high degree the respect and confidence of the communities in which he lived. He married, De- cember t, 1-791, Sarah Marshall, daughter of Thomas. He married (2d), Chloe Spencer, daughter of Thomas. He died in Hudson, Ohio, August 14, 1825. CHILDREN BY FIRST WIFE. I. Noeeis, 8 b. May 1, 1792; m. March 10, 1814, Chloe Hubbell, b. Jan- uary 25, 1788, daughter of Silliman Hubbell. II. Demas, 8 b. January 11, 1794; m. April 15, 1819, Eliza Ward. He d. December 1, 1853. III. Artemisia, 8 b. December 5, 1799; m. 1815, George Chase. Jonathan Coe, Jr., 7 married, October 3, 1792, Charlotte Spencer, daughter of Thomas. She died July 15, 1842, aged 70. He married (2d), Huldah (Spencer) Wetmore, widow of John Wetmore, 2d, and sis- ter of his first wife. She died July 10, 1845 ; and he married (3d), No- vember 30, 1848, Mrs. Betsey (Miller) Wetmore, of Wolcottville. He died May 31, 1849 ; she died September 18, 1850, aged 80. CHILDREN. I. Jehial, 8 b. October 5, 1794. II. Chloe, 8 b. February 24, 1797; m. Chauncy Eggleston. III. Wealthy, 8 b. March 1, 1799; m. May 10, 1820, Nelson Wilson; she d. February 2, 1845. IV. Charlotte, 8 b. August 24, 1801 ; d. February 15, 1814. V. Asahel, 8 b. April 4, 1804. VI. Sylvia, 8 b. August 12, 1806 ; m. September 20, 1825, Samuel Boyd. VII. Huldah, 8 b. April 6, 1809; m. October 13, 1834, Erastus Sterling Woodford; she d. April 18, 1859. VIII. Jane, 8 b. August 14, 1812; m. October 13, 1834, Henry Hinsdale; she d. October 5, 1839; he d. October 14, 1846. IX. Roth, 8 b. April 5, 1814; m. November 30, 1837, Abel A. Smith; he d. May 11, 1841 ; she d. April 18, 1847, childless. David Coe, 7 married, March 15, 1804, Prudence Ward. She died February 23, 1823, aged 42 ; he married (2d), Esther Wright. He died June 12, 1834. 54 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, CHILDREN. I. Samuel Ward, 8 b. June 10, 1805; m. August 16, 1831, Abigail B. San ford; she died December 23, 1838; he married (2d), May 10, 1841, Julia M. Starks. In company with Luman Hubbell and E. S. Woodford, he engaged in trade at Winstcd about 1830, and continued the business un- til his death, September 20, 1868, and was largely identified with the public interests of the town, filling with ability many offices of trust and honor. He was Justice of the Peace from about 1830 to the time of his death; Town Clerk from 1833 to 1837, and from 1841 to 1851 ; Judge of Probate from 1843 to 1850; State Senator in 1850. He was also a faithful member and office-bearer of the Methodist Episcopal Church from early manhood. As a citizen, public spirited and a faithful worker in the Temperance and Anti-Slavery causes ; as a neighbor, kind and obliging — especially to the sick and dying. Social in disposition, re- spected and beloved in life, and lamented in death. Children by first wife; 1. Charles Betts, 9 b. January 15, 1838; 2. David Ward, 9 b. May 11, 1836. By second wife : 3. Francis Abby, 9 b. June 26, 1842 ; 4. Wilbur Fisk, 9 b. November 23, 1 844. II. Emery, 8 b. March 17, 1809; m. May 7, 1837, Almira Oris, wold ; he d. August 27, 1861 ; she m. (2d) March 22, 1866, Milo Burr, of Torring- ton. Children: 1. Sarah Jane, 9 b. March 29, 1840; 2. Edward Gris- wold, b. April 3, 1847. III. Sally, 8 b. June 24, 1811, m. November 17, 1834, Alvin Gilbert. IV. David Fletcher, 8 b. June 30, 1819 ; d. September 7, 1823. V. Prudence, 8 daughter of David 7 and Esther W. Coe, b. July 1, 1828 ; d. Sep- tember 11, 1829. Rev. Daniel Coe, 7 married, October 17, 1803, Mrs. Anna (Sweet) Keyes, daughter of Rev. John Sweet; she died November 29, 1818. He married (2d), January 20, 1820, Lucy Hall ; he died January 12, 1847. CHILDREN. I. Caroline, 8 b. September 20, 1804 ; m. April 15, 1833, Wm. Currie. II. Clarissa Anna, 8 b. April 16, 1807 ; m. December 30, 1829; Shadrack Manchester. III. Louisa, 8 b. April II, 1809; m. March 14, 1836, Oliver H. Loomis ; he d. December 25, 1838 ; she m. (2d), September9, 1845, Chas. Hall. IV. Col. Nelson Daniel, 8 b. November 8, 1811. V. Rev. Jonathan, 8 b. June 1, 1815. VI. Rev. James Roger, 8 b. March 30, 1818. Eben Coe, 7 married, December 1, 1806, Eliza Kirkham ; he died Sep- tember 10, 1818. CHILDREN. I. Julia, 8 b. August 26, 1807; m. Voorhies. II. Samuel Mills, 8 b. February 21, 1809; d. December 26, 1809. III. Eliza. 8 b. December 23, 1811 ; m. Porter, of Cleveland, Ohio. IV. Charles, 8 b. October 25, 1816. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 55 Jehial Coe, 3 married, September 4, 1816, Amanda Betsey Case, born in Simsbury, April 28, 1797, daughter of Luke and Betsey (Adams) Case. She died February 18, 1855 ; and he married (2d), September 25, 1856, Mrs. Harriet E. Sage. CHILDREN. I. Charlotte, 9 b. December 21, 1817; m. September 14, 1841, Lemphier B. Tuttle. II. Luke Case, 9 b. June 13, 1821 ; m. July 18, 1844, Sarah Jane Andrews, and has Lillie, adopted April 7, 1855, b. August 17, 1847 ; and Florence Amanda, 1 " b. July 11, 1857. III. Spencer Wallace, 9 b. October 15, 1827 ; m. June 3, 1856, Carrie Capron, of New York; and has 1. Spencer Capron, 10 b. April 4, 1858. IV. William Gilmore, 9 b. September 10, 1829; m. September 15, 1852, Martha A. Williams; she d. October 6, 1854, leaving a daughter > Martha Jane, 1 " b. in Jonesville, New York, February 17, 1854; and he m. (2d) May 27, 185fi, Jeannette T. Lee; and has Minnie Agnes, 10 b. October 31, 1857 ; and Alice Lee, 10 b. August 12, 1859* V. Mart Jane, 9 b. June 20, 1831. Asahel Coe, 3 married, April 26, 1826, Louisa Hale, born in Glaston- bury, July 31, 1803, daughter of Ebenezer and Sarah (Cornwall) Hale; they removed to Pennsylvania, settling finally at Lock Haven. CHILDREN. I. Anna, 9 b. in W., October 2, 1827 ; m. E. S. Woodford. II. Jonathn Hale, b. in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, March 6, 1831 ; d. May, 1832. III. William Hale, 9 b. in Rome, Pennsylvania, January 23, 1843. Col. Nelson D. Coe," married, February 5, 1834, Maria H. Sey- mour; he died November 1, 1856. *He died of a disease of the brain, after a long and distressing illness, May 31, 1872. He studied law with Hon. O. S. Seymour; was admitted to the Litchfield bar in 1851 ; entered into successful practice at New Britain, Connecticut ; whence he re- turned to Winstedin 1856, where he engaged in manufacturing business as Agent of the Clifton Mill Company, and soon became prominently identified with the public interests of the commuuity — originating our Borough Corporation and Water-works, and efficiently aiding all other measures of public improvement. Though not the origina- tor, he was the leading organizer of the Connecticut Western Railroad Company, and acted as its Secretary from its organization to the time of his prostration by the disease that caused his death. He served in two sessions of the General Assembly, acquitting himself with decided ability, and wielding a large influence. He was gifted with a magnetism that made him a natural leader of others, and secured to him the warm attachment of many friends and admirers. At the centennial of the town in August, 1871, he presided with a dignity and ability creditable alike to himself and to the com- munity he represented. 56 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, CHILDREN. I. Lccy Ann, 9 b. November 18, 1834 ; m. December 24, 1857, RufusE. Holmes; has children: 1. Anna Louisa, b. September 17, 1860; 2. Susan Beecher, b October 27, 1862 ; 3. Rufus, b. April 4, 1865, d. March 16, 1866; 4. Edward Rufus, b. March 7, 1867; 5. Ralph Winthrop, b. October 6, 1869. II. James Nelson, 9 b. October 20, 1836; m. July 19, 1857, Kate R. Goddard. He was Lieut, in 2d Connecticut Heavy Artillery. Children : 1. Nelson Daniel, 1 " b. October 17, 1858; 2. Kate Goddard, 10 b. July 6, 1865; 3. Harriett Maria, 1 " b. September 20, 1869. III. Ason, 9 b. 1838; d. same day. IV. Daniel Sidney, 9 b. August, 1840. V. Ellen Maria, 9 b. March 31, 1845. Rev. Jonathan Coe, 8 married, in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, Octo- ber 15, 1844, Sarah Wales Whitman; born March 30, 1815; she died September 5, 1848; and he married (2d), January 1, 1850, Susan L. Whitman, sister of his first wife. He was a graduate of Trinity College, Hartford, a minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and first Rec- tor of St. James' Church, Winsted. He died of a railroad accident at Athens, New York, about 1867. CHILDREN. I. James Herbert, 9 b. July 22, 1845. II. William Watson, 9 b. November, 1846. III. Harriet Whitman, 9 b. September 2, 1848 ; d. September 4, 1848. IV. Allen Whitman, 9 b. August 27, 1851 ; d. April, 1852. V. Robert IIenning, 9 b. October 1852; d. VI. Reginald, 9 b. July 22, 1854. VII. Mary Cleveland, 9 b. July 22, 1856 ; d. 1857. VIII. Anna Caroline, 9 b. October, 1858. Rev. James R. Coe, 8 a clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church ; married, October 4, 1 848, Mary Cleveland ; born December 23, 1830, daughter of Charles C. and Rachel (Talcott) Cleveland. CHILDREN. I. Anna Higley, 9 b. August 10, 1849. II. Sarah Whitman, 9 b. January 13, 1851. III. George Jarvis, 9 b. May 7, 1853. IV. Charles Cleveland, 9 b. June 13, 1855. V. Mary Cleveland, 9 b. December 17, 1857. Robert McEwen, a native of Dumfries, Scotland, a covenanter, who fought at Bothwell Brig, was apprehended by the English government, AND FAMILY RECORDS. 57 and with others, was allowed to come to America, in the Henry and Francis; he landed at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, December 18, 1685, and the next summer walked to Stratford, Connecticut, arriving there July 18, 1686, where he married, June 20, 1695, Sarah, daughter of Timothy Wilcoxson. He died in Stratford, February, 1740. CHILDREN. I.John, 2 b. in Stratford, September 20, or 23, 1697. II. Elizabeth, 2 b. " " November 7, 1699. III. Robert, 2 b. " " March 7, 1702. IV. Sarah, 2 b. " " November 5, 1704. V. Timothy, 2 b. " " April 11, 1707. VI. Gershom, 2 b. " " April 7, 1711 ; m. January , 1737, Martha, daughter of Samuel Pickett. He bought in 1766, of David Austin, the farm now owned by Marcus Munsill, about a quarter of a mile south of Winchester center. He was called of "Winchester," in 1773. He owned and occupied land next south of Sylvester Piatt's farm, until his death, August 31, 1794. She d. in Sangersfield, New York, in 1798, aged 86. CHILDREN OP GERSHOM 2 AND MARTHA (PICKETT) M c EWEN. I. Mart, 3 b. S., Apr. 1, 1738 ; m. Apr. 17, 1760, Peter Blackman. II. Kobkrt, 3 b. S., June — , 1743; came to Winchester soon after his father made the first purchase in 1766, and began to clear and improve the land. He married October 10, 1770, Jerusha Doolittle. She died December 10, 1815, aged sixty-three. In 1769 his father conveyed the lot to him, and he continued to own and occupy it until his death, Nov. 17, 1816, at the age of seventy-three. He was a member, and was con- stituted moderator of the Church at its organization in 1770, and became one of its deacons in 1799 ; was a representative in nine sessions of the assembly from 1781 to 1797; filled nearly every office of trust in the town, and performed several terms of military duty in the Revolutionary War. This record indicates the estimation in which he was held. He inherited from his covenanting ancestors rectitude, shrewdness, and thrift, which, when combined with earnest piety, made him a strong- pillar of the infant Church and town. He was father of Rev. Abel McEwen, D.D., late of New London, deceased. III. Sarah, 3 b. S., Apr. — , 1747. IV. Samuel, 3 b. S., December, 1749; came with his father to Winchester; married October 7, 1773, Lois Sherman. He owned and occupied the Deacon Piatt farm until 1798, when he removed to Vernon, N. Y., and became a pioneer of that town, and one of the deacons of the Church at its organization. V. Gershom, 3 b. S., ; married April 24, 1777, Thankful Andrews. He came into the town with his father, and owned and occupied a house and land north of and adjoining the homestead of Deacon Abel S. Wetmore, until 1796, when he removed, as is believed, to Sangersfield, N. Y. 58 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, CHILDREN OF ROBERT 3 AND JERUSHA (DOOLITTLE) M C EWEN. I. Sarah, 4 b. February 6, 1772 ; died March 23, 1772. II. Sarah, 4 b. March 2, 1775; m. Solomon Rockwell, Esq. III. Abi, 4 b. April 8, 1777 ; m. May 29, 1800, James Beebe, Esq. IV. Abel, 4 b. February 13, 1780 ; graduate Yale College 1804 ; m. January 21, 1807, Sarah Battel!, b. May 29, 1781, daughter of William Battell, Esq., of Tor. He died at New London, September 7, I860. She died March 9, 1859. He was pastor of Cong. Ch. in New London, nearly fifty years. CHILDREN OF SAMUEL 3 AND LOIS (SHERMAN) M C EWEN. I. Clark. 4 b. October 26, 1774. II. Ezra, 4 b. January 10, 1776. III. Hannah, 4 b. November 13, 1777. IV. Phebe, 4 b. April 4, 1779. V. Lois, 4 b. January 28, 1781. VI. Zenas, 4 b. March 23, 1784. Living in Lisbon, Kendall Co., Illinois, in 1863. CHILDREN OF GERSHOM 3 AND THANKFUL (ANDREWS) M c EWEN. I. Mary, 4 b. August 18, 1777. II. Eli, 4 b. November 30, 1778. CHILDREN OF REV. ABEL 4 AND SARAH (BATTELL) Jl'EWKN. I. Robert, 5 b. June 22, 1808; m. Betsy, daughter of Ebenz. Lamed, b. May 30, 1803; grad. Yale, 1827; clergyman. II. Charlotte, 5 b. February 9, 1810; m. July 7, 1834, Cortland L. Latimer, of Norwalk, <>., b. February 8, 1810. CHILDREN. 1 Lucius, 6 b. Feb. 11, 1835 ; d. same day. 2. Cortland, 6 b. February 20, 1836; d. September 26, 1836. 3. Cortland, 6 b. March 19, 1838; d. May 14, 1840. 4. Charlotte McEwen, 6 b. December 13, 1841 ; d. August 7, 1847. 5. Abel McEwen, 6 b. July 18, 1843; d. January 15, 1853. 6. Everton Judson, 6 b. October 14, 1848. III. Sarah, 5 b. May 25, 1812; m. January 5, 1838; Henry Garrett, of Buffalo, N.Y. ; b. August 8, 1812. He d. Feb. 9, 1849. CHILDREN. 1. Sarah Battell, 6 b. December 24, 1839. 2. Charlotte McEwen, 6 b. January 26, 1842. 3. Anna, 6 b. February 14, 1844. 4. Henry, 6 b. November 26, 1845; d. March 1, 1863. IV. William, 5 b. May 29, 1814. V. Ann Buckingham, 5 b. January 15, 1817 ; d. November 18, 1832. VI. Harriet, 5 b. September 15, 1819; d. July 18, 1832. VII. John Battell, 5 b. April 19, 1821 ; d. October 1, 1861, unmarried. ^ffatapz- AND FAMILY RECORDS. 59 Enoch Palmer from Farmington came to Winchester in 1767, and lived in the late homestead of Adam Mott, junior, which stood on the site of Noble J. Everitt's house, next north of the Robert McEwen house, now owned by Marcus Munsill, until 1773, when he removed to a farm on the old north country road, near the Wallen's Hill School-house, where he died in 1795. His sons Lazarus, Solomon, and Reuben, who resided near him in Winsted, will be hereafter adverted to. His daughter Mary was wife of Reuben Sweet. His wife, Jemima, died May 28, 1790; he married (second) November 23, 1790, Elizabeth Soper. He died 1795, in Winsted. Simeon Loomis, supposed from Torrington, is named of Winchester, in a deed of June 29, 1767, conveying to him a part of the Salmon Bronson Farm, lying south of the road running west from the Wade Tannery, which he occupied until his death after 1790, and which was afterwards owned and occupied until 1801 by Seth Griswold, who mar- ried Loomis's widow. He married, November 29, 1770, Huldah Priest. Administration granted on his Estate in Simsbury, Probate Court, January 9, 1777. His widow, Huldah, married December 31, 1778, Seth Griswold of New Hartford. CHILDREN OF SIMEON AND HULDAH (PRIEST) LOOMIS. I. Elisha, b. August 14, 1771 ; had wife Mary, and a daughter Sabra Maria, b. November 14, 1804. II. Lois, b. August 12, 1773. III. Joab, b. June 2, 1775. Aaron Cook from Torrington purchased in 1767, and occupied during his life, the lot at the southeast corner of the second tier, first division, immediately north of the Preston reservation, and lived on south part of Blue Street. He died May 19, 1804, aged fifty-nine. CHILDREN OF AARON AND LYDIA COOK. I. Abigail, b. November 19, 1768. II. Asenath, b. April 22, 1771 ; m. May 10, 1792, Jonathan Hall. III. Ruth, b. March 12, 1773. IV. Hannah, b. January 20, 1775 ; m. November 26, 1801, Merritt Bnll. V. Joseph, b. December 1, 1776. VI. Roger, b. December 20, 1781. VII. Reuben, b. October 31, 1784. VIH. Lena Alson, b. March 25, 1796. gO ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Eleazer Smith had a child born in Winchester in 1768, but is named of Barkhamsted in a deed of June 22, 1770, conveying to him land at the angle of the old road to Winchester Center, north of Sylvester Piatt's. He built and occupied the old house recently torn down that stood east of the north and south road opposite the turn westward of the road to the center. In 1791 he sold to Thomas Spencer, junior, after which his name disappears. He had ten children born in the town, hut it is not known that auy of his descendants remain among us. CHILDREN OF ELEAZER AND MARY SMITH. I. Mary, b. October 2, 1768. II. Koxy, b. June 21, 177<>. III. Noadiah, b. July 5, 1772. IV. Sarah, b. December 13, 1774. V. Lucina, b. August 6, 1777. VI. Mercy, b. June 6, 1779; d. July 1, 1779. VII. Dorothy, b. July 4, 1780. VIII. Zadoc, b. February 15, 1783. IX. Eleazer, b. September 10, 1785. X. David Williams, b. August 3, 1787. Ni3AH Gleason from Torringford bought a house and lot of John Smith in 1769, on the east side of Blue Street, near Torrington line, which lie occupied until about 1776. In 1783 he bought and lived on the west side of Blue Street, now a part of the farm of Henry Drake. He afterwards lived until 1793 on Brooks Road, a little above N. T. Loomis. Noah Gleason, junior, owned and occupied land adjoining his father, on the west side of Blue Street, from 1783 to 1787, and after- wards on the Brooks Road. Both father and son occasionally shifted their residence from Winchester to Torringtou, and back again. Daniel Grover of Stratford, a shoemaker, bought in 1769 a lot of land at the parting of the Norfolk and Brooks Street roads, in first tier, first division, which he occupied, living in a house near N. T. Loomis, until 1785. He had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot. He moved to Unadilla, N.Y. Daniel Grover ami Mercy Stannard mar- ried April 11, 1773. She died June 5, 1776. CHILDREN. I. Mercy, b. May 26, 1776. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 61 Dauiel Grover and Betsy Stanclift married October 13, 1778, and had CHILDREN. II. Mart, b. July 28, 1783 ; d. July 30, 1783. III. Daniel, b. January 18, 1787. IV. Timothy, b. March 4, 1792 ; d. March 6, 1792. V. Betsy, b. May 3, 1796. Joseph Hoskin from Torrington came to Winchester probably in 1769, and lived on a road bordering on Torrington line, at the south end of the third tier, first division. He served as trumpeter in the cavalry detachment that went down from Litchfield County to Long Island, whose gaunt appearance, rusty equipments, and pacing horses excited the ridicule of Washington's army, until their good service in the battle and retreat from Brooklyn Heights made them better appreciated. He was a kind-hearted jovial man, as was indicated by his life-long sobriquet of '"Uncle Joe." He died in Winsted, December, 1818, aged eighty-two. Joseph Hoskin, junior, married August 20, 1761, Eunice Coe, eldest daughter of Ebenezer Coe, 5 b. September 22, 1742. children. I. Rachel, 2 bap. April 12, 1762 ; in. December 27, 1783, Lazarus Palmer. II. Theodore, 2 bap. in Tor. May 20, 1764; died young. III. Theodore, 2 b. April 1766 ; bap. Tor., June 29, 1766; m. Eunice, daughter of Thomas and Mary Coe, b. July 24, 1766. IV. Roswell, 2 b. in W., August 30, 1769. V. Alexander, 2 b. " August 31, 1773; lived in Winsted a short time, and went to Vernon, N. Y. VI. Loranda, b. " December 19, 1778; m. November 22, 1803, Ichabod Loomis. VII Gustavus, b. " March 4, 1 784. CHILDREN OF THEODORE 2 AND EUNICE (COE) HOSKIN. I. Clarissa, 3 b. ; m. December 12, 1808, Christopher Lyon. II. Mariah, 3 b. • ; m. Luther Phelps. III. Erastcs, 3 b. ; removed to Ohio. ) . IV. Augustus, 3 b. ; ( twms V. Silas, 3 b. January 20, 1798 ; m. October 13, 1823, Priscilla Bailey, b. Groton, October 26, 1799, daughter of Ransford and Priscilla Bailey. He d. September 9, 1870. VI. Roxana, 3 m. May 25, 1826, m. Alva Oakley. 62 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, CHILDREN OF SILAS AND PRISCILLA (BAILET) HOSKIN. I. Ransford Bailey, 4 b. June 24, 1825; d. October 17, 1828. II. Truman Silas, 4 b. March 23, 1827. III. Theodore Bailey, 4 b. April 26, 1829. VI. Thomas Coe, 4 b. March 15, 1831. V. Erastus, 4 b. April 9, 1833. VI. Charles Sherman, 4 b. February 4, 1835. VII. George, 4 b. " 5, 1837. Reuben Tucker, from Bolton, bought lands adjoining Norfolk line on both sides of Mad River in 1769, on which he resided after 1770, until his death in 1811, at the age of 64. He left a large family of children, most of whom removed from the town early. His son, Isaac Tucker, lived in the town as late as 1830. Mr. Tucker built the first saw-mill on the site near the Norfolk line, now owned by the Brooks's. He mar- ried December 17, 1772, Martha Carrier. He died Jidy 24, 1811, aged 64 ; she died March 27, 1814, aged 64. CHILDREN. I. Reuben, b. February 15, 1774; of Elmore, Vermont, in 1814. II. Martha, b. October 13, 1775; in. Thayer. III. Chloe, b. February 25, 1778; d. October 6, 1783. IV. Ira, b. March 19, 1780; d. June 6, 1801. V. Moses, b. June 25, 1782; d. July 5, 1782. VI. Isaac, b. January 11, 1784; m. Nov. 5, 1805, Pamelia Benedict. VII. Hiram, b. February 13, 178(5; d. April 14, 1794. VIII. Zebina., b. January 19, 1788; of Elmore, Vermont, in 1813 ; of Sods- bury, Erie County, Pennsylvania, in 1817. IX. Phebb, b. February 9, 1790. X. Charity, b. May 7, 1792 ; wife of Stephen Ackley, 3d, of Chatham, in 1817. Timothy Grover, brother of Daniel, owned land south of and ad- joining Daniel's, which lie occupied until his death in 1780. He left no family. Captain Jonathan Alvord, of Chatham, came into the town in 1770 and lived in a house, long since taken down, near the northwest corner made by the Dugway road where it turns west to Winchester center, until he sold out to Rev. Joshua Knapp, in 1773. He married, Octoher 16, 1739, Eliza- beth Sanford, of Milford. She died at East Hampton, Connecticut, April 7, 1764; he married (2d) East Haddam, November 21, 1765, widow Mary Brainard. He died June 28, 1784, in his seventy-third year. Eliphaz Alvord, Esq., son of Jonathan above named, born at East Hampton, town of Chatham, January 13, 1742; married, November 29, 1764, Esther Hart, of New Britain, born April 1764. In 1770 he came to Winchester, and following the marked trees to the land he had pur- AND FAMILY RECORDS. 63 chased, cleared and planted a garden and built a log house, in three weeks, and then returned and moved his family and effects to his new- home, carrying one child in his arms, and another behind him on one horse, and his wife riding another horse with an infant in her arms, while their effects were drawn on an ox-eart. He afterwards built, opposite his first log house, on west side of the Dugway road a red lean-to house, a little north of the line of the road westerly to the center, in which he re- sided during his remaining life. Both houses have long since disappeared, and no new structures mark their sites. He was chosen Town Clerk at the organization of the town in 1771, and continued to hold the office, with the exception of two years, until his voluntary resignation in 1819. His records are a model of accuracy and penmanship ; and the vote of thanks for his faithful services was well merited. In 1779 he was appointed the first Justice of the Peace in the town, and held the office until disqualified by age, discharging the duties with equal ability and rectitude. If in doubt as to the law of any case before him on trial, he almost invariably went to Litchfield and consulted Judge Reeve, or some other able counsel before deciding the points. His eases were invariably recorded at large, with great precision, and in perfect legal form, — even to the taking of recognizances and administer- ing of oaths. His records give a better insight to the prevailing habits, customs, and vices of his day than can be obtained from any other source. Rev. Frederick Marsh, in his commemorative sermon, deposited with the Connecticut Historical Society, says of Mr. Alvord : — " He had a better education than most men of that day in the ordinary walks of life. He possessed a strong mind, mature judgment, and de- cided piety. His punctuality, accuracy, and weight of character, and talent for business, with his remarkably fair and legible hand-writing, were well appreciated by his fellow-townsmen. He held, and admirably executed the office of Town Clerk about forty-six years, and it is said, as an illustration of his fidelity, that of one hundred and seventeen Town Meetings holden during his life, he was present at all but one of them. When not detained by special cause, he was almost never absent from public worship on tie Sabbath, or from stated and occasional meetings of the Church. He held and performed the duties of Justice of the Peace for many years, and represented the town in the Legislature more fre- quently than perhaps any other man. Having been chosen a Representa- tive when past seventy — in a very handsome and appropriate address to the people, he acknowledged their former respect and confidence toward him, and declined the appointment, desiring that he might never again be considered a candidate for any office. His influence in the school-room, in the Church, in the society and town, and wherever he was known, was great and eminently salutary." 64 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, His wife died November 18, 1818, aged 76. He died April 15, 1825, aged 83 years. No descendants bearing his name remain in the town. CHILDREN OF ELIPHAZ 2 AND ESTHER (HART) ALVORD. I. Elizabeth, 3 b. November 22, 1765 ; d. June 26, 1818, unmarried. II. Esther, 3 b. January 18, 1768 ; m. February 5, 1792, Dea. Levi Piatt. III. Sylvester, 8 h. February 21, 1770; d. March 13, 1770. IV. Lois, 3 b. March 4, 1771 ; m. Levi Ackley, January 6, 1795. V. John, 8 b. May 27, 1773; m. Winchester, January 16, 1800, Ex- perience Webb, b. Hillsdale, Mass., Jan. 13, 1778; he d. October 20* 1841. VI. Anna, 3 b. November 11, 1774; m. Abel Tihballs. VII. Achsah, 3 b. August 14, 1778; d. July 2, 1779. VIII. Eliphaz, 3 b. September 29, 1780; d. October 27, 1780. IX. Achsah, 3 b. May 21, 1782; d. same day. X. Elias, 3 b. March 4, 1784; d. April 23, 1784. CHILDREN OF JOHN 3 AND EXPERIENCE (WEBB) ALVORD. I. Achsah, 4 b. November 11, 1800; m. February 22, 1829, James Lewis, of Wethersneld ; settled in Berlin, Connecticut ; he d. in 1860; had chil- dren, Celestia Chappel, b. January 20, 1830; Edward James, b. Decem- ber 3, 1836. II. Isaac Hylas, 4 b. July 15, 1802 ; m. at Evansburg, Pennsylvania, February, 1836; d. February 1, 1847; had children, Esther, b. February, 1837, d. February, 1842; Mary, b. November, 1839, d. November, 1843. III. Huldah Elthy, 4 b. November 4, 1803; m. October 3, 1827, Elijah M. Gaylord, of Gainesville, New York; she d. July 6, 1855; had children, Silas M., b. June 9, 1830; Margarette Experience, b. April, 1834; Mary Elizabeth, b. April, 1838; all of whom married and settled in Plainview, Minnesota. IV. Eliphaz, 4 b. March 13, 1807 : m. October 14, 1832, Mary Cravath; she d. May 4, 1861; he m. (2d) November 23, 1861, Ruby Bissell; he had children, Eugene Stow, b. April 9, 1835, d. June 29,1841; Coridon Alexis, b. March 18, 1839, d. May 8, 1840: Mary Brainerd, b. March 17, 1844; m. October 29, 1863, Capt. Sterling Manchester; Sarah Cravath, b. September 27, 1846; Emma Salome, b. May 5, 1851. He d. Nov. 9, 1871. V. David Sanford, 4 b. October 18, 1809; m. October 5, 1835, Sarah An- drus ; settled in Austinburg, Ohio ; had children, Ellen Maria, b. Au- gust 26, 1836 ; Elizabeth Louisa, b. December 20, 1837 ; Sarah Jennet, b. January 15, 1840; Mary Loretta, b. April 19, 1841 ; Eugene David, b. April 30, 1843 ; d. ; George Nelson, b. July 14, 1848 ; Coridon Alexis, b. December 2, 1849. VI. Coridon Alexis, 4 b. May 12, 1813 ; m. September 6, 1836, Mary Ann Buck- land ; for many years engaged in the printing business in New York city ; retired in 1871, and now resides near Hartford, Conn.; had children: Coridon Alexis, b. in Hartford, May 30, 1827; Mary Elizabeth, b. in Hartford, March 20, 1839, d. October 8, 1843 ; Huldah Amelia, b. in Hart- ford, May 31, 1841, m. December 5, 1860, Henry Howard, and had a 'AND FAMILY RECORDS. 65 child, Adeline H., b. November 1, 1861, and her husband d. December 16, 1861 ; Mary Elizabeth, b. in Hartford, March 26, 1843 ; m. May 3lst, 1866, Charles Ferret. Children: Frank Alvord, b. August 2, 1867; I. eon Louis, b. Apnl 22d, 1872; Eliphaz Eugene, b. in Brooklyn. New York, May 5, 1845, d. January 25, 1846; Caroline Experience, b. in New York, September 18, 1847; m. February 6, 1867, Charles B. Coe. Children : Condon Ward, b. December 5, : 868 ; Charles Frederick, b. in New York, AugustSl, 1851, d. April 3, 1852 ; Florence Nightingale, b. in New York, June 7, 1857; George Mather, b. in New York, October 25, 1860. VII. John Calvin, 4 b. November 26, 1818; d. June 6, 1857 ; unmarried. VIII. Lois Elizabeth, 4 b. May 5, 1820; m. April, 1841, Cornelius Vrooman ; he d. October 20, 1848 ; she d. July 9, 1 850 ; had children, Coridon Alexis, b. February 6, 1844; d. November 1, 1850; Daniel McKinney, b. Jan- uary 31, 1847. Warham Gibbs, from Litchfield, came into the town in 1770, and lived on the east side of a road now discontinued, running southerly from Winchester center, by the first meeting-house to the Luther Bronson place. The road, the house of Mr. Gibbs, and the old meeting-house, and all other traces of civilization in that vicinity, except a few ancient apple trees, have disappeared for near half a century. Mr. Gibbs was Moderator of the first Town Meeting, and the first Constable of the town — also frequently appointed " to assist in reading the psalm" on Sundays, and to discharge other public trusts and duties. He went to Ticonderoga and Canada in 1775 and 1776 as lieutenant and captain, and did other service in the revolutionary war. He removed from the town in 1780. He married in Suffield, March 3, 1756, Eunice Spencer. CHILDREN. I. Darius, b. in Litchfield, February 9, 1759. II. Dokcas, b. " " July 15, 1763. III. Miriam, b. " " January 19, ; d. September 3, 1774. IV. Eunice, b. " " June 11, 1772. V. Zkbulon, b. " " June 2, 1774. VI. Woodruff, b. " " October 15, 1776. VII. Azubah, b. " " November 1, 1778. Lewis Wilkinson, from New Milford, with his sons, Jesse and Levi, came to Winchester in 1770, and lived until 1773 on the farm on the Brooks road, — afterwards owned by Abram Andrews, — and afterwards until 1784 on, the farm on the west side of the Brooks road, recently owned by Nathan Tibballs. He died August 31, 1785. Jesse Wilkinson, son of the above, lived on lands adjoining his father's in a red lean-to house. He married, May 16, 1772, Eunice Roberts. 9 66 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, CHILDREN. I. Eunice, b. December 17, 1772. II. Miles, b. June 6, 1773. III. Lois, b. April 16, 1774; d. December 26, 1774. IV. Lois, b. May 6, 1777. V. Lucina, b. June 18, 1781. Lkvi Wilkinson, son of Lewis, lived between his father and his brother Jesse, on the west side of Brooks road until 1789. He married, April 23, 1776, Bathsheba Tucker. CHILDREN. I. Levi Clark, b. January 23, 1778. II. Elizabeth, b. September 19, 1782. III. Ira, b. April 18, 1785. IV. Asahel, b. November 10, 1788. Samuel Wetmore, 1 born in Middletown, Middlefield Society, March 13, 1692; married, June 21, 1722, Hannah Hubbard, bom July 21, 1700. He came to Winchester at the age of 79 years in 1771, and set- tled with his son, Samuel Wetmore, Jr., on the farm now owned and oc- cupied by his great great-grand-son. Deacon Abel Samuel Wetmore. He died December 30, 1773, aged 81, — and is said to have been the first person whose remains were deposited in the Winchester burying-ground.* She died June 4, 1797. CHILDREN. b. December 24, 1723. b. " .18, 1725. b. October 27, 1727. b. April 16, 1730; graduated at Yale 1757 ; ordained in No- vember 1760; settled as pastor at Bethel, Connecticut, November 25, 1770; had two children bap. in Torrington, Irenia, March 30, 1761, and Ann, February 12, 1768. I. Samuel, 2 II. Hannah, 2 III. John, 2 IV. Noah, 2 V. Mehitabel,- b. August 5, 1732 VI. Saeah, 2 b. March 31, 1734 VII. Lois, 2 b. " 6, 1736 VIII. Joel, 2 b. " 9 1738 m. November 23, 1763, Sarah Lyman; had three children bap. in Torrington, Olive, March 10, 1765 ; Ebenezer Lyman, December 28, 1776 ; and Millieent, January 19, 1772. IX. Millicent, 2 b. September 15, 1739. X. Mary, 2 b. July 23, 1741. • * This burying-ground is held by a lease for the term of 999 years, from Samuel Wetmore, Jr., to Seth.Hills, Warham Gibbs, Committee in behalf of the Society, — the lessor reserving the use and improvement of the same as to the herbage. — See Winchester Land Records, Book 2, page 563. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 67 Samuel Wetmore, Jr., 2 better known as Deacon Samuel, came to the town with his father in 1771, and became a prominent and eminently useful member of the infant community. He was chosen one of the se- lectmen of the town at its first annual meeting, and one of the deacons of the church after its institution. He married Anna Roberts, born March 16, 1723 ; she died September 22, 1804; he died March 2, 1809, aged 86. CHILD. I. Abel, 3 b. in Middletown, April 6, 1753. John Wetmore, 2 married Elizabeth Learning ; they settled in Tor- rington, where he died August 27, 1795. CHILDREN. I. Elizabeth, 8 bap. in Torrington, October 15, 1758; m. David Alvord. II. Seth, 3 b. " " March 20, 1761. III. Samuel, 3 b. " " December 31, 1763. Abel Wetmore, 3 an only child, came to Winchester wfth his father on the first Wednesday in May, 1771 ; married, May 12, 1774, Jerusha Hills, daughter of John. She died April 30, 1780 ; and he married (2d), April 17, 1783, Mrs. Mary (Smith) Allen. He died May 20, 1796, and his widow married Loveland. CHILDREN. I. Truman, 4 b. August 12, 1774. II. Anna Jerusha, 4 b. March 6, 1776; m. January 21, 1801, to Elijah Starks or Starkweather. III. John, 4 b. February 6, 1778. IV. Samuel, 4 (known as Samuel H.) b. March 24, 1780. V. Abel, 4 b. September 23, 1783. VI. Elisha, 4 b. April 11, 1785. Major Seth Wetmore, 8 born in Torrington, March 20, 1761 ; lived in Winchester; married December 9, 1779, Lois, daughter of Colonel Ozias Bronson of Winchester. He died in Canajoharie, N. Y., April 16, 1836. CHILDREN. I. John, 2d, 4 b. in W., October 7, 1780. II. Skth, 4 b. " October, 1784; d. at Lake Pleasant, N. Y., November, 1831. III. Abigail Beach, 4 b. " January, 1787 ; d. at Eagle Village, N. Y., October 1858. IV. Artemisia, 4 b. " November, 1789; d. at Canajoharie, N. Y., July, 1813. V. Alphonso, 4 June, 184,9. b. VI. Salmon B., 4 b. VII. Pythagoras, 4 N. Y. b. VIII. Lois Melinda, 4 b. 1841. (38 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, b. in W., February 5, 1793; d. at St. Louis, Mo., September 5, 1795. April 2, 1798, a lawyer at Canajoharie, June 15, 1800; d. in Kentucky, July, Major Seth Wetmore, 3 had by a second wife two children, born in Can;ijoharie, N. Y. IX. Lucy Elizabeth, 4 b. May 9, 1802. X. George Clinton, 4 b. June, 1809. Samuel Wetmore,;? born in Torrington, December 31, 1763 ; mar- ried May 15, 1788, Hannah Griswold ; he was known as Samuel Wetmore 2d ; he lived in W. CHILDREN. L Selina, 4 b. in W. March 13, 1789. II. Leaking, 4 (son) b. " February 13, 1791 III. KUBY 4 , b. " June 27, 1793. IV. Almeda, 4 b. 1795. V. Candace, 4 b. 1797. 1799. ] 1801. VI. Calvary, 4 b. VII. Samuel, 4 b. VIII. Hannah, 4 b. 1804. IX. Harriet T., 4 b. 1806. X. Hurlbut G., 4 1). 1808. XI. Clarissa, 4 b. 1811. ( m. Jan. 10, 1827, Athea Skinner, m. 2d Jan. 14, 1834, Elizabeth, daughter of Isaac Bronson. Dr. Truman Wetmore, 4 married October 18, 1799, Sylvia Spencer, daughter of Thomas; she died March 27, 1800, and in her memory he added the name "Spencer" to his Christian name, December 27, 1800; he married (second) Elizabeth Jarvis ; she died May 7, 1K44, aged 58; he died July 21. 1861, aged 87. Soon after the death of his first wife he began the study of medicine, under Drs. Woodward of Torrington, Moore of Winsted, and McEwen of Albany, N. Y. Receiving his diploma in 1802 he commenced practice in Vermont, but in 1806reiurned to Winchester, and in the following year, on the breaking out of the spotted fever in this county, he was the first who treated it successfully. He was a well-read and successful physician of the old school, a poet of local celebrity, a musical composer (some of his tunes being still retained in the worship of the churches), a man of genial humor and tender feelings, and a chronicler of olden times to whom the compiler is largely indebted. He continued in practice until the age of 75. His. residence until about 1828 was on the south side of Cooper Lane, about half a AND FAMILY RECORDS. 00 mile west of the center, and during his remaining life in the old Parsonage house, now owned by his son-in-law, Leonard B. Hurlbut. CHILDREN. I. Sylvia Eliza, 5 b. October 20, 1805 ; m. Leonard B. Hurlbut. II. Darwin Woodward, b. September 2, 1807 ; d. August 20, 1853. III. William Jarvis, 5 b. June 30, 1809; resides in the city of New York; a physician, poet, and popular musical composer. He delivered the poem at the Centennial of the Winchester Church, August 16, 1871. IV. George Whitefield, 5 b. October 1!, 1812; graduated M.D., atPittsfield, 1838 ; m. November 29, 1843, Sarah Ann Thompson, b. April 28, 1819, daughter of Deacon Seth and Anne (Burton) Thompson; has children. George Thompson, b. Amcnia, N. Y., February 9, 1845 ; Elizabeth Jarvis, b. A., April 6, 1846 ; Mary Fitch, b. W., April 16, 1855. V. Charles Fitch, b. August 21, 1815; grad. Washington College in 1841. John Wetmore, 4 born February 6, 1778 ; married November 19, 1801, Lucy Nash, daughter of John. He settled on the homestead of his ancestors, where he died May 24, 1832 ; she died August, 1869 r aged 85. CHILDREN. I. Abel Samuel, 5 b. November 16, 1802. II. Lucy Esther, 5 b. December 12, 1806; m. September 11, 1833, Fred. P., son of Miles Hill. III. Hannah Jerusha, 5 b. June 11, 1809; m. October 13, 1840, Lewis Whiting. IV.- Clarissa Whiting, 5 b. May 14, 1816; m. March 30, 18.36, George L. Whiting. V. Rebecca Nash, 5 b. December 8, 1812; m. November 11, 1846, Alonso Whiting. John Wetmore, 4 2d, born October 7, 1780 ; married December 30, 1802, Huldah Spencer,, daughter of Thomas. He first lived in the house next north of A. S. Wetmore, then about 1817 to 1820, in the red house at the crossing of the roads between the two lakes, and finally in the house at the center now owned by Washington Hatch, where he died November 12, 1823, aged 43. She married (second) Jonathan Coe. CHILDREN. I. Horatio Lucius, 5 b. September 24, 1803 ; m. May 20, 1829, Hannah, Catlin, daughter of Horace; she d. September 20, 1856, leaving a daughter Sarah Louisa, b". April 12, 1833; he m. (second) ? 1862, Abigail Kilburn, daughter of Elisha. II. Celestia, 5 b. in W., May 30, 1805; m. January 20, 1831, Luman Catlin. 70 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, III. Sarepta, 5 b. in W., August 2, 1807; d. unmarried January 4, 1862. IV. Louisa Matilda, 6 b. " May 25, 1810; m. October 19, 1830, Jabez Gillett Curtis. V. Willard Spencer, 5 b. " May 8, 1813; m. October 24, 1839, Julia Ann Woodford, daughter of Erastus. Children : Willie, b. Nov- 2, 1841 ; d. same day ; Julia, b. May, 1849; d. same day. .VI. John Grinnell, 5 b. in W., April 27, 1817; m. October 3, 1841, Eliza F. Rossiter. She d. March 9, 1847, leaving a daughter, Eliza Rossiter, b February 20, 1847. He m. (second) November 1, 1848, Eliza P. Lee. VII. Huldah Ann, 5 b. July 1, 1821 ; m. April 17, 1844, Jonathan A. Rossiter. Samuel Wetmore, 4 known as Samuel H., married December 2, 1802, Sally Beach, daughter of Adna. They removed to Vernon, N. Y., where he died March 23, 1813. CHILDREN. I. Mart Sophronia, 5 b. May 10, 1803; m. (first) Silas H., and (second) Samuel A. McAlpine. II. Harriet Eliza, 5 b. November 8, 1806 ; m. John McAlpine, Jr. Deacon Abel Samuel Wetmore, 5 married November 24, 1829, Lucy Almira Hills, born March 18, 1810, daughter of Miles. He owns and occupies by regular descent the farm of his ancestor Deacon Samuel Wetmore. Possessing a retentive memory, and a large fund of tradi- tional lore, his aid in the compilation of these annals has been highly prized. CHILDREN. I. Julia Ann," b. August 18, 1830; d. June 5, 1831. II. John Nash, b. in W., March 8, 1833. Ill Ellen Eliza, 6 b. " October 29, 1834; m. August 14, 1856, Stephen G. Beecher, New Milford. IV. Le Rot Whiting, 6 b. " September 28, 1836. V. Milks Hills, 6 b. " September 6, 1840. VI. Samuel Abel, 6 b. " September 25, 1842. VII. Hubert Porter, 6 b. " February 21, 1847. David Goff's name is on the petition for incorporation of the town dated August 4, 1767, but it does not appear that he was ever a land- owner, nor is his residence ascertainable. He was an early member of the Church, and is occasionally named on the records as holding subor- dinate town offices. From an affidavit of Colonel Aaron Austin accom- panying a petition of GofF for compensation for military service, it appears AND FAMILY EECORDS. 71 that he served as sergeant in Captain Griswold's Company, in an expe- dition to Canada in 1775, and that in 1776 he and his son enlisted in the company of which Austin was captain, and that in the retreat from Canada in that year, he was the means of saving the army from destruc- tion by devising and carrying out a plan of getting the boats up the Chamblee Rapids by means of drag-ropes, with men on the shores to tow them, instead of carrying them and their freight a circuit of some miles by land, as had been the custom, which it was impossible to do without teams, of which the army was destitute. It appears by the same docu- ment that he was afterwards a lieutenant in the Continental Army. It also appears by Sedgwick's " History of Sharon " that he resided in that town during a part of the revolutionary period. CHILDREN OF DAVID AND MARY GOFF. I. Irena, b. January 9, 1770. II. Sarah, bap. February 10, 1771. Hi. Esther, b. November 10, 1772. Captain Benjamin Benedict, from Danbury, was chosen a Sur- veyor of Highways at the first annual town meeting. His first deed dated April 4, 1771, in which he is named Benjamin Benedict, junior, conveys to him the Colonel Whiting Lot on both sides of Mad River where the Danbury School-house stands. His homestead stood on a discontinued road east of the present road, running east of the school- house, on the hill south of Mad River. He built a saw mill on the south side of Mad River, above the bridge, nearly all traces of which have now disappeared. He removed to Coventry, Chenango Co., N. Y., in 1807. He married, May 27, 1762, Mary Bouton. CHILDREN. I. Noah,'- b. May 28, 1763; m. May 22, 1788, Chloe Andrews; lived on part of his father's homestead; his last deed on record is dated 1805 ; had son Noah, b. March 18, 1789. II. Abijah, 2 b. April 30, 1765; m. June 11, 1789, Abigail Corbin ; lived south of Noah, on part of his father's original homestead ; he probably left town before 1800; had Daniel, b. February 26, 1790; Sylvester, b. December 4, 1794. III. Benjamin, 2 b. July 18, 1767; m. July 3, 1788, Sibyl Loomis. He was a. deacon; had Wealthy, b. March 9,1793; Sylvia Melissa, b. May 15, 1811. He lived on the east side of the old country road, south of the Corbins. IV. Eden, 2 b. May 6, 1770; m. May 24, 1792, Miranda Culver; had son Ira, b. May 16, 1794. V. Mary, 2 b. November 10, 1772 ; m. October 25, 1792, Levi Bronson, second. 72 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, VI. Phebe, 2 b: May 30, 1775 ; m. August 1, 1796, Levi Daw. VII. Eliakim, 2 b. March 9, 1778. VIII. Huldah/ 2 b. April 6, 1782; m. November 1, 1799, Lorrain Sweet. Captain Timothy Benedict, from Danbury, named in his first deed, Timothy Benedict, Jr., bought in 1771 the eastern half of the lot origi- nally purchased by Captain Benjamin Benedict, lying on both sides of Mad River, and enclosing the Danbury school-house, on which he re- sided until his death. His wife, Mrs. Lydia Benedict, died in this town February 21, 1824, aged 95. The land records show that he had three sons, Timothy, Jr., William, and Joshua, who came with him to Winchester and to whom he conveyed portions of his land. There was an Elizabeth Benedict, married to Hezekiah Elmer, September 7, 1774, who may have been his daughter. Timothy Benedict, Jr., 2 owned land on both sides of Mad River east of the highway and running south from the Danbury school-house, and lived on the east side of the road nearly opposite the Danbury bury- ing-ground until his decease. He married, October 5, 1773, Mary Judd. She died September 8, 1822, aged 75 ; and he died November 27, 1836, aged 89. CHILDREN. I. Deborah, 3 b. August 29, 1774; m. William Crocker. II. Timothy, 3 b. March 8, 1777. III. Sarah, 3 b. August 17, 1781. IV. Mela, 3 b. October 23, 1784. William Benedict, 2 son of Timothy, is named of New Marlboro, Massachusetts, in a deed of 1786, July 5. No record of his family is found. Joshua Benedict,' 2 son of Timothy, is not found on the records after 1786. He married, November 15, 1784, Mary Wilcox, and had a child, Anna, born March 13. 1786. He removed to Montreal, L. C, and is supposed to have died there. Timothy Benedict," son of Timothy, 2 lived and died (Mch. 29, 1820) in the house now owned by Joel Tuttle, on the easterly side of the turn- pike above the toll-gate. He married Lydia, daughter of John Crocker, and had by her CHILDREN. I. Rhoda, 6 b. September 1, 1800; m. Willard Hart; d. in 1824. II. Hannah, 5 b. November 2, 1802; m. Eleazcr Andrews. III. Lydia, 5 b. December 8, 1809; m. Charles Seldcn; d., 1834. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 73 Deacon Nathaniel Dutton, from Woodbury, purchased in 1771, Lot 33, first tier, first division, and built a house thereon. He sold a part of the lot to John Bradley the same year, and sold the remainder to Ichabod Loomis in 1773, and returned to Woodbury. He afterwards came and finished the second meeting-house in 1785. He afterwards had his permanent residence in Litchfield (Northfield parish). He was father to the late Professor Mathew Rice Dutton, of Yale College, and of ex- Governor Henry Dutton, of New Haven. John Bradley is described as of Winchester in Nathaniel Dutton's deed of December 19, 1771, conveying to him seventy acres from the north side of Lot 33, first division, lying on the west side of the road a little south of the Widow Everitt house, which he conveyed to Daniel Loomis in 1778, and probably then left the town. Daniel Platt, from Danbury, bought of Benjamin Benedict a lot of land on Waterbury River turnpike, a little south of the Potter place, in 1771, which he conveyed to Phillip Priest in 1776. He and his wife, Thankful, had a son, Stephen, baptized March 13, 1774. . Lemuel Stannard, Jr., from Saybrook, is a signer of the petition for incorporation of the town in 1771, and is a grantee of land in 1772. He first owned land on Blue street, and afterwards a little west of the center. His name disappears from the records about 1780. He was born April 13, 1750; married, April 14, 1774, Christian Spencer. CHILDREN. I. Chadncet, b. December 23, 1774. II. Margaret, b. August 29, 1776. Abel Stannard, supposed to be son of Lemuel, Senior, bought in 1779 a lot, lying immediately north of the Little Pond, and built and lived in a square-roofed house on the road running along the east side of the pond — nearly opposite the Dan. Beckley lane — and sold out to Amasa Wade in 1803. He married, June 23, 1774, Phebe Stevens. CHILDREN. I. Phebe, b. September 4, 1776. II. Tomesin, b- April 10, 1781. III. Abel, b. " 20, 1784. IV. Sarah, b. March 28, 1786. V. Hervet, b. February 18, 1788. VI. Ruth (twin), b. March 27, 1790. VII Ltdia (twin), b. " " VIII. ZhNAS, b. July 23, 1793. IX. Giles, b. September 14, 1795. 10 74 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. Lemuel Stannard, Senior, from Saybrook, is grantee, in 1778, of a lot in second tier, first division, near Reuben Chase's, which he conveyed to his son, William, in 1789, describing it as his homestead. In 1796, he is alluded to in a deed as " Lemuel Stannard, late of Winchester, de- ceased." William Stannard occupied his father's homestead until 1790, when he sold out to Col. Ozias Bronson ; and afterwards owned land in Dan- bury quarter, which he conveyed to his father-in-law, Peleg Sweet, in 1800. He married, September 15, 1779, Hannah Sweet. CHILDREN. I William, b. December 2, 1780. II. Mercy, b. October 15, 1782. Seth Stannard, married, November 13, 1785, Martha Preston. He owned no land in town. CHILD. 1. Seth, b. February 15, 1786. Ezra Stannard, son to Lemuel Stannard and Ruth, his wife, born " at Saybrook, March 13, A. D. 1766," married, January 19, 1786, Margaret Norton. He owned in 1793 and 1794, the Humphrey farm, on the east side Of Long Pond, south of the Pratt farm, which he sold to Levi Ackley and Ozias Spencer. In 1795, he is named of Torrington. CHILDREN. I. Charles, b. October 16, 1786. II. Lorrain, b. May 9, 1788. III. Orlow, b. April 13, 1790. IV. Grinnell, b. January 30, 1792. CHAPTER VII. SOCIETY OF WINCHESTER ORGANIZED— FIRST HOUSE OF WORSHIP. We have followed out the slow settlement of the town, from the first entry of Caleb Beach in 1750, to the year 1768, and endeavored to locate and commemorate its pioneers. We find them as yet confined to the cor- ner of the township bordered on the northeast by the Old South- Country road, comprising little more than one-eighth of the territory. Of the families whose prior residence is ascertained, six were from Torrington, two each from Goshen and Hartford, and one each from Woodbury, Wal- lingford, Derby, Suffield, Stratford, and Farmington. Their first utterance as a social community seems to have been, a pe- tition to the Colonial Assembly, dated August 4, 1767. It so graphically sets forth their condition and needs as to render it worthy of transcribing : " To the Honorable the General Assembly of the Colony of Connecti- cut, to be convened at New Haven on the 2d Tuesday of October, .1757. " The memorial of us the subscribers, Inhabitants of the Township of Winchester, in the County of Litchfield, humbly sheweth, " That whereas there is about 18 families, containing 82 souls, have be- gun a settlement in said Township, and by reason of our distance from any place of Public Worship, it being near or quite seven miles to the nearest, makes it extremely difficult for any of us to attend public worship at any of said places, and utterly impossible for us to convey our families, so that we are laid under a necessity of bringing up our families in Ignorance, and Strangers to publick Gospel Preaching, not being able to hire preaching ourselves by reason of our infant state of settle- ment, and the greatest part of the land in said Township belongs to men of Wealth, who are under no necessity either to sell or to settle their land, which makes our case peculiarly difficult, and as the welfare of the soul is of vastly more importance than that of the body, your memorialists humbly pray that your honours will take the state of our Case into serious consideration and comiterate our miserable Circumstances, and that you would incorporate and form us into a Town with Town privileges, and lay a small tax on all the divided lauds in said Township, in the first and third Divisions lying south and west of the Long Pond, such as may en- 76 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. able us to support the Gospel among us, or otherwise provide for our re- lief as you in your wisdom shall think best and most for the honour of God and interest of said religion amongst us, and your memorialists as in duty bound shall ever pray, &c. Dated at Winchester the 4th day of August, 1767. SETH HILLS, LENT MOTT, AARON COOK, ABEL BEACH, Proprietor, ROBERT COE, JOHN SMITH, ROBERT MACUNE, DAVID AUSTIN, DAVID GOFF, BERIAH HILLS, Proprietor, WILLIAM FILLEY, JOEL BEACH, ENOCH PALMER, NOBLE AVRED, THOMAS HOSMER, SIMEON LOOMIS, ADAM MOTT, OLIVER COE, JOHN HILLS, SAMUEL PRESTON." Of these petitioners eighteen were residents of the town, and ten of them became members of the church at, or immediately after, its organi- zation. It does not appear that any action was had by the Assembly on this petition. Another petition was brought to the May Session in 1768, similar in substance to the former, and signed by fifteen of the former memorialists, and also by John Preston, Jonathan Preston, John Wet- more, and Ebenezer Preston ; in which the population is stated to be about twenty-one families and 110 souls. Upon this memorial, the General Assembly resolved " that the inhabitants living on the west side and south end of the Long Pond, and the lands south of the same, as far as Torrington line, and all those west of said Pond to Norfolk line, and north upon said line until it comes to Colebrook line, and east upon Cole- brook line, so far as to include the westernmost tier of lots on the second or northeast division of lots in said township of Winchester, be and remain for the future, one entire and distinct Ecclesiastical Society, ****** and that a tax of one penny half-penny per acre per annum be laid upon all the lands lying within the lines and limits aforesaid, as well those belonging to non-resident proprietors as others, for the term of three years now next ensuing, and that David Austin be a collector with full power to collect and pay said rate or tax toward the support of the min- istry in said Society," &c. Under this act of incorporation, a Society meeting was held, June 29, 1768, and the following votes passed: " Voated, that John Smith should be Moderator for sd. Meeting. " that Seth Hills should be Clark for sd. Sosiety. " that all free agents be lawful voaters. that Thomas Hosmer should be fust Commety man for sd. >Sosiety. ORGANIZATION OF WINCHESTER. 77 " Voated, William Filey sec nd Commety man for said Sosiety. " Seth Hills be third Commety man for sd. Sosietay. " that the Sosiety will except 74 pounds of the tax yearly." September 20, 1768, at an adjourned meeting, it was " voated, that the meeting on the Saboth should be continued att John Hills til December next." " That the Sisiety will aply to the Association for advice." October 13, 1768, " Voated that y e Society wil wait til week after next for Mr. Mills."* " Voated, that the Comity shall try for Mr. Pitkin proid Mr. Mills don't coin." At the Annual Meeting, first Tuesday of December, 1768, Thomas Hosmer, Seth Hills, and John Hills, were chosen Society Committee : Seth Hills, Clerk, and Thomas Hosmer, Treasurer ; and t!ie Committee were instructed to apply to Samuel John Mills to supply them. At the Annual Meeting, December 28, 1769, the privilege of voting- extended to " all free agents by vote of a former meeting, was confined to all the inhabitants that are of age " ; — and after choice of Committee, Clerk, and Treasurer, the following additional appointments were made : " John Hills, Corester ; Abram Filley, Corester ; David Austin, to read the Psalm ; Beriah Hills, to assist to read the Psalm." And was voted " that our anuel meeting shall be warnid by the Com- inity by setting up a paper on a post by the Meeting House at least eight days before y* meeting, telling the place and time of day." At the Annual Meeting, December 11, 1770, after appointment of officers, the sweeping of the meeting house was set up to the lowest bid- der, and bid otf by Jesse Wilkinson, at 5s. 6d. for the year. The expenses of the year were reported to be £60 4s. 3d., and of the years 1768 and 1769, £69 8s. 9d. — and the meeting adjourned to the first Monday of March, 1771, at which adjourned meeting it was "voted, that we will send a pe- tition to the Assembly next May for tound privileges." " Voted, that we will send a Petition to the assembly next May for a Tax for the Settlement of a Minister and building a Meeting House." " Voted, that Beriah Hills and Warham Gibbs shall assist in reading the Psalm." " Voted, that John Hills and Abram Filley shall sett the Psalm." The first mention of a meeting house in the infant society is made in a vote in 1769 already quoted. No record is found referring in any way to the building of this sanctuary ; nor is any traditionary account of its erec- tion, or by whom it was erected, discoverable. No tax was laid to pay for it, and no building committee was appointed to superintend it. * Rev. Samuel J. Mills, afterwards the venerable and eccentric pastor of Torring- ford. 78 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. On the 20th September, 1768, it was voted that the Sabbath meeting should be held, until the next December, at John Hills' house, which stood near the Hurlbut Cemetery; — then follows, in December, 1769, the vote requiring notices of society meetings to be placed on a post by the meeting house. These votes would indicate 1768 as the year of its erection. It stood on the slope of a hill, on the west side of a road long since discontinued, coming up from the Luther Bronson house, and pass- ing immediately in front of the houses of Marcus Munsill and Noble J. Everitt, to Winchester center. The traces of the old road are indistinct- ly visible, but no indication of a church having once stood on the sloping ground on its borders are visible. The place has no feature of conven- ience or beauty to recommend it. Its uneven and rocky surface would utterly preclude all attempts at improvement, while no village could have grown up around it. In the absence of facts as to its origin, it might be theorized that it was originally a barn, and was extemporized into a meet- ing house, — were it not that the height of the building fell short of the FIRST MEETING-HOUSE. requisite of a barn, and that no farmer would ever have put a barn in such an inaccessible position. A dwelling it could not have been intended for, as there was no cellar, and the rocky formation would have precluded excavating one. It was a low, steep-roofed building, thirty feet long and twenty-four feet wide, with nine-feet posts, covered with wide rabbeted boards one ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH. 79 inch thick. It stood on a side hill above the road, the rear resting on the ground, and the front supported by sections of Chestnut logs, three to four feet in diameter, lying diagonally under the corners. A huge chestnut butt, set up perpendicularly at the front door, with a series of steps cut crosswise of the timber, gave access to the ground floor. Oppo- site the door was the pulpit or rostrum, three to four feet high. The seats were rough planks or slabs with legs at the ends inserted in augur holes. Originally there was no floor overhead ; but as more room was required to accommodate the worshippers, joists were inserted in the cross beams, and boards laid down loosely for a floor, except on a space of nine feet square, over the rostrum. This was the gallery. Access was gained to it by a plank ladder outside, at one of the ends of the building ascend- ing to a door in the gable. The interior was neither ceiled nor plas- tered. The space beneath the building was open on three sides, affording a shade and shelter for vagrant sheep, pigs, and calves. In this primitive edifice our fathers worshipped summer and winter for seventeen years, with no warming apparatus but the foot stoves of the women, and the sound doctrine of the minister. Two choristers to lead the singing, and two readers to line the psalms were regularly appointed at each annual meeting. Near this church edifice there appears to have been another religious building peculiar to New England in the last and early in the present century, called a Sabbath-day House, or, as spelled in the one of the two instances in which it occurs in our records, a " Saba-day House." It is first mentioned in a vote of temporary adjournment of a Society meeting in December, 1761, probably by reason of the extreme cold in the meet- ing house. The second mention of it is in the survey of the road form- ally laid out and established in 1772, along the line of the bridle path which had previously been the only means of access to the meeting house, in which two prominent land marks are " a birch tree near a saw-mill, then N. 13 E. to a Sabbath-day house." Such buildings were erected by individuals living distant from places of worship for the accommoda- tion of their families before and during the intervals of worship in the inclement weather of winter. They were generally long, low buildings of two apartments, with a fire place in each attached to one chimney. A supply of fuel was provided in the fall. Some member of the family or families owning those apartments went forward early on the Sunday morning and made up the fires, and the- rest of the parties followed in such season as to thoroughly warm themselves before going into meeting. At the noon intermission, they returned to their rooms, warmed themselves, and such homely fare as they had brought with them, ate their dinners, discussed the morning sermon, and returned to the afterooon exercise ; at the close of which they again warmed themselves 80 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. at the fires, and returned to their distant homes with a far better appreci- ation of their Sabbath worship than could otherwise have been enjoyed.* Such buildings, nearly unknown to the present generation, are well remembered by the aged people of New England. Probably some of them still exist in retired parishes. There were two or more of them in a dilapidated state near the Carmel Meeting House, eight miles north of New Haven, as late as 1820. There were one or more of them attached to the old Town Hill Meeting House in New Hartford until after the secession of the Northenders not far from 1830, in which the compiler was hospitably entertained in 1822, during the interval of worship on one of the coldest winter days of that year. The pleasant memory of the refreshing warmth of that snug little room, contrasted with the shiver- ing exercise of the unwarmed old barn-like house of worship and the freezing solemnities at the grave of a deceased classmate, on a still higher elevation, renders the old Sabaday House worthy of special notice as one of the by-gone institutions of New England. . In the early part of this century, the Old Meeting House was removed by the owners of the land on which it stood, to the rear of the new store of Theron Bronson, Esq., at Winchester Center, where it stood in the last stage of dilapidation, having served for some fifty years as a barn, Until Sunday, June 9th, 1867, when it was blown down in a violent thunder storm. * Prior to the late centennial, a diversity of opinion was found to exist among the residents of "Old Winchester," in respect to the precise location of this meeting house. There was no one of them who had seen it before its removal to another loca- tion, and apparently not understanding of the requirements of the ancient records in reference to its location above quoted, and other records of a dwelling house once owned by "Reuben Miner, and located on the east side of the road, " near the meeting- house." This was the only dwelling ever erected in that vicinity. The location of the ancient saw-mill is ascertainable, and not many rods west of it, is the trace of an ancient sunken northerly and southerly road, along the center of which is a modern stone wall. On the east side of this road track, and in a northwesterly direction from the saw-mill site, are the undoubted traces of the site of a dwelling house and garden, such as a continued growth of " live-for-ever," and traces of cellar walls, with frag- ments of ancient bricks, such as might have been used in constructing the oven. The stones in the wall immediately west of this location are more angular and square than in other pluces, and were probably taken from the old chimney stack and foundations of the house. The land on the west side of this old road, near this chimney place- slopes down from the west in the manner required by the traditions of a meeting house resting its rear sills on the ground, and raised to a level in front by the large logs under the corners, and the steps cut into a stump under the front door. The location adopted by the centennial committee, and on which they placed a stone monument and flagstaff, is on the top of an eminence several rods west of where the road must have run, and some forty rods northerly or northwesterly from the spot indicated by the record land marks. As a fancy location, it would be preferable to what is here claimed to be the true one: hut authenticated facts do not warrant its selection. CHAPTER VIII. INCORPORATION AND ORGANIZATION OF THE TOWN. At the Society meeting on the first Monday of March, 1771, it was voted to petition the Assembly for a town corporation. The Petition prepared and sent in to the May session of that year is as follows : To the Honorable General Assembly to be holden at Hartford on the sec- ond Tuesday of May next, The memorial of Seth Hills and John Hills, inhabitants of the Eccle- siastical Society lately established in the Township of Winchester, and the rest of the inhabitants of said society humbly showeth ; . That your Honors, at your session at Hartford, in May, 1768, did make and establish a distinct Ecclesiastical Society in said Winchester, and were also graciously pleased to grant a tax of one penny half-penny upon the acre of all the lands within the limits of said society ; as well to those of non-resident proprietors as others for the term of three years, toward the support of the Gospel ministry in said society (which term is now expired), and the moneys arisen by virtue of said tax have been duly expended for the purpose for which they were granted ; by means whereof the lands lying within the limits of said society, and especially those near the center thereof, are much increased in price, and some almost or quite, doubled, which lands near the center chiefly belong to non-resident proprietors, who have received by far the greatest benefit in the rise of lands by means of said premises : yet so it is that all of the lands in said Township have been laid out for the sole use and benefit of the Proprietors, without appropriating any part thereof for the support of the Gospel, or schools, or any other pious or public uses whatever ; as has been usual and customary in many towns lying in the northwesterly part of this colony, which were formerly granted to the Proprietors of the towns of Hartford and Windsor, excepting only some little part re- served for highways, which is by no means sufficient to answer the pur- pose, even for necessary highways at present, but many more must in a short time be purchased at the expense of the inhabitants. Your Memorialists would further beg leave to observe to your Honors, 11 82 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER that the number of families at present in the limits of said society amount to twenty-eight, and the number of souls to 179. and that there are but four at present who live within the limits of said Township, but which also live without the limits of said society ; and that the greatest part of your Memorial^ts are under very low circumstances ; as they laid out a chief part of wliat they had towards purchasing their lands of the Proprietors at a much greater price than they otherwise would have given, upon a full expectation that they should be assisted by the non-resident Proprie- tors by way of general tax upon all the lands for the purpose of building a Meeting House, settling a minister, &c, as has been heretofore done in some of the new townships ; and that your Memorialists have been at very great expense since their settlement in said township in the sup- porting of schools, building of mills and bridges, and in purchasing and making of highways, as well as in clearing and cultivating their lands, a very considerable part of which is rough, and the residue very heavy timbered : By means whereof, they are nut able at present, (without some assistance) to build a Meeting House, settle a minister, support proper schools, &c, which they are very desirous of doing, that they might be enabled to attend upon institutions and ordinances of the Gos- pel themselves, but also to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, which cannot be otherwise obtained by reason of their distance from any other place of public worship. Your Memorialists would further beg leave to inform your Honors that they are under many similar inconveniences and difficulties, by reason of not having town privileges among themselves. Thereupon your Memorialists humbly pray your Honors to take their unhappy circumstances into your wise consideration, and to grant a tax (for such time and sum as to your Honors Avisdom shall seem meet) upon all the lands lying within the limits of said Society, as well those belong- ing to the resident population as others, for the purpose, and to be im- proved in building a Meeting House, and settling a minister in said Society, or to be collected and laid out and improved according to the direction of your Honors ; and that your Honors- would also make, incor- porate and establish the inhabitants living within the limits of said Town- ship of Winchester into one distinct and entire town, with all the powers and privileges that other towns by law have, and do enjoy, or under such particular limitations and restrictions as to your Honors may seem just and reasonable. And- your Memorialists as in duty bound shall ever pray, &c. Dated at Winchester, this 4th day of April, 1771. ADAM MOTT, DAVID GOFF, JOSEPH HOSKIN, REUBEN TUCKER, LEMUEL STANNARD, JR., OLIVER COE, INCORPORATION AND ORGANIZATION. 83 ABRAM FILLEY, BERIAH HILLS, ROBERT MACUNE, BENONI HILLS, JONATHAN ALVORD, AARON COOK, JOSIAH AVERIT, BENJAMIN PALMER, WARHAM GIBBS, JESSE WILKINSON, ELIPHAZ ALVORD, JOEL BEACH. In compliance with the prayer of this Memorial, the Assembly at the May Session, 1771, Resolved as follows: " That a tax of two pence on the acre annually, for two years from the last clay of May, 1771, be granted on all the lands in said Society ; — and that said Township of Winchester, with all the inhabitants thereof be, and they are hereby declared to be one distinct and entire town ; with all the rights, powers and privileges, and subject to the same rules and orders, and to be under the same regulations as other towns in this colony have, enjoy, and are subject to." Under this corporate act, the first Town Meeting was held, the Record of which is as follows : At a Town Meeting of the Inhabitants of Winchester, lawfully assem- bled on Monday the 22d day of July, 1771. Warham Gibbs chosen Moderator of sd. meeting. Eliphaz Alvord chosen Town Clerk, and sworn. Jonathan Alvord and Seth Hills, and Samuel Wetmore, Jr., chosen Townsmen. Robert Mackune chosen Treasurer. Warham Gibbs chosen Constable. Abram Filley chosen Grand Jury Man. Oliver Coe and Noah Gleason and David Goff chosen Surveyors of Highways. Josiah Averit and Joseph Hoskin chosen Fence Viewers. Beriah Hills and David Austin and Jonathan Coe chosen Listers. Robert Mackune chosen Leather Sealer. Adam Mott and Benoni Hills chosen Ty thing Men. Voted, that David Austin's cow yard be a pound for the present. Voted, that a Maple tree near the Meeting House shall be a sign-post. David Austin chosen Key-keeper. Voted, that the Annual Town Meeting in this Town shall be on the first Monday of December at nine of the clock in the morning, at the Meeting House of said Town, and that the Selectmen shall set up a noti- fication on the Sign-post twelve days before the said first Monday for sd. meeting. Test, ELIPHAZ ALVORD, Town Clerk. 84 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. The settlements of the town thus organized were all embraced within the limits of the first, or " Old Society " of Winchester, with the exception of four families along the old north road, running across the extreme northeast corner of the town, a section which had little, if any community of interest with the original settlements. As set forth in the memorials of 1768 and 1771, the physical conformation of the township was such as to preclude free mutual intercourse between the two sections. South of the long lake, mountainous ridges extend to the borders of Torrington, the old south road entering the town from the southeast at a point westward of these ridges. The long lake thence extends northerly to a point near the center of the town, where it approaches within a quarter of a mile of the Little Pond which extends half a mile further north, at which point the mountain range on the west side of Mad River commences, and extends northerly to Colebrook. Prior to 1780 it is believed there was no road across this barrier. The communication through the town between the old north and old south roads was by a crooked and difficult bridle path across the Still River and Mad River valleys, thence winding around between the two ponds and up the dugway to the highest eleva- tion of the town above the Deacon Alvord place, and thence to the center of Old Winchester. The most feasible lands in the town were west of this barrier. The first settlers came largely from Torrington and Goshen, and settled along the borders of those towns, or along the old south road already described. None of them were rich, and most of them had scant means to purchase the small tracts of uncleared, heavy timbered lands they occupied. In a former cha]jter we have alluded to the unshapely and inconve- nient lots set out to the smaller proprietors, the scant reservations of land for highways, and their unavailability to a great extent by reason of improper location, the want of reservations for the endowment of schools, and the reservations to their own resident clergymen instead of grants for the support of religious institutions of the impoverished and benighted settlers. Add to these drawbacks the withholding of their lands from sale by the larger proprietors, that their value might be enhanced by the improvement of lands of adjoining resident proprietors, and the exemp- tion of their lands from taxation in aid of the outlays for roads, bridges, ministers, churches, and schools. Considering all these hindrances, and adding to them the hardships and privations of pioneer life, it is not surpris- ing that at the twentieth anniversary of Caleb and Joel Beach's advent the number of resident families in the town were less than 180. It is rather a wonder that any but outlaws should have resorted to a region so forlorn alike in its physical characteristics and proprietary management. None but the toughest of the puritan Anglo-Saxon race could have made headway against such impediments. INCORPORATION AND ORGANIZATION. 85 Names of settlers not a few appear on the land records, who, after a short buffeting with hardships and discouragements retired from thu forbidding field, and large numbers of others fled to the rich lands of Western New York as soon as they became accessible. The names of ttiose who participated in the organization of the town, as far as it is possible to ascertain them, and their prior residence, are as follows : — JONATHAN ALVORD, ELIPHAZ ALVORD, DAVID AUSTIN, JOSIAH AVERED, BENJAMIN BENEDICT, JOHN BRADLEY, OLIVER COE, JONATHAN COE, AARON COOK, NATHANIEL DUTTON, ABRAM FILLEY, NOAH GLEASON, WARHAM GIBBS, DAVID GOFF, THOMAS HOSMER, Junior, SETH HILLS, BERIAH HILLS, BENONI HILLS, JOSEPH HOSKIN, JOHN HILLS, (?) SIMEON LOOMIS, ROBERT McEWEN, ADAM MOTT, ADAM MOTT, Junior, EBENEZER PRESTON, ENOCH PALMER, DANIEL PLATT, (?) LEMUEL STANNARD, REUBEN TUCKER, SAMUEL WETMORE, Junior, JOHN WRIGHT, Junior, JESSE WILKINSON, LEWIS WILKINSON, from Chatham. do. " Suffield. " Woodbury (Bethlem). " Danbury. " Unknown. " Torrington. do. do. " Woodbury. " Torrington- " Unknown. " Litchfield. " Unknown. " Hartford. " Torrington. do. do. do. do. do. " Stratford. " Windsor. do. " Wallingford. " Farmington. " Danbury. " Unknown. " Bolton. " Middletown (MiddleneldJ). " Wethersfield. " New Miltord. do. This list comprises five more names than the number of families stated to be residents of the Society in the petition dated April 4, 1771,. but it can hardly be doubted that all these, if not some four or five others, were inhabitants and voters on the 22d of July following. Some of them may have come in during the intervening time, or may not yet have become heads of families. CHAPTER IX. ORGANIZATION OF CHURCH AND SETTLEMENT OF FIRST PASTOR n Immediately after the organization of the town, during the same year, the Congregational Church of Winchester was gathered. We copy the original minutes as follows : " The Church of Christ in Winchester was gathered by the Rev. Messrs. Roberts of Torrington, and Robbins of Norfolk, October 30, A. D. 1771." The Confession of Faith, which they assented to and adopted as their rule for admission of members, &c, is as follows, viz : " You, and each of you do believe the articles of y e Christian faith as contained in y" Scriptures of y e old and new Testament, particularly. " 1. You believe that there is one only living and true God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, y e great Creator, Preserver, and Governor of y e world. " 2. You believe that God did make man in His own image, consisting in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, but man, by his disobedience, has fallen from that holy and happy state, and plunged himself into a State of Sin and misery, and of which he is unable to recover himself, and in wh. he might have been justly left of God, to perish forever. " 3. You believe that God, out of his mere goodness, has opened a new way of life to a fallen, guilty, sinful world, by wh. the mediation of [his] own Son, Jesus Christ, who has offered up himself a sacrifice of atonement to God for y e sins of y e world, and that all are invited to put their trust in him and return to God through him, and that there is no salvation in any other way. " 4. You believe that mankind, in their present fallen State, are dead in Sins, and so contrary to God and averse to a reconciliation, that without the special influence of divine grace, they will never savingly hearken to and comply with y e gospel call ; so that y e Conversion and Salvation of Sinners is only owing to y e distinguishing sovereignty of God. " 5. You believe that altho. we are justified by faith, and saved by grace, yet the law, as a rule of life, remains in full force to believers ; so that perfect holiness of heart and life is their duty ; nor does the gospel of free grace in any sort Countenance or incourage them to live in y e least Sin. ORGANIZATION OF CHURCH. 87 " 6. You believe that all true saints shall persevere and finally be re- covered by y e grace of God, to perfect holiness and happiness — and be perfectly happy in y e enjoyment of the blessed God to all eternity, while the wicked and impenitent shall go away into everlasting punishment." The above being publicly and unanimously owned and assented to by all those hereafter named, — they then, after solemn prayer, entered into a Covenant with God, and with one another, to walk in Christian fellow- ship and all the ordinances of the Gospel. The form of the Covenant here follows : " A COVENANT. " You, and each of you, do now, in the presence of God, Angels and men, solemnly chuse and avouch the Lord Jkhovah to be your God, taking Jesus Christ to be your only redeemer, and the Holy Spirit to be your sanctifyer, — and do give up yourselves, souls and bodies, to be the Lords, with yours, — and you do Covenant & ingage faithfully to serve him in all the ways of his appointment, — seeking his glory as your last * * * * You sincerely promise, by assistance ol divine grace, that you will deny all ungodliness and every worldly lust, and live sober- ly in y e world, — and renouncing Sin, Satan and world, do bind your- selves to walk together in christian fellowship and Communion, in all tin, 1 Ordinances of the Gospel, — and that you will watch over one another and your fellow-members in meekness and in love, — and submit yourselves to the discipline and government of Christ in this Church, in the admin- istration and services of it, — so far as you are therein directed by y c un- erring word of God." The Covenant being exhibited, the following persons publicly owned and assented to it, and were thereupon declared to be a visable church of Jesus Christ, viz : WIDOW MARY LOOMIS, LENT MOTT, WIDOW HANNAH AVERIT, ABRAHAM FILLEY, DINAH, WIFE OF WM. FILLY, ROBERT MACUNE, JOHN HILLS, JOSEPH PRESTON, SETH HILLS, MARY PRESTON, ADAM MOTT, AMY, wife of JOEL BEACH, ABIAH MOTT, ELIZABETH AGARD. " After y° Church was gathered, y e following persons were admitted members in full Com", with the Church, viz : DAVID AUSTIN, MARY AUSTIN, MARY WILKINSON, MARY GOFFE, MERCY FILLEY. 88 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. " The Church then proceeded to, and made choice of Robert Macune to be the Moderator or Clerk of this church, ft Attest, "NATH 1 . ROBERTS, Pastor of f Ch., Torrington, " A. R. ROBBINS, Pastor of Ch., Norfolk." The cursory reader of these annals will be very likely to pass over this record as a mere form, without significance in its bearing on the des- tinies of the newly organized community. While he recognizes the im- portance of a social compact, such as the heterogeneous gathering of settlers had just adopted for their civil guidance, he little realizes the vitalizing principle imparted by a humble band of believers walking in Christian fellowship, and in the ordinances of the gospel. It is this inner life of a town or state that determines its character and destinies. If strong and vigorous, healthful morals prevail ; if feeble, vices are toler- ated ; if dead, anarchy succeeds to order, and licentiousness becomes rampant. The following members were added to the church prior to the ordina- tion of its first pastor in 1772. Nov. 3, 1771, Warham Gibbs and Eunice his wife, by profession. Jan. 19, 1772, Ebenezer Preston, by letter from ch. at Torrington. " " '• Martha Preston (his wife) " " Harwinton. " " " Eliphaz Alvord " " Chatham. " " " Esther Alvord (his wife) " " " Feb. 10, " Capt. Jon. Alvord " " « " " " David Goff, by profession. July 26, " Samuel Wetmpre and Anna his wife, by letter from Middlefield. July 26, 1772, Simeon Loomis, by profession. The records of the society show that endeavors were made, both before and after the gathering of the church, to secure a permanent minister. Mr. Peter Starr, afterwards the life-long minister of Warren, was invited to preach, on probation, in July, 1771. A Mr. Hale was employed four " Saboths"; a Mr. Potter was invited, on probation, in Sept. 1771, and in case he could not come, a call, on probation, was voted to Mr. Judson ; and it was also voted to have Doctor Bellamy of Bethlem, and Rev. Mr. Robbins of Norfolk, act for them in hiring a candidate " that they think will sute the society." Sept: 30, 1771, it was left " with the comity to hire a candidate as they shall think best, but not to hire one that is Determined not to settle." Oct. 31, 1771, the committee was directed to' " apply to Mr. Jonson to supply us six Saboths." Feb. 13, 1772, it was voted " that the society will give Mr. Sam" Jonson amedeat call for a settlement. Feb. 1 7th following, the committee were directed to apply SETTLEMENT OF PASTOR. 89 to Mr. Brooks to supply for three Sabbaths; and on the 31st March fol- lowing, an application was voted to Mr. Napp to supply for six Sabbaths, and the committee was directed to go or send after him. July 10th, fol- lowing, " Mr. Napp " was applied to to preach twelve Sabbaths on pro- bation. Sept. 23, 17712. it was voted "that the Society will give Mr. Joshua Napp a call for a settlement in the ministry amongst us " — and a settle- ment was proposed of £200. payable in instalments, and a salary begin- ning at £35, and increasing £5 annually, until it should reach £(i5, which was modified so that it should increase in proportion to the increase of the grand levy, until it should reach £65. The first Thursday in Novem- ber was fixed on for the ordination, and it was voted that the Council should meet at Robert Maeune's, and that he should provide for them, and that John Hills, Samuel Wetmore, Jr., Enoch Palmer, Ebenezer Preston, Oliver Coe and John Bradley should keep houses of Entertain- ment for Ordination. By a subsequent vote, Mr. Knapp was allowed to invite his friends to Robert Macune's, upon the society's cost. No record appears of the action of the church in calling Mi'. Knapp. The entry of his Ordination in the church records in his own hand is as follows : November 11, A. D. 1772. This day I was ordained to y e pastoral charge of y Church of Christ in Winchester. The whole Association were sent to by letters missive. Present the Rev'd Messrs. Dr. BELLAMY, [of Bethlem.] Mr. ROBBERTS, [ " Torrington.] Mr. LEE, [ " Salisbury.] Mr. BRINSMAIL\ [" Washington.) Mr. FARRAND, [ " Canaan.] Mr. CANFIELD, [ " New Milford.] Mr. NEWEL, [ " Goshen.] Mr. BENEDICT, ["Woodbury.] :\Ir. DAY, [ " New Preston.] Mr. ROBBINS, [ " Norfolk.] Mr. HART, [ " North Canaan.] Mr. STAR, [ " Warren.] with these delegates, also a delegate from Torringford. Mr. Benedict made y e first prayer, Mr. Robhins preached y L sermon, — Mr. Farrand made j" ordaining prayer, — Dr. Bellamy gave y" charge, — Mr. Hart y* right hand of fellowship, — Mr. Day made v concluding prayer, the whole was performed with y' greatest Decency and Solemnity. Test, JOSHUA KNAPP, Pastor. 12 90 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. We copy from Rev. Mr. Marsh's Commemorative Sermon, the follow- ing notice of Mr. Knapp : " Rev. Joshua Knapp, — a native of Danbury, graduated at Yale Col- lege in 1770, — was ordained Nov. 11, 1772, — and dismissed Oct 13, 1789. He was a ready and easy speaker. Few ministers possessed a happier talent at extemporaneous speaking. This operated somewhat unhappily in his case, as it has in others, by becoming a temptation to neglect that application to study and mental discipline which is essential to a minis- ter's bringing forth out of his treasures things new and old. Subsequent to his dismission, Mr. Knapp preached at North Canaan, New Hartford and Milton, in this county. From Milton he removed to Hamilton, Madison Co., N. Y., where he preached a considerable time, and from thence removed to Torrington, where he spent his old age in the family of his son-in-law, Deacon Abel Hinsdale. Occasionally he visited the people of his former charge, and as health permitted, preached to them. He departed this life March 28, 1816, in the 72d year of his age, and the 44th of his ministry. His grave is in this parish, among those of his early charge, who have finished their earthly course. A marble slab, erected by his friends in this place, marks the spot where his re- mains await the summons of the Archangel's trump. Previous to his settlement in "Winchester, Mr. Knapp married Mary Keyes, a worthy and excellent lady, from the eastern part of Massachusetts. They had two sons* and three daughters, most of whom are deceased. Mrs. K. survived her husband a few years, and while visiting friends in New Marlboro', Mass., became sick, and died at that place at the age of about 72." The besetting sin of our first minister, as hinted by his worthy succes- sor, was constitutional weariness. He is said to have tripped and fallen, while leisurely walking across his floor, with no impediment in his way, and thereby broken his leg. Want of thrift was an element of his char- acter incident to his torpidity. He could not eke out his support from the scanty salary of ministers of that day. On one occasion he called together the society's Committee and Deacons, and set forth to them his privations, and his need of a more adequate support, closing with the remark that they ought to so provide for him that he could live as com- fortably as Parson Robbins, who was a model of economy and good living. Good Deacon Hills replied to this remark, — " Mr. Knapp, if we should put a barrel, full of dollars, behind your buttery door, you couldn't live as Mr. Robbins does, for it ain't in you." This trait of his character, however, did not impair his firm adherence to principle in his pastoral duties. The churches in that day abounded with half-way covenant members, an anomalous class of professors, who had found their way into the Christian folds in the lax state of religion prevailing at the middle of the last century. Mr. Knapp seems to have SETTLEMENT OF PASTOR. 91 set his face against these interlopers, and to have barred their entrance so the new church under his charge. Heart-burnings grew out of his somewhat arbitrary exercise of pastoral prerogative ; an opposition grew up, not only to him, but to the church ; which opened a way for Meth- odism, then in its infancy, to obtain a footing in the parish. As a conse- quence the growth of the church, though perhaps more pure and healthy, was slow, and the influence of the pastor was undermined. CHAPTER X. 1771 to 1775 RESUME AND NEW SETTLERS. Beginning our annals with the hasty vote of the Colonial Assembly granting to Hartford and Windsor nearly all the unoccupied territory of the Colony, ostensibly for a single plantation, but really to place it beyond the grasp of the usurping Governor Andros, we have traced step by step the long controversy growing out of this ill-advised and unperfected* grant. We have seen these powerful towns assuming a vested ownership, first of the large township of Litchfield, and then of the whole territorial grant, thereby repudiating the implied, but doubtless understood, trust incident to the grant when made. We have viewed, with a modified sympathy, the awkward predicament of the Assembly when attempting to resume its control of the lands in the face of its semi-fraudulent grant; and with no sympathy at all, the persistent efforts of those pampered towns to hold their ill-gotten domain ; especially the portion of it remain- ing after their appropriation of the large township of Litchfield by metes and bounds, thereby determining the extent of the " Plantation," provided for in the grant. We have followed the windings and turnings of sharp practice, by which the Assembly was finally badgered into a division of the remaining territory between the rightful owners and the unscrupulous claimants ; a division securing to the latter 1 39,778 acres of land, which of right belonged as a common property to all the inhabitants of the colony. We have detailed the sub-divisions of these lands until our own town- ship fell into the hands of the niggardly " Proprietors of Winchester," and have seen how the long-delayed sub-division to individual proprietors was so made as to preclude any concerted measures for its settlement, and to withhold all inducement to that end, which the customary reservation of lands for religious and educational purposes would have held out to set- tlers. We have searched out the squatters who, after waiting in vain for an allotment of their individual rights, had selected their own locations ; and have made ourselves acquainted, as far as possible, with the succeed- * No patent of this territory was ever issued by the Assembly to these towns. - NEW SETTLERS. 93 ing pioneers — have ascertained whence they came, where they lived, and how they fared. We have seen the distinctive elements aggregate and crystallize into a religious society and a civil commonwealth. But as yet the settlement of the town has only begun. All the inhab- itants, with the exception of some half dozen families, are located on and west of the old South Country Road, a section not exceeding one-sixth part of the township. The whole population, as stated in the petition of April 4th. 1771, is twenty eight families and 179 souls within the society of Winchester, and only four families without the society and within the town. The " Danbury Quarter," embracing the four half-mile tiers in the northwest corner of the town, is, as yet, nearly unoccupied. The four families located without the society are on the North Country Road, at the northeast corner of the town, and will be again referred to. The slow growth of a remote country town affords few events that can inteiest others than those connected with it by personal or parental resi- dence. To each and all of these, it is hoped that the minute details em- bodied in these annals will furnish some matters of interest and instruc- tion, and that their affectionate regard for their fatherland or residence will lead them to appreciate our labors. We propose to continue our History, if it can be so dignified, mainly in the form of annals, embracing in each year its public events, and accessions of inhabitants, with such biographical and genealogical notices as our scanty materials will afford, leaving the settlement of Winsted to be separately treated. 1772. . We find in the records of town meetings during this year, no votes or proceedings of special interest. The customary town officers were chosen, and a tax of " one penny half-penny on the pound " was laid. The following new inhabitants are found on the records of this year, in Old Winchester Society : Thomas Spencer, Alexander Leach, John Corey, Levi Bronson, Roswell Coe, Elisha Smith, Samuel Hurlbut, and Keuben Thrall. Thomas Spenckr, from Saybrook, this year moved on to the farm recently purchased of Bronson and Munsill by Rufus Eglestone, lying north of his homestead, and bordering on the west side of the Long Pond south of Sucker Brook. The house which he built and occupied during his remaining life, remained standing until the winter of 1862-3, and then yielded to the wintry blasts. He was a prominent man of the town, and nine of his children became heads of large aud influential families ; but, of more than twenty of his descendants now residing in this town, not one 94 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, bears the name of Spencer. He was born January 16th, 1736, O. S. ;* married April 10th, 1760, Phebe Grenell, born July 20th, 1736, O. S. ; he died May 1st, 1807, aged 71 ; she died October 2d, 1812. CHILDREN. I. Phebe, b. April 20, 1761 ; m. Rev. John Sweet. II. John, b. October 18, 1762. III. Chloe, b. December 15, 1764; d. May 16, 1767. IV. Thomas, b. November 19, 1766. V. Grenell, b. September 9, 1768. VI. Chloe, b. December 4, 1770; m. Oliver Coe. VII. Charlotte, b. April 4th, 1773; m. Jonathan Coe, Jr. VIII. Candace, b. June 14, 1775; m. January 17, 1798, Ashbel Munson, of Waterbury. IX. Sylvia, b. April 12th, 1778; m. Dr. T. S. Wetmore. X. Huldah, b. October 1, 1780; m. John Wetmore, 2d. John Spencer, 2 oldest son of Thomas, 1 in 1784 bought of David Austin 39 acres of land in the heart of the West Village of Winsted, embracing all of Main street from Camp's Block southerly and easterly to Clifton Mill Bridge, and the whole of High street, Elm street, the Green Woods Park and adjacent streets. He entered on this purchase, cleared a few acres, and built a loghouse, on the flat near the corner of Elm and Main streets, before any bridge had been erected across Mad river at Lake street, or any road opened south of the bridle path now known as Hinsdale street. Despairing of ever having access by a road and bridge to the civilized part of the town, and unwilling to rear a family in this savage region, he sold his purchase for three dollars an acre, and bought a two hundred acre farm in Danbury Quarter, lately owned by Edward Rugg, then a well-populated section of the town, on which he lived until 1799. In 1800 he removed to Peacham, Caledonia county, Vermont, where he accumulated a fortune of $15,000, and lost it by be- coming surety for the sheriff of the county. He then removed to West- moreland, Oneida county, and after two years, again lost his all by the burning of his house. In 1816 he purchased a farm in the adjoining- town of Vernon, on which he resided until his death, February 14th, 1826, aged 63. He married February 14th, 1793, Abigail, daughter of Abner Marshall, of Torrington, who died in 1849. CHILDREN. I. Julius, b. Winchester, January 31, 1794; living in 1857 at Lisbon, 111. * Probably descended from Sergt. Jared Spencer, who died in Haddam in 1685, through Thomas, who d. in Saybrook before 1703. See Godwin's Genealogical Notes, pp. 200 and 201. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 95 II. Almeda, b. Winchester, April 19, 1795; m. Carter, of Worthington, 0. III. Geo. Gkinnell, b. Winchester, November 17, 1796; living in 1857 at Lexington, Va. IV. Harlow, b. in Vermont ; d. at 23 years of age. V. Sylvia, b. " m. Marshall of Westmoreland, N. Y. VI. Wm. Scott, b. " of Warsaw, 111., in 1857. VII. Laura, b. in Vermont ; m. — Green, of Westmoreland, N. Y. VIII. Orpha, b. " m. — Hiscock of Rochester, N. Y. IX. John, b. " d. at the age of 8 years. X. Franklin Augustus, recently Congregational Minister of New Hartford, Conn., now living in C'inton, N. Y. XL Riley, of Lexington, Ky., in 1857. Thomas Spknceu, 2 a millwright by trade, lived until about 1795, in a house that stood on the east side of the Dug-way road, nearly opposite a road that turns west to Winchester Centre Village. In 1795. in company with Benjamin Jenkins and James Boy 1, he built the first forge in the town, on the " Old Forge Site," on which the grinding works of the Win- sted Manufacturing Company now stand. He also built a store in which he traded in company with Hewett Hills, on the depot grounds of the Connecticut Western Railroad Company, on the north side of Lake street ; and also the rear part of the tenant house on south side of Lake street, directly opposite the store building, in which he lived until his removal to Vernon, Oneida county, N. Y., about 1801 or '2. He died at Vernon, N. Y., about 1828. He married May 28th, 1795, Lucy, daughter of Hewitt Hills. Their children were three sons, Hilamon,' Thomas, 3 and Alpha, 3 and six daughters, Clarissa, 3 Lucy, 3 Sylvia, 3 Huldah, 3 Elizabeth, 3 and Sabrina. 3 The two sons, Hilamon and Alpha, died between the ages of fifteen and twenty. All the daughters, except Clarissa, were married. The particulars of this and the preceding household were furnished by Rev. F. A. Spencer, of Clinton, N. Y. Captain Grinnell Spencer settled in Winsted, and first lived on a high hill about 100 rods west of the Spencer Street road, adjoining his original orchard, which can be seen from the west village of Winsted. About 1808 he built and occupied until his death the house on Spencer Street road now owned and occupied by his son in-law, Amos Pierce. He improved more than 200 acres of land as a dairy farm, and for many years spent his winters in Charleston, S. O, as a dealer in cheese. He was an energetic, public-spirited, warm-hearted man, always the foremost to turn out and break the winter roads, to attend upon the sick, or to relieve the misfortunes of his neighbors. He died of a cancer March 5, 1843, aged 74. He married first Abigail , who died August 29, 1811, and second Mrs. Case of Farmington, who survived him but a lew years, and died of the same disease. 96 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, CHILDREN OF GRINNELL 2 AND ABIGAIL ( ) SPENCKR. I. Matilda, b. ; m. Elisha Kilbourn. II. Harriet, b. ; m. first, Sheldon Norton of Bethany, Wayne Co., Pa., and second, Rufns Grinnell. III. Abigail, b. 1801 ; m. September 26, 1826, George Goodrich, (I. September 13, 1828. IV. Phebk, b. ; m. Grinnell. V. Helen, b. ; m. Amos Pierce. Alexander Leach, a Scotchman, came from New Haven to Win- chester, and owned a farm in the Danbury Quarter, immediately north of the Edward Rugg farm. By his will, proved in Simsbury Probate Court, it would appear that he died in 1777, leaving Catharine, his wife (executrix), and Alexander, William, Catharine, and Elizabeth, their children. His wife is said to have been kidnapped from Holland when a child, and brought to this country. She died March 19, 1815, aged 80. Their daughter, Elizabeth, born January 18, 1774; married November 16, 1786, Nathan Brown. Alexander Leach, Junior, lived on the homestead as late as 1791. William Leach also lived on the homestead for many years, and afterwards in other parts of the town. He served in the continental army, and drew a pension. He died, probably, after 1830, leaving a son, Alva, and perhaps other children. He married March 24, 1783, Sarah Thompson. John Cokey, from Goshen, owned and occupied in 1772—3, a part of the W. F. Hatch farm on the Little Pond, and probably soon after left the town. Lieutenant Thomas Hurlbut, immigrant, ancestor of Captain Samuel Hurlbut of Winchester, belonged to the first company that gar- risoned the Fort at Saybrook in 1636. He served and was wounded in the Pequot War in 1637; settled in Wethersfield, and is supposed to have died soon after 1671. His wife was Sarah Stephen, 3 fifth son of Lieutenant Thomas, 1 and Sarah Hurlbut, was born in Wethersfield about 1649, and there resided until 1690, after which no further record is found of him. He married, first, Dorothy , December 12, 1678; second, Phebe Thomas, 3 son of Stephen, 2 and Dorothy Hurlbut, born in Wethersfield January 28, 1680, became a farmer and settled there. He married, January 11, 1705, Rebecca . He died April 10, 1761 ; she died March 22, 1760. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 97 Amos, 4 son of Thomas 3 and Rebecca, born in Wethersfield, April 14, 1717, settled there, and married June 10, 1742, Hannah Wright of Wethersfield, who died July 25, 17o6 ; he married, second, March 3, 1757, Sarah Hill, who died in 1764 ; he married, third, March 10, 1766, Sarah Lattimer. He died in 1777 or earlier, administration having been granted on his estate February 22 of that year. He had by his first wife Hannah, Samuel, 1 born about 1746; married at Torrington, December 1. 1768, Rebecca Beach; by his second wife, Sarah Stephen, 5 born in Wethersfield, December 12, 1760, and Martin,'' baptized in Wethersfield, June 12, 1763. Captain Samuel Hurlbut, 5 from Newington Society (Wethers- field), came from Torrington to Winchester, and first purchased, with his brother in-law, Levi Brouson, the Artemus Rowley farm, near Torring- ton line, in the third tier, from whence he removed in 1774 to the center, and built the red lean-to house which stood on the site of his grandson, Samuel Hurlbut's present dwelling, where he lived until his death, March 23, 1831, at the age of 83. He began the world as a carpenter and joiner, afterwards became a tavern-keeper, at a period when " The Land Lord " stood next in rank after the mini.-ter and merchant, at the same time managing a large farm and a saw mill ; and in later years engaged with his sons, Samuel and Lemuel, in country trade. He was a sedate, thinking, methodical man of great energy and thrift, the second magistrate of the town, and a representative in seventeen sessions of the General Assembly. In the words of Rev. Mr. Marsh, "he closed a useful life, after having lived in the parish fifty-nine years, and enjoyed a good share of respect and confidence as a magistrate, and in other departments of public business. Having been one of the earliest inhabitants, and having pur- chased a large quantity of land in the center of the parish, he did much to promote the settlement of the place, by disposing of his lands on so easy terms as to induce others to settle here. The public green and ground, on which the meeting house stood until recently, were given to the Society by him. He manifested great respect for the institutions of the Gospel, and gave some evidence of piety, though not a professor." From the town records and a memorandum in his handwriting, we compile the following account of his family : — Samuel Hurlbut, 5 married in Torrington, December 1, 1768, Rebecca, daughter of Abel Beach. He died March 23, 1831, aged 83. Rebecca (his widow) died October 27, 1829, aged 84. CHILDREN. I. Silas, 6 b. July 6, 1769; died unmarried December 24, 1793. II. Leonard, 6 b. May 18, 1771. 13 98 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER ITT. Maroatcet, 6 b. March 2, 1773; m. John McAlpine. IV. Samuel, 8 b. March 13, 1775; d. October 4, 1776. V. Lucy, 6 b. October 6, 1777 ; m. May 12, 1797, Sylvester Hall of Burke, Vermont. VT. "Rebkcc \, 6 b. November 30, 1 779 ; m. Church of Vernon, N. Y. VTT. Sxmiel. 6 b. October 2, 1783. VIII. Lemuel, 6 b. September 20, 1785. General Leonard Hurlbut, 8 oldest son of Captain Samuel, lived and d ed in the house recently occupied by his son in-law, William H. Rood, about a mile northeasterly from Winchester Center. He was a large dairy farmer, and an unassuming, exemplary man. He married, October 17, 1708, Huldah Case. She died August 16, 1800, aged 23. He married, second, February 14, 180), Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel Hurlbut Cone, born January 29, 1784; died June 16, 1839. He "died December 21, 1851, aged 81. CHILDREN BY FIRST WIFE. I. Hilamon, 7 b. October 14, 1799; d. about 1861, in Platte Co., Mis- souri. CHILDREN BY SECOND WIFE. II. Silas, 7 b. Mav 16, 18' '6. III. Huldah, 7 b. February 7, 1808; d. January 25, 1818. IV. Leonard Beach/ 7 b. July 23, 1811 ; m. October 21, 1835, Sylvia, daughter of Dr. Truman S. Wet more. 1. Sylvia Elizabeth, 8 b. September 29, 1840. 2. Charlotte Jarvis, 8 b. September 13, 1845. V. Elizabeth Huldah, 7 b. November 19, 1818; m. November 5, 1845, Wm. H. Rood. Samuel Hurlbut, Junior, 6 second son of Captain Samuel, went into trade at Winchester Center in early life, with Chauncey Humphrey, and afterwards, in company wiih his bio:her Lemuel, continued the business, until his death, at the age of 74. He was a man of good education and studious habits, a close applicant to his business, and a careful manager, rarely leaving home except to make his semi-annual purchases of goods, and never indulging in any useless expense or hazardous speculations. With these characteristics, and with the co-operation of his more ener- getic brother, an estate of more than $200,000 was accumulated and transmitted to their heirs. Mr. Hurlbut was a man religiously educated and inclined, but not a professor; a supporter of good order and religious institutions; charitable to the poor, and occasionally liberal to public benefactions. The death of his younger brother, who had for so many years pushed forward the business which he had regulated, came upon him with stunning force. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 99 His mind lost its balance. He attempted to make a will, and after bequeathing legacies of five thousand dollars each to the Ameiican Bible, Home Missionary, and Tract Societies, and appointing executors, he executed the instrument, leaving the bulk of his estate to be legally divided to his heirs. He lived a consistent bachelor, and died at the age of 74, on the 22d day of October, 1857. Lemuel Hurlbut, 8 youngest child of Captain Samuel, 5 was endowed with a hardy constitution, a manly person, plea-it >g address, and a sanguine temperament. His perceptive faculties predominated over his intellectual, and his tastes ran to fine animals and h'glily cultivated lands. Though a large trader, he was r;irely seen at the desk or behind the coun- ter. His department of the business of the brothers, S. & L. Hurlbut, was to receive and market the cht-ese, of which they were extensive pur- chasers, and to cultivate and improve their lauds. For more than thirty years he spent his winters at Baltimore in the tale of cheese which had during the fall been purchased from the dairy farmers of this region. His summers were occupied in superintending his farming operations, and in raising and improving domestic animals, for which he had a passionate fon Iness. His horses, sheep, and oxen were unsurpassed in excellence and beauty. About 1820, he introduc d upon his 1arm the puie Devon breed of cattle, the fir.-t of this beautiful and serviceable stock brought into the State. From ifis herd the breed has been largely diffused through the Northern and Western States. The unrivaled strings of pure red working oxen that gra e the agricultural lairs of this county, at- test the valuable service he performed for the agricultural interest of this region; while the ample profits realized atie.-t his sagacity and thrift. During a pei iod of seventy 3 ears from his birih, Mr. Hurl 1 ut had never been visited with sickness requiring the attendance of a doctor. In the fall of 18.")5, he came home trom the Mas achu-etis State Fair, suffering from a severe cold contracted during his absence, and aggravated by im- prudent exposure. After confinement to h s bed for one hundred da\s, his strong frame yielded to decay, and he expired February 19. 18 6, at the j'ge of seventy and a half years. He m de a pr. fe-sion of relig on, and united with the Congregational Church May 1, 1853. He married Ann H. Phelps, of Norfolk ; she died July 18, 1807, a^ed 76. CHILDRKN. I. Caroline, 7 b. May 20, 1811; m. October 24, 1832, John Rutherford, of Macon, Ga. II. Elizabeth Ann, 7 b. December 1.3, 1813; m. June 23, 1838, Dr. John H. T. Cockey, of Frederick Co., >ld. III. Lemuel, 7 b March 8,1816; m. Florania, daughter of Juhn Westlake. 100 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, IV. Samuel, 7 b. January 12, 1818. V. Jeremiah Phelps, 7 b January 16, 1821 ; d. January 27, 1821. VI. Rebecca, 7 b. March 9, 1826 ; m. June 7, 1848, Henry P. Chapman of Brooklyn, N. Y. Stephen Hurlbut, 5 born December 12, 1760; half brother of Samuel, 5 from Wethersfield, Newington Society, came into the town about 1782; he bought and settled on a lot of land south of, and near, Rufus M. Eggleton's. At the time of his death, April 14, 1807, aged 46, he resided in the farm house of Mrs. Boyd, on East Lake Street. He married Abigail Meeker; she was born August 14, 1768, and died in 1856. CHILDREN. I. Sarah, 6 b. July 11, 178"; m. Walter Dickinson; d. 1855. II. Eunice, 6 b. " 29, 1789; m. David Hubbard, of W. Hartford. III. Amos, 6 b. February 13, 1792; m. Eleanor Elmore. IV. Lucy, 6 b. April 21, 1794 ; m. Daniel Phelps, Jr. V. Mart, 6 b. August 27, 1796 ; m. Charles Clark. VI. Samuel, 6 b. October 31,1798; is known as Samuel Hurlbut, 2d; m. March 19, 1822, Lavinia Blake; she d. May 26, 1864, aged 63; he d. in the spring of 1872. Vn. Huldah, 6 b. February 15, 1801 ; d. unm. October 31, 1830. VIII. Silas, 6 b. March 27, 1803 ; m. Ruth Goodwin. IX. Clarissa, 6 b. August 18, 1806; m. Sherman Goodwin. Martin Hurlbut, 5 from Wethersfield, came, when a boy, to live with his half-brother, Captain Samuel, 5 and continued to re>ide in the town until his death, April n5, 1810, at the age of 47. He built and lived in the old part of the hou6 ; m. Sarah Richards. He succeeded his older brother in the tannery business in Winded, where he resided, with the exception of three years, until 1848, when he removed to Fulton, N. Y., where he now lives, and has a family of children. His wife died in 1863. VIII. Elihu Lewis, 7 b. March 19, 1808, known as Lewis E. ; lived in New York from 1826 to 184o, and in Winsted from 1840 to 1845, when he removed to Fulion, N. Y., where he now resides. He m. Camp, daughter of Moses Camp, and has a family of children. IX. Harkiet, 7 b. January 27, 1811; wife of Joshua K. Richards, removed with her husband from Winsted to Salmon River, N. Y., in 1850, where he died. She now n sides in Winsted. X. Mart, 7 b. July 10, 1815 ; d. November 24, 1834. Ichabod Loomis* lived until about 1824 in Old Winchester, and afterward until his death, April 23, 1833, in the hou.-e now owned by his daughter Sally on Spencer Street, in "Winsted. He was by trade a butcher ; a kind-hearted man, without an enemy. He married November 22, 1803, Loranda Hoskin, daughter of Joseph. She died Winsted, March 16, 1855, aged 76 years. CHILDREN. I. Luct, 7 b. December 14, 1804 ; m. Hiram Root, September 1, 1828. II. Fanny Loranda, 7 b. August 6, 1806; m. Noah Hall, N. Marlboro.' HI. Eunice Matilda, 7 b. June 28, 1808; m. August 10, 1831, Sidney Eggleston ; lives in Guilford, N. Y. IV. Sally Amanda, 7 b. May 26, 1813; lives in Winsted unmarried. V. Joseph Ichabod, 7 b. August 13, 1816; twice married; he left Winsted about 1855 for the city of New York, where he now lives. David Alvord (brother of Eliphaz), from Chatham, came from Tor- rington as early as this year, as appears by the records of births. In 1776, he bought the lot on which the parsonage house of Rev. Mr. Booge (lately owned by Dr. T. S. Wetmore), wa* afterwards erected, on which lot be lived until 1785. He afterwards lived near the Leonard Hurlbut place, and finally removed to Neversink, Sullivan county, and thence to Vernon, N. Y. He married September 8, 1774, Elizabeth, daughter of John Wetmore, of Torrington. CHILDREN. I. Persis, b. December 18, 1774. II. Ursula, b. February 13, 1778. William Castel, from Ridgefield, owned land between the Alva Nash and Leonard Hurlbut places, and near the Edward Rugg farm, in the old 120 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER Society, and resided, as is supposed, on the former tract. The land records show that he had two sons, Elijah and Samuel, to whom he con- veyed lands in 1784, and who must have been born before he came here. Whether he died in the town is not ascertained. His last conveyance of land was in 1786, and his name is not on the tax list of 1790. CHILDREN OF WM. AND KATHERINE CASTEL, RECORDED IN WINCHESTER. I. Miriam, b. July 28, 1771. II. William, b. July 10, 1773. III. Elizabeth, b. September 27, 1775; d. June 23, 1778. IV. Mary, b. — date not given ; d. April 25, 1778. V. Aaron, b. — date not given ; d. March 15, 1783. Elijah Castel, son of William, owned and lived on land south of the Edward Rugg farm in Danbury Quarter. He is described in a deed of April 12, 1787, as of the Manor of Livingston, Columbia county, N. Y., and in 1789 of Winchester. He probably left the town soon after the latter period. Samuel Castel, son of William, disappears from the record in 1789. It does not appear where he lived in the town nor where he went to. John Beach came into town this year from Torrington, and lived on the farm recently owned by Artemas Rowley, near the south end of third tier, first division, until 1781, when he returned to Torrington. He was born in Torrington May 2d, 1750, fifth child of Abel Beach of Torring- ton, who was born in Durham, February 9, 1712; g. son of Benjamin (born in Stratford, October 1, 1683) and Mariha (Curtis) Beach ; g. g. son of Benjamin (born in Stratford, October 28, 1642) and Sarah (Wells) Beach ; and g. g. g. son of Benjamin Beach, the immigrant to Stratford from England [MS. Records of Deacon Lewis M. Norton, of Goshen.] He died at Torrington April 1, 1824, aged 76. He married June 9, 1774, Mercy Bassett. She died at Torrington, May 22, 1832, aged 76. children. I. Abel, b. January 3, 1775. II. Mary, b. August 19, 1778. III. Rev. James, b. in Winchester, June 10, 1780. Graduated at Williams College. Studied theology under Rev. Asahel P. Hooker, of Goshen, 1804-5. Ordained Pastor of Winsted Church. Dismissed. He married October 28, 1806, Hannah Clarissa Baldwin, born Goshen, March 10, 1784, only child of Isaac and Lucy (Lewis) Baldwin. He died at Winsted June 11, 1850, of apoplexy. She died May 7, 1852. His friend, Deacon L. M. Norton, of Goshen, writes of him, " It will be for those of a AND FAMILY RECOKDS. 121 coming generation to speak or write of the ability, the fidelity, the affec- tionate labors and the success of this servant of Jesus Christ." Children: 1. Lucy Ba'dwin, b. August 20, 1807; m. Henry Hyde; 2. Hannah Clarissa, b. March 20, 1809, d. October 26th, 1815 ; 3. Mary, b. December 16, 1814, m. Caleb J. Camp. CHILDREN OF HENRY AND LUCY B. (BEACH) HYDE. 1. James Beach, b. November 14, 1831, d. a member of Yale College at New Haven, January 8, 1850 ; 2. Henry Baldwin, b. February 15, 1834 ; 3. Lucy B., b. August 20, 1841 ; 4. Mary, b. IV. John, b. February 26th, 1783 ; d. May 7, 1817. V. Adah, b. March 12, 1787. 16 CHAPTER XI. POPULATION— TOWN VOTES— NEW SETTLERS. 1774. The first census of the Colony, on record,* taken in 1756, gives twen- ty-four as the population of Winchester. The next census, taken in 1774, shows a population of 327 white, and twelve hlaeks. "We copy the figures of these two enumerations of Litchfield County, to show the relative population and growth of the towns at these periods : 17 74. 1756. 1756. Total. White. Black. Barkhamsted, 18 250 250 Col brook, 150 150 Canaan, ... 1100 1573 62 1635 Cornwall, - 500 957 17 974 Goshen, 610 1098 13 1111 Hartland, - 12 500 500 Harwinton, - 250 1015 3 1018 Kent, - 1000 1922 74 1996 Litchfield, - 1366 1509 45 1554 New Hartford, - 260 985 16 1001 New Milford, 1127 2742 34 2776 Blacks in 1756, 16. Norfolk, - 84 966 3 969 Salisbury, - 1100 19.56 44 1980 Sharon, - 1205 1986 26 2012 7 Blacks in 1756. Torrington, . 250 843 02 845 Winchester, 24 327 12 339 Woodbury, - 2911 5224 89 5313 31 Blacks in 1756. Westmoreland,t 1922 1775. In annual town meeting for 1775, the approaching revolutionary struggle was foreshadowed by the following votes : " That the troopers be freed from paying any thing for their colors." "To raise two-pence half-penny on the List of 1775, to purchase a town Stock of powder and lead, and also to pay other necessary charges aris- ing in the town." * To be found in the Comptroller's office. t Westmoreland, then one of the towns of Litchfield County, comprised the whole of the beautiful valley of Wyoming, Pennsylvania. FAMILY RECORDS. 123 In Society Meeting, besides the routine business, it was " Voted, to come into Mr. Bron>on's mode of singing." Levi and Ozias Bronson were chosen choristers ; — Beriah Hills to read the~ Psalms, and Jesse Wilkinson to sweep the meeting house for 5s. 6d. per year. The new comers of this year in Winchester Society, were Lemuel Bassett, Daniel Loomis, James Sweet, Jonathan Sweet, Reuben Sweet, Hezekiah Elmer, John Miner, and Elisha Wilcoxson. Lemuel Bassett, a crippled tailor, from New Haven, first owned seventy-three acres of land, embracing a considerable portion of Winches- ter center village, which he sold in 1777, and afterwards bought and lived on a small lot near Colonel Ozias Bronson's. He had wife, Patience, and CHILDREN. I. Ezra, b. in Goshen, March 23, 1774. II. Miram, b. May 12, 1776. III. Ltdia, b. April 7, 1778. IV. Erastus, b. July 5, 1780. V. Harvey, b. Feb. 20, 1783. VI. Bede, b. Jan. 20, 1786. Daniel Loomis, son of Ichabod, 4 of Torrington, lived on the old Country Road, immediately north of his brother, Ichabod, 6 and south of Widow Everitt's. He removed to Delhi, New York. He married, April 30, 1783, Anna Phelps. CHILDREN. I. Mtlo, b. Sept. 26, 1783. II. Elizabeth, b. Nov. 30, 1780. III. Tryfhena, b. Oct. 23, 1788. James Sweet, supposed from Goshen, owned a lot on Blue Street, north of the Stone School House. In 1780, he conveyed away this lot by a deed, in which he is named of Norfolk. Reuben Sweet owned the lot next south of James Sweet's, which he conveyed to Jonathan Sweet, in 1777, and moved to W alien's Hill in Barkhamsted, near the first Winsted meeting house. Jonathan Sweet is named of Goshen in a deed of 1774, and of Winchester in 1775. He owned lands adjoining those of James and Reuben, and also a part of the B. B. Rockwell farm, between the two Lakes, all of which he disposed of in 1771, or earlier. He probably lived on the Blue Street land. He married, August 29, 1773, Esther Lewis. 124 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, CHILDREN* I. Sarah, b. May 16, 1774. II. Lorrin, b. Feb. 16, 1776 ; d. March 24, 1778. III. Jonathan Lewis, b. June 26, 1778. IV. Luct, b. June 30, 1780. Hezekiah Elmer married, August 11, 1775, Elizabeth Benedict. CHILDREN. I. Elizabeth, b. Sept. 7, 1776. II. Daniel, b. Oct. 14, 1778. Nothing is to be learned from the records of the place of Mr. Elmer's residence, or the time of his removal from the town. John Miner, from New London, brother of Reuben of Winchester, came from Torrington, and settled and died on the farm lately owned by Emory Coe, now deceased, and now owned by George Cramer and wife. He was a man of pleasing address, and social in his habits. He married, in Torrington, April 9, 177;"), Hannah Strong, born in Torrington, No- vember 30, 1753, daughter of Asahel. He died March 23, 1813, aged 61 ; she died November 23, 1835, aged 80. CHILDREN, in Tor. Aug. 15, 1775; tradition says he never lived in Nov. 27, 1777. " 9, 1780 ; m. March 26, 1807, Eoger Root. March 17, 1783. Jan. 16, 1786; d. unmarried, b. June 3, 1791 ; d. unmarried. Hon. Phineas Miner, 2 second son of John, 1 lived in the old parson- age of Mr. Booge, (lately owned by Dr. T. S. Wetmore) until his remo- val to Litchfield, in 1816. He died in Litchfield in 1839. Mr. Miner, with only a common school education, studied law under Judge Reeve, of Litchfield, and entered on the practice in Winchester, in 1798. By close study and faithful preparation of his cases, — as well as by his ardor in trying them, he early attained a good standing at the bar; and eventually ranked among the ablest advocates in the County. He was by nature unfitted for legal trickery, or for any dishonorable act. He repeatedly represented Winchester, and afterward Litchfield, in the Legislature, having served in this capacity during eleven sessions. He was chosen to the State Senate in 1830 and 1831 ; was elected a Repre- I. John Strong, b this town. n Phineas, b in. Florinda, b IV. William, b v. Sarah, b VI. Pamelia, b AND FAMILY RECORDS. 125 sentative in Congress during the sessions of 1832 and f833, and was Judge of Probate for Litchfield District at the time of his death. He m . May — , 1801, Zerviah W. Butler; she died April 24, 1811, aged 32. He m. (2d) Parsons, of Granville, late the wife of Tertius Wads- worth. CHILDREN. I. Henry Butler, b. June 1, 1803; he m. and died childless. II. Zerviah Ruth, b. March 18, 1811 ; died unmarried. William Miner, 2 third son of John, 1 owned and lived in the Daniel Murray house, on the Dugway road, until his removal to Ohio, in 1816. He m. Feb. 23, 1809, Lucy Denison Sandiforth. CHILDREN. I. Emeline Adelia, b. Feb. 23, 1811. II. William Sandiforth, b. Sept. 22, 1812. III. Daniel, b. Nov. 22, 1815. IV. Luct, Captain Elisha Wilcoxson, from Stratford, owned the farm and built the house on the Dugway road, now owned and occupied by William Johnson, which he sold to Augustus Humphrey in 1800, and removed to Vernon, New York. He was a surveyor, — an extensive dealer in lands, and largely employed in the business of the town. He married in Strat- ford, May 1, 1771, Mary Clark. CHILDREN. I. Sarah Anna, b. in Stratford, Nov. 2, 1772. II. Charity, b. June 17, 1775. III. Martha, b. May 4, 1777. IV. Mary, b. Feb. 25, 1779. V. Gideon, b. April 25, 1781. VI. Ruth, b. Aug. 8, 1783. 1776. At the annual town meeting, 1776, in addition to the routine business, the Selectmen were instructed to provide the camp equipage ordered by the Assembly, viz : Three tents, six pots, and nine bottles, or canteens for the town. It was also voted, " that Swine be free commoners this year." In Society meeting, as a result of the half-way covenant troubles, be- fore referred to, Lemuel Stannard, Jonathan Coe, John Bradley, and Samuel Hurlbut, were excused from paying taxes this year, for Mr. 126 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Knapps' salary. If this was done with a view of quieting the disaffection toward the minister, it appears from subsequent action of the Society to have failed to effect the object. The new comers of the year were Philip Priest, Daniel Forbes, Mar- tin North and his sons, Martin, Jr., and Rufus, Truman Gibbs, Joseph Agard, and Gershom Fay. Philip Priest, from' Barkhamsted, purchased of Daniel Piatt, his lot near the Danbury school-house, and sold the same in 1779. He probably then left the town. He had wife, Trube, and CHILDREN. I. Trube, b. Feb. 4, 1764. II. Noah, b. April 1, 1766. III. Am, b. " 15, 176S. IV. Zadoc, b. " 19, 1770. V. Charity, b. July 18, J 772. VI. Dinah, b. Jan. 3, 1775. VII. Elizabeth, b. March 25, 1777. VIII. Merrit, b. June 11, 1779. Daniel Forbes, from Wethersfield, bought of Noah Gleason his homestead, bordering southerly on Torrington line and the Ebenezer and Joe Preston lot, and northerly on Amasa Wade. He died, as ap- pears by the Norfolk Proba'e Records, in 1779, leaving a wife, Lydia, who, with Ozias Hurlbut, of Wethersfield, administered his estate. Martin North, with his sons, Martin, Jr., and Rufus, came from Danbury, and bought of Elisha Smith the No'de J. Everitt place, im- mediately south of Winchester center village. He built the lean-to house standing thereon, and occupied it until 1791. He afterwards lived with his son, Martin, Jr., in the house next west of the Doctor Wetmore house, on the north side of the Norfolk road, until he removed to Colebrook, in 1797. He married in Torrington, April 2, 1760, Abigail Eno ; she died, January 5, 1782; and he married (2d), June 27, 1782, Mary Coe ; he died in 1806. children by first wife. I. Martin, bap. in Tor., Sep. 13, 1761 ; named in his father's will. II. Abigail, bap. " June 17, 1764. III. Lucina, bap. " Aug. 2, 1767; named in her father's will. IV. Rufus, birth record not found ; named in his father's will. CHILDREN BY SECOND WIFE. V. Noah, b. May 25, 1783; d. June 13, 1783. VI. Noah, b. July 22, 1785 ; named in his father's will. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 127 Martin North, Jr., built, and lived in, the house next west of the Doctor Wetmore house, on the north side of the Norfolk road, until 1802, and afterwards owned and lived in a house, lately torn down, on the west side of the Dugway road a little north of Juel G. Griswold's, until about 1805, when he removed to Colebrook. He was Town Clerk during the year 1802. He married, September 2-1, 1781, Mary Fay. CHILDREN. I. Abigail, b. Jan. 13, 1783; d. Oct. 5, 1783. II. Mary, b. Aug. 16, 1785. III. Sylvester Eno, b. Dec. 6, 1792. Rufus North, son of Martin, Senior, owned a twelve acre lot, — prob- ably the one on which Luman Munsill now resides, — immediately north of his father's first homestead, which he sold in 1791, soon after which he removed to Colebrook. He married, August 27, 1789, Esther Roberts, and had by her a son, Ebenezer, born March 2, 1790. Truman Gibbs, "of Litchfield," bought of Hannah Everett, and probably lived until 1778, on the lot now owned and occupied by Asaph Brooks, on the old Country Road. 1777. In town meeting, April 10th, of this year, it was voted, "that we adopt the late acts passed by the General Assembly, holden at Midd'etown on the 18th day of April, 1777; and that we will firmly abide thereby." This vote probably refers to the " Abstract and Declaration of the Rights and Privileges of the people of the State," adopted by the General As- sembly, after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress, in these words : " The People of this state being by the Providence of God free and independent, have the sole and exclusive Right of governing themselves as a free, sovereign, and independent state ; and having from their ances- tors derived a free and excellent Constitution [Charter] of Government, whereby the Legislature depends on the free annual election of the Peo- ple, they have the best security for the Preservation of their civil and re- ligious Rights and Liberties. And forasmuch as the free fruition of such Liberties and Privileges as Humanity, Civility and Christianity call for, as is due to every Man in his Place and Proportion without Impeach- ment and Infringement, hath ever been, and will be the Tranquility and Stability of Churches and Commonwealths ; and the denial thereof, the Disturbance, if not the Ruin, of both. " Be it enacted and declared by the Governor, Council and Repre- sentatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, 128 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, that the ancient Form of Civil Government, contained in the charter from Charles the Second, King of England, and adopted by the People of this state, shall be and remain the Civil Constitution of this state, under the Sole authority of the People thereof, independent of any King or Prince, whatever. And that this Republic is, and shall forever remain, a free, Sovereign and independent State, by the name of the state of Con- necticut." " And be it further enacted and declared by the Authority aforesaid, That no man's Life shall be taken away ; No Man's Honor or good Name shall be stained ; No Man's Person shall be arrested, restrained, banished, dismembered, nor any ways punished : No Man shall be de- prived of his Wife or Children ; No man's Goods or Estate shall be taken away from him, nor in any ways indamaged under the Color of Law, or Countenance of Authority; unless Clearly warranted by the Laws of this State." " That all the free Inhabitants of this or any other of the United States of America, and Foreigners in Amity with this state, shall enjoy the same Justice and Law within this State, which is general for the State, in all Cases proper for the cognizance of the civil Authority and Courts of Judicature within the same, and that without Partiality or Delay. " And that no Man's Person shall be restrained, or imprisoned, by any Authority whatsoever, before the Law hath sentenced him thereto, if he can and will give sufficient Security, Bail or Mainprize for Appearance and good behavior in the mean Time, unless it be for capital Crimes, con- tempt in open Court, or in such Cases wherein some express Law doth allow or order the same." By this act the Governor and company formally severed their connec- tion with the Crown of Great Britain ; and retained the Charter of Charles the Second, so strenuously and successfully defended and pre- served amid repeated attempts of the Crown to wrest it from them, — as the fundamental law or constitution of an independent State. Those who have but casually examined this charter are little aware of its thoroughly republican features and its delegation of powers which made the Colony, save in name, a free and independent Commonwealth. The " declaration of Rights and Privileges " above quoted, which is the introductory statute in the revised code of 1784, was all that was needed to put the charter in perfect working order as a republican form of gov- ernment. It was claimed by the advocates of the new Constitution adopted in 1818, that the State was and had been without a constitutional lorm of government ; and that the retention of the charter as a basis of law, was AND FAMILY RECORDS. 129 a remnant of kingly rule unworthy of freemen, and dishonorable to the State. If, as is probable, the other lowns of the State formally recog- nized the Declaration of the Legislature, in manner similar to the action of this town, it had all the sanction of other written constitutions since adopted by other States of the Union. It had moreover a ring of pure democracy, more clear and distinct than was probably ever found elsewhere in a modern republic. It restored the whole Legislative and Judicial [tower to the people twice in each year. The lower house of the General Assemby came, by election, fresh from the people to the May and October Sessions, and elected the Judges annually. The " Steady habits " of the people prevented an abuse of this power by arbitrary changes of the incumbents. The same men were re-elected from year to year, until incompetent through age. The Constitution of 1818 pro- vided only for an annual election of Representatives, one regular session a year, and a choice of Judges to hold their office until seventy years old, unless removed for incapacity or crime. The working of this provision has led to a recent amendment of the Constitution limiting the term of a Judge to eight years. Before returning from this digression to the distinctive annals of our town, we would urge upon every lover of his Connecticut forefathers, to study carefully the early history of our State, and find therein a record of prudent and wise legislation, — of firm and undeviatiug patriotism, and of devoted service in establishing and defending our republican institutions, of which the most imperial State in the Union might well be proud. Sept. 25th, 1777. — "Voted to provide the articles mentioned in the Governor's Proclamation, for the Soldiers, at the town's cost, and to give them to them, viz : to the Soldiers," and " that Deacon Samuel Wetmore and Sergt. David Austin be a committee to procure the above mentioned articles, and to take care of them." It was also voted that Gershom McCune, Jonathan Alvord, and Martin North, be a committee to provide for the families of those men that are enlisted into the Continental Army, according to the Act of Assembly. December 1st, of the same year, Samuel Wetmore, Gershom Fay, Capt. John Hills, David Austin, and Jonathan Coe, were appointed a committee for supplying the families of such soldiers belonging to this town, now in the Continental army, with such clothing and provisions as may be necessary for their support. It was also voted, " that those men that went volunteers to the North- ward, and Southward, shall receive Five Pounds each out of the treas- ury ; " and " that those men who went with Ensn. Brownson last April, and with Sergt. Timothy Benedict, in August, and with Lieut. Benedict, shall receive five pounds for going volunteers." 17 130 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, It was further " voted that Deacon Samuel Wetmore, and the owners of the Saw Mill, by the Meeting House, shall have the privilege of the dam by Capt. Hill's, as agreed." This Saw Mill was the first erected in the town. It originally stood near the country road, at the foot of the hill, north of the burying ground, and was carried by means of a dam on the east side of the road, which flooded the meadows, east and northeast of the road. It was probably at this time moved down the stream to the vicinity of the old meeting house, in order to get a better head of water. It was eventually removed down to the site of the mill and cheese box factory, recently owned by the McAlpines. An incident connected with this Mill has been handed down, which pleasingly illustrates the characters of the first two Deacons of the Win Chester church. Deacon Wetmore sawed the logs of his neighbors in regular order, according to their priority of claim. A certain day was fixed for sawing the logs of his bosom friend and colleague, Deacon Seth Hills ; but in the morning, before Deacon Hills had come to draw his logs on to the logway, another neighbor came, who was in pressing and immediate need of some lumber, and prevailed on Deacon W. to let him draw in the logs he required to be sawed. Some of the logs were drawn in when Deacon Hills arrived. Irritated at finding himself superseded, he made some sharp remark, which was sharply replied to by his col- league. Both of them fell from grace to wrath. " I'll never draw another log to your mill," says Deacon Hills. " And if you do, I'll never saw it for you," says Deacon Wetmore. Other defiant words were ban- died back and forth, until their wrath, by repeated blowing off, came down from high to low pressure. Several world's people were listening to their unedifying abjurgations. A pause ensued. One of the Deacons beckoned the other to follow him. They retired to a neighboring clump of bushes, whence the voice of jienitent prayer arose. Grace prevailed over passion, and on returning to the Mill, Deacon Hills assisted in draw- ing in his neighbor's logs, cheerfully postponing his own turn until his neighbor could be accommodated. In Society Meeting this year, in addition to society committee, clerk, and collector, three choristers and three readers of the psalms were appointed, and directions were given for repairing and enlarging the Meeting House, a measure obviously needed, to enable those officials to effectively discharge their duties. The new coiners of the year were Nathan Blackmail, Peter Blackmail, Samuel Clark, Joseph Dodge, Timothy Fay, William Fay, James Steven- son, Joseph Sweet, and Jonah Woodruff. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 131 Nathan Blackman, from Stratford, a remarkably tall, athletic man, lived in a honse that stood on the cross road, leading from the Dugway road, in rear of the house of Mrs. Sophronia Leonard. He m. April 24, 1783, Phebe Orvis of Norfolk. He d. Dec. -18, 1786. CHILDREN. I. Abigail, b. Jan. 17, 1784. n. Elizabeth, b. Sept. 1, 1785. Peter Blackman came from Stratford, and lived on the easterly side of the Dugway Road, nearly opposite Mrs. Sophronia Leonards, on land recently purchased by John T. Rockwell. He is believed to have removed to Sangersfield, N. Y., about 1794. He was b. June 23, 1735 (old style) ; m. April 17, 17G0, Mary McEwen, b. April 1, 1738, dan. of Gershom. CHILDREN. I. Abigail, b. Sept. 28, 1761. II. Trum.yn, b. July 12, 176.5. III. Martha, b. March 27, 1765. IV. Sarah, b. May 1,1767. V. Joseph Picket, b. June 24, 1769. VI. Salmon, b. June 18, 1771. VII. Gershom, b. Feb. 2, 1774. VIII. Mart, b. April 28, 1776. IX. William Adams, b. Dec. 11, 1778. X. Peter, b. March 6, 1781 ; d. Aug. 16, 1783. Trtlyian Blackman, oldest son of Peter, lived until 1793 in the house, a mile east of Wincbester center, at the turn of the road towards the Dugway, which he sold to Tbcodore & Russell Goodwin, and after- wards lived on the Asher Case farm until 1794, when he removed to cen- tral New York. He married, January 8, 1789, Hannah Sherman. They had one son, Adin, born October 23, 1791. Joseph Pickett Blackman, second son of Peter, had an interest in land on the east side of the Long Pond, but probably never resided there. None of the Blackman family remained in this town. They are re- ported to hold a highly respectable standing in central New York. Samuel Clark built and lived in the house recently occupied by Dan- iel Murray on the Dugway road. He built, in company with Reuben Miner and Christopher Whiting, a saw-mill on Sucker Brook, near the 132 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, site of the mill recently built by McPherson Hubbell. He also built in the same vicinity a trip-hammer shop for welding gun-barrels ; — and lost his thumb in attempting to hold the bed-piece under the hammer, in his haste to see the working of the hammer before the bed-piece had been secured. He built a wind-mill near his house for the purpose of sawing fire wood. His dam flooded the meadows above so as to cause a law-suit between him and his neighbor, Miner. He seems to have been an active, stirring body, — somewhat restive as a neighbor and Church member, — traded largely in lands; and about 1800, removed to Stockbridge, Massa- chusetts. He married, November 7, 1770, Mary Cooper. CHILDREN. I. Mary, b. June 20, 1778 ; m. April 18, 1795, Loammi Mott. II. Samuel, b. March 17, 1783. Joseph Dodge, from Wethersfield, lived, until 1782, near the old meeting house, and afterward in the previous homestead of Aaron Cook, near the south line of the town, on Blue Street. His name disap- pears from the records after 1783. He had wife, Elizabeth, and CHILDREN. I. Joseph, b. June 22, 1777. II. Clara, b. July 28, 1779. Timothy and William Fay, brothers, owned and lived on a part of the B. B. Rockwell farm, between the two lakes. One, or both of them lived in a log cabin adjoining an old orchard, south of the present road passing Mr. Rockwell's. It is believed that one of them died there. They dis- appear from the records about 1788. A Tyringham Shaker of that name told the compiler, several years ago, that he was born there. Timothy Fay had wife, Sarah, and a son, Timothy, born November 16, 1781. William Fay married, October 22, 1778, Bethia Bassett, and had children. I. William, b. Dec. 21, 1778. II. Aaron, b. Nov. 9, 1781 ; d. Nov. 19, 1782. III. Aaron, b. Sept. 11, 1783. IV. Jonathan, b. June 4, 1785. Gershom Fay had a daughter, Dinah, baptized June 30, 177G ; he took the oath of fidelity in the town January 13, 1778 ; was not a land holder, and no further note of him appears. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 133 James Stevenson is named of Winchester, in a deed of 1777, convey- ing to him a lot of land near the original meeting house. He conveyed away the same land in 1784, hy a deed, in which he is named of Goshen. Joseph Sweet, named of Voluntown, bought of Adam Mott, a lot of land with a dwelling thereon, not far north of the stone school-house, on Blue Street. He is also named of Winchester in 1779, and in 1780 is named of Goshen. Jonah Woodruff, from Litchfield, bought and sold several tracts of land in the 1st division, among which was a lot on the east side of the old discontinued road near the first meeting house, where he is supposed to have resided until 1784, when his name disappears from the records. He and his wife, Mary, had a son, Benjamin, born May 12, 1778. CHAPTER XII. WAR RECORDS— HALF-WAY COVENANT TROUBLES— NEW SETTLERS. 1778 to 1783. At a Town Meeting, January 13, 1778, the articles of Confederation of the thirteen United States were presented for approval, and hy vote on each successive article, were accepted ; — and thereupon the oath of Fidelity to the State of Connecticut was administered to those present and certified m the records. The names of others who took the oath afterwards were also recorded. We subjoin the names in alphabetical order, giving the dates of administration only of those taking the oath subsequent to January 13, 1778. DAVID ALVORD, ELIPHAZ ALVORD, JONATHAN ALVORD, ABRAHAM ANDREWS, DANIEL ANDREWS, DAVID AUSTIN, JOHN AUSTIN, LEMUEL BASSETT, JOEL BEACH, JOHN BEACH, Feb. 12, 1779. BENJAMIN BENEDICT, TIMOTHY BENEDICT, LEVI BROWNSON, OZIAS BROWNSON, WILLIAM CASTEL, JOHN CHURCH, July 18, 1782. SAMUEL CLARK, JONATHAN COE, ROBERT COE, ROSWELL COE, DAN 1 HURLBUT CONE, Dec. 2, 1782. RICHARD COIT, PETER CORBIN, DANIEL CORBIN, JOSEPH DODGE, HEZEKIAH ELMER, NOBLE EVERITT, ANDREW EVERITT, Mrs. H. EVERITT, Jan. 18, 17S2. GERSHOM FAY, REMEMBRANCE FILLEY, JOSEPH FRISBEE, WARHAM GIBBS, PHINEHAS GRISWOLD, BELA HILLS, Dec. 2, 1782. SETH HILLS, JOHN HILLS, BENONI HILLS, JOSEPH HOSKIN, SAMUEL HURLBUT, REV. MR. KNAPP, WM. KEYES, Feb. 12, 1779. DAVID LOOMIS, Dec. 2, 1782. ICHABOD LOOMIS, ROBERT McCUNE, SAMUEL McCUNE, GERSHOM McCUNE, Dec. 4, 1778. REUBEN MINER, JOHN MINER, ADAM MOTT, LENT MOTT, MARTIN NORTH, AND FAMILY RECORDS. 135 AMBROSE PALMER, JAMES SWEET, JOSEPH PLATT, Feb. 5, 1778. JOHN SWEET, EBENEZER PRESTON, JONATHAN SWEET, SAMUEL PRESTON, PELEG SWEET, BENJAMIN PRESTON, REUBEN TUCKER, PHILIP PRIEST, JOHN VIDETO, Jr., CHAUNCY SMITH, Dec. 2, 1782. AM ASA WADE, ELEAZER SMITH, SAMUEL WETMORE, THOMAS SPENCER, ABEL WETMORE, WM. STANNARD, Dec. 2, 1782. ELISHA WILCOXSON, LEMUEL STANNARD, Jr., JESSE WILKINSON, ABEL STANNARD, July 25, 1782. REUBEN WILKINSON, LEM'L STANNARD, Mch. 10, 1782. JONAH WOODRUFF. An examination of the list shows that of the seventy-eight inhabitants therein named, but fifteen are now represented in the town by descendants bearing their family names. In Town Meetings this year, taxes were laid, in all amounting to four shillings and three pence on the poundj for meeting the expenses of the town. Sergt. Freedom Wright and John Balcom, Jr., were allowed five pounds each for doing a tour of duty, the previous year, in the Northern army. It was voted, that if the committee on trial cannot procure a sufficiency of provisions for the families of those men who are gone into the Con- tinental army, the Selectmen shall be empowered to lay the matter before the Governor and Council or Assembly, and pray them to point out some way for our relief; and also to pray for a tax on non-resident proprietors to support the country roads. Ensign Ozias Bronson, Joseph Hoskin, Samuel Hurlbut, Roswell Coe, Ambrose Palmer, Samuel Preston, and Phineas Griswold, were ap- pointed a Committee to provide for the families of the soldiers. From the records of the Society meetings of this year, it appears that owing to disaffection of many members, it was decided, after consultation with Mr. Knapp, "to throw by the civil law in collecting Mr.- Knapp's rate, and [to] support him some other way." The new comers of this year were, Lemuel Stannard, Senior, Seth Griswold, James Hale, and William Barbour. Lemuel Stannard, Senior, has been noticed under the year 1771. Seth Griswold, of New Hartford, married, December 31, 1778, Huldah, widow of Simeon Loomis, and settled on the Loomis homestead, now composing a part of Luther Branson's farm, in the southwest part of 136 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, the town, and there resided until 1801, when he removed to the south- west corner of Colebrook, and there resided in the house now occupied by Isaac Jacklyn, until his death, about 1810. CHILDREN. I. Roswell, b. Feb. 8, 1780; m. Nov. 3, 1802, Lucrctia Whcadon, daughter of Solomon. She d. and he m. (2d), Nov. 1808, Mrs. Jcruslia (Grant) Walter, daughter of Joel Grant and widow of Cyrus Walter. Slie d. in Colebrook, March 3, 1828; he m. (3d) Anna (Hall) Preston, who was a widow Clark before she m. Preston. Children by first wife : 1. Wyllys, lives in Auburn, Iowa; 2. Lucretia, m. Asahel Northway ; 3 Hiram, grad. Western Reserve College, lived at Canton and Cleveland, Ohio, a lawyer senator of Ohio, lives at Leavenworth, Kansas. Children by second wife : 4. Lucius, b. July 12, 1810; 5. Almira, b. July 23, 1811 ; 6. Joel Grant, b. March 15, 1813; 7. Lavinia, b. Feb. 25, 1817 ; 8. James, b. Jan. 20, 1819; 9 Nelson, b. Aug. 20, 1820; 10. Edward, b. April 13, 1824; 11. Ellen Amanda, b. April 6, 1825, m. March 18, 1850, William S. Phillips, a trader, of Winsted, who d. Aug. 19, 1860— she lives in Winsted ; 12. Mary Ann, d. unmarried. These children were all born in Colebrook. II. Asa, b. May 26, 1781. James Hale, from Wethersfield, bought the Ensign lot at the south- west shore of Long Lake, west of the mouth of Taylor's Brook, where he lived until 1784, when he left the town. By his wife, Sarah, ho had three children. I.Abigail, b. May 12, 1778. II. Sarah, b. Aug. 8, 1780. III. William, b. March 16, 1784 ; is said to have become a sailor, was pressed into the British navy, and obtained his discharge by procuring a certifi- cate of the record of his birth in Winchester. William Barbour, from Paisley, Scotland, deserted the British army brought to this country at the beginning of the revolution, and lie- came a resident of this town as early as 1778. He married, September 26, 1778, Ruth Thrall, widow of Reuben Thrall, who died in the town the previous year. He resided in the Thrall homestead, near Reuben Chase's present residence, until 1798 ; soon after which he removed to Burke, Caledonia County, Vermont. He was by trade a tailor, — a pious and highly estimable man. CHILDREN. I. Clara, b. July 19, 1781. II. Esther, b. Nov. 19, 1784. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 137 1779. The town records of this year are mainly confined to routine busi- ness. Martin North and Joseph Iloskin were appointed " to provide for the families of Continental soldiers"; and Dr. Josiah Everitt, Samuel McCune, and Phineas Griswold, to provide clothing for the soldiers. The Society records are also barren of interest. The "civil law " hav- ing been " thrown by in collecting the minister's rate," no Society tax was laid. The new comers were Elijah Hubbard, Daniel Clark, and Christopher Whiting. Elijah Hubbard, from Middletown, bought and occupied Lot 8, first Tier, first Division, on Blue Street, near the southwest corner of the town. In 18D5 he sold what remained to him of this tract to Jared Curtis. His wife, Ursula, died May 3, 1786. Anna, their daughter, was born April 16, 1783. Tradition says he was an eminently pious man, and that he died alone in a house on the hill, east of the original meeting house. Daniel Clark's name appears only in the record of births. He had by wife Eunice, CHILDREN. I. Bela (son), b. Feb. 25, 1779. II. Patty, b. June 28, 1781. Benjamin Whiting* married in Torrington, October 17, 1755, Esther Marcum. CHILDREN. I. Christopher, 2 b. in Tor., Aug. 3, 1757. II. William, 2 b. " Sept. 4, 1759. III. Esther, 2 b. " " 13, 1763. IV. Benjamin, 2 b. " Dec. 11, 1765 ; see 1793. Christopher Whiting, 2 settled on the old road from Winsted to Winchester, north of Sucker Brook bridge, and built and occupied, during his life, the house now owned by Frederick Murray. He died July 6, 1812, aged 54 ; — an industrious, unassuming, and worthy man. He mar- rie.l, January 9,- 1782, Mary Wilcox. * Not a resident of Winchester. 18 138 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, I. LORRAIN, 3 II. Riley, 3 III. Clara, 3 27, 1815. IV. Luman, 3 V. Esther Miriam, 3 VI. Norman, 3 CHILDREN. b. Dec. 19, 1782. b. Jan. 16, 1785. b. March 11, 1785 m. Samuel Westlake; she d. Jan. b. May 5, 1792 ; m. Anna Hayden. b. Sept. 13, 1796. b. Aug. 5, 1796 ; d. Aug. 5, 1815, by kick of a horse. Lorrain Whiting' built the brick house on Wallen's Hill, in Win- sted, near Barkhamsted line, i-ecently owned and occupied by his son, Hiram C. Whiting, in which he resided until Ills death September 6, 1833, aged 51. He married, May 1, 1806, Polly Mallory, born in Win- chester, May 24, 1784, daughter of Elisha. She died January 10, 1851, aged 66. CHILDREN. I. Algernon Sidney, 4 M. Sage. II. Laura, 4 Johnson. III. Chloe Amelia, 4 IV. Ursula Jenet, 4 Camp; d. June 3, 1839. V. Orson, 4 VI. Lucikn, 4 VII. Lorrain Christopher, 4 VIII. Hikam Chatterton 4 (twin), IX. Homer Wilcox 4 (twin), phronia C. Wheelock. X. Nelson, 4 XI. DeWitt Clinton, 4 XII. Polly Mallory, 4 XIII. Sarah Jane, 4 XIV. Sylvia Ann, 4 XV. Edward Gaylord, 4 b. March 7, 1807 ; m. June 20, 1832, Loritta b. Jan. 22, 1809; m. Feb. 7, 1828, Martin b. Oct. 17, 1810. b. April 20, 1812; m. Oct. 8, 1833, Jolin b. July 5, 1813. b. April 12, 1816. b. Feb. 22, 1819. b. March 29, 1821. b. March 29, 1821; m. July 30, 1850, So- b. Feb. 25, 1823. b. Aug. 29 1824 ; d. Nov. 27, 1846. b. Feb. 19, 1826. b. April 29, 1827. b. Dec. 4, 1828. b. Feb. 27, 1832. Riley Whiting came to Winsted about 1810, and soon after built and occupied until his death, the house on the east side of Still River, near the clock factory recently owned and occupied by R. L. Beecher. He went into the clock making business .as partner with Samuel and Luther Hoadley, and about 1815 became sole owner of the concern ; — and carried on the business until his death, with great energy and per- severance. He was a man of quiet, unassuming manners and feeble con- stitution, who, more than most men, minded his own business and prosecuted it with the same perseverance in adverse, as in prosperous circumstances ; and, though twice compelled to assign his property, yet in both instances succeeded in paying off his debts, and left a handsome estate at his death, AND FAMILY RECORDS. 139 which took place at Jacksonville, Illinois, August 5, 1835, at the age of fifty-one, while on a business journey. He was a man highly esteemed. He represented the town in the Legislature in the years 1818 and 1832. He married, February 9, 1806, Urania Hoadley. She married (2d), Erasmus D. Calloway ; she died December 8, 1855. CHILDREN. I. Emily, 3 b. May 23, 1807; m. August 17, 1826, Dr. Lyman Case. II. Mary, 3 b. June 11, 1810 ; m. Feb. 3, 1835, James Litch' field; she d. at Lima, Michigan, Oct. 7, 1837. III. Ukania, 3 b. Sept. 9, 1812; m. May 26, 1840, Thomas Wilder. IV. Lemuel Hoadley, 3 b. Dec. 11, 1815 ; d. Dec. 25, 1815. V. Riley, 3 b. Sept. 25, 1820; m. August 28, 1843, Clarissa Jane Webster. 1780. At a Town Meeting, March 13, 1780, Robert McCune was appointed " an Agent to represent the circumstances of the town to the General As- sembly and pray that a State Tax be not imposed on this towu under our present circumstances; — and that he be empowered .to imploy an At- torney to speak in behalf of the town at the General Assembly, viz, Col. Adams, if he may be had, — and if he cannot be obtained, then sd. Agent to employ some other Attorney." It was also voted, " to give John Videto, Jr., and those in partnership with him their fine for killing one Deer after the law forbid." July 17, it was voted to grant some relief for those men who are, or may be detailed to serve in the army between the first day of June last, and the first day of January next. Whereupon Lieutenant John Wright and Euoch Palmer entered their protest against anything being recovered on the foregoing vote, for that it was (as they say) obtained by illegal voters. At the Society meeting, February 3, 1780 : — Voted, to give Mi-. Knapp sixty-five pounds for his last year's service, to be paid in specie as it went in 1774, or an equivalent in cash, to be ad- justed by a committee to be chosen for that purpose, which committee are to adjust the price of all kinds of specie as well as cash, which adjust- ment shall be made once in three months. Voted, Ichabod Loomis, Samuel McCune and Reuben Miner, a com- mittee to adjust the price of all kinds of specie collected for Mr. Knapp, and also, to estimate money once in three months. Voted, Levi Brownson, Andrew Everitt, Bela Hills and Abel Wetmore, choristers to tune the Psalm on the Sabbath the year ensuing. 140 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER Voted, Deacon Joseph Mills (of Norfolk), Mr. Noah North, and Lieut. Asahel Case, he a committee to hear the complaints of any agrieved members of this Society, respecting paying to Mr. Knapp for his sup- port, and if the said committee judge the complaints or objections of said agrieved members against paying to Mr. Knapp sufficient, then said agrieved members to be exempt from paying to Mr. Knapp. Voted, Capt. Jonathan Alvord to sweep the meeting house at forty dol- lars the year ensuing. At a meeting, March 7, 1780, the doings of the meeting February 3d, were reconsidered ; — and it was then Voted, to give Mr. Knapp 65 pounds for his last year's service, to be paid in specie — wheat to be valued at six shillings the bushel, and the price of all other kinds of specie to be regulated by wheat at 6s. the bushel in proportion as they were valued in the year 1774, or cash equivalent to specie at the rate above prescribed. It was further voted, that the Society mean to have Mr. Knapp join with the Church and Society in accommodation of matters of difficulty now subsisting in this Society previous to voting another salary. December 5th of the same year, another year's salary was voted to Mr. Knapp, " to be paid in Specie as it was valued in 1774, or in Cash equiva- lent, to be adjusted by a Committee," — and that " if any Persons in the Society shall, within one Month from this, appear before the Society Committee and say that they cannot in their conscience support Mr. Knapp, they shall be exempt from supporting him, and the Rate be made on the remainder of the Society." It would seem from the foregoing votes, and from the action of the church, this year, that the exclusion from the church of Half-way- covenanters was still working dis-ension in the Society and occasioning irreconcilable hostility to Mr. Knapp, who strenuously persisted in the exclusion. • The church voted, December 29, 1779, "That it is our opinion y' a visible appearance of Holiness is necessary for y" Church to admit mem- bers into their communion." What was the occasion of this vote does not appear, but it probably had reference to applications made for half-covenant membership. A meeting was held March 7th following, " by y" desire of a number of members of y e Society that call themselves greived, in order to see if y" chh. and they could not come understandingly to agree " — the meet- ing was adjourned to the next Friday — " the agreived members agree- ing to bring their greivences in writing at or before the next meeting; " — another adjournment was had to the next Thursday ; no greivences being brought in — " after considerable of discourse, 3 of y" members of AND FAMILY RECORDS. 141 y c society were willing y 1 y e chli. should have their greivances in writing wh. [are] here recorded." The first was Abel Wetmore's, as follows: " Mr. Knapp told me, He will have nothing to do with any man what- ever of a spiritural nature, that refuses to give me an account of his spiritual estate previous to reading his letter, nor read his letter." The second matter of grievance was exhibited by Ensign Wilcoxson, as follows : '• 1. I exhibited to Mr. Knapp a letter of recommendation from y e chh. of New Hartford to y e chh. of Winchester, wh. Mr. Knapp never com- municated to y l chh. " 2. Mr. Knapp told me he did not desire y e use of Civil law to sup- port y c gospel — and now he insists on y e use of Civil law." "3. Mr. Knapp hath neglected to visit and converse with me so much as I have thought was his duty." Third matter of grievance was exhibited by Eliezer Smith : "1. Respecting Baptized persons — Mr. Knapp said to me that there was no more connexion between y' chh. and y' rest of y e world, any more than between heaven and Hell. " 2. Mr. Knapp signified he did not desire y c use of y" Civil law to support y e Gospel, but now he desires y' Civil law to take place to make men Honest." The record proceeds to say : "These following things are what y e chh. attended to and voted ; " 1. of a chh. — A chh. is a number of persons mutually covenanting together to walk in gospel fellowship and communion in all y l ordinances of y" gospel. "2. of a covenant — The covenant of grace is y' covenant wh. in reality subsists only between God and true believers. The covenant im- plies on our part, repentance toward God and faith towards our Lord Jesus X. * * * * love as y° spring of all our obedience, * * * God's part, spiritual blessings & privileges are promised, together with y c ever- lasting enjoyment of God in heaven, the covenant subsisting between God and his visible chh. is y e visible exhibition of this covenant. '• 3. Baptism and y e Lord's Supper are Seals of this covenant. By baptism y e parent in behalf of y e child gives it up to God y'' Father, Son and Holy Ghost, to God as his God and portion and Chief good ; to God y" Son as y e only Redeemer, and by y e Holy Ghost a« its Sanctification — By baptism y' parent not only gives it up to God y e Father, Son & Holy Ghost, but he puts it under y' watch & Care of y" chh. — the im- port of it to y" chh. is, pray watch over me and my child, and admonish us when we go astray ; — it is y l duty of y c chh. to watch over them, — 142 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, to reprove, rebuke and admonish them, — they are to be called upon when come to adult years to take upon themselves y° vows of y" coven- ant and cordially, understandingly and heartily come up to its terms. — If, after forbearance towards them, they refuse to comply with y^ terms of y e covenant, yy. are to be cut off, and the chh. to withdraw their watch and Care from them." " 2. Voted, that upon any persons bringing a letter of recommendation from any other chh. to be communicated to this, that Mr. Knapp stay y* church by themselves, and exhibit y e letter to y' chh., and if Mr. Knapp have any objection against y e person bringing such, then to com- municate his objections to y" chh., and also any person having been pro- pounded for admittance into y< chh., on y" day he is to be admitted Mr. Knapp stay the chh. at noon y 4 if there be any objections yy. may then be made manifest. " 3. Voted, that no person can be indulged in absenting himself from y e Sacrament of y e Lord's Supper only upon point of tender conscience. " 4. Voted, that persons who shall desire to be propounded for com- munion in this chh., y e chh. be stayed, and if Mr. Knapp have objections, y* he then inform y e chh. of them." These votes indicate that the church, while agreeing with Mr. Knapp in respect to qualifications for membership, was not disposed to yield to him the prerogative of receiving or excluding members ; — and the whole record quoted leads to the conclusion that a less arbitray, though equally firm adherence to sound principles of church order, would have resulted in greater peace and unity. The vote in 1778 "to throw by the Civil Law " in collecting the min- isterial rates, and the adoption of the voluntary system of support, proved a failure ; — and the return to taxation seems to have been attended with great difficulties, which were but partially obviated, by allowing the mal- content members to relieve themselves from taxation by avowing con- scientious scruples in respect to the support of Mr. Knapp. This plan of relieving the malcontents, after three years' trial, was abandoned, and the tax was thereafter levied on all the inhabitants of the Society. It is stated on good traditional authority that the taxes were rigorously col- lected by attachment of the property or persons of those who refused to pay ; — that Ensign Jonathan Coe (grand-father of Jehial and Samuel W. Coe), had his cow attached and sold for a minister's rate ; — that there was a surplus of money left of the sale, beyond the tax and costs, which the constable, Deacon Piatt, offered to pay him back, but which he indignantly refused to receive ; — telling the constable to " put it under Mr. Knapp's pillow and let him sleep on it if he could." The same tradition tells of the attachment of Joseph Hoskin's great coat in the fall and its retention AND FAMILY RECORDS. 143 until spring ; — and also of the carrying of the late venerable Jonathan Coe to Litchfield Jail, — and how he finally paid the tax under protest. These occurrences, and others of a similar nature, prepared the way for the introduction and growth of Methodism ; and in connection with a subsequent division in the Winsted Society, hereafter detailed, led to the establishment and growth of the large and stable Methodist Church in "Winsted ; — of which the Coe family have ever been among the most useful and valued members. The financiers of the present day would be troubled to comprehend the " Specie " currency referred to in the tax votes of this and subsequent years. Hard money was literally too hard in those days, as well as these, to be obtainable as a circulating medium. Continental Bills had so de- preciated that it took forty dollars to pay a year's sweeping of the meet- ing house, which had been done six years before for five shillings and six- pence. The term specie then had a well received meaning not given in "Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. It comprehended in its meaning, wheat, rye, corn, meslin, beans, beef, pork, mutton, tallow, suet, lard, and all other farm products ; — and these were the tithes for the most part brought into the minister's storehouse in payment of his salary. They were also the kind of specie largely gathered by Washington's " Brother Jonathan," * from all parts of the State in aid of the revolutionary war. They were received and appraised by committees appointed for that pur- pose, and forwarded to general depots, in lieu of money taxes. The standard of specie value adopted in the vote of this year was a wise and equitable one. By taking wheat at the price ruling in 1774, and regulating other articles at proportionate values, the difficulty of de- termining what amount of a depreciated and fluctuating currency would be equal to the salary originally voted Mr. Knapp, was obviated in an equitable manner. On the 1 9th of September of this year, for the first time, freemen were admitted, preparatory to an election of the first Representative sent by the town to the General Assembly, as appears by the following record: " This certifies that Eliphaz Alvord, Adam Mott, Capt. John Hills, Lt. Ozias Brownson, Samuel McCune, Seth Griswold, Lent Mott, David Austin, Ens". Josiah Everitt, David Crissey, Phinehas Potter, John Miner, Ebenezer Preston, Robert Coe, Roswell Coe, Samuel Preston, Reuben Tucker, Dea. ' Seth Hills, Ens". Elisha "Wilcoxson, Robert Mc- Cune, Andrew Everitt, Martin North, Dea. Samuel Wetmore, David Alvord, Thomas Spencer and Abel Wetmore, are persons of quiet and * Gov. Jonathan Trumbull — Washington's sheet-anchor. 144 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, peaceable behaviour and civil Conversation, and qualified to take the Freeman's oath, and had said oath administered to them September 19th, A. 1). 1780. Seth Hills, ) Robert McCcne, y Select Men." Elisha Wilcoxson, ) The new comers of the year were Stephen Spencer, Simeon Hurlbut, John Church, Thomas Cannon, Stephen Schovil, Benjamin Woodruff, William Barnstable, and Prince Negro. Stephen Spencer, — a relative, probably a cousin of Thomas, — is supposed to have come from Saybrook. He owned and lived on the farm recently owned by William F. Hatch, on the east side of the Lit- tle Pond, in a house on a road now discontinued, which turned out of the Winchester road, nearly opposite the Stabell House, and extended north- westerly to the Little Pond road. This house, the two barns and cider mill around it, have now disappeared, together with all the cherry, damson and peach trees which once profusely abounded. A few antiquated apple trees alone indicate the location. Mr. Spencer also owned lands extending down to Mad River, along the north side of the pond stream, and built a saw-mill on the site of Lathrop and Barton's Cutlery Works. In 1800 he sold his farm to Jenkins and Boyd, and removed to Westmoreland, Oneida County, New York. He married, January 18, 177G, Elizabeth Turner. CHILDREN. I. Elizabeth, h. Nov. 30, 1777. II. Lovisa, b. Dec. 29, 1779 ; m. Nov. 28, 1795, Zuclieus Munsill. III. Suumit, b. Nov. 15, 1781. IV. Sarah, b. Sept. 1, 1783. V. Ai (son), b. April 25, 178G. VI. Tempeeanc^ b. '' 20, 1789. VII. Hannah, b. Oct. 10, 1795. Simeon Hurlbut, u of Wethersfield." was owner of lands in Winches- ter as early as 1776, and is named of Winchester in 1780, when he sold his home lot on which he then lived, lying south of the south end of Long Lake, and bordering on Torrington line. He probably then removed to Torrington. His wife's name was Mary, by whom he had a daughter, Olle, born in Winchester, August "4, 1780. John Church, from Chatham, was a raw-boned, grim-visaged man, who served under Arnold at Quebec and Saratoga. The precise time of his coming to Winchester is not ascertainable. His first deed is dated AND FAMILY RECORDS. 145 July 7, 1780. He built and lived and died in the ancient red lean-to house on the Little Pond road, recently occupied by Sylvester Huiibut. He was, during his early residence, a zealous religionist of some hardshell order, and preached on his own hook, from house to house. He married, March 29, 1780, Deborah Spencer. He died December 6, 1834, aged 79. She died December 5, 1834, aged 75. CHILDREN. I. Hannah, 2 b. July 25, 1781; m. Ansel Shattuck; she d. April 10, 1847. II. Eunice,- b. July 18, 1783 ; m. Jan. 7, 1808, John Storer. III. Jonathan, 2 b. Sept. 17, 1785. IV. David, 2 b. June 1, 1788; moved to Beaver Dam, Erie Co., Penn. V.Isaac, 2 b. Sept. 11, 1790; " " " " " " VI. Uri, 2 b. Aug. 4, 1792. VII. Lucy, 2 b. Sept. 5, 1794. VLII. Wealthy; 2 b. Jan. 20, 1796. IX. Wealthy, 2 b. Jan. 14, 1799 ; m. Dec. 1, 1834, Rensellaer Sheldon. X. Simeon, 2 b. March 5, 1801. Jonathan Church 2 was a blacksmith, and lived in a house now torn down on the east side of Green Woods turnpike, nearly opposite the Mad River bridge leading to the Little Pond road. He died in this town. He married Lucy , and had CHILDREN. I. Timothy Charles, 3 b. Oct. 25, 1809. II. Amos Charles, 3 b. July 3, 1812. III. Mary, 3 b. " 2, 1814. IV. Wealthy, 3 b. Oct. 25, 1816. V. Sarah, 3 b. July 7, 1818. VI. Lucy, 3 b. Nov. 15, 1820 ; d. Aug. 30, 1831. VII. Jonathan Seth, 3 b. Oct. 12, 1822; was graduated at the Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., and died while engaged in teaching in one of the Western States. Uri Church 2 lived in the red house next north of his father's, on the Little Pond road, where he died August 12, 1856, aged 64, leaving a wife, who died in 1861 ; and a daughter, Amanda, their only child, who still lives on her father's homestead. He was a well educated, industrious and worthy man. Thomas Cannon, and Mary, his wife, are named on the records of this year as residents of the town, and addicted to hard swearing, breaking the peace and other explosions. They seem to have lived not far from the old society burying-ground. No trace of them is found after 1781. 19 146 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Of Stephen Schovil, nothing is ascertained, save that he was this year appointed "Key-keeper" of the Pound, and had been a soldier in the Continental service, hired by the town as one of its quota ; — as appears by a certificate of the Select Men on file in the Comptroller's office. In 1784 he is named of Torriugton, as defendant in a suit before Justice Al- vord. He married Elizabeth , and had a daughter, Lucy, born August 19, 1781. There was also a Stephen Schofield, Jr., of Winchester, in 1781, as appears by Justice Alvord's records, who " personally appeared and confessed himself guilty of a breach of the Sabbath, by striking Martin Hurlbut on the ham, and laughing and playing in an undecent and unlaw- ful manner, on y" Sabbath, or Lord's Day, being y e 25th day of March, 1781, in y" Meeting House, in sd. Winchester, in y e time of publick worship," whereupon he was fined 3 shillings and cost four shillings, State money. Benjamin Woodruff was colleague " Key-keeper " of the Pound with Mr. Schovil, and lived near the first meeting house. William Barnstable leaves no record except the birth of Pede his daughter, by his wife Hannah, March 4, 1780. Prince, a negro, who seems to have had no surname, died in the town this year, leaving several State Notes received for military service in the Continental army, on which administration was granted to Robert Mc- Ewen by the Norfolk Probate Court. 1781. The records of the town in these years afford many striking analogies to the war of 1861. The patriotic ardor of the earlier years of the revo- lution had become chilled by the protracted struggle and sad reverses of the war. The continually succeeding drafts of militia-men for short terms of service, rendered it nearly impossible for the towns to raise their allotted quotas of men for the Continental army. Substitute brokerage was a re- finement of baseness then unsystematized. The people were too poor to furnish means for hiring middle-men, to buy up on speculation New York roughs and Canadian Frenchmen, to do the fighting for able-bodied, well- dressed, stay-at-home patriots. The following votes of town meetings in 1781, would not seem strange if found in the records of the third year of the slave-owners' rebellion : Voted, to appoint Capt. Benj. Benedict and Dea. Seth Hills, to hire the two men now required. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 147 Voted, to give forty shillings State money to Aaron and Joseph Agard for securing Joseph Preston for the town. Voted, Dea. Seth Hills, Eliphaz Alvord and Lt. Josiah Smith, a Com- mittee to procure clothing for the Soldiers, according to act of Assembly. Voted, to make out our quota of Continental Soldiers as soon as the number we are deficient can be known. Voted, Capt. Benedict, Capt. Corbin and Capt. Wright be a Com- mittee to procure Soldiers to fill our deficiency in the Continental army. Voted, Lieut. Brownson to represent the town before the Committee appointed by the Assemhly to adjust matters respecting Soldiers. Voted, Lt. Brownson go to Hartford to get Dolphin's son* to count for Winchester. Voted, Capt. Corbin to make application to Gen'l Parsons, or some other General Officer, to procure a pardon for Jonathan Preston on ac- count of his deserting the array. Voted, to raise a man to supply the place of George Hudson in the Con- tinental Army. Voted, Lt. Josiah Smith and Ens". Jesse Doolittle be a Committee to hire a man for the State Guard. Voted, to raise Sixpence, hard money, on the Pound to hire the soldiers now called for, and to pay the Soldiers already procured. Voted, that Neat Cattle, or Sheep, or Pork or English Grain, or Indian Corn, shall be accepted in lieu of hard money granted in the last vote, — said articles to be delivered in Winchester, at the house of Eliphaz Al- vord at the appraisement of a committee to be appointed for that purpose. Voted, to raise fourpence on the Pound, to purchase Beef for the use of the Army, agreeable to the act of Assembly in May last, with an abatement of said rate according to the bill of form by which Winchester is taxed. Voted, Robert McCune, Sam'l Hurlbut and Jesse Doolittle a Commit- tee to procure Barrels, receive and salt, pack and secure the Beef and Pork that shall be brought in and necessaiy to be salted, and to store other articles delivered in payment of State Taxes. Voted, Dea. Wetmore to receive the Cattle and Sheep into his pasture, that may be delivered in payment of aforesaid Taxes. The following freemen were admitted and sworn, April 9th of this year : Rev. Mr. Knapp, Capt. Benj. Benedict, Capt. Abraham Andrews, * This " Dolphin's son " was one of the small number of colored men, then resident in the town. Two of his grand-sons recently went from here to Rhode Island, and enlisted into one of the colored regiments there ; — there being at the time no organi- zation for colored volunteers in this State. One of them, James Dolphin, died in the service at Plaquemine, La., August 5, 1864 ; the other, Edward H. Dolphin, returned: 148 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, John Beach, Jonathan Coe, Eleazer Smith, Gershom McCune, Jr., Phineas Griswold, Aaron Cook, Timothy Benedict, Jr., Abram Filley, Nathan Blackmail, John Walter, Joel Beach and Samuel Hurlbut. The town was for the first time represented this year in the General Assembly, by Deacon Seth Hills and Robert McEwen. In Society meeting December 4, 1781, Mr. Knapp's salary was voted "to be paid in Specie as things went in 1774, or Cash equivalent," and exempting such persons from payment thereof as could not in conscience support Mr. Knapp. It was also voted, that the women singers sit in the cross foi'e-seats, and the men singers as usual. The new comers of this year were Elijah Andrews, and his son, Elijah, Jr., James Adkins, Isaac Adkins, Richard Coit, Aaron and Joseph Agard. Elijah Andrews, with his son Elijah, Jr., came from Windsor, and lived on the east side of the Colebrook road, on land now a part of the farm of William E. Cowles. He was fined by Esq. Alvord, in 1784, twenty shillings for traveling on the Sabbath — and not long afterward removed to Colebrook. Had wife Mary. Elijah Andrews, Jr., lived from 1810 to about 1815, in the late homestead of James Crocker, on the Green Woods turnpike. James Adkins came from Middletown, and bought the homestead of Capt. John Hills, on the Old Country road, near the Hurlbut Cemetery. He is described by a contemporary as "an old man with broad coat skirts, and beaver, old and smooth." — " He brought with him a famous cali- co Narraganset pacing mare, which he said he once rode on a single day, between sun-rising and sun-setting, one hundred miles' from Middletown up the Connecticut River valley." Being asked if he stopped to bait his horse, — " No," said he, " I had my eoat pockets full of ears of corn, — and going up hills, I now and then reached round and gave her a nubbin." One of his daughters married David Austin, Jr., and another Daniel Hurlbut Cone. Isaac Adkins, probably a son of James, owned lands, and lived in a house on the east side of Blue Street, until 1788, when he sold out to Hewitt Hills, — after which his name disappears from the records : Richard Coit, a shoemaker, came from New London, and lived two- thirds of a mile northwest of the center, on the Old Country road, in the house recently owned by Nelson T. Loomis. He served in the unsuccess- AND FAMILY RECORDS. 149 ful siege of Quebec, and subsequently on the quota of this town in the Continental army. In the words of a contemporary, — " he was impulsive and fractious, — talked a volume every day, — disciplined his children and hogs severely, was not dainty about his words, — was poor, until in old age, his brother bequeathed him forty thousand dollars, which was nearly squandered before his death." He was born in New London, December 25, 1752; married, August 27, 1778, Hepzibah Smith, born in Middletown, August 9, 1750; she died March 15, 1828, aged 77; he died March 25, 1834, aged 81. CHILDREN. I. Joseph, b. Aug. 29, 1780; m. Nov. 13, 1807, Francis Ursula Adams, and had children : 1. Lucy, b. Jan. 5, 1809 ; 2. Joseph Richard, b. March 28, 1811. In 1807 he was " of Trumbull Co., Ohio." In 1809 and 10, he owned and occupied the Luman Munsill house, a little south of the cen- ter; and soon after removed to Monticello, N. Y., where he died. II. Sarah, b. May 16, 1785; m. Feb. 13, 1815, William S. Marsh; d. s. p. March 10, 1833. III. Lucy, b. Dec. 2, 1790; d. June 7, 1794. Aaron and Joseph Agard are named in the record of a town meeting this year. They, or one of them, lived in the Noble J. Everitt house, half a mile south of the center. They came into the town prob- ably earlier than 1776, but were not land owners. Elizabeth, probably wife of Aaron, was one of the original members of the Church. Joseph and Tabitha Agard, his wife, had CHILDREN. I. Joseph, b. May 11, 1776. II. Tabitha, b. May 17, 1779. Benajah Abrew, or Abro, is mentioned in a vote of this year as a Continental soldier, claimed as serving on the quota of Winchester. His name is on the list of 1785 as a resident tax-payer. By another vote in 1788 the tax was given up as un collectable. 1782. In Town Meeting February 26, 1782, it was voted " to hire the men now called for, for the Guard at Horse Neck, and to fill the deficiencies in the Continental Army 'til December next." Also " to raise fourpence on the pound in money or specie at money prices, in the specific articles of neat cattle, sheep, wool, flax, wheat, rie, and indian Corn, at the price the said articles were valued at in 1774 ; and that the above rate be appro- priated to the sole purpose of procuring the soldiers, if needed, that are or may be called for by the Assembly." 150 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, November 7, 1782, voted to build a bridge over Mad River in the most convenient place in, or near, the road now leading to the Society of Winsted, and Lt. Uriah Seymour, Col. Seth Smith and Samuel Mills were appointed as an indifferent committee from other towns, to view and report which place is the best on the whole, for the public and private interest, for a road to, and a bridge over. Mad River ; — whether the road now established and traveled to and over said river, or a new proposed place east of Mr. Austin's mill. The traveled road here referred to probably crossed the river, either near Rockwell's tannery or on the site of Dudley's Block ; — and the proposed route was Lake street as it now runs. The freemen admitted this year were Reuben Miner, William Barbour, Jonah Woodruff, and Jonathan Alvord. The new comers were Daniel H. Cone, John Deer, Jonathan Deer, John Marshall, Levi Norton, Samuel Roberts, Chauncy Smith, Elijah Thompson, and David Ward. Daniel Hurlbut Cone, from Middletown, first lived on a part of the John Hills farm, near the burying-ground, and afterward on a new farm near the Leonard Hurlbut place, where he died May 17, 1842, aged 88. His wife, Elizabeth, died February 27, 1829, aged 74. He was by trade a shoemaker ; — had served nearly the whole war, as an ar- tilleriest in the Continental army ; — was a good man in every sense of the word. CHILDREN. I. Susanna, 2 b. June 22, 1781. II. Daniel, 2 b. Oct. 14, 1782. III. Elizabeth, 2 b. Jan. 29, 1784. IV. Samuel, 2 b. Oct. 18, 1785 ; lived and died in Norfolk. V. Hurlbut, 2 b. Jan. 5, 1788. VI. Warren, 2 b. Aug. 19, 1789; lived and died in Norfolk. VII. Sullivan, 2 b. Jan. 14, 1793. VIII. Silas, 2 b. " 27, 1795; lived and died in Granny. Two twin sons of Samuel, 2 James and John, and a daughter of Silas, are now residents of Winsted. John Deer, from Goshen, this year bought a tract of land, now com- posing mainly the farms of Orren Tuller and Dudley Chase. He lived on the discontinued part of the Blue Street road which extended north of the road passing the houses of Tuller and Chase, until his death. He married, November 22, 1780, Hannah Stow; she died February 28, 1786 ; he married (2d), May 6, 1787, Rhoda Filley ; she died April 8, AND FAMILY RECORDS. 151 1793 ; and he married (3d), Lucy Foresbey, or Frisbey. He was a soldier of the revolution. He died August 30, 1828, aged 73 years. His father, John or George Deer, was also a soldier in the revolution, and was killed by a cannon shot, while on a boat on Lake Champlain. His mother, Abigail Deer, died October 5, 1792. CHILDREN OF JOHN AND HANNAH (STOW) DEER. I. Ruth, b. Jan. 28, 1781. II. Hannah, b. Aug. 30, 1782; d. same day. III. Laukanna, b. July 19, 1784. IV. Abigail, b. Feb. 5, 1786 ; d. same day. CHILDREN OF JOHN AND RHODA (FILLEY) DEER. V. Hannah, b. April 15, 1788. VI. Abigail, b. Aug. 11, 1789. VII. Roger, b. Oct. 3, 1791. VIII. Aman, • b. Feb. 3, 1793. Jonathan Deer, supposed to be brother to John, bought of him the south part of his lot, and first lived in a log house on Hall Meadow Road, near its junction with the Tuller and Chase road ; and in 1796, lived a little west of the center on the Old Country road, near the school house. In 1797 he is described as "absconded to parts unknown," in Esq. Alvord's Justice Records. He married, January 26, 1785, Mary Reed ; they had one CHILD. I. Jonathan Wheeler, b. Aug. 14, 1786. John Marshall, from Torrington, owned lands between the Norfolk and Brooks roads, and is supposed to have lived on or near the latter road, above Nelson T. Loomis. He probably died in the town before 1800 ; — as his widow married Andrew Everitt in December of that year. He married, March 31, 1780, Statira Hills, daughter of Deacon Seth. CHILD. I. Oliver, b. Aug. 3, 1780. (Removed to Vernon, N. Y.) Levi Norton, youngest child of Samuel and Mabel Norton, of Goshen, Connecticut, was born May 13, 1759. At sixteen he entered the Continental army under Putnam, and served until late in the fall of 1779, a period of nearly five years. Li 1780 he made a rude cabin under a chestnut tree between the two lakes, and began clearing the land of his future farm, and studying Dilworth's arithmetic by the blaze of his cabin fire. In 1782 he built his first dwelling, a few feet north of the red one and a half story house, which he erected in 1795, and thence occupied 152 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, until 1812. In this first dwelling, he introduced his newly married wife on the 23d of January, 1783 ; — and here labored day and night in clear- ing and cultivating one of the largest and best farms of the town. In May 1812 he removed to the wilderness of Wayne County, Penn- sylvania, where he foreclosed 5,000 acres of land and gathered an un- mixed Yankee settlement around him. He died January 21, 1823, aged 64 years. He was a prominent, intelligent, and influential man of the town, and a zealous JefTersonian. He married, January 21, 1783, Olive Wheeler, born in Bethlem, Connecticut, September 19, 1759; she died May 25, 1838. CHILDREN. I. Warren Wheeler, b. Nov. 12, 1783; m. Oct. 26, 1800, Polly, daughter of Martin and Mary North, of Winchester. Children : Hiram, Sid- ney M. II. Alva W., b. Aug. 10, 1791 ; [living in 1872], m. Nov. 21, 1816, Sallie Free- man, of Chester, Mass. Children: Emily A., Olive A., Maria S., Har- riet C, and Lucius F. III. Sheldon, b. Nov. 26, 1793 ; m. Sept. 14, 1818, Harriet, daughter of Grin- nell Spencer, of Winchester, Ct. ; he d. Sept. 15, 1838. Children: 1. Edmund Kirby ; 2. Oscar Montgomery ; 3. Abigail Catlin ; 4. Mary Elizabeth; of whom Edmund K. and Abigail C. were living in Wayne Co., Pa., in 1872. He was an early clerk of Wayne Co., and afterwards during his life an Agent of the American Sunday-School Union in Mis- souri, Iowa, and Wisconsin. IV. Clarissa, b. March 28, 1796 ; m. in 1821, Hon. Isaac Dimick, of Ottawa, 111., in 1872. Children: 1. Levi Norton; 2. Philo J.; 3. Ann; 4. Olive. V. Samuel, b. June 11, 1799; m. in 1822, Jerusha Tracy. Children: 1. Levi; 2. Philander; 3. Phebe; 4. Luther; 5. Tracy; 6. Washington. Samuel Roberts, probably from Torrington, bought of the executor of Joel Roberts, deceased, the farm of said Joel, and lived in the house above mentioned as the subsequent residence of Warren W. Norton, until 1802. His name appears as plaintiff or defendant in Justice Alvord's Records more than fifty times during the years 1796 and 1797, from which it is inferred that he was not of the most amiable disposition. We extract a single record in 1799 as a sample of many others. Stephen Carter, one of the grand jurors of Winchester, complained " that Samuel Roberts, of said town, did, at Winchester aforesaid, on the 17th day of September last past, in an angry manner, sinfully and wickedly curse or damn the person of Preserved Crissy of said Winchester," where- upon he was found guilty and fined one dollar with costs, amounting to two dollars and fifty-nine cents. He married, December 11th, 1783, Mary Brooks. He sold out to Martin North in 1802, and thereafter disappears from the records. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 153 CHILDREN. I. Naomi, b. May 20, 1785. II. Sylvester, b. March 30, 1787; d. May 20, 1787. III. Warren, b. June 27, 1788. IV. Minerva, b. October 14, 1790. Chauncet Smith owned and lived on lot 36, 3d division, on the Brooks road, in a house, on the west side, about 100 rods north of the Everitt House. The inventory of his estate was returned to the Norfolk Probate Court November 18, 1794. He married, April 9th, 1783, Sarah Page. CHILDREN. I. Lucinda, b. October 23, 1784. II. Abel, b. December 19, 1785. III. Orilla, b. October 3d, 1786. IV. Sarah, b. January 21, 1790. Elijah Thompson owned and lived on lot 19, 3d division, in the neighborhood of Newman B. Gilbert, Danbury Quarter. He conveyed to his sons Daniel and Elijah two portions of the same lot, on which they are supposed to have lived. Daniel Thompson married, November 2, 1788, Roxy Smith. CHILDREN. I. Huldah, b. November 15, 1790. II. Roxalana, b. September 20, 1791. Samuel Thompson married, March 3, 1788, Hannah Wolcott. CHILDREN. I. Samuel, b. May 17, 1790. II. Hannah, b. February 5, 1792. III. David Wolcott, b. February 13, 1794. David Ward came to this town as a schoolmaster, and this year bought lands on Blue street ; and the next year bought a part of the John Hills farm, near the burying ground. He married, January 1, 1784, Mary, daughter of David Austin, senior, and soon after became the owner of the farm in Wiusted. lately owned by Colonel Hosea Hinsdale, which he sold in 1796, and probably removed with his father-in-law to Vermont. CHILDREN. I. Mary, b. Friday ^ January 28, 1785. II. Lucy, b. November 14, 1786. m. Samuel, b. March 27, 1790. IV. Daniel, b. May 8, 1792. v. Laura, b. May 7, 1794. VI. Austin, b. March 27, 1796. 20 154 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, 1783. In the record of a town meeting, September 26, 1783, we are reminded of modern war times by a vote condemning the "commutation" adopted by the convention at Middletown, as " unconstitutional, and altogether unjust and unreasonable." In society meeting, the project of a new meeting-house was ventilated, and an application to the county court for a committee, to set a stake therefor, was voted. The committee having been appointed, and having set a stake, another meeting was held, which rejected the site selected, and set another stake, in Sam'l Hurlbut's lot, north of Dr. Everitt's, and about eight rods west of the allowance, and near the middle of said lot north and south, and appointed Captain Brownson to go to the county court, to get the doings of the society established. These doings were up- set by the vote of a subsequent meeting, reconsidering the aforesaid doings. The freemen admitted this year were Captain Peter Corbin, Levi Brownson, David Ward. Ichabod Loomis, Stephen Spencer, Samuel Smith, William Fay, David Austin, Jr., John Church, Benoni Brownson, and Levi Norton. The new comers of the year were Benoni Browmson, William Cham- berlin and William Chamb^rlin, Jr., Jedediah Coe, Timothy Cook, Joseph Elmore and Joseph B. Elmore, his son, Isaac Filley, Benjamin Judd, Joseph Piatt, Samuel Smith and Benajah Smith, his son, Ephraim Smith, Samuel Stancliff, Josiah Wade, Daniel Ward, Hopkins West, Nathaniel White. Major Benoni Brownson, from Berlin, distantly related to the other Brownsons in the town, lived in a house, now torn down, immedi- ately north of John J. McAlpine's late residence, until a few years before his death, when he removed to the Major Seth Wetmore house, then standing immediately south of the Hurlbut store, where he died December loth, 1833, aged 76. He is described as "a man of pleasant temperament, tolerably industrious, and a great talker." He married Mary Percival, of Berlin, and after her death he married (2d) Mrs. Lois Wetmore, daughter of Colonel Ozias Brownson, and the divorced wife of Major Seth Wetmore. CHILDREN BY FIRST WIFE. I. Chauncey, b. February 26, 1778. II. Orentus, b. December 3, 1779. III. Amelia, m. Elijah Blake, Jr. IV. Polly, m. Herman Munson. V. Parliament, VI. George, went South, d. unmarried. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 155 Chatjncey Brownson lived for some years in the original homestead of his father ; and after the breaking up of his family, in consequence of his partial derangement, he lived mainly in Winsted, until his death in 1853. He married May 1, 1806, Fanny Thrall, born August 9, 1783. CHILDREN. I. Edwin Worthy, b. October 24, 1807; d. of yellow fever at New Or- leans, October, 1841, unmarried. II. Samuel John, b. April 17, 1809 ; d. at the South, unmarried. III. Hiram Charles, b. February 1, 1811; d. at Columbia, S. C, May, 1863. IV. Parliament Hart, b. July 15, 1816; d. at New Orleans, of yellow fever, October, 1841, unmarried. V. George Washington, b. May 10, 1820; d. aged 7 years. VI. Mart Jane, b. April 2, 1826; m. lives in Missouri. Orentus Brownson migrated about 1800 to Burke, Vermont, whence he returned to Winchester, and at one time kept a tavern in the house of Washington Hatch, at the Centre. About 1835, he built and moved into the house now owned by Samjuel Smith, in Winsted, and followed the business of building through his remaining active life, during which he built, mainly by unassisted labor, nearly twenty dwellings. Though never educated as a mechanic, he did all the carpenter and joiner work, and not unfrequently, the masonry and brick and stone laying ; selling the house, when finished, to buy the lot and materials for building another ; changing his own residence from time to time, and closing his laborious and inoffensive life in the house now owned by Samuel A. McAlpine, August 19, 1859, aged 80. He married, October , 1804, Abiah, daugh- ter of Wm. R. Case. She died June 20, 1836, aged 56. He married, May 15, 1848, widow Huldah Munson. He had one child, Huldah L., born January 29, 1818; died March 18, 1838. Hon. Parliament Brownson removed in early life to Auburn, N. Y., where he became a lawyer of some eminence, and a man of great upright- ness and independence of character. He married, about 1847, a Miss Wood, and died childless some years afterwards. William Chamberlin, from Colchester, settled on the farm late owned by James L. Bragg, and occupied it until his death, January 6, 182 1, at the age of 86. His wife Mary died December 26, 1820, aged 87. William Chamberlin, Jr., owned and occupied a farm immediately north of his father's, now owned by Harlow Fyler, until 1809, when he migrated to Hudson, Ohio, where his descendants now reside. He mar- ried May 4, 1780, Joanna Skinner. 156 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, CHILDREN. I. Anna, b. June 13, 1782. II. Joseph, b. November 12, 1784. III. William, b. December 9th, 1786. IV. Mart, b. December 15, 1788. V. Ltdia, b. January 11, 1791. VI. Amos, b. July 2-1, 1793; d. at Hudson, Ohio, April 14, 1861. An obit- uary notice says, " He has contributed a large share towards the improvement of this township for the last fifty-two years. He was a man of the strictest honesty, and of unswerving integrity. He leaves a wife and eight children, besides a large circle of relatives and friends, to mourn his loss." VII. Asahel, b. August 13, 1795. VIII. Reuben, b. December 23, 1797. IX. Samuel, b. April 9, 1800. X. Lucy, b. March 17, 1802. XI. Philemon, b. January 31, 1804. XII. Hiram, b. December 27, 1807. Jedediah Coe is on the assessment list of this year. He owned land adjoining, or a part of, the Bragg farm, which he sold to John Nash in 1809, and then migrated to Burke, Caledonia county, Vermont, where some of his descendants now reside. Timothy Cook, from Windsor, owned a lot and built a house on Wal- len's hill, where he resided some years, after which it became the property of his father-in-law, Simeon Moore, of Windsor. In 1792, he bought a sixty-acre lot on Colebrook line, west of Green Woods turnpike, on which he afterwards resided. His wife's name was Hannah. Capt. JosErn Elmore, a blacksmith from Danbury, owned and occu- pied the place afterwards owned by Silliman Hubbell, and now by Norris Coe's widow, on the Norfolk road, a third of a mile west of Winchester Centre. His will was proved in Norfolk Probate District, December 26, 1801. He had, by wife Lucy, a son, Joseph Benedict, born in Danbury, November 16, 1769. Doctor Joseph B. Elmore, son of the foregoing, owned a house and lot previously owned by Dan'l Grover, on the discontinued north and south road, west of Orrin Tuller's, which he sold in 1799 to John Beecher, soon after which he removed to Granville, Massachusetts. Isaac Fillet, son of Abram and cousin of Remembrance, is on the list as a resident tax payer. Nothing further is known of him except the following town legislation, recorded on January 7, 1787: " Voted, that Isaac Filley shall mend and make good the gun he broke, belonging to James Hale, as good as when he received the gun." He married, December 9, 1782, Elizabeth Curtis, of Winchester. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 157 Benjamin Judd's name is on the list of this year, but his residence and history are unknown. His marriage to Dinah Filley, April 24, 1783, is recorded in the Church Records, and he is there described as of Dan- bury. Joseph Platt, from Danbury, uncle to Deacon Levi Piatt, lived on a lot north of the Edward Rugg Farm. He was a clothier, and had a fid- ling mill on the brook, a little south of the Potter negro house. He sold out in 1787, and afterwards moved to Ohio. Samuel Smith owned and resided on land near Winchester Centre, and was assessed as a tavern keeper this year. It is not easy to locate his residence, or to ascertain how long he dwelt in the town. In 1795, he is described in a deed of land as of Litchfield. Benajah Smith, son of Samuel, is grantee in 1784, of the above- mentioned land of his father, which he conveyed in 1787, to Roswell Coe. Ephraim Smith, known as " Deaf Smith," is on the list of this year. In 1794, Chauncey Smith conveyed to him his homestead above the Everitt house, which he sold to Levi Brownson in 1796. He is described as of Kent in a Recognizance dated June 27, 1797. Josiah Wade, of Litchfield, bought, November 11, 1783, a wedge lot in the second tier, first division, bordering on Torrington line, on which he afterward resided, and which he sold to Amasa Wade, April 23, 1786, when he probably left the town. Daniel Ward, from Middletown, owned a lot on Blue Street, on which he probably lived until 1789, when he bought and lived on land near the parting of the Norfolk road and the Brooks road. He had a rough tongue, which he kept in vigorous exercise, in wordy contests with his neighbor- in-law, Richard Coit, who was an able combatant in this species of war- fare. Squire Alvord's records show that he was somewhat addicted to profanity and breaches of the peace. Hopkins West, from Chatham, owned land near the Leonard Hurlbut place, and probably resided there until about 1785, when he is described, in his conveyance of the same land, as of New Cambridge district, Albany county, New York. Nathaniel White, from Chatham, owned land east of the little pond, now a part of the farm, late of Wm. F. Hatch. Where he lived, or when he left the town, is not ascertained. CHAPTER XIII. CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR— RESUME. The close of the revolutionary war is a fitting period for summing up the growth of our infant settlement since its incorporation as a town in 1771. The population at that period, as given in the petition of April 4, 1771, was, In the Society of Winchester, 28 families, embracing In the township and out of the Society, 4 " estimated at 179 souls. 26 " Total, 32 205 The census of 1782, in the Comptroller's office, gives the population at that period as 683 whites and 5 blacks ; Total, 688. The oldest complete Assessment Li*t of the town now to be found, is that of 1783, which has the names of 109 resident male tax-payers in Winchester Society, and thirty-nine in Winsted ; making the total of the town 148. We copy this assessment, as showing who were then the inhabitants of the town, — their relative condition as property owners, — the amount of improvements and accumulation of property. WINCHESTER SOCIETY. Amount of NAMES. Taxable Property. £. S. d. Daniel Andrus, 50: 5: Abram Andrus, 31: 8: 6 David Alvord, 33:11: 6 Thcophi lus Andrus, 15: 0: Abram Andrus, Jr., 26: 5: 6 Eliphaz Alvord, 68 : : Isaac Adkins, 49 : 11 : Jonathan Blackman, 38 : 13 : 9 Levi Brownson, 59:15: 9 Timothy Benedict, 49 : 7 : 6 Capt. (Ozias) Brownson, 98: 4: Amount of NAMES. Taxable Property. £. s. d. Wm. Benedict, 26: 5: 6 Benoni Brownson, 39 : 2 : 6 Peter Blackman, 40 : 3 : Joseph Bown, 21: 0: Lemuel Basset, 6 : 2 : 6 Capt. Benedict, 81 : 8 : 6 Timothy Benedict, Jr., 48: 1: 6 Joel Beach, 44 : : Elijah Castle, 22: 8: Aaron Cook, 51 : 7 : 6 Richard Coit, 3: 8: 3 FAMILY RECORDS. 159 Amount of NAMES. Taxable Property. £. S. A. Aimer Coe, 30: 3: Capt. (Peter) Corbin, 56 : 16 : John Church, 35: 1 : 6 Peter Corbin, Jr., 21: 0: Jedediah Coe, 21: 0: Jonathan Coe, 70:15: Sam'l Clark, 30:14: Robert Coe, 52 : 9 : 9 Sam'l Castle, 21 : 0: Daniel Cone & David Ward, 78: 7 : 3 Wm. Chamberlin, 25 : 15 : 6 Rozel Coe, 91:17: 6 Wm. Castle, 32: 2: Timothy Cook, 22 : 16 : 6 Daniel Clark, 29: 1: 1 Joseph Dodge, 33 : 4 : 6 John Dear & Salmon Hoskin, 50: 5: Eli Dolphin, 37:14: Andrew Event, 36 : 19 : Hannah Everit, 14: 1 : 6 Joseph Elmer,, 42: 0: Josiah Everit, 30 : 10 : Wm. Fay/. 24 : 10 : 6 Rem'b. Filley, 1:18: 6 Isaac Filley, 27 : : Abm. Filley, 79: 1: 6 Joseph Frisbie, 51: 2: Daniel Grover, 23 : 1 9 : 6 Phineas Griswold, 47 : 2 : Seth Griswold, 51: 0: Joseph Hoskins, 39 : 7 : 6 Stephen Hurlbut, 20 : 1 5 : Elijah Hubard, 23 : 1 5 : 6 Samuel Hurlbut, 93 : 1 7 : 6 Seth Hills, 83 : 6 : Widow Mary Hills, 5: 7: 3 James Hale, 29 : 1 1 : 6 Benjamin Judd, 17: 2: Seth Kellogg, 38 : 2 : o Ichabod Loomis, 66:13: 6 Daniel Loomis, 34 : : 6 Widow Leach, 2: 9: 6 William Leach,. 12:15: John Marshall, 26 : 8 : 9 Amount of NAMES. Taxable Property. £. S. d. LentMott, 32: 2: 6 Gershom McCune, Jr., 56 : 1 : Adam Mott, 22 : 6 : 6 John Minor 43:18: 3 Samuel McCune, 62 : 2 : 6 Gershom McCune, 49 : 13 : 6 Robert McCune, 94 : 19 : 6 Reuben Minor, 34 : : 6 Martin North, Jr., 23:17: 6 Martin North, 49 : 13 : 6 Levi Norton, 40 : 8 : 6 Joseph Piatt, 37 : 6 : 6 Benjamin Preston, 4:16: Ambrose Palmer, 51: 0: Samuel Preston, 59 : 1 : Ebenzer Preston, 34 : 2 : Moses Roberts, 21: 0: Samuel Roberts, 33: 2: Ephraim Smith, 22 : : Ephraim Smith (deaf), 19 : 13 : Samuel Stanclift, 0:12: Eleazer Smith, 32:19: 6 Lemuel Stannard, 27: 3: 6 Abel Stannard, 28 : 2 : Chauncey Smith, 25:13: 6 Samuel Smith, 14:15: 3 Stephen Spencer, 37 : 8 : 3 Thomas Spencer, 69 : 13 : William Stannard, 20:10: 6 Reuben Tucker, 45 : 18 : Elijah Thomson, 42 : 4 : 6 John Videto, 28 : 1 6 : 6 Jonah Woodruff, 36:17: 6 Nathan White, 38 : : 6 Daniel Waher, 23 : : Christopher Whiting, 48 : : 9 Samuel Wetmore, 61:. 0: 9 Elisha Wilcoxson, 74: 7: 9 Abel Wetmore, 47 : : Amacy Wade, 60 : 17 : 9 Lewis Wilkinson, 23 : 7 : 3 Jesse Wilkinson 27:18: 3 Levi Wilkinson, 24 : 12 : Hopkins West, 46: 0: Total Winchester Society, £4242 14s. lOd. 160 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER WINSTED SOCIETY. Amount of NAMES. Taxable Property. £. S. d. David Austin, Jr., 35:18: 6 David Austin, 45:13: 3 Elijah Andrews, 55 : 5 : 6 Nathan Balcam, 27 : : Jonathan Balcam, 28 : : John Balcam, 43 : 4 : 9 Samuel Clark 2d, 21:13: Uzal Clark, 28:16: David Crisse, 73 : 1 8 : Silas Dunham, 25 : 0* : Jesse Doolittle, 54 : 14 : Abijah Fuller, 21 : 19 : 9 Comfort Goff, 19: 8: Samuel Hayden, 46 : 4 : 3 Abel Hoskin, 55 : 16 : Stephen Knowlton, 28:19: 9 David Mills, 76 : 6 : Phinehas Potter, 30 : 14 : Lazarus Palmer, 21: 0: Reuben Palmer, 21: 0: Eleazer Porter, 36:15: Enoch Palmer, 59 : 5 : Benjamin Palmer, 23 : 14 : Samuel Stanclift, 18: 0: Elisha Spencer, 23 : 10 : John Sweet, 23 : 18 : Josiah Smith, 84 : 14 : Comfort Stanclif, 24 : : Simeon Rogers, 32 : 4 : Ebenezer Rowlee, 46 : 10 : Zebulon Thomson, 4 : 2 : Henry Walter, 37 : 1 7 : Freedom Wright, 42 : 13 : John Wright, 21 : 6:0 Charles Wright, 34 : 13 : 3 John Wright, Jr., 45 : 9 : 6 John Walter, 31 : 1 : Lemuel Walter, 28 : 6 : 6 David West, 47 : 2 : Amount of Taxable Property. £. s. d. 3 6 9 o .1 Total, Winsted Society, £1425 12s. 9d. This list was made up of the following items : 134 Polls from 21 to 70 years, at £18 : : 0. 40 do. " 16 to 21 " at £9 : : 0. 122 Oxen, 4 years old or upwards, at £4 : : 0. 271 Cows and Steers, 3 years old or upwards, at £3 : : 0. 100 Steers and Heifers, 2 years old or upwards, at £2:0: 0. 77 " " " 1 " " " at £1:0:0. 120 Horses, 3 years old and upwards, at £3 : : 0. 9 " 2 " " '.' at £2 : : 0. 7 " 1 " " " at £1 : : 0. 154 Swine, at £1:0: 0. 28 Smokes or fire place, at £0 : 7 : 6. 92 do. " do. at £0:3: 9. 586 Acres of Plow Lands, at £0:10: 0. 1027 " " Meadow Lands, at £0 : 8 : 0. 51 " " Bog Meadow Lands, at £0 : 5 : 0. 409 " " Bush Pasture Lands, at £0 : 2 : 0. 12219 " " Timber Land, at £0 : : 6. 3 Silver Watches, at £3 : : 0. 5 Taverners assessed at £15 : : 0. 1 Store, at £25 : : 0. 1 Grist-Mill and Saw-Mill, at £24 : 5 :0. 1 Saw-Mill, at £8: 15:0. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 161 2 do. at £4 : : 0. 1 Physician, at .£10:0:0. 2 {Shoemakers, at £5 : : 0. The number of dwellings is not specified on the list ; the tax being levied on the " smokes " or fire-places. From an examination of the list, the number of dwellings may be estimated at from seventy to seventy- five ; and their quality is indicated by the low assessment of the smokes, which are rated at 7s. 6d., or 3s. Qd. each, while the rate for smokes in houses in good repair is los. each. The cleared lands of all kinds, — bush pasture included, — amounted to 1015 acres; being about one-twentieth of the territory, and less than eight and a half acres to each resident land-owner. The quantity of land put in the list falls short of the whole territory of the town by more than six thousand acres. It is difficult to account for so large an omission, except on the ground that lands i( on mountains, inaccessible to teams," were not considered as taxable, even at the rate of sixpence per acre. We have quoted largely from year to year, the votes passed and the measures adopted to recruit the army, and aid the government with supplies for carrying on the war, as showing how much the success of that struggle depended on the legislation of the New England towns, and how zealously it was sustained by the efforts of our infant settlement. It is often said that the settlement of this and other neighboring towns was greatly accelerated by immigration of men of more prudence than courage or patriotism, who hop^d in this remote region to escape from compulsory military service. If this is true, they found it a poor refuge for non-combatant-, for it would be difficult to find an able-bodied man of that period who had not seen hard service, either as a volunteer or detached militiaman. Our infant town had her representatives at Ticonderoga, Bunker Hill, Quebec, Long Island, Saratoga, and many oth' j r battle fields. The following soldiers from this town went to Ticonderoga in 1775, in Captain Sedgwick's Company, Colonel Hinman's Regiment: — Warham Gibbs, Lieut., Nathan Balcom, William Stannard, Charles Wright, Jr., Hawkins Woodruff, Lemuel Walter, Adam Mott. John Derby, Noah Gleason, Jr., Ebenezer Shepard, David Goff, Abraham Wilkinson, Stephen Arnold, Peleg Sweet, Elisha Smith, Freedom Wright, Oliver Coe, Sen. • Charles Wright and Ebenezer Shepard marched to the relief of Boston on the Lexington alarm. 21 162 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Samuel Hurlbut, John Sweet, and Lemuel Stannard served in the 7th Regiment in 1775. Daniel Hurlbut Cone and William Lucas served in Colonel Meigs' Regiment in 1775. Benoni Brownson served in Captain Hooker's Company in 1775. Stephen Knowlton served 5th company, 3d Regiment. Judah West. " 8th " 2d Gideon Wilcoxson* " 10th . " 7th Shubael Cook, " 4th " 8th Ebenezer Rowley, " 9th " 8th Nathan Blackman, Capt. Smith's " 8th " David Beebe, " " 8th " Truman Gibbs, Major Weld's Company. Benjamin Palmer, " " Josiah Adkins, Captain Arnold's Company, Wooster's Regiment. John Arnold, Captain Denny's Company, Hosford's Regiment, in 1776. William Leach, Colonel Ducher's (4th) Regiment, in 1779. Do. Captain Converse's Company, 7th Regiment, in 1780. Lemuel Walter, Captain Alden's Company, Colonel Butler's Regiment, in 1780. Samuel Roberts, Captain Alden's Company, Colonel Butler's Regt., in 1780. John Balcom, Captain Alden's Company, Colonel Butler's Regiment, in 1780. Daniel Walter, Colonel Swift's Regiment, in 1780. Oliver Coe, Jr., Captain Porson's Company, Col. Butler's Regt., 1780. Samuel Mott, " " " Peter Corbin, Sherman's Company, 8th Regiment, " Daniel Wright, " " " Ebenezer Coe, " " " The following other men served in the continental army prior to 1780, as appears by a certificate of the selectmen : — George Hudson, Stephen Hurlbut, Gershom Fay, Peabody Stannard, Levi Wilkinson, William Fay, Jonathan Preston, Stephen Schovil, Timothy Fay, Prince Negro, Adam Mott, Seth Stannard, John Fay, Remembrance Filley, Jesse Wilkinson. * He served in Captain Beebe's Company in 1776, and died while a prisoner of war in the Sugar House, New York. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 163 Of these, Remembrance Filley, Gershom Fay, and William Fay, belonged to Captain Beebe's Litchfield Company. Oliver Coe, Jr., and Wait Loomis, also served under General Harmer, in the Indian "War in Ohio. David Austin, Daniel Corbin, and William Leach belonged to Captain Medad Hills' Company, enlisted in 1776. William Stannard served in Captain Morris's Company, Bradley's Regiment, in 1781. Richard Coit served in the 6th Troop in 1781, and in various regi- ments during the war. David Goff and his sin, served in the Northern Army in 1776. The names here given are found on such of the muster and pay-rolls and other documents as are preserved in the state archives, the series of which is very imperfect, and embraces only a limited portion of the military service performed. Scarcely a vestige is found of the seiwice of drafted militia, repeatedly called out from Litchfield County to Danbury. Horse Neck, Long Island, Peekskill, and other points on the North River, during the long, protracted struggle for the possession of the Highlands. Probably not an able-bodied man of the town failed of being called out more than once on this harrassing service. The town records refer, in 1777, to " those who went out with Ensign Ozias Brownson last April, with Sergeant Timothy Benedict in August, and with Lieutenant Benedict;" in 1778, "to Sergeant Free- dom Wright, and John Balcom, Jr., for doing a tour of duty last year in the Northern Army;" in 1780, "to those men who are or may be detailed with the army between the 1st day of June last and the 1st of January next." In 1781 it was voted to try to get Dolphin's son (a negro) " to count for Winchester," and " to make application to General Parsons, or some other general officer, to try to procure a pardon for Jonathan Preston, on account of his deserting the army," and " to raise a man to supply the place of George Hudson in the Continental Army." In 1782 it was voted "to hire the men now called for, for the guard at Horse Neck, and to fill the deficiencies in the Continental Army 'till December next." Many other inhabitants, not named in any of the pay rolls or votes of the town referred to, are known to have been in the service. John Church served in the Canada invasion under Arnold, and was in the battle at Saratoga. Deacon Seth Hills' served at Saratoga, and was present at Burgoyne's surrender. Joseph Hoskin served as a trooper on Long Island, and was in the rear guard at the retreat from Brooklyn Heights. 164 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Captain Moses Hatch enlisted at sixteen, and served through the war.* A company of which John Hills was Captain, and Ozias Brownson Lieutenant, served at New York while General Putnam commanded in that department. We have before us a " Muster Roll " of Captain John Hills' Company, for the year 1778, from which we copy the names, embracing all the sub- jects of military duty in the town at that period, though it is not sup- posed that all, or a major part of them, were on the special service at New York. Captain John Hills, Lieutenant Benjamin Benedict, Ensign Ozias Brownson, Sergeant Elisba Wilcoxson, " Jonathan Coe, Eliphaz Alvord, " Joseph Frisbee, Corporal Samuel Hurlbut, " Abel Wet more, " Josiah Smith, " John Wright, Fifer Belah Hills, " Levi Brownson, Drummer Joseph Dodge, " Andrew Avret, " John Austin. * The late Dr. T. S. Wetmore informed the compiler that on the passage of the Revolutionary Pension Law, Captain Hatch made application for a pension, which was rejected for want of documentary proofs of his service. He was theu advised by the Doctor to make another application, and to detail the events connected with his service, which might lead to. his identification. It was drawn up by the Doctor, and among other incidents he related the occurrence of his capturing a Tory spy while on picket guard, and bringing him before his colonel, who instantly recognized the spy, and ordered him to be taken out and shot, remarking that the fellow had once betrayed him into the hands of the enemy, and tried his best to get him executed as a spy. This application, with many others, remained undecided on the files of the War Department, until the Secretaryship of John C. Spencer, during President Tyler's administration, who determined to bring them to a final adjudication. While, examining Captain Hatch's application, the identical colonel called on him on business. Mr. Spencer read him the statement, and enquired whether he remem- bered the circumstance. He replied, " Yes, I remember it well, and the name of the captor of the scoundrel was Moses Hatch, as good a soldier as ever shouldered a musket." The pension was at once awarded. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 165 PRIVATES Daniel Andrus, Eli Andrus, Steven Arnold, Joel Beach, Nathan Balcona, Jonathan Balcom, John Balcom, Jr., John Beach, Timothy Benedick, Azariah Bradley, Aaron Cook, Hezekiah Elmer, Remembrance Filley, Daniel Grover, Zimri Hills, Chauncey Hills, Seth Kellogg, William Kies, Ichabod Loomis, Samuel McCune, Gershom McCune, Jr., Reuben Miner, Samuel Preston, Joseph Plat, Philip Priest, William Fay, Phineas Griswold, Ambrose Palmer, Reuben Sweet, Peleg Sweet, William Stannard, Reuben Palmer, Lazarus Palmer, Lemuel Stannard, Jr., Jesse Wilkinson, Rhuben Wilkinson, Reuben Tucker, David Alvord, Lemuel Walter, John Walter, James Stevenson, Richard Coit, Thomas Spencer, Amasa Wade, Joel Roberts, Timothy Fay, Steven Hurlbut, Phineas Potter, Preserved Crissee, Abraham Andrews, Jr. John Austin, Jr., Samuel Mott, Phineas Smith, David Mills, Daniel Corbin, Simeon Hurlbut, Samuel Roberts, Elijah Castel, Benjamin Palmer, Silas Filer, Peter Corbin, Jr., Samuel Castel, Moses Derbye, William Leach, Isaac Filley, John Spencer, Moses Roberts, Jacob Palmer, Daniel Loomis, Abner Coe, John Church, Palmer. This list embraces but few of the names of those who served in the early part of the war, — while many of the names copied have either been can- celed or encircled with lines, to indicate that by active service or for some other cause they had become exempt. 166 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, It is proper to say that some of the persons whose names have been ex- ti acted from the pay rolls, performed the services referred to before be- coming inhabitants of the town. On a general survey of the town at this period, it appears that the first or old Society was mainly settled ; and had nearly as large a population as it has at the present time. Then, as now, the southern portion had a dejiser population than the northern, or Danbury quarter. The portion of Winsted on or near the old North Road, was in a good measure settled, and inhabitants were thinly scattered along the Spencer Street Road, from Colebrook line down to the northern outskirt of the Borough of Winsted, and along the Still River valley from the crossing of tlv j . North road to Still River Bridge ; — and a few families had located on the South Street road. Deacon Austin had located himself and built his mill at the outlet of Long Lake, and a few other families had settled around him, but no set- tler had yet ventured down the hill into the savage and almost impene- trable valley now populated with more than three thousand inhabitants and active with a business exceeding that of any other village in the County. CHAPTER XIV. winchester society continued. 1784 to 1791. In annual town meeting of this year, in addition to routine business, it was voted " That swine be free commoners, with a good and suitable yoke." The society records show the doings of thirteen meetings during the year, none of which were of special interest. Efforts were made to collect arrearages on old rate bills, and a large number of them were wiped out by excusing the delinquents from payment. Six choristers were appointed, the difficulties between Mr. Knapp and disaffected parishioners were ventilated, and Rev. Messrs. Sherman of Goshen, Mills of Torringford, and Robbins of Norfolk were named as an advisory council " in matters between Mr. Knapp and j' Society ; " Mr. Knapp's accounts were settled, and a three and three-quarter-penny tax was laid to pay up the arrearages found due him. A place for building a new meeting house had been established by the county court, which, not proving acceptable, a new location was agreed on (by a vote of 33 to 16), near the burying ground, and then a new locating committee was appointed, whose doings were accepted, but it does not appear what place was designated. The new comers of the year 1784 were as follows : — David Gaylord from Cambridge, Hartford County, had an interest in the two wedge lots adjoining Colebrook line, at the northwest corner of the town. In 1792, in his deed conveying away these lots, he is named of Bristol. There was said to have been a man of this name who kept a tavern in that region in early times. Samuel Haw^ley from Salisbury, owned the farm in Danbury Quarter a little north of the burying ground, afterwards occupied by his son-in-law, John Benedict, and recently owned by William Price. He died on this farm, February 10, 1820, aged 74. He married July 30, 1782, Rebecca Taylor, who died March 9, 1820, aged 69. 168 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Didymus Shepard, named of Winchester, was tried before Justice Alvord, February 5, 1784, for ' 4 prophane swearing," and on his plea of guilty was fined 6s., and costs 2s. On April 26 following, he was again brought before Esquire Alvord, and tried for a like offence, on his plea of not guilty, whereupon he was acquitted, and ordered to be dismissed on paying the cost of prosecution, taxed at £l Os. 6d., and to stand com- mitted until the costs were paid. As his name no where else appears, it is probable that he fled the town through fear of another acquittal ! Pel kg Sweet, named of Torrington, July 10, 1784, and of Win- chester, August 24, 1785. owned and lived on the Harry Brooks Farm, Danbury Quarter, until 1807, when he moved to Ashtabula, Ohio. The house he occupied is believed to be the wing of the present residence of Mr. Brooks. He married November 20, 1777, Mary Wilkinson. CHILDREN. I. Lorrain, b. September 17, 1778; m. October 6, 1799, Huldah Benedict, and had one child, Candace, b. April 22, 1S00. II. Susanna, b. December 6, 1780. III. Isaac, b. March 13, 1783. IV. Mary, h. March 11, 1785. V. Clarissa, b. March 13, 1787; d. August 19, 1797. VI. Ara (twin), b. February 13, 1789. VII. Ira (twin), b. February 13, 1789. VIII. Lewis, b. April 7, 1791. IX. Frederick Aldridge, b. June 10, 1793. X. Peleg, b. August 10, 1795. XI. Clarissa, b. August 19, 1797. XII. Willard, b. March 13, 1800. 1785. No business of special interest was transacted in the town meetings of this year. The Society held eleven meetings during the year, with a view to locating and building a new meeting-house. A location would he fixed at one meeting, and reconsidered, and a new one established at another, and then the doings of the second meeting reconsidered, and the first location re-established. The size of the house to be erected was first fixed at 46 by 56 feet, then it was changed to 50 by 40, and then four feet was added to the length, and then a tax of one shilling on the pound was voted, and a committee appointed to apply to the Assembly for power to tax non-resident landowners eightperioe on the acre. A build- ing committee was appointed, who were instructed "to carry on the building forthwith." At this stage of the business, a new meeting was held, which reconsidered the previous doings, and petitioned the Assembly to free the Society from public taxes, until it can build a meeting-house. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 169 A subsequent meeting instructed Mr. Hurlbut " to repair tbe old meet- ing house, viz. : lay down boards on tbe joists, that people may sit above ; also, make a ladder or stairs to go up into the upper part of the meeting- house, and make seats to sit on above, and that he do the same at the cost of the Society." The old meeting-house, of unknown origin, and located nearly a mile south of the present center, has been already described.* It would be incredible that such a place " for men to sit above," as was constructed pursuant to the foregoing vote, could have been resorted to, were not the frame of the structure stillf a standing witness to the fact that the attic gallery existed, with the rafters coming down to the floor, the floor having an opening of not more than nine feet square over the pulpit, through which the good Parson Knapp was required to throw up his preaching to the hungry sinners who had made their venturous way up the outside ladder, through a gable door, into this cock-loft. It is equally hard to conceive that three readers and four or five choristers should be needed to conduct the psalm-singing in a building of such modest dimensions. The conflicting votes above referred to were all adopted between the first of January and last of May. In September it was voted " to build a meeting house near the crotch of the roads by Mr. Hurlbut's, at a stake and stones within Doctor Everitt's home lot, about twelve or fifteen rods from his dwelling house, if on application made to the county court said place shall be established," and " if the court do not establish the above-mentioned place, to apply for a new committee." October 6,' five choristers were appointed, and the vote to build the meeting house on the spot designated was reiterated. December 12 it was voted to build, cover, and close it in, and lay the lower floor by the first of the following October ; also, " to raise one shilling on the pound of the list of August, 1785, to be paid in good pine boards, or whitewood clapboards, or neat cattle, or labor, or good pine shingles, the boards and shingles to be delivered by y c ' 10th day of June next, and what is not paid by said 10th of June, to be paid in beef cattle by y' 10th day of October next, and y" above articles to be deliv- ered at y e meeting house spot." The building spot selected, and on which the new house was erected, and in process of time completed, was on the green nearly in front of the dwelling of Theron Bronson, Esq. The ground was then covered with a heavy growth of chestnut trees. 1785. The new comers of this year were as follows : — Salmon Hawley from Stratford, who built and lived in the first * Page 78. t This paragraph was written before the building fell, in 1867. 22 170 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, house above the Dugway, on the old Winchester road, lately owned by Sophronia Leonard, and now torn down. He sold out in 1795, and his name is not found on the tax list afterwards. He married Jane . CHILDREN. I. Jerusha, b. in Stratford, January 28, 1778. II Wm. Salmon, b. " December 25, 1779. III. Eunice, b. " April 20, 1782. IV. Susanna, b. " March 9, 1784. V. James, b. in Winchester, April 27, 1786. VI. Daniel, b. " February 16, 1789. VII. Avis, b. " May 17, 1793. Charles Kent, who lived in Hall Meadow, near Rufus Drake's, until 1787, was fined for profane swearing in 1787, and is described as an absconding debtor in 1788. Zeba Meacham is on the tax list of this year, and onward to 1789. He owned land on the old south road, north of the Everitt place. Simeon Moore, Jr., son of Simeon of Windsor, this year received by conveyance from his father the James Crocker farm, and other adjacent lands. He lived in the Crocker house (now torn down), at the parting of the old Waterbury Turnpike from the Green Woods Turnpike, until about 1808, when he removed to Ohio. His wife, Hannah, died October 22, 1794. CHILDREN. I. Lovina, b. April 16, 1786 ; m. Elijah Benedict. II. Wealthy, b. March 24, 1789. III. Simeon, b. June 8, 1791. IV. Hannah, b. January 15, 1794. Captain John Nash 6 came from Torrington to Winchester in early life, and for many years followed the joiner's trade, after which he became a highly respected and wealthy farmer. He first owned and occupied a house at the center, afterward burned down, which stood on the site of Rev. Frederick Marsh's residence. He afterward built and occupied during his remaining life the house now owned by his son, Alva Nash, Esq., half a mile north of the center. He was a man of pure life and kind heart, universally respected, and often employed in the affairs of the town. He was born in West Hartford, July 18, 1758, son of John 5 (born December 1, 1728), and Mary (Graves) Nash ; g. son of Moses 4 (born Hadley, July 2, 1696), and Rebecca (Kellogg) Nash; g.g. son of Lieutenant John 3 and Elizabeth (Kellogg) Nash ; g.g.g. son of Timothy 3 AND FAMILY RECORDS. 171 (born 1626) and Rebecca (Stone) Nash, and g-g-g-g. son of Thomas 1 and Margery Nash, who were among the first settlers of New Haven. He married Esther Whiting, born Torrington, September 13, 1763, daughter of Benjamin and Esther Whiting. She died March 4, 1835, aged 71 years ; he died October 21, 1835, aged 77 years. CHILDREN. I, Lucy, 7 b. May 8, 1783 ; m. December, 1801, John Wetmore. II. Hannah, 7 b. December 23, 1787; m. October 22, 1811 ; Wm. Cram. III. Alvah, 7 b. September 26, 1793. IV. Mart Graves, 7 b. January 21, 1797; m. 1819, October 27, Calvin Sage of Colebrook. V. Nancy, 7 b. June 2, 1801 ; m. May 30, 1827, Stephen Monson. VI. Samuel John, 7 b. September 25, 1806; d. Septembers, 1808. Alva Nash, 7 Esq., a clothier and farmer, resides in the paternal homestead, half a mile north of the center. He has twice represented the town in the General Assembly, and has held the office of justice of the peace. He married March 16, 1819, Rebecca Sage. CHILDREN. I Susan Rebecca, b. October 12,1820; m. November 4, 1845, Isaac A. Bronson. She d. April 7, 1857. II. Lorenzo Samuel, b. December 30, 1823 ; m. January, 1852, Caroline E. Tuller. Daniel Sandiforth's name is on the tax list of this year. He was son of the wife of Reuben Miner by her first husband, and is believed to have removed to New Hartford. Nathan L. Wade's name is also on the tax list of this year. Justus Wright, a cai'penter, who was of Torrington, December 29, 1783, was named in the tax list of 1785. He owned and occupied the former homestead of Aaron Cook in Blue Street, which he sold in 1795 ; he married December 2, 1784, Abigail Blackman ; had son, Calvin, born October 5, 1785. The freemen admitted this year were William Castel and Bela Hills. 1786. The following vote in town meeting this year, indicates a prudent care of the people to prevent improper allowances, by the Selectmen, of claims against the town. 172 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Voted, that not any person whatever, who shall do any service for the town the present year, shall be allowed to receive any reward therefor, nntil he shall exhibit his account before the next annual town meeting, and have his account allowed by said meeting. Another, appointing a committee " to examine into the debts due to and from the town, and make out an exact statement of accounts respect- ing the town's debts and credits and lay the same before the next town meeting," seems to show that the chronic tendency of the town's affairs to get into a snarl, had an early beginning. The Society, this year, voted a tax of 3 pence on the Pound, to enable the meeting house committee to procure glass and nails ; — to be paid in beef, cattle or pork, or flax seed, or one-quarter of it in butter or cheese, at the current market price, or in cash at a deduction of 10 per cent. The electors admitted- this year were John Wright, Martin North, Jr., and Richard Coit. The new comers of the year were: William Keyes, whose name is on the tax list of 1786, resided in the town until near the close of the last century. He is named of Torring- ,ton in 1797. He owned in 1786, for about a year, nineteen acres of land in the vicinity of Alva Nash ; and afterward had an interest in land on the Green Woods turnpike, near the Green Woods Hotel. He married, Jan- uary 2, 1777, Seba Smith. CHILDREN. I. William, 2 b. Jan. 12, 1778. II. Prudence, 2 b. Dec. 7, 1779. III. Sally, 2 b. " 24, 1783. IV. Trumbull, 2 b. Oct. 3, 1787. William Keyes, 2 married, November 23, 1797, Anna, daughter of John Sweet; lived in the house at the east corner of Lake and Rockwell streets, and died about 1800, leaving a son, William. She married (2d), Rev. Daniel Coe. London, on Lunnon, a negro, a resident of the town, was, this year, brought before Justice Alvord on a complaint for breach of the peace. The complaint was quashed. He had wife Phillis. 1787. A petition was brought to the October session of the General Assem- bly of 1780, for incorporating the east part of Winchester and the part of Barkhamsted west of Farmington River as a town, which was continued through the years 1787 and 1788, and finally rejected. In the annual AND FAMILY RECORDS. 173 town meeting of this year the town voted its assent to the prayer of the petition, provided the new town should not extend westerly beyond the Long Pond and the west boundary of the second tier ; which would have excluded all the inhabitants on Coe Street, north of the Indian Meadow bridge. The following document was entered on the Society records of this year. Winchester, October 9th, 1786. This may certify that I have received from the Society's Committee in full all that was due me from the So- ciety, from the beginning of the world to the year 1782. Witness my hand, Joshua Knap p. The following freemen were admitted this year : John Marshall, Abra- ham Andrews, Jr., John Nash, William Chamberlin, Ozias Brownson, Jr., Lemuel Bassett, and Martin Hurlbut. Only one new resident of Winchester Society is found this year, while the new comers into Winsted were more numerous than in any previous year. Davjd Hungerford, of that part of Farmington which is now Bristol, was a soldier in the French war, and died near Saratoga, New York, of camp fever, aged 45 years. He had five children, of whom David died about the same time as his father, of the same disease, aged 18. Joel and Jonah settled in Watertown, Connecticut, and had families. Ann mar- ried Rev. Mr. Tiler, and was the youngest. Reuben Hungerford, born in Bristol September 9, 1748 ; married, April — , 1776, Olive Gaylord, born June 24, 1760. He bought land in Winchester, February 4, 1780, when he was named of Farmington ; again June 14, 1783, when he was of Norfolk; and September 6, 1787 he was of Winchester, and so appears by frequent deeds thereafter. He first lived near the Norfolk line, until April 6, 1795, he bought of Moses Wright, of Colebrook, the place directly opposite the Green Woods Hotel, where he spent the rest of his life.* He served three months in the war *Hc was a man of great energy and marked peculiarities. The story is told of an assessment in old Winchester for building the second meeting house, in which he was assessed beyond all reason by the committee appointed for that purpose. At the meet- ing to which the committee reported their assessments, Mr. Hungerford protested in his nervous Saxon that he wouldn't pay such an extortionate assessment, — that they might build their own meeting house ; — and he would go down to Noppit to meeting. The meeting was adjourned without action on the subject matter for a week. At the adjourned meeting Mr. Hungerford entered another appearance with a changed mind. "Mr. Moderator," said he, " I told you t'other day I'd go to Noppit to meeting before I'd pay my tax. I've been thinkin' it over since, —and I now think, for a man who haint got no religion to go deviling off down to Noppit to get it, is a mean business. I won't do it, but I'll pay my tax like a man." 174 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, of the revolution. He died November 10, 1828. His wife was the pro- fessional mid-wife of the region, attending all calls, and often riding six or eight miles on horse back, with one of her own nursing babes in her arms, until incapacitated by age. Her last professional service being at the birth of George E. Woodford, March 27, 1836, when she had to be carried in a rocking-chair. She is entitled to this notice for assisting the compiler of these annals into the world in 1799. She died in Winchester July 6, 1839, aged 79. CHILDREN. I. Lois, b. in Winchester, Jan. 29, 1777; m. Nov. 20, 1794, Joseph Cowles; they were among the first settlers of Austinbnrgh, Ohio in 1801. She d. March 9, 1841. II. Polly, m. Shubael Coy, settled in Oxford, N. Y., where she d. in 1832. III. Amos, b. Dec. 17, 1781; m. 1814, Betsey Latourette ; settled at Mt. Morris, N. Y. He d. May 6, 1861. IV. Chauncey, b. ; d. aged 7 years. V. Reuben, b. June 3, 1786; d. Jan. 27, 1809. VI. Olive, b. April 19, 1788; m. Noah North; settled in Alexander, N. Y., where he d. Sept. 28, 1824, and she March 11, 1849. VII. Sally, b. Feb. 12, 1790; m. Jan. 23, 1813, Halsey Phillips ; set- tled in Colebrook, Ohio; she d. Feb. 2, 1867. VIII. Ann, b. April 5, 1793 ; m. Salmon Drake ; she d. Aug. 26, 1866, leaving a son Henry Hungerford, b. Feb. 21, 1833, who m. May 18, 1862, Mariam Roberts, b. in Colebrook, Sept. 7, 1840. CHILDREN. 1. George F., b. May 12, 1864. 2. Anna, b. Sept. 8, 1866. IX. Lucinda (twin), b. Dec. 30, 1794; in. April, 1825, Ethan Pendleton; she d. in Norfolk, June 29, 1829 X. Delinda (twin); b. Dec. 30, 1794; d. Jan. 10, 1809, of hydrocephalus. XI. Candace, b. Sept. 5, 1798; m. May 19, 1819, Samuel D. Gilbert; she d. June 17, 1840. XII. Amanda, b. Sept. 16, 1801 ; d. unmarried, Feb. 26, 1847. XIII. Chauncey, b. March 11, 1803; m. April 20, 1825, Cynthia Allen, b. Oct. 22, 1804 ; settled in Mt. Morris, N. Y. 1788. The town manifested its appreciation of the services of its officers and agents, by the following vote in annual meeting this year : Voted, that none that shall do business for the town, in the town, the year ensuing, shall have any wages therefoi*, except one meal of victuals a day. In Society meeting, a tax of 1^ pence on the pound was laid, " to ena- ble the Meeting House Committee to pay the debts they have contracted AND FAMILY RECORDS. 175 for building the meeting house, and also to procure glass for the glazing of the meeting house, to be paid by the 15th day of December next." This is the only record indicating the progress thus far made in the work, which by a former vote was directed to be finished by 1st October, 1786. The freemen admitted this year were, Justus Wright, Samuel Roberts, Peter Blackman, John Videto, Christopher Whiting, Levi Wilkinson, Joel Coe, Zalmon Benedict, and Jesse Hills. The new comers were as follows : Zalmon Benedict, son of Silas Benedict, from Danbury, who was killed in the Wyoming massacre. He returned with his mother to Dan- bury, and thence removed to Winchester this year as is supposed. He first lived in a log house in Danbury quarter, some thirty rods south ol the iron mine ; afterward on Taylor's Brook near Torrington line, — and after 1 805, in Danbury quarter, not far from the burying ground. He m. Chloe Perry, of Danbury. CHILDREN. I. John, 2 b. Oct. 22, 1789. II. Lovisa, 2 b. Nov. 12, 1791 ; m. Feb. 2, 1820, Norman Baldwin. III. Ruama, 2 b. June 1, 1794; m. — Pratt. John Benedict, 2 resided on the Samuel Hawley place, 100 rods north of the Danbury Burying Ground, till about 1869, and now lives in Norfolk. He m. Jan. 30, 1811, Rebecca, dau. of Samuel Hawley; she d. May 10, 1857. CHILDREN. I. Samuel Hawley, b. Jan. 25, 1814; m. Lavina Canfield. II. Laura, b. 1816; m. Samuel Hart. III. Lyman, b. 1818; m. Polly Simons. IV. Caroline, b. 1820; m. William Price. V. William, b. 1822. VI. Helen. b. Aug. 13, 1838; m. Newman B. Gilbert. Nathan Broughton lived until 1792 in a log house on Sucker Brook road, near the house built by James B. White, now owned by Fit- tus Stack. He probably left the town before 1800. He had wife, Elizabeth. CHILDREN. I. Charles, b. Jan. 23, 1782. II. Mary, b. Sept. 17, 1784. III. Darius Clark, b. Aug. 31, 1786; d. Sept. 5, 1788. IV. Nathan, b. July 31, 1788. 176 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER V. Darius Clark, b. Nov. 14, 1790. VI. Uriel, b. Oct. 12, 1792. VII. Esther, b. Aug. 13, 1794. Ephraim Foot, from Colchester, owned and lived on the Edward Rugg Farm, in Danbury Quarter, from 1788 to 171)5, after which he removed to Hamilton, Herkimer Co., N. Y. Roswkll Grant, son of Elijah Grant of Norfolk, resided until 1804 in the northwest corner of the town, on part of the Richard Beckley farm, and afterward lived for many years on the same farm in Norfolk. He was a large farmer and laborious man, honest and conscientious in a way of his own. Having carelessly left his barn doors open through a mid winter night, he punished himself the night following by again open- ing them and sitting in the draft of a bitter northwest wind until morn- ing. In his declining years he became poor, and worked in Winsted as a hired man. Such was his love for work, that he would steal off on Sun- days and hoe his pious employer's potatoes, without his knowledge, and without compensation. He joined the Continental Army when seventeen years old, and endured hard service with characteristic fortitude. When Baron Steuben was selecting his corps for special discipline, he passed in front of Grant's company while on parade. Grant was surprised to find himself the only man taken from the company, being, as he said, " such a little nubbin' of a fellow, I had no idea he would take me." While in the Highlands, he was posted as guard on one of the bleakest points, in extremely cold weather ; the army moved, without recalling him, but he stuck to his post till relieved, two days after. Going to Litchfield in his advanced life, on foot, a neighbor entrusted him with a letter to be delivered there. He had reached within a mile of his home, after dark, on his return, when he discovered that he had brought the letter back. He immediately turned and walked fourteen miles to Litchfield, delivered the letter, and came home before daylight the next morning. He m. Anna Coy, who d. March — , 1810, aged 50 years; and Its m. (2d) May 16, 1811, Mrs. Elizabeth Lawrence. She d. Oct. 6, 1815, aged 45. He d. July 7, 1837, aged nearly 75 years. CHILDREN. I. Mahala, b. Norfolk, July 31, 1785; ra. Elijah Pinney. II. Amarilla Minerva, b. N., March — , 1789; d. W., Ap. 23, 1852, unm. III. Deidamia A., b. N., May — , 1794; m. Edwin M. Strong. IV. Sage Washington, b. N., Aug. 13, 1800; ra. Lucy Spaulding of New Marlborough, Mass. He d. W., Nov. 4, 18t'.6. She m. (2d) Roswell Smith. They had a son, Ward Grant, now living. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 177 CHILDREN BY SECOND WIFE. V. A Daughter (twin), b. N., Feb. 11, 1812. VI. Anna Elizabeth (twin), b. N., Feb. 11, 1812. Hewitt Hills, son of Medad, of Goshen, a large farmer, and promi- nent business man of the town, this year settled on the farm, and built the house thereon, now owned by Henry Drake on Blue Street, near Tor- rington line. He was a representative to the General Assembly between 1790 and 1800, and filled at various times most of the town offices. In company with Thomas Spencer, Jr., about 1796, he built and traded in the building on Lake Street, where the depot of the Conn. Western R. R. now stands. He was a man of good person and address, shrewd in his business, and influential in the community. He removed to Ver- non, Oneida Co., N. Y., about 1805. No record of his family is found, except the following marriages of his daughters. I. Lucy Hills, m. May 28, 1795, Thomas Spencer, Jr. II. Mary Hills, m. Nov. 16, 1797, Abijah Brownson. III. Eliza Hills, m. Isaac Brownson. IV. Louisa Hills, in. March, 1802, Stephen Wade. Jacob Klmberly is named of Goshen, in a deed of January 23, 1788, conveying to him a half acre lot, with a house thereon, on the west side of the Hall Meadow stream near Torrington line, which he there- after occupied until 1791 or later. He was of Goshen in 1794, of Winchester in 1801, of Torrington in 1802. when he bought the farm now owned by Amanda Church, on the Little Pond road, near Green Woods Turnpike, and resided there until 1804, and then bought and occupied the George Raymond farm on Wallen's Hill, which he sold to Jesse Clarke in 1805. He was living in Otis, Mass., in 1815. He was a convivial man, of great humor. His witty sayings are still quoted by the old people in this community. Jacob Kimberly, Jr., in 1800, became the owner of the old Caleb Beach place, in Hall Meadow, and resided there until his death, Decem- ber 24, 1813. He married June 11, 1797, Nancy Pond. CHILDREN. I. Laura, b. April 15, 1798. II. Freelove, b. November 2, 1799 ; d. September 17, 1801. III. Olive, b. April 14, 1801 ; d. November 3, 1808. IV. Freelove, b. January 21, 1804. V. Horace Sidney, b. July 26, 1805. VI. Esther Emily, b. June 22, 1807. . 23 178 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, VII. Maiiy Mkiiitabel, b. March 17, 1810. VIII. Silas, b. April 29, 1812 ; d. December 6, 1812. IX. Jacob Harvey, b. November 8, 1813. Joel and Elisha Kimbekly, sons of Jacob, Senr., received from him a deed of land in 1 802, east of Green Woods Turnpike, opposite the Little Pond Road Bridge over Mad River, which they parted with in 1804, and are no more found on the records. David Murray, a Scotch-Irishman, was assessed on the list of this year. In 1789, his wife, Sarah, became the owner of a lot, with a log shanty thereon, on the easterly side of the Dugway road, nearly opposite Mrs. Sopronia Leonard's, in which they lived until 1793, or later. It is believed that they removed to Vernon, N. Y. Their son, William, had a family, and lived in various parts of Win- sted, until he removed to Colebrook about 1840. He married, not far from 1806, Ann Hewitt. Heman Smith, from Goshen, this year bought and moved on to the farm of Noah Gleason, on the south part of Blue Street, which he occu- pied until 1801, when he sold out to Isaac Brownson. and removed to Vernon, N. Y. He was a man highly esteemed, prominent in town affairs, and three times a representative of the (own between 1795 and 1800. He was a son of Stephen Smith from Farmington, was born in Goshen, and married Hannah Dunning. He left no record of his family in Winchester. 1789. The records of town meetings this year embrace routine business only. No freemen were admitted. Eleven society meetings were held. Much action was had on the matter of arrearages in the collection of society rates. Numbers who were too poor to pay were excused, and those delinquents not excused were allowed to pay in good merchantable sheep at a penny a pound, in lambs at a penny and a farthing, in good well-washed wool at sixteen pence, to be delivered to the Society's Committee at the parsonage by the 29th of June. A bad habit of unpunctual attendance at society meetings was attempted to be corrected by a vote " that all society meetings to be hereafter held, either by warning or adjournment, shall be opened within one hour after the time appointed," and " that no vote passed in such meetings after sun setting shall be deemed a legal vc te." The absence of any allusion to discontent with Mr. Knapp for a few AND FAMILY RECORDS. 179 years past seemed to indicate a wearing away of old grudges. We are therefore surprised to find the following vote of July 17 : — Voted — That Lieutenant Samuel Hurlbut, John Minor, Levi Norton, Thomas Spencer, and Huitt Hills, be a committee to attend with the Church Committee in stating the matters of grievance with Rev. Mr. Knapp's past conduct. July 24 it was voted, to lay our matters of diffi- culty between Mr. Knapp and the Church and Society before the Association, and to invite the Association to meet at the house of Levi Brownson, on Tuesday, three weeks from next Tuesday, at 1 1 A.M. August 19 it was voted "that it shall be lawful to transact business in this meeting until midnight," and before midnight it was voted to accept the advice of the Association What causes of grievance were presented, and what advice was given, does not appear, either on the society or church records, but probably a dismission was recommended, as it was voted, September 8, to join with the church in calling the Consociation to dismiss Rev. Mr. Knapp from his pastoral charge on the day appointed by the church, the second Tuesday of October next. On the church records is entered a request of Mr. Knapp, and a vote of concurrence by the church, passed on the day assigned for meeting of Consociation, that the pastoral relation of Mr. Knapp to the church should be dissolved. " Mr. Knapp was a talented preacher, and a good man. He retained the affection of a large portion of his people as long as he lived ; preached to them whenever he visited the town during his labors in other fields ; came back among them to spend the last years of his life, and had a handsome stone erected over his grave by his life-long friends." The new comers of this year were as follows : — Francis Bacon, named "of Farmington," bought, August 21, 1789, a forty-one-acre lot between Harvey L. Andrews' and the Bragg house, on which he probably lived until 1794, when his name last appears on the tax list. He is named of Barkhamsted in 1798. John Bacon's name appears on the tax list of this year. He lived on a lot immediately south of the one owned by Francis Bacon, which came by inheritance to his wife, Sarah, from her father, Joseph Foot of Simsbury. They sold out in 1798, and left the town. He married, January 4, 1782, Sarah Foot. children. I. Sarah, b. July 31, 1785. II. Abiah, (dau.) b. April 10, 1788. III. Laura, b. August 18, 1790. 180 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER IV. John, b. November 7, 1792. V. Seth, b. December 8, 1794. VI. George, b. March 23, 1797. Levi Bkownson 2d, son of Ozias, before referred to, this year purchased the first portion of his large farm, on which he afterwards lived until his death, October 16, 184G, in the red house on the Norfolk road, near the extreme northeast corner of Goshen. He was connected with his brothers Asahel and Isaac in trade, at the center, lor several years early in this century. David Deer's name is on the tax list of this year, and is not found elsewhere. John Lucas, son of Thomas Lucas of Goshen, came from Norfolk to this town this year, and bought and occupied the Roswell Coe farm, subsequently owned by Amasa Wade, Jr., being lot 42, second division. He sold out and moved to Blanford, Mass., about 1808, where he died three or four years later. For more than half of the last twenty years of his life he was so deranged as to need confinement. According to record of Deacon L. M. Norton he married Jerusha Coe of Torrington, and had CHILDREN. I. Eoxana, b. September 12, 1765; m. N. Stanley Parmelee. II. Esther, b. July — , 1768 ; m. Thadeus Fay, and Ira Glcason. III. Jerusha, b. , 1770; m. Thomas Porter; d. 1837. IV. Thomas, b. April — , 1784; m. Hannah Turner. Deacon Levi Platt came from Danbury to this town when a boy, with Joseph Elmer, of whom he learned the blacksmith's trade. He was a schoolmaster in his early manhood. In 1790 he bought of Martin Hurlbut, land now composing, it is believed, part of the farm of Harvey Andrews, — on which he lived until about 1794, when he bought, and occupied during his remaining lile, the farm recently owned by his son, Sylvester Platt, Esq., now deceased. He died August 14, 1856, aged 91. Deacon Platt was a Puritan of the Puritans ; firm as the everlasting hills in his political and religious principles ; and withal, a man of hum- ble, sincere piety, faithful to every duty as a father, a church member, and citizen of the town. He succeeded his father-in law, Eliphaz Alvord, as Town Clerk and Register, and as Deacon of the Congregational Church, and was a member of the Convention of 1818, which formed our State Constitution. His Pastor, Rev. Frederick Marsh, thus speaks of him in 1852 : " This truly venerable and patriarchal man still lives among us. At the age of AND FAMILY RECORDS. 181 86 he enjoys good health, retains in an unusual degree his mental powers, reads much, and converses sensibly and interestingly. It is now 68 years since he joined the church by profession. In the education of his family, in his observance of the Sabbath, attendance on public worship, regard for the institutions and duties of religion, and general course of life, Deacon Piatt has been a striking representative of the Puritan character. He and his wife both united with the church before they were 19 years old, and six or seven of his children became hopefully pious before they were twenty-three years old." He m. Feb. 5, 1792, Esther Alvord, dau. Eliphaz, Esq. She d. March 28, 1840. He d. Aug. 14, 1856, aged 91. CHILDREN. I. Abi, b. July 25, 1793; m. Jan. 7, 1850, Hiram Royce of Norfolk. II. Eliphaz Alvord, b. May 3, 1796; d. May 7, 1807. III. Ezra Hart, b. Sept. 18, 1798. IV. Sylvester, b. May 17, 1800. V. Levi, b. April 11, 1802; m. Parmela R. Munger; went to Colliiisvillc, Conn., and thence to Hartford, where he now resides. VI. Lucy, b. Oct. 31, 1804; m. March 10, 1847, Hiram Royce of Norfolk. VII. Elizabeth, b. Sept. 19, 1806. VIII. Eliphaz Alvord, b. Feb. 6, 1809. IX. William, b. Dec. 16, 1816; d. Feb. 28, 1840. Sylvester Platt resided on the farm owned by his father, until some three years before his death ; he filled the office of Justice of the Peace and Town P.epresentative, besides other minor stations, and died at Winsted, Sept. 18, 1870. He in., Norfolk, Sept. 4, 1833, Mary, dau. of Wilcox Phelps. CIIILDREN. I. Levi Wilcox, b. Aug. 27, 1834; d. Dec. 9, 1844. II. Helen Rebecca, b. Sept. 6, 1837 ; d. Jan. 19, 1840. III. Edwin Sylvester, b. Sept. 30, 1839; m. Feb. 12, 1863, Elizabeth Brooks. Levi Platt, Jr., m. Pamelia R. Munger. CHILDREN. I. Helen Esther,. b. Dec. 27, 1824. II. Ruthy Sjiith, b. Oct. 10, 1826. III. Elizabeth, b. Sept. 5, 1828. IV. Mary Jane, b. Aug. 22, 1831. Daniel Thompson, named of Wethersfield, in a deed of land to his 1 2 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, wife, Hannah, lived on the Brooks street road, above the old Everitt house, until 1793. He m. Nov. 2, 1788, Roxy Smith. CHILDREN. I. Huldah, b. Nov. 15, 1790. II. Roxalana, b. Sept. 20, 1791. 1790. The matter of incorporating the Society of Winsted, as a Town, was again ventilated in Town Meeting this year; and a vo;e of acquiescence was passed, in case the dividing line should run northerly along the res- ervation in the second tier, to Mad River, and thence, along the east line of the tier, to Colebrook. This line would cross the Pond Stream, near Hurlbut's Forge, thence diagonally, through Meadow Street, to Mad River, a little east of Dudley's Tannery, and thence along the Street Hill range, a division "not fit to be made." The General Assembly failed to pass the act of incorporation ; and it is believed that no petition has since been carried to the Legislature for a division of the town. No freemen were admitted this year. The Society of Winchester, being without a Pastor, devoted itself as- siduously to finding and settling a successor to Mr. Knapp. Fortunately they were spared the calamity of a succession of candidates, and the con- sequent dissensions growing out of divided preferences. Parish hunters were rare in those days ; for the supply of ministers was hardly equal to the demand ; and the salaries given, or promised, in the new towns, offered small inducements to the class of men caring more for the fleece than for the flock. It was the custom of those days for a vacant parish to apply to neigh- boring ministers for advice in the selection of a candidate for settlement, and to employ only such as were thus accredited. Fathers Mills of TorringforJ, and Robbins of Norfolk were repeatedly called in during the year, to help on and guide the church and society in wooing their new spouse. Early in January, Rev. Publius V. Booge (pronounced Bogue), a graduate of Yale, in the class of 1787, was applied to, " to preach with us on probation." This application was repeated in April, and Messrs. Robbins and Mills were invited to come and counsel with them on the 26th. On that day the society voted " to continue Mr. Publius Virgilius Booge to preach with us longer with a view for a settlement, if hereafter he and we should agree." Another very pi-ovident vote was passed at the same meeting in these words : " that the Committee be directed not to contract with Mr. Booge, unless AND FAMILY RECORDS. 183 he will agree to receive for his pay not more than one quarter part thereof in cash, and les.-, if the committee can agree with him to take less, — and the remainder in the produce of our farms." June 21 and 25, it was voted, "to invite Mr. Booge, to preach with us four Sabbaths, after the time expires for which lie is now engaged at New Cambridge." and " that the committee invite the inhabitants of the north part of Torrington " (the " Noppit," or " Newfield " people) " to apply, if they see cause, to the General Assembly to annex them to this society. September 1st, it was voted to give Mr. Booge a call, with a " settle- ment" of one hundred and fifty pounds, and a salary of seventy-five pounds a year. This vote was modified September 6th, so as to make the Settlement payable in three successive annual installments of fifty pounds each, — and to be payable in neat cattle, good merchantable shipping horses, and sheep, at current market prices ; — the settlement to be abso- lute in case he continued in the pastorate fifteen years ; — if not, then he was to refund ten pounds a year for such time as falls short of fifteen years ; — and that the salary should be paid, four-fifths of seventy pounds in farm produce, and one-fifth thereof in cash, — the remaining five pounds to be paid in wood at four shillings (67 cents) a cord, in eight feet lengths, delivered at the parsonage. October 8th, Messrs. Robbins and Mills were again called in to the meeting, and the proceedings of the two previous meetings were laid be- fore them for their advice thereon ; — after which a formal vote was taken to settle Mr. Booge according to the modified terms above. The result was, twenty-eight affirmative, five negative, and four "neuter" votes. It was then voted to send to the Association for advice and to desire Messrs. Robbins and Mills to write to Mr. Booge to meet a Committee of the So- ciety, and wait on the Association for their advice. It was voted, October 21st, to accept the advice of the Association and that the Committee wait on Mr. Booge as quick as may be, and see if he is suited with the proposals, and ascertain what alteration, if any, he would choose. November 15, the terms of the settlement were so altered as to ex- clude horses, and stand for cattle and sheep only, : — and that the time and mode of delivery should be made more specific. The farm products were specified to be Wheat, Rye, Indian Corn, Oats, Flax, Beef, Pork, Tallow, Butter, and Cheese. The refunding of a portion of his settlement was to be contingent on his failing to serve in this ministry fifteen years, by reason of death or otherwise, if he be the blamable cause of separa- tion ; — this question to be determined by a mutual council. November 30th, the several votes respecting settlement and salary, as amended and modified, were consolidated into one clear, formal vote, 184 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, which was duly passed, and all former votes in reference thereto were re- considered, annulled and made void, — and the Committee were directed to lay before Mr. Booge the doings of the meeting. They were also di- rected to furnish Rev. Mr. Robbins with copies of the votes of the Church and Society, to be laid before the Examining Committee of the Associ- ation. December 27th, the provisions of the amended vote were so altered as to change the time of delivery of the form products, — and so to change the wood contract as to make the supply twenty-five cords per year with- out reference to price ; — and the Committee were directed to lay the newly amended vote before Mr. Booge, — and in case of his approval thereof, to invite him into the meeting to agree with them on a time for ordination. The result of these votes, and the conference with Mr. Booge were, that the 12th of January, 1791, was fixed on for the ordina- tion, and that the Consociation meet at the house of Major Brownson, and that he make provision for their entertainment. The ordination did not come off on the 12th of January, as voted ; probably by reason of Mr. Booge's hesitation to accede to the terms of settlement, so painfully and carefully elaborated. On that day it was voted " that the Committee wait on Mr. Booge and request his answer whether he will settle with us in the work of the ministry," — an adjournr ment of half an hour, — and then another of eight minutes, — wa j had ; — after which the 26th of January was fixed for the ordination — a day of fasting and prayer was appointed for the 18th, and Rev. Messrs. Robbins and Mills were invited to attend ; — Capt. Elmer was directed to make provision for the ordaining council, and Robert McCnne Major Ozias Brownson, Levi Brownson, Esq. Alvord, Dr. Everitt, Richard Coit, iiuitt Kills, John Nash, Jesse Hills, Capt. Wilcox and Andrew Everitt were ap- pointed to be tavern-keepers on the day of ordination. The Church records make up in brevity for the prolixity of the Society records of this event. They simply contain a vote passed November 30, 1790, "to give Rev. Mr. Publius V. Booge a call to take the pastoral charge of this Church." No record of the ordination council, or of the exercises, is to be found ; - — and it is impossible to ascertain whether the new meeting hou-e was so far completed as to be used for the occasion, or whether the exercises were in the old house. The conclusion naturally arrived at by inspecting the interminable proceedings of seventeen Society meetings from which we have quoted, is that the Society and its minister were keen at a bargain, and were de- termined to understand each other fully. The nature of the arrange- ments also shows the extreme scarcity of money, and the rigid economy necessarily practiced in those days. Long as the quotations are we trust AND FAMILY RECOKDS. 185 they will interest the reader of the history of our little commonwealth, as an illustration of the customs of the times in regard to the hearing-, callinsr, and settling of a life-long minister.* The only new comer of this year in Winchester seems to have been Isaac Skinner, named of Colchester in his deed of land from Martin Hurlbut. This land, on which he probably lived, is supposed to be now a part of the farm of Harvey Andrews ; but no conveyance of it by Mr. Skinner can be found. He is assessed on the list of 1795, and not after- ward. He married, November 11, 1790, Mary Saxton. I. Mary, II. Isaac, III. Alva, CHILDREN. b. Oct. 20, 1791. b. April 4, 1793. b. July 10, 1795. * We find among our papers, a memorandum of the names and length of the pas- torates of the ministers composing the council which ordained the Rev. Mr. Knapp. which was omitted in connection with that event. As showing the permanency of pastoral settlements in the last century we here transcribe it. Dr. Joseph Bellamy, Bethlem, 1738 to 1789, 51 3 Rev . Nathaniel Roberts, Torrington, 1741 " 1776, 35 tt Jonathan Lee, Salisbury, 1743 " 1788, 45 " Daniel Brinsmade, Washington, 1749 " 1793, 44 " Daniel Farrand, Canaan, 1752 " 1803, 51 tt Thomas Canfield, Roxbury, 1744 " 1795, 51 " Abel Newell, Goshen, 1755 " 1781, 26 a Noah Benedict, Woodbury, 1760 " 1813, 53 a Jeremiah Day, New Preston, 1770 " 1806, 36 " Ammi R. Robbins, Norfolk, 1761 " 1813, 52 " Asaiiel Hart, North Canaan, , 1770 " 1775, 5 " Peter Starr, Warren, 1772 " 1829, 57 Total years, 506 Average 1 ength of pastorate, 421 24 CHAPTER XV. annals and records. 1791 to 1801. The town records of this year are devoid of interest otherwise than as showing that the revolting system of bringing town paupers to the auction block was initiated by the following vote : — " Voted, that the selectmen be directed to take charge of Remembrance Filley, and conduct with him as they shall think most for his comfort, and will be least expensive to tbe town, whilst he remains in his present state of delirium, either to set him up at vendue to the person who will keep him the cheapest, or dispose of him in any other way which may appear to the selectmen more convenient, and for such time as they may think reasonable, and on the cost of the town." The record then states that " Ensign Bronson bid off Remembrance Filley at eight shillings per week, for two weeks, and at ten shillings for two weeks after," and " Samuel Wetmore second bid him off to keep him two weeks at ten shillings per week." In this case the step may have been necessary and justifiable, by reason of the want of lunatic asylums at that early day. Another vote of the same meeting shows that the auctioning of paupers had not yet been fully adopted. It was voted " that Daniel Loomis take the oversight of building the house of Benjamin Preston, and inspect the labor done, and the stuff provided for said house, and make return to the selectmen." As a specimen of the economical spirit of the town we extract the following : — " Voted, to sell the two Congress Laws and Kirby's Reports. Ensign Coe bid off one Congress Law, at ten shillings. Samuel Wetmore second bid off second Congress Law, at six and ninepence. Hewitt Hills bid off Kirby's Reports, at thirteen shillings." Adna Beach from Goshen, this year bought a farm on Blue Street, recently owned by Archibald Dayton, on which he lived until 1811, when he sold to Asahel Bronson, and removed to the farm on the old FAMILY RECORDS. 187 Waterbury turnpike, Danbury Quarter, lately owned by John A. Bidwell, where he died April 20, 1820, aged 63. He was a man of standing in the town, and executed many public trusts. His father, Aclna, was son of Deacon John Beach, one of the thirteen members of the Goshen Church, at its formation in -1740. His grandmother was Hannah Miles from Waliingford. He was born at Goshen, November 10, 1757; married October 11, 1781, Mary, daughter of Captain Timothy Stanley of Goshen. She died September, 1837. CHILDREN. I. Sally, b. June 4, 1783; ra. Samuel H. Wetmore. II. Horace V., b. September 10, 1784; studied medicine, and practised at Lexington, N. Y. ; afterward at North Goshen, Conn., and in 1847 removed to Memphis, Michigan. He m. Harriet A. Camp, and after her death he m. (2d) Huldah H. Bailey. He d. in Flint, Michigan. Children by first wife: 1. Horace A. Children by second wife: 2. Cicero B., b. 1815; m. Semantha Bailey ; she d. and he m. (2d) Zelia Chamberlain; 3 Albert Nelson, b. January 19, 1818; m. April 24, 1844, Sarah Ann Trafford, b. Cornwall, September 25, 1825; lives in Winsted, and has children, Elizabeth Lucell, b. Canaan, October 19, 1846; Delia Lucelia, b. C, August 18, 1848; d. October 11, 1850; 4. Adna S., b. 1820; 5. Joseph M., b. 1822; 6. Harriet U., b. 1824; m. Royal Lewis; 7. Sophronia, b. 1826; d. unmarried; 8. Sarah, b. 1828 ; m. and d. ; 9. Mary, b. 1830, m. — Wedge. III. Polly, b. July 7, 1786 ; resided, unmarried, in Liberty, N. Y., in 1860. IV. Fiske, b. March 26, 1788 ; owned and occupied the Edward Rugg farm, in Danbury Quarter, from 1814 to 1827, when he moved to Hunter N. Y. He m. February 24, 1S14, Roxa, daughter of Captain Stephen Fyler of Torrington ; she d. and he m. (2d) Mrs. Pryor. He had children: 1. Frederick; 2. George; 3. Mark; 4. Charles; 5. James; 6. Roxa. V. Hannah L., b. November 15, 1789 ; m. October 28, 1812, Harry Blake. VI. Adna, b. December 8, 1791; m. at Hunter, N.Y., Widow Abigail (Bailey) Showers. He moved in 1826 to Hunter, N.Y., and afterward to Liberty, N.Y. VII. Sibyl, b January, 1794; m. September 16, 1814, John Lockwood of Hunter, N.Y,, and had children: 1. Harriet, m. Charles Beach; 2. Mary, m. Dr. Robinson ; 3. Elizabeth, m. Alfred Green ; 4. Horatio, and 5. John. VIII. Mabel, b. November 3, 1795; m. October 28, 1812, Deacon Allen Blake of Winchester. IX. Silas, b. November 11, 1797 ; m. Lovina Ford. He moved to Hunter, N- Y., in 1826, and afterward to Liberty, N. Y. Rev. Publids V. BOoge, the second pastor of the Winchester Church, bought in 1791 the lot on which he built the lean-to house, west of the center, on the Norfolk Road, now owned by Leonard Hurlbut. He sold to Hon. Phineas Miner, in 1799, and followed a large number 188 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, of his parishioners to Vernon, N. Y. He married Catharine, daughter of Colonel Timothy Robinson of Middle Granville, Mass. CHILDREN. I. Decius Eobinson, b. January 29, 1792. II. Huldah Mat, b. August 31, 1793. III. Timothy Lester, b. December 7, 1794. IV. Horace P., b. December 22, 1796. V. Sophia, bapt. June 12, 1799. Nathan Brown, named " of Winchester," this year bought a thirty- acre lot south of the Edward Rugg place, in Danbury Quarter, which he conveyed to Ambrose Palmer in 1792. Levi Cot married Anna, daughter of Ensign Daniel Andrews. He lived on the north side of Mad River, near the Danbury School-house, and sold out to Phineas Griswold in 1802. Silas Ftler bought land in Torrington, came to make a clearing preparatory to moving his family, and while so engaged he lived with Chauncey Hills, where he was taken sick, and died April 12, 1779, aged 69 years. He was born about 1710 ; son of Zerubabel and Rachel (Gillett) Fyler ; g. son of Zerubabel and Experience (Strong) Fyler, and g.g. son of Lieutenant Walter Fyler, one of the early settlers of Windsor, and Jane, his wife. He married about 1747, Catharine Drake, who was born about 1730. She settled, with her family, on the farm he was preparing in Torrington. CHILDREN. I. Abi, b. 1748 ; m. 1782, Josiah Everitt. II. Cathvrine, b. 1750; married 1770, Samuel Rowley. III. Silas, b. 1752; m. Lucy Drake. IV. Jane, b. 1754; m. Ephraim Loomis [mother of Oliver]. V. Stephen, b. May 27, 1755; m. 1779, Polly Collier. He d. Tor., July 15, 1836. VI. John (twin), b. May 27, 1760 ; m. December 27, 1787, Esther Bacon. VII. Bethursda (twin), b. May 27, 1760; m. Asahel Bronson. VIII. Sabra, b. April 24, 1764 ; m. May 18, 1804, Juna North. IX Roman, b. August 12, 1769. Roman Ftler from Torrington, bought from Martin North, Jr., the Noble J. Everitt place, a third of a mile south of the Winchester Meeting-house. In 1794, in company with Reuben Marshall, he built the Washington Hatch house at the center, in the north wing of which they kept a country store, while Mr. Fyler kept a tavern in the body of the house. About 1800 he removed to Burke, Caledonia Co., Vt., where AND FAMILY RECORDS. 189 he resided during his remaining life. He was a prominent and influen- tial man of the town, and was a pioneer settler of Burke, to which a large number of families from this and the neighboring towns migrated with him. During his residence there he laid down the first aqueduct in Troy, N. Y., and opened the first road through the White Mountains of New Hampshire, which became the thoroughfare of travel from Vermont to Boston. He married February 8, 1793, Hannah Barton, born April, 1770; she died November 15, 1795, and he married (2d) 1797, Mrs. Sally (Bray) Lyman of Goshen. CHILDREN. I. Orsemus Roman, b. Nov. 4, 1793 ; d. unm, at Harlow Fyler's. II. Barton Nichols, b. Oct. 19, 1795 ; had a twin sister d. at birth. CHILDREN BY SECOND WIFE. III. Alfred Brat, b. Jan. 17, 1799. IV. Horace R., b. 1801. V. Marcus W., b. 1805. VI. Calvin, b. 1808. VII. Minerva, b. 1810; d. 1811. VIII. Carlton C, b. 1812. Theodore and Russell Goodwin, hatters, from Hartford, this year bought the homestead of Rev. Joshua Knapp, a mile east of the center near the intersection of the Easterly and Dugvvay roads. Theodore Goodwin sold his interest in this property to his brother Russell in 1795, and bought the Noble J. Everitt place, which he ex- changed in 1798 with Dr. Josiah Everitt for the old yellow store build- ing and lot, until recently occupied successively by Isaac Bronson, and Theron Bronson, as a country store, and which has recently given place to the new store building of the latter. This one story building Mr. Goodwin occupied as a tavern and hatter's shop until 1809, when he removed to Granville, Mass., where he died at a good old age. He was a man of keen intellect and immor, whose sayings are often quoted by the old people of the town. He was Town Clerk and Register in 1798. He m. Nov. 11, 1792, Lucy Adams. She d. March 6, 1804, aged 31 ; and he m. (2d) June 24, 1805, Harriet Prior. children by first wife. I. Laura, b. Nov. 23, 1793. II. Abigail, b. Sept. 11, 1796; d. June 26, 1810. III. Lucy, b. Apr. 11, 1800. 190 ANNALS OF WLNCHESTEK, BY SECOND WIFE. IV. Harriet Prior, b. Aug. 17, 1806. V. Sidney Wadsworth, b. April 13, 1809. VI. Theodore. Russell Goodwin removed in 1795 to a house on the east side of the Dug way road, now torn down, nearly opposite the junction of the East and West roads ; and thence in 1808, to the old Thomas Spencer farm on the Sucker Brook road, next north of the Rufus M. Eggleston place, and resided in the old house, the chimney of which now remains standing, until about 1825, when he removed to Litchfield, Conn., where his son Leonard (now deceased) then resided. He too, was a humorist, enlivening every social circle which he entered, by his genial wit and hearty laughter. It is a singular coincidence, that both of these brothers, and their brother George, the venerable printer of Hartford, should have lived to the ordinary age allotted to man in religious indifference, and should at their extreme age have become humble and trusting followers of their Saviour, and exhibited undoubted evidence of their acceptance as his disciples. He m. Ruth Church; she d. in 1881. CHILDREN. I. Clarissa, m. Erastus Hurlbut; d. in Ohio, 1864. II. Leonard, m. Mary A. Galpin ; he d. Sept., 183-. III. David Elmore, d. when less than ten years old. IV. Hepzibah, d. under ten years of age. V. Marana, m. Austin Fuller; d. Trenton, N. Y., 1828. VI. Philena, m. Philo Whitrnore. VII. Hiram, m. Nancy Jones ; he d. Aurora, 111., Aug. — , 1864. VIII. Harriet, m. Jesse Sehovill. IX. Emily, m. Frederick McNeil. X. Hepzibah, m. Parker Sedgwick, living in 111., 1867. XL David Elmore XII. Jeremiah, b. Feb. 21, 1815 ; m. Mary D. Sedgwick. Zepheniah Hatch, 1 father of Capt. Moses, came from England, and settled in Wethersfield. He had children. I. Lucy 2 , b. May 6, 1752. II. Jerusha, 2 b. June 11, 1755. III. James, 2 b. Oct. 26, 1757. IV Moses, 2 b. March 15, 1760. V. Mary, 2 b. April 13, 1762. VI. John, 2 b. Aug. 22, 1764. AND FAMILY BECOKDS. 191 VII. Simeon, 2 b. Nov. 26, 1766. VIII. Samuel, 2 b. Feb. 19, 1768. IX. Levi, 2 b. Oct. 13, 1770. X. Esther, 2 b. Sept. 10, 1772. XL Elias, 2 b. March 19, 1775. XII. Daniel, 2 b. Aug. 26, 1778. Capt. Moses Hatch, 2 from Wethersfield, was for many years a sea captain, in the employ of Justus Riley, the Wethersfield merchant. Prior to this, at the age of sixteen, be enlisted into the Revolutionary Army, and served in various capacities during the war. In 1791, he removed to this town and took charge of a large tract of wild land, be- longing to Mr. Riley, at the south end of the. Long Lake. He built the house which he occupied during his remaining life, some fifty rods south of the house of his son, Elias T. Hatch, on a road now discontinued, leading from the center down to the Still River valley. He d. Dec. 21, 1837, aged 77, a kind-hearted whole-souled man. He m., Wethersfield, Abigail Loveland, b. March 16, 1763. She d. Winchester, Nov. 3, 1850. CHILDREN. I. Levi L., 8 b. Dec. 13, 1785. II. Abigail, 3 b. Oct. 21, 1787. III. PollYj 3 b. April 5, 1790; d. Feb. 10, 1791. IV. Polly, 3 b. Nov. 4, 1792. V. Esther, 3 b. Feb. 7, 1795; m. May 8, 1829, Silas Crocker, Jr., of Vernon, N. Y. VI. Washington, 3 b. March H, 1797; d. March, 1872. VII. Wji. Franklin, 3 b. March 4, 1801 ; m. Sept. 28, 1832, Emeline Baldwin ; she d. Sept. 22, 1870, aged 62 years and 2 days. He m. (2d) Sept. 20, 1871, Lizzie M. Eells ; lives in Winsted. VIII. Trumbull, 3 b. May 11, 1803 ; d. June 1, 1807. IX. Elias T., 3 b. Oct. 6, 1805 ; m. Cornelia M. Foote, and lives at the south end of Long Lake. X. Lucy, 3 b. June 3. 1807. Simeon Hatch, 2 came to Winchester, with his brother Moses, and probably lived with him until about 1800, when he removed to Vernon, N. Y. Josiah Hull, from Hartford, a shingle splitter, owned land on both sides of the Little Pond, from 1791 to 1794, and his name is found on the tax lists until 1804. The freemen admitted and sworn this year were John Spencer, Elijah Frisbee, Levi Brownson, Salmon Brownson, Silas Hurlbut, Roman Fy- 192 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, ler, Jonathan Deer, Ezra Stannard, Elisha Hills, Peter Corbin, Jr., Noah Benedict, Zebina Smith, Chauncey Mills, Nathan Wheeler and Benjamin Wheeler. 1792. In Town Meeting this year, the town tax was made payable in wheat, Indian corn, beef, pork, oats or flax, if delivered at the house of Captain Samuel Hurlbut, or the mill of Deacon Austin, by the first of May fol- lowing at prices to be set by the Selectmen. In Society Meeting, a tax of one penny on the pound was laid " to hire a Singing Master four months, to instruct in singing psalm tunes and an- thems." John B. Hall, of New Fairfield, became joint owner with Eliud Taylor, of the farm on Mad River adjoining Norfolk line in Danbury quarter, and half of the saw-mill afterwards owned by Micajah Hoyt, and now by Nelson Brooks. They sold out in 1796 to Deacon Hoyt, and Mr. Hall afterward left the town. In 1810 the Church voted him a let- ter of dismission to the Church in Durham, New York. He was grand- father to Hon. Highland Hall, late M. C. from Vermont. Eliud Taylor, from Danbury, continued to reside in Danbury quar- ter until 1799, when he sold his dwelling-house and adjoining land to Luther Holcomb, being the premises recently owned by John J. Fanning. He afterwards lived from 1803 to 1806 in the Widow Leach house in the same vicinity. In 1807 the Winchester Church voted him a letter of dis- mission to the Union Society Church in New Haven. By wife Mary, he had Polly, born January 25, 1794. Wait Hill, a blacksmith, was admitted a voter this year. In 1795 he built the house on the Waterbury turnpike a little south of the center 9 now owned- and occupied by Luman Munsill. In 1797 he bought and lived in Winsted, on the Spencer street road, a house that stood near Widow Lucy Coe's dwelling, and worked in a shop long since burned down, which stood on Main street near the dwelling of Samuel W. Coe. He removed to Vernon, New York, in 1798, or 1799. He married, June 26, 1794, Hannah Hills, of Winchester. The freemen admitted and sworn this year were Rev. Publius V. Booge, Jonathan Coe, 3d, Thomas Spencer, Jr., Harvey Marshall, Theo- dore Hoskin, Daniel Russell, Elisha Spencer, John Church, Samuel Clark, Truman Blackman, Wait Hill, and Joseph Elmore, Jr. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 193 1793. The records of Town and Society meetings this year are of little inter- est. It appears by the Society records that the interior of the new meet- ing house was not yet finished. Daniel Andrews, Jr., a native of the town, whose record has been given already, came of age this year ; built and occupied through life the red house, at the parting of the Danbury school-house road from the Green Woods turnpike. William R. Case, from the Society of Wintonbury, now the town of Bloomfielc), this year, bought and thereafter occupied until 1799, a lot of land now composing a part of the Harvey Andrews farm ; he returned to Wintonbury after 1810. He was born February 20, 1751 ; married Huldah Loomis, born December 12, 1756. He died November 29> 1828. She died January 1, 1835. CHILDREN. I. William, b. Aug. 20, 1775; d. April 9, 1793. II. Huldah, b. Nov. 17, 1777 ; d. Aug. 16, 1800. III. Abiah, b. Sept. 1,1779; m. OrentusBronson ; d. June 20, 1836. IV. Ruth, b. April 4, 1782; d. Sept. 27, 1853'. V. Horace, b. July 5, 1784 ; d. Oct. 29, 1823. VI. Asher, b. Dec. 12, 1786; m. Nov. 13, 1826, Charlotte Pettibone ; he d. Sept. 7, 1858 ; had children George and Edward. VII. William, b. April 25, 1794; grad. Yale College 1821 ; Cong, minister at Chester, Ct. ; d. April 28, 1858. VIII. Chester, b. Sept. 20, 1796 ; d. in Penn., Oct. 2, 1857, a bachelor. Reuben Marshall, son of Thomas and Desire Marshall, born at Torrington, May 19, 1765 ; came to Winchester this or the preceding year, and became a trader in company with Roman Fyler. In 1810 he bought the farm near the center of the town, lately owned by Daniel Murray, now deceased, which he occupied until his removal to Granville, Mass , about 1811. During the last ten years of his residence here he was largely engaged in purchasing cheese for the Southern market. He mar- ried Widow Hills, of Torrington, who had a son Reuben, by her first husband, — and two or more daughters by Mr. Marshall, — one of whom, Orpha, married Patrick Boice, Esq., of Westfield, Massachusetts. John McAlpine, Jr., son of a Scotchman, is named "of Hartford" in his first deed of land in Winchester. He was a joiner by trade, and a man of great industry and energy, — was a Selectman for many years, — and highly esteemed as a neighbor and citizen. He built, and occupied dur- 25 194 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, ing his remaining life, the house about sixty rods east of the center, now owned and occupied by his son, John McAlpine ; he married, May 16, 1794, Margaret, daughter of Samuel Hurlbut, Esq. He died August 30, 1850, aged 81. She died February 28, 1845, fi.sed 72. CHILDREN. I. Silas Hurlbut, b. Sept. 2, 1794. II.-Elizabeth Ann, b. Feb. 18, 1798; m. March 11, 1819, Horace Jay Humphrey. III. Samuel Aveut, b. Nov. 15,1802; m. ; d. he lived for many years in Penn., and after the death of his wife returned to Winchester ; m. (2d), May 15, 1845, Mary S. McAlpine, widow of his brother, Silas H. ; row lives in Winsted. IV. John, b. Nov. 1. 1805; m. Aug. 6, 1845, Harriet E. Wet- more, and has since resided on his father's homestead at the center ; she d. Dec. — , 1869, childless. V. Lemuel, b. Oct 21, 1808 ; a physician, lives in Illinois. Silas H. McAlpine, oldest son of John and Margaret, married, Jan. 11, 1842, Mary S. Wetmore, and lived on the Waterbury turnpike, half a mile south of the center. He was a man of literary and scientific tastes, — a poet, and a warm philanthropist. Standing as he did in the front rank of the despised little band of early Abolitionists, it is fitting that his name should be identified with the once feeble, but now triumphant, cause which he advocated. He died childless, August 12, 1842. Solomon Wheadon, from Branford, owned and occupied until his death, the farm of Harvey Ford in Hall Meadow, adjoining Goshen line. He died December 12, 1814, aged 65. His wife Sarah died January 10, 1821, aged 73. No record is found of the births of Mr. Wheadon's children. The death of Lomisa, daughter of Solomon and Sarah Wheadon, Jan. 8, 1799, and the marriage of Benjamin Wheadon, their son, to Deborah Merriman, April 21, 1803. are recorded. This Benjamin Wheadon is named " of Hudson, Portage County, Ohio," in a deed of January 28, 1826, conveying his interest in land of Stephen Wheadon, deceased, by which it would appear that Stephen died childless, leaving a widow, not named, and sisters, Sally Wells, Mercy Bronson (wife of Salmon), Esther Pond, and heirs of Lucretia Griswold. Lucretia Griswold was the first wife of Roswell Griswold of Cole- brook, and the mother of Wyllys, Lucretia, and Hon. Hiram Griswold, formerly of Canton. Ohio. Deacon Stephen Wheadon, son of Solomon, owned and occupied the paternal homestead until his death, December 2, 1824, aged 40. He AND FAMILY RECOEDS. 195 was chosen Deacon of the Winchester Church in 1823. The family of Wheadons was held in high esteem in the community. His wife, Polly, was sister of Moses Drake, Jr., and afterwards married successively Deacon Humphrey of Goshen, and Deacon Rogers of Cornwall ; died in 1867, a widow. Rufus Crank, from Killingworth, this year bought of David and Sarah Murray, a house and lot on the Dugway road, nearly opposite the Sophronia Leonard house, which he occupied until after 1796. John Joes is on the Winchester tax lists of 1793 and 1794. The freemen admitted this year were Daniel Marshall, Laurence Barber, and Levi Piatt. 1794. The prices of labor in payment of highway taxes were this year established as follows : — For a man's work in May or June, three shillings and sixpence per day. " a man and team, " seven shillings " " a man in October or November, three shillings " " a man and team, " six shillings " The new comers of the year were as follows : — Major Lloyd Andrews, a joiner, from Meriden, purchased land in the town, November 20, 1794. He first lived, after his marriage, in the old homestead of his father-in-law, Ensign Jonathan Coe, in the south part of the society, since owned by Samuel Mills Munsill. About 1799 he bought the farm now owned by his son, Harvey Andrews, and there resided until his death, October 23, 1833, aged 60, an unassuming industrious, and worthy man* He was born in Meriden, February 10, 1773; married May 16,1796, Huldah Coe. She died December 27, 1866. CHILDREN. I. Orson, b. February 16, 1798 ; d. November 29, 1836, unmarried. II. Hiram, . b. December 22, 1799 ; d. March 15, 1808. III. Huldah, b. January 8, 1802; d. September 8, 1808. IV. George, b. March 19, 1805 ; m. in New York. V. Samuel Lloyd*, b. October 22, 1811 ; m. May 23, 1839, Sophia Case of Canton ; has a son Geo. L, who served as 1st Sergt., Co. F., 28th Regt. Conn. Volunteers. VI. Harvey, b. July 13, 1814; m. Susan (Merwin) Sage. VII. Helen, b. May 1, 1S21 ; d. September 13, 1823. Francis Bacon owned from 1794 to 1798 a part of the farm now 196 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, owned by Harvey Andrews. In his deed of sale of this land in 1795, he is named "of Barkhamsted." In 1795 he is named in a record of judg- ment as of Simsbury. David Beebe, " of Winchester," a blacksmith, this year bought a lot of land in the Jacklin neighborhood. In 1795 he bought a house and lot on Danbury Hill, northwest of William Price's, and there resided while he remained in town. In 1808 the Church in Winchester voted him and his wife a letter of dismission to the Church in Coventry, N. Y. DodToR Nathaniel Elmore is on the tax list of this year. He was a native of Sharon, a schoolmaster and physician. He lived in the town a few years, and then removed to Granville, Mass. He was lather of Harvey B. Elmore, now of Wiusted. Gillett Hinklet this year bought 38 acres of land, which now forms a part of the Harvey Andrews or Wm. H. Rood farm, which he sold in 1801, and then moved to the West. Epaphras Loomis, married, Torrington, September 9, 1755, Mary Hills. They came to Winchester to live with their son Lorrain, about 1809. He died September 10, 1812, aged 80; she died February 12, 1813, aged 78. CHILDREN. I. Epaphras, b. March 31, 1756; m. December 1, 1777, Phebe Bacon. He d. in Hannibal, N. Y., in 1850. II. Remembrance, b. February 27, 1759; was taken prisoner by the British at Fort Washington in the Revolution ; was poisoned by the water, and d. January — , 1777. III. Jerusha, b. February 6, 1761 ; m. Noadiah Bancroft;, d. October, 1827. IV. Lorrain, b. June 9, 1764. V. Wait, b. November 23, 1765. VJ. Arah, b. July 7, 1767. VII. Ira, b. September 14, 1770. Deacon Lorrain Loomis from Torrington, became a resident of Winchester this year. He bought the Truman Blackmau farm and other lands, now composing the farm owned by the children of Asher Case, and built and lived in the house now occupied by them. About 1818 he removed to Cornwall, and acted as steward of the Foreign Mission School during its continuance there, after which he returned to his old homestead in Winchester. Pecuniary losses came upon him in later life. He gave up all his property to his creditors, and worked as a farm laborer for several years, paying his earnings to his creditors, until the larger part of their claims were satisfied. Age and infirmities compelled him to relinquish his cherished design of paying in full, out of his hard earnings, the balance of his indebtedness. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 197 In his later years, until his death, he lived with his son, Nelson T. Loomis, on the Richard Coit place, near the south end of the Brooks road. He died July 7, 1857, at the age of ninety-three years and six months. Winchester has had hundreds of men richer in worldly goods and popular talents, but probably not one combining in so high a degree all the qualities of a good man and humble Christian. He was the loved schoolmaster of a large portion of the youth of the town from 1788 to 1810. The writer of these annals remembers him as his first male teacher, with an affection accorded to no other. With the sick he was ever the welcome visitor and kind watcher ; with the afflicted, the sympathizer and consoler ; in the Church an example of faith and good works ; in the world, a humble follower of Him who went about doing good. He married Abigail Rainsford of New Marlboro,' Mass.; she died August 26, 1832, aged 65. CHILDREN. I. Lophelia, b. July, 1790; d. January, 1791. II. Dorrance, b. September, 1792; d. March, 1793. III. Nelson T., b. March, 1799; m. November, 1827, Abigail Hills of Goshen. He livod near the parting of Brooks str et and the Norfolk road. CHILDREN. 1. Sarah L., b. January, 1S29. 2. Frederick L., b. August, 1834. IV. Edward R., b. August, 1806; lives in Napiersville, Illinois. Orange Mott, son of Adam, is on the tax list of this and the follow- ing year. In 1798 he is described in a deed as of Bridgewater, Herkimer Co., N. Y. Daniel Wells, probably from West Hartford, a tanner, bought a quarter acre lot west of the Booge Parsonage, on the Norfolk road, on which he built a tannery, and two years after built, on the opposite side of the road, the dwelling house since owned by Sage W. Grant. In 1798, he sold out to Asahel Wells, and removed to Augusta, Oneida Co., N. Y. Erastus Thrall, son of Reuben, was admitted a voter this year, and soon after went into trade at the center, buying dairies and other farm products, and exchanging them for goods in the New York market and elsewhere. He is said to have gone with his products to the West Indies, and brought home his sugai", molasses, etc., for home trade. He was a young man of fine person and address, active and fast. He ran through his business in 1798, — left the town, — and died soon 198 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, after in prison, before his trial, on a charge of forgery, of which he was believed to be innocent. He died unmarried. The freemen admitted and sworn this year were Erastus Thrall, Theophilus Andrews, Benjamin Benedict, Jr., Jedediah Coe, Caleb Munson, Abijah Benedict, and Abiel Loomis. 1795. In special Town Meeting. April 27 of this year, the following vote was passed : '• That this meeting disapprove of the appropriation of the avails of the Western Lands, belonging to this state, as passed in the Honorable Upper House of Assembly, in October last." This vote probably refers to the project, well nigh carried out, to appro- priate the proceeds of the lands in Ohio, reserved by Connecticut in her cession to the general government, to the support of the churches of the standing order. The measure, after passing the Upper House, sitting with closed doors, was resisted in the Lower House, and after a severe struggle of the friends of common schools with the adherents of the clergy, was defeated ; and the lands were subsequently appropriated to the endowment of our School Fund. They were eventually sold to the Connecticut Land Company for one million two hundred thousand dollars, and constituted the basis of the splendid endowment from which our com- mon schools have ever since been mainly supported. It is doubted by many, whether our common schools have been really benefited by this gratuitous aid, which, while it relieves the people in a great measure of the burden of educating the children, at the same time makes them careless as to the management of the schools, sustained without their immediate contributions. The fact is unquestionable, that our common schools have fallen far behind those of some of the neigh- boring states with smaller endowments, in the efficiency of their manage- ment, and the results of good education. But whatever may have been the effect on our common schools, no one can doubt that a diversion of this fund to the support of our churches, would have deadened whatever of vital piety then existed ; and it is creditable to the fathers of our town that they set their faces against the measure. A vote of the society this year, giving permission to other denomina- tions of Christians to use the new meeting house, now completed, on any days when not wanted by the church or society, indicates a catholic spirit. Roger Coe (see 1765) son of Ensign Jonathan, this year became the owner of his father's homestead in the south part of the society, — ' AND FAMILY RECORDS. 199 his father removing to Winsted. He lived here from his birth to the year 1857 or 1858, wh^n he came to Winsted with his adopted son, Rev. James R. Coe, third son of his brother Daniel. He was for many year? a prominent citizen of the town, which he represented in the Legislatures of 1814 and 1815. find was much employed in town affairs. He m. March 5, 1797, Anna Hurley; she d. June 26, 1857. He d. Winsted, Jan. 14. 1859, aged 84 years ; s. p. Joshua Beach, son of Joel, came of age this year, and is entered on the Tax List as a resident of the society. William Crocker's name is on the Tax List of this year. He came from New London County; and in 1799 bought the farm in Dan- bury Quarter now partly owned by John J. Fanning, on which he lived until about 1825, and then removed to Vernon, N. Y. He m. Dec 20, 1796, Deborah, daughter of Timothy Benedict, b. Aug. 29, 1774; she d. Sept. 18, 1823 ; they had a son, Silas, and perhaps other children. Silas removed, at or about the same time, with his father, to Vernon, N. Y. His wife's name was Mary Breen. They had a son, Lemuel, born in Winchester, June 27, 1825. The father (Joseph) and two brothers (Joseph and James) of William Crocker, became inhabitants of the town after 1800, and all of them died here. Phineas, Jr., and Matthew Griswold, sons of Phineas of Win- chester, are on the Tax List of this year. Matthew removed to Vernon, N. Y., before 1800. Phineas was of Beaver Dam, Erie Co., Penn., in 1822. Luther Holcomb, from Danbury, came into the town this year, and in 1797, bought the farm in Danbury Quarter, on the east side of Brooks street, not far south of Mad River, which he owned and occupied until 1803. His name disappears from the Records after 1804. He was said to be the same Luther Holcomb mentioned in Barber's Historical Collec- tions, who brought the British Army of 3,000 men to a dead halt on its march through Bethel lo Danbury in 1777. By wife Joanna, he had CHILDREN. I. Friend Ransley, b. Oct. 1, 1795. II. Lloyd Holmes', b. July 27, 1797. Levi Marshall owned land on the North and West side of Little Pond, and lived in the Daniel Beckley house until his removal to Ver- non, N. Y., in 1799. 200 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Loami Mott, son of Adam, Jr., of Winchester, is on the tax list of this and the following years to 1801. In 1797 he bought and lived in a house on Sucker Brook, below the Dugway road, near the Hubbell Saw Mill. In 1803 he is named of Stockbridge, Mass. ; and at a later day he removed to Vernon, N. Y. He married April 18, 1795, Polly, daughter of Samuel Clark, of W. CHILDREN. I. Merritt, b. at Winchester, Jan. 3, 1796. II. Willard, b. " June 28, 1800. III. Lodema, b. at Stockbridge, Mass., Feb. 3, 1803. Daniel Phelps, from East Windsor, purchased, with Horace Higley, the Arteraas Rowley farm in the southeast part of the Society, on which he lived until 1809. He afterwards lived in the house on the west side of Brooks Street next south of the old Everitt place. He was a sedate man, — highly esteemed, and often employed in town affairs. He repre- sented the town in the Assembly in 1818 and 1828. He died March 19, 1850, aged 83. His wife, Huldah, died March 4, 1839, aged 70 years. CHILDREN. I. Daniel, bap. in E. Windsor, Nov. 3, 1793. II. Huldah, bap. " " " " " III. Benjamin, bap. " " Aug. 2, 1 795 ; he lived in Danbury quar- ter near the Everitt place until his death, July 12, 1849, aged 54 ; he m. Feb. 16, 1826, Abigail Brooks, of W. IV. Frederick, b. Winchester, June 30, 1795; m. May 22, 1826, Lucy W. Hurlbut, and moved to Valatie, N. Y. V. A son (not named), b. July 14, 1803; d. Sept. 7, 1803. VI. Jonathan, b. March 17, 1S05 ; d. July 1, 1822. Daniel Phelps, Jr.. married, April 18, 1816, Lucy Hurlbut, daugh- ter of Stephen, and lived in Winchester until after 1826, when he re- moved to Norfolk, and after 1840 to Wellington, Ohio, where he died not far from 1860. His first wife died in Ohio, and he there married a second wife. He seems to have owned no real estate in Winchester. CHILDREN BY FIRST "WIFE. I. Louisa Abigail, b. March 13, 1817. II. James Whiting, b. April 4, 1819. III. Joseph, b. March 26, 1821. John Chester Riley, from Goshen, came to Winchester this year and, in company with Seth Holmes, commenced trade as a country mer- chant in a house south of Jonathan Blake's, near the center. In 1800 he bought of Fyler and Marshall the Washington Hatch place at the center, where he traded and kept a tavern. In 1807 lie built a store at the parting of the Old Country road and the Waterbury turnpike, in which he AND FAMILY RECORDS. 201 did an extensive business until his failure in 1816. Being a Jeffersonian in politics, while most of the traders of his day and vicinity were of the Feder al School, he drew in to a large extent the trade of those of his own faith in this and the neighboring towns. After his failure, he was confined on the jail limits at Litchfield for a considerable time, and continued to reside there during his remaining life. Me lived a bachelor until past middle age, and married at Litchfield. Seth Holmes, from Torrington, came to Winchester with John C. Riley this year, and for one or two years they were partners, under the firm name of Holmes & Riley. He lived while in town on the discon- tinued road west of Waterbury turnpike, near the site of the first meeting house. He removed to Vernon, New York, prior to 1802. His wife's name was Phebe. Ezra Holmes was " of Winchester " in 1801, and probably became a resident earlier. In 1802 Seth and Phebe Holmes conveyed to him their late homestead above described. Three years after he bought the Luman Munsill place, a little south of the center, which he sold in 1807, and thereafter owned and lived on a farm two miles north of the center on the Danbury burying-ground road, which he sold in 1809 to Birdsey Norton, of Goshen. He is last on the tax list in 1810, and probably that year removed to Ohio. By wife, Grace, he had CHILDREN. I. Polly, b. Oct. 21, 1801. II. Daniel, b. Aug. 27, 1804. Silas Taylor, from Danbury, owned and lived in the shingled house that stood until about 1860 on Taylor's Brook, at the junction of the old highway south from R. M. Eggleston's, with the new road from the cen- ter by Elias T. Hatch's. He died April 24, 1819, aged 67. He had sons, Clark, who died January 22, 1826, leaving a widow, and Ira, who lived on his lands until 1827. He had also a daughter, Clarissa, married, November 28, 1816, Alva Hyde, of Oxford, or Guilford, Chenango Coun- ty, New York. Doctor Truman S. Wetmore, 4 whose record has been given, ap- pears on the tax list of this year. Reuben Tucker,' Jr., a native of this town, is on the tax lists of this and the two succeeding years. He is named of Elmore, Vermont, in a deed dated in 1814. Miles Wilkinson, son of Jesse, born in this town, is on the tax lists of this and the following years. He married, December 2, 1796, Lydia Ives. 26 202 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, The tax list shows that there were four licensed taverns in the town this year, to wit : Samuel Hurlbut, in the house that stood at the center on the site now occupied by the house of Samuel Hurlbut; John Miner, in the house between Winsted and Winchester, lately owned by Mrs. Al- mira Coe ; Zerah Doolittle, in the old Pea?e House that stood where North Main street now runs, nearly in "front of the house of Isaac B. Woodruff, in Winsted, and Freedom Wright, in the Kelsey house, lately burned down, near the small pond on the Old North Country road. The freemen admitted and sworn were Abijah Bronson, Leonard Hurl- but, Nathan Elmore, and Zaccheus Munsill. 1796. The town records of this year refer only to routine business ; no free- men were admitted. In Society meeting, a " Pall or Funeral Cloth " was ordered to be pur- chased and to be kept at the house of Doctor Everitt, when not in use. A committee was appointed with instructions to contract for the finish- ing off of the interior of the new meeting house, and, if no offer could be obtained more favorable than that of Deacon Dutton, of Watertown, then to contract with him. By the records of the following year it appears that the work was done, so as to requ ; re the appointment of "seaters" to assign to the par- ishioners their respective pews and seats. This edifice stood near the center of the triangular green nearly south of the dwelling of Theron Bronson. It was nearly square, with a steep roof, — the gables, with a round window in each, facing east and west, and without a tower or steeple, and in all respects conforming to the principles of country church architecture of that period. The pulpit stood in the north, with an alley extending to the south door; another alley from the east to the west doors, gave, access to the gallery stairs and wall pews. The pews were square with paneled sides, surmounted with low banisters. The galleries occupied the three sides of the interior in front and at the right and left of the pulpit. The altar had a folding leaf which was dropped down when not in use ; — an unfortunate ar- rangement, as it proved, when, some forty years ago, a self-opinionated and partially deranged parishioner conceived himself divinely commis- sioned to testify against the corruptions of the Church, and took an oppor- tunity to do so by presenting himself at the altar at the close of the com- munion service, and reading the history of the Saviour's overturning the tables of the money changers in the temple ; — and suiting his AND FAMILY RECORDS. 203 action to the words, knocked away the support of the leaf, and scattered the sacred elements and contribution box on the floor. The culprit was tried for this outrage before two Justices of the Peace, who decided that he was crazy ; but lest an acquittal on that ground should embolden him to commit other acts of the same nature, they found him guilty and im- posed a fine. The pulpit had the usual decorations of vines and clusters of grapes carved in wood, in humble imitation of the gorgeous adornments of the Jewish Sanctuary, and an imposing sounding-board set into the wall above. Here worshipped the fathers and mothers of the town and their off- spring, for about fifty years, a race of honest, hard-working, self-denying, pious, rigid Puritans. The like of Deacons Samuel Wetmore, Seth Hills, Robert McEwen, Eliphaz Alvord, Lorrain Loomis, and Levi Piatt, to say nothing of other worthies, who here dispensed the symbolic bread of life, and digested the severe doctrines of the Calvinistic creed, is not to be found in these days of diluted orthodoxy. Roger Barber, a blacksmith, plied his trade in the shop vacated by Wait Hills, until 1798, when he gave way to William Bunell, and went to Sandisfield, Mass. Ephraim Bowers is on the tax list of this and the following year. Levi Daw is on the tax list of this and the following years until 1804. He married August 1, 1796, Phebe, daughter of Benjamin Benedict of W. William Gray, a Scotchman by birth, and a shoemaker by trade, owned and occupied a part of the Nathan Tibball's farm in Danbury Quarter, until 1799. Sylvester Hall, a millwright, is on the tax list of this year. He married May 12, 1797, Lucy, daughter of Captain Samuel Hurlbut, and probably thereafter lived with his father-in-law, until his removal to Burke, Caledonia Co., Vermont, about 1803, where he resided until his death. Their children, as appears by the Probate Records of Winchester, were : — I. A Daughter, who married — Lawton. II. Huldah, " — Bemis. III. Electra, " — Trull. IV. David, a resident of Virginia. V. Eliza, who married — Bemis. 204 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, VI. Silas, residing in Winchester. VII. Harris B , died in Vermont. VIII. A Son, who died leaving two sons, Elbridge and Sylvester. Nathaniel Hoyt from Danbury, owned and lived on land in Dan- bnry Quarter, between the farm late of John J. Fanning and Mad River. In 1811 the Church voted him and Lucretia his wife a letter of dismission to the Church in Locke, N. Y., where they then resided. Deacon Micajah Hoyt, son of Nathaniel, owned and lived on the farm in Danbury Quarter now owned by Harry Brooks, until 1844, when he removed, as is believed, to Locke, N. Y. He was chosen Deacon of the Winchester Church in 1825. He was born December 12, 1770; married November 1, 1792, Esther Trowbridge, born October 22, 1773. CHILDREN. I. Eliakim D., b. May 16, 1794. II. Dblia, b. October 4, 1796 ; m. November 27, 1814, Robert Andrews of Danbury. III. James T., b. December 27, 1798. IV. Orpha, b. May 3, 1801 ; married — Curtice of Vernon, N. Y. V. Sidney, b. April 2, 1804 ; m. October 9, 1828, Huldah A Starkwether. They settled in Barton, Tioga Co., N. Y. Children : Harriet, Julia, Louisa, a son, name not known, and Delia. VI. Loruhama (fem.), b. January 16, 1806; m. November 6, 1832, Charles Dunning of Whitehall, N. Y. VII. Ansel, b. October 31, 1809. VIII. Maria, b. October 31, 1812. Zeri W. Hoyt, son of Nathaniel, lived successively on the Jacklin farm in Danbury Quarter, next on the Norfolk Road, a little west of the Doctor Wetinore place, then on Lake Street, in Winsted, and last in a house near John W. Fanning. He left the town after 1803. Nathaniel Hoyt, Jr., lived on a part of the John W. Fanning farm, in Danbury Quarter, from 1799 to 1802. He afterwards lived not far from the old Everitt house in the same quarter, until 1810. In 1816 the Church voted him a letter to the Church in Litchfield, Conn., where he then resided. George Kingsbury is assessed on the list of this year for his faculty as attorney-at-law, being the first legal luminary that shed its light on this benighted town. His stay seems to have been as brief as a comet's visit, there being no other note of him extant, save a record of trial before Justice Alvord, on a grand juror's complaint, setting forth that " Daniel Ward and George Kingsbury did, at Winchester, on the AND FAMILY RECORDS. 205 27th day of July, 1796, in a tumultuous and offensive manner disturb and break the peace, by quarrelling, beating, and striking each other," &c. Kingsbury pleaded not guilty, but failed to sustain his plea, and was fined one dollar and costs. Ward had been before the Court so often, as Sabbath-breaker, hard swearer, &c, that he thought it wisest to admit his guilt, and was fined two dollars, he probably having fought hardest, or been most blamable. It is to be regretted that our new juris consult had not left this kind of pastime to Ward and his next door neighbor, Coit, who were well matched and thoroughly trained to wordy objurga- tions by years of practice. David Strong, named of Charlotte, Vt, is on the tax list of this year. He was born in Torrington, May 31, 1768, son of Asahel ; mar- ried August 28, 1794, Esther, daughter of Reuben Miner of Winchester, and lived in a house long since torn down, which adjoined the house of his father-in-law, now owned by Joel G. Griswold and wife, at the geographical center of the town. About 1808 he removed to New Pultz, Ulster Co., N. Y., where he died. He had a son, George D. Strong, who was for many years a liquor dealer, prominent politician, and alderman of the City of New York. Another son, Edwin M., was adopted by his grandfather Miner, who left him his homestead, on which he lived until about 1836, when he removed to East New York, on Long Island, where he died after 1850. Edwin M. Strong, born July 25, 1795 ; married September 18, 1816, Deidamia Grant of Norfolk. CHILD. I. George Washington, b. February 7, 1818. Elijah Starkavether, son of Thomas of East Windsor, born January 7, 1777 ; married January 21, 1802, Anna Jerusha, daughter of Deacon Samuel Wetmore of Winchester, and received a conveyance of his homestead, and lived in a house that stood between the houses of Abel S. Wetmore and- Widow Allen Blake, until about 1816, when he built a house on the Waterbury River turnpike, about a mile north of the center, in which he died December 3, 1819. His children have abbreviated the family name to " Starks." children. I. Jerusha Ann, b. November 12, 1802; m. October 31, 1822.. Sheldon Miller. II. Laura Hills, b. October 26, 1804 ; d. October 26, 1805. III. Huldah Andrews, b. August 28, 1806; m. October 9, 1828, Sidney Hoyt of Winchester. 206 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, I"\ Julia Maria, b. January 6, 1809; m. May 10, 1841, Samuel W. Coe of Winsted. V. Samuel Wetmore, b. August 31, 1812 ; m. May 8, 1839, Flora, daughter of Daniel Murray. CHILDREN. 1. Jane Flora, b. March 18, 1840. 2. Darwin Samuel,* b. August 24, 1843. 3. Huldah Annie, b. December 11, 1846. 4. Hattie Murray, b. March 30, 1856. VI. Sybil Anderson, b. May 14, 1815; m. May 14, 1845, Amos E. Hull of Tolland, Mass. VII. Frederick Elijah, b. November 21, 1819. 1797. The notable event of this year was the success of the Jeffersonian or Democratic party, in electing a majority of the Selectmen, and in dis- placing our excellent town clerk. The violent party feelings and dissen- tions of that day have long been forgotten ; but the changed ap- pearance of the records by the substitution of the scrawny hand writing of the new town clerk for the clear and precise hand of Squire Alvord ? marks a period of change, but not of improvement. It is easy to find causes for the growth of Democracy in the forced col- lections by the " Standing Order " of parish dues from disaffected and dissenting members ; the frequent prosecutions for profane sw r earing, sab- bath breaking, and especially lor playing in meeting, not only against young men and boys, but frequently against young women of respectable fami- lies, — all go to show that the reins of civil power were held pretty taut by our w 7 orthy old Federal grandfathers, and warrant the conclusion that moral suasion was imperfectly applied for the correction of social evils. That the Demociatic ascendency at this time lasted but one year, goes to show that the conservative element was yet too strong to be effectually put down. The Society records show that by change of prices of provisions, and lax payment of dues, Mr. Booge's salary had become inadequate for his support ; in consequence of which a vote was passed adding fifty dollars to his salary, and increasing his allowance of firewood to thirty cords a year. It was also provided that notes of the society, on interest, should be given him from year to year for such arrearage of salary as should be found due him. Another wise provision was adopted by which the wood.. * The above-named Darwin S. Starks was a private in Company E, 2d Conn. Heavy Artillery, and died in the service, at Alexandria, August 16, 1863. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 207 contract was taken by some responsible individual, at a fixed price. The contract was taken this year by Col. Brownson, at three shillings a cord. The sweeping of the meeting house for the year was also undertaken by Col. Brownson at three dollars. Eli Frisbik, son of Joseph, this year bought land near Torrington line on the third tier road, which he sold in 1799, and coon after removed to Vernon, N. Y. He m. April 17, 1794, Sarah Hills; had dau. Lucia, b. Sept. 1, 1794. Clark McEwen, son of Samuel, is on the tax list of this year. He removed with his father to Vernon, N. Y. Stephen Gaylord owned a house and land near where the two chimney school-house stood, at the parting of the third tier road from the old country road, which he sold in 1806. He m. May 12, 1797, Mary Rhodes. CHILDREN. I. Sally, b. Nov. 11, 1797. II. Anson, b. July 30, 1799; d. May 18, 1803. The assessment of Trades and Professions this year, were Josiah Ev- eritt and Joseph B. Elmore, Physicians, in Old Society. Fyler & Marshall and Holmes & Riley, Traders, " Samuel Hurlbut, Tavermkeeper, " Lloyd Andrews and John Mc Alpine, Joiners, " Roger Barber, Blacksmith, " Amasa "Wade and Daniel Wells, Tanners and Shoemakers, " Isaac Wheeler and Freedom Wright, Taverners, in Winsted. Hine Clemmons and Wait Hills, Blacksmiths, " Jenkins & Boyd, Scythe Makers, " Asher Loomis, Tanner, " John Sweet and Chauncey Mills, Millers, " The freemen admitted and sworn, were Daniel Corbin, Thaddeus Loomis, Daniel Wells, Sylvester Hall, Asahel Bronson, Asher Loomis, Eli Frisbie, Israel Douglass, Roger Coe, Amos Tolles, Seth Lucas, and Daniel Eggleston, Jr. 1798. Inoculation for small pox was regulated this year, by vote in town meeting, " that Doctors or other men may have liberty to carry on inoc- 208 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, ulation for the small pox in this town, from the 20th of February to April 10th, under such regulations as shall be agreed on by the Civil Authority and Select Men; provided they shall give a Bond of One thousand Pounds, with sufficient surety, to carry on the business in such a prudent manner as not to expose any inhabitant of the town to said disorder, and to be continued at the houses heretofore occupied, and within the same limits." The location of the " pest houses," as they were called in Winchester Society, is not known. In Winsted, a house was built lor this purpose, near the large spring on the old Pratt Road, which was used for a time, and afterward the farm house of Mrs. J. R. Boyd on East Lake Street was appropriated to that purpose. The head and foot stones of the graves of several persons who died of the disease, at the latter place, are still standing in an adjoining field. The Pest Houses, remote from other dwellings, were established by the civil authorities, who prescribed certain limits around them, within which the patients should confine themselves, and all other persons not authorized to enter, were excluded therefrom by fines and penalties. John Bissell, supposed from Litchfield, succeeded Fyler & Mar- shall as a trader, and continued in town but one j'ear. The last record found of him is a complaint of the Grand Jurors and Tithing Man against him, dated May 9, 1799, for unnecessarily and unlawfully travel- ing on the Sabbath, to which he pleaded guilty, and paid a fine of $2.50, and costs. Elijah Blake, a native of Middletown, came to Torrington in early life, and removed thence to Winchester, in February of this year. He was by trade a tanner, and lived and died in the house afterwards occupied by his son-in-law, Samuel Hurlbut, 2d. He d. Oct. 2, 1833, aged 77. He m. Sept. 27, 1779, Sarah Hamlin, of Middletown, who d. Oct. 27, 1811, aged 53. CHILDREN. ., Dec. 12, 17S0; d. June 17, 1798. Sept. 15, 1782; ra. Feb. 2, 1803, Timothy Loonris, of Riga, N. Y. June 26, 1784. Aug. 13, 1786. June 29, 1788; in. Oct. 28, 1812, Hannah, dau. of Adna Beach. Aug. 1, 1790; m. March 17, 1812, Wealthy, dau. of Benj. Benedict. May 19, 1792; m. July 9, 1817, Mabel, dau. of Adna Beach. Dec. 16, 1794; unmarried. Oct. 18, 1797 ; d. Sept. 21, 1805. b. Winchester, Oct. 16, 1799 ; m. Samuel Hurlbut, 2d, of W. I. Sally, b. Tor II. Polly, b. " III. Elijah, b. " IV. Jonathan, b. " V. Harry, b. " VI. Ithuel, b. " VII. Allen, b. " VIII. Sally, b. " IX. Maria, b. " X. Lovina, b. Win AND FAMILY RECORDS. 209 Eltjah Blake, Jr., m. Amelia Bronson, dau. of Benoni, and early re- moved to Springfield, Mass., where lie still resides. He had four sons and two daugBters. Both of the daughters are dead. The sons, William and Charles, are in trade in Boston, and Marshall and Hamlin, in New York. Jonathan Blake, Esq., resided during his married life on the east side of the old Waterbury River turnpike, in the first house south of its part- ing from the Old Country road at the center. He was for some years a Justice of the Peace, and represented the town in the General Assembly in 1851. He married, May 12, 1808, Sabra Bronson. He died May 14, 1868, aged 81 years and 9 months. She died March 30, 1870, aged 86. CHILDREN. I. Infant Son, d. Aug. 19, 1809. II. Infant Daughter, d. Nov. 30, 1810. III. Marcia, b. Feb. 13, 1812; m. Jan. 24, 1845, Silas B. Crocker, of Ver- non, N. Y. IV. Mart Ann, b. Jan. 17, 1814 ; m. Sept. 8, 1835, Lorenzo Mitchell, of Col- linsville; he d. Sept. 17, 1838, aged 26. Their son, Ward Blake, d. July 31, 1837, aged 1 year and 1 month. V. Charles Hamlin, b. Oct. 17, 1817; m. May 11, 1842, Jane, daughter of James C. Cleveland. CHILDREN. 1. James Cleveland, b. Feb. 9, 1847 ; d. Jan. 24, 1848. 2. James Cleveland, b. July 12, 1849. 3. Lorenzo Mitchell,!). April 26, 1851. VI. A Son, b. ; d. Feb.' 17, 1822. ITarut Blake, lived for twenty years or more on the west side of the north and south road in (he third tier, in the second house south,of the Dugway. He moved to New Britain about 1867, where he soon died. He married Oct. 28, 1812, Hannah Beach, daughter of Adna. CHILDREN. I. Sarah Hamlin (twin), b. July 21, 1813 ; m. Aug. 12, 1847, Giles L. Gay- lord, of Tor. II. Mart Stanlet (twin), b. July 21, 1813; m. Dec. 17, 1851, John Moore; d. Aug. 5, 1854. III. Ret. Henrt Beach, b. May 20, 1817 ; graduate of Williams College and East Windsor Theological Institute. He settled in the ministry at South Coventry, 1845 ; afterwards in Belchertown, Mass., ami now lives in Ncwbern, N. C. He m. Sept. 2.3, 1845, Mary R., daughter of Harvey Wolcott, of West Springfield. He delivered the historical sermon at the Centennial Celebration, in Winchester, Aug. 16, 1871. IV. Lucius Doddridge, b. Sept. 9, 1819 ; m. March 29, 1S43, Susan Griswold, resides in W. Hartford. 27 210 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, V. Hannah H. (twin), b. May 6, 1824. VI. Harriet H. (twin), b. May C, 1824 ; d. April 4, 1825. VII. George, b. April 16, 1826; m. Julj 8, 1856, Lucy Case; lives at Indiantown, Iowa. VIII. Dea. Elijah F., b. May 22, 1830; m. May 1, 1856, Julia M., daughter of Jared Clark. IX. Hubert, b. Aug. 31, 1832 ; d. June 18, 1841. Ithuel Blake, removed in 1818 to Coventry, N. Y. He has for many years been deacon of a church in that place. He married, March 17, 1812, Wealthy, daughter of Benjamin Benedict, and had ten children. Deacon Allen Blake lived at the parting of the road running north by Abel S. Wetmore's from the Old Country road, until his death, March 10, 1850, aged 58. He succeeded his father in the tanning busi- ness, which he carried on in the tannery on the stream southeast of his dwelling. He was Deacon of the first Congregational Church for several years before his death. He married, July 9, 1817, Mabel Beach, daugh- ter of Adna. CHILDREN. I. Hervey Vincent, b. June 29, 1818; m. Nov. 20, 1844, Catherine E. Caul ; she d. July 13, 1845, aged 24. II. Maria Elizabeth, b. April 16, 1822 ; m. Hopkins Barber. III. Samuel A., d. Dec. 6, 1847, aged 23. IV. Celia C, m. Denison Lambert; d. Sept. 7, 1849, aged 23. V. Louisa, d. Nov. 16, 1851, aged 18. Capt. William Bunnell, this year, succeeded Eoger Barber as blacksmith at the center. He resided in the house at the parting of the Norfolk road and the old Waterbury turnpike, west of Theron Bronson's store, until his death, July 27, 1820, aged 46. Chatjncey Humphrey, a native of Simsbury, came from Torrington this year, and first lived on the Deacon Seth Hills place near Torrington line. In 1802 he bought the Jonathan Blake place, and built a tinner's shop at the south parting of the Old Country and Waterbury River roads. In this shop he afterwards went into trade in partnership with the Samuel Hurlbuts, Senior and Junior. From 1810 to 1813 he kept tavern in the yellow store building recently torn down, that stood in front of the new store of Theron Bronson. During the war of 1812 he was connected with the introduction of British goods to the States from Canada, a quantity of which were seized at Hartford, as smuggled, thereby reducing him to poverty. He removed to Ohio in 1816. He was a man of great activity, — of fine personal appearance and address, — and filled a large space in the society where he lived. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 211 Asahel Wells, from Farmington (now Bloomfield), a tanner, this year bought from Daniel Wells, the house west of the center, recently owned by Sage W. Grant, and the tannery on the north side of the road, a little west of the old parsonage, now owned by Leonard B. Hurlbut, which he occupied until 1807, when he returned to Farmington. He afterward removed to Winsted and lived some three or four years on the hill road to Colebrook, near David N. Beardsley's, and again left the town. He married, January 27, 1799, Mine Loomis, daughter of Ichabod. CHILDREN. I. Almira, b. Nov. 1, 1799. II. Sibyl, b. Jan. 25, 1801 ; d. May 3, 1807. III. Asahel Harlow, b. Feb. 16, 1805. The freemen admitted and sworn were Benjamin Whiting, Jr., Giles Russell, Asahel Wells, Vine Utley, Phineas Miner, Timothy Benedict, Jr., Benjamin Wheadon, Ichabod Loomis, Benjamin Carter, Chauncey Hills, William Crocker, John Miner, Jr., Miles Wilkinson, and John Alvord. 1799. The Winsted settlement had this year assumed such proportions, as to induce a vote of the town " that the Select men be directed to appoint one third of the town meetings to be holden at the house of Horace Hig- ley during the pleasure of the town." The opening of the Green Woods turnpike, this year, from New Hart- ford to Sheffield, Massachusetts, by a new and more direct route, avoiding as far as practicable the high hills, and following the course of the streams diverted all the long travel from the old north road over Wallen's hill and the old south road through old Winchester. The only new comer of the year was John Beecher, " of Cheshire," who bought a house and lot on the Brooks street road next north of Nelson T. Loomis, which he owned un- til 1807, when the Church granted him a letter of dismission to the Church in Waterbury. 1800. The town votes of 1800 present no matters of special interest. Joseph Preston, Jr., had died, leaving it to the towns of Torrington and Win- chester to decide by litigation, which of the towns was liable for his sup- port while living, — anil a committee was appointed to compromise the litigation or bring it to a final issue. The two towns had also a boundary 212 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, question which Major Wetmore was appointed to settle. Phineas Miner, Esq., was directed to oppose, or stave off, the appointment by the County Court of a committee to lay a road from Winsted to Colebrook; — and rams were prohibited running at iarge from August to November. The Republican, or Jeffersoiiian party, was again in the ascendant this year in ihe election of Town Officers. The veteran 'Squire Alvord, how- ever, breasted the storm and was le-elected Town Clerk. A three per cent, highway tax was laid. The tax for town expenses, — other than roads, — was five mills on the dollar, which, if fully collected, would have raised 3171.94. The Society records of the year mainly relate to the dismission of Rev. Mr. Booge from his pastoral charge, on his own application, concurred in by the Church and Society, which was ratified by Revs. Robbins of Nor- folk, Gillett of Torrington, and Mills of Torringford. The following notice of Mr. Booge we extract, by permission of its author, from the manuscript account of the Winchester Church, which Rev. Frederick Marsh furnished to the Connecticut Historical Society : "Mr. Booge was born in the parish of Northington, now the town of Avon, March 30, 17G4. His father was a clergyman, and died in Northington when his sou was about two years and ten months old. He continued under the care of hi-; mother until fourteen years old. Though a good reader, his education at this time was very limited. He then began to act for himself, and after laboring a short time on a farm, he entered the American Army, as substitute for an older brother. He served principally at West Point. When about 18, he became anxious to know r what he should do to be saved. His convictions issued in hopeful conversion His mind was thus turned to the Gospel Ministry, and after struggling with various ditlu ulties, he entered Yale College at 19, and graduated in 1787. He became the pastor of this Church, January 26, 1791. His dismission took place March 20, 1800, much to the regret of his people. He was licensed to preach the Gospel by Springfield Association, at Feeding Fills, Mass. After preaching a while at East Granville, Mass., then at Cornwall, Ct., he came to this place. About the time of his settlement here, he was married to Catharine Robinson, daughter of Colonel Timothy Robin-on, of Gran- ville, Mass. The leading cause of Mr. B.'s dismis.-ion from here was the failure of his health, and a strong conviction on his own mind that it was necessary to remove to a new country. Soon after his dismission, Mr. B. removed to Vernon, Oneida Co., N. Y. After preaching in that county about two years, as his health would permit, he removed to Georgia, Vt. After having the charge of that people eleven years, enjoying the satisfaction of seeing his labors blessed to the hopeful con- AND FAMILY RECORDS. 213 version of many souls, he took the pastoral charge of a congregation in Paris, Oneida Co., N. Y., called Union Society. Here he labored twelve years, happily and successfully, enjoying several interesting revivals. While enjoying peace, and the prospect of spending the remnant of his ministerial life with that people, a young man of Hamilton College, professedly very good, was the means of such difficulties among his people as led to his dismission. "Mr. B. was several times employed as a missionary by different societies, and aided in forming many churches. He was able in council, and often employed in aiding others with his advice, much respected and beloved. He died suddenly in Clinton, Oneida Co., N. Y., in his own dwelling, August 28, 1836, aged 73 years, and five months after the death of his wife. He exercised his ministry about forty -four years. " Most of the above account of Mr. B. is taken from a letter of his son, Rev. Horace P. Booge of Vernon Village, N. Y. " Mr. B. was in person above the middle stature of men, handsome, had a good countenance, pleasant voice, and an unusually prepossessing appearance. As a preacher he was very acceptable and edifying. " The kindest feelings appear ever to have existed between him and his people. His repeated visits and preaching since my settlement here were apparently very acceptable and pleasant to the people, and gratify- ing to himself. His surviving parishioners still remember him with interest." The Church applied to the dismissing council for advice in reference to a successor of Mr. Booge, and Rev. Archibald Bassett, a graduate of Yale College, in the class of 1796, was soon employed as a candidate, and continued his ministrations as such through the year. The electors admitted this year were Selah Hart, Loammi Mott, James Boyd, Ezra Andrews, Daniel Andrews, Jr., Levi Andrews, Benjamin Jenkins, Merritt Bull, Ezra Doolittle, and Roswell Marshall. Benjamin Wheadon, supposed to be son of Solomon, of Winchester, is this year certified as equipped for military duty, November 5, 1807 ; the Church voted him a letter to the Church in Hudson, 0. Eltakim Benedict, son of Benjamin, Senior, and a native of the town, came of age in 1799, and is this year certified as equipped for military duty. He married November 29, 1798, Anna Beebe. Lent Mott, Jr., son of Lent, of Winchester, and native of the town, was this year certified as equipped for military duty. He seems to have had no permanent residence, though he probably died in the town. He married November 16, 1798, Lucy Ives. 214 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, CHILDREN. I. Ladra, b. November 17, 1799. II. Alma, b. April 28, 1800. III. Jerusha, b. October 28, 1801. IV. Luct, b. August 2, 1803. V. Josiah, b. March 28, 1805. Silliman Hubbell came from Danbury to Winchester in 1800, and bought the house and lot on the south side of Cooper-lane, or Norfolk Road, about one-third of a mile westerly of the center, now owned by his grandson, Andrew E. Hubbell, in which he resided until his death, July 27, 1847, aged 83. He was one of the last and best esteemed humorists who abounded in Old Winchester at the close of the last century. His descent from his immigrant ancestor was in the follow- ing line : — Richard Hubbell,' Senr., from England in 1647, to Fairfield in 1664. Samuel, 2 son of Richard. Jeptha, 3 son of Samuel ; married Sarah Brindle or Brintnell. Silliman, 4 their son, who married 1st, April, 1787, Hannah Taylor, daughter of Timothy Taylor of Bethel, who died January 12, 1814; 2d, Nov., 1815, Polly, daughter of Wm. Cham- berlin, who died s. p. May 6, 1864. CHILDREN BY FIRST WIPE. I. Chloe, 5 b. January 25, 178S; m. 1814, Norris Coe. He died s. p., June 25, 1866. II. Ammon, 5 b. April 15, 1790; m. ; died s. p., August 8, 1823. III. Tolly, 5 b. January 17, 1792; m. April 18, 1819, Ira Dexter. She died March 25, 1856. IV. Ira, 5 b. October 10, 1794; m. (1), Irene Strong; (2), — Hart; (3), Urania Patton. Children by first wife: 1. Henry ; 2. Mary 6 ; 3, Laura. 6 By second wife : 1. Silliman J. 6 . V. Lira an, 5 b. August 28, 1797. VI. Andrew, 5 b. January 17, 1800; m. November 16, 1826, Marian Eogers. He died s. p., Charleston, S. C, September 14, 1827. VII. McPherson, 5 b. August 24, 1803; m. September 27, 1830, Minerva Seymour. VIII. Anna, 5 b. March 8, 1806; d. April 20, 1807. IX. Lyman, 5 b. February 18, 1808; d. unmarried April 19, 1833. X. Silliman, 5 b. February 7, 1810; d. September 30, 1826. Luman Hubbell, 6 son of Silliman, 4 married 1st, June 22, 1881, Jane Munro Boyd, daughter of James and Mary (Munro) Boyd. She died January 8, 1836, aged 22; 2d, Oct. 7, 1837, Henrietta, daughter of Benj. Jenkins. E °£r&sr&d.hyJJ s/ c*«o j^7y e>t--^-<^- c- AND FAMILY RECORDS. 215 CHILDREN BY FIRST WIFE. I. Andrew Lyman, 6 b. March 5, 1834; m. September 10, 1857, Martha W. Woodworth of Great Barrington, Mass., b. April 15, 1836. II. James Boyd, 6 b. March 18, 1836; m. September 9, 1858, Katie Amelia Tew, b. December 17, 1836. CHILDREN. 1. Louis Boyd, 7 b. Mankato, Minnesota, July 5, 1859. 2. Grace, 7 b. Mankato, July 11, 1860. 3. Henrietta May, 7 b. Winnebago Indian Agency, May 11, 1862. 4. James Boyd, 7 b. Mankato, December 22, 1866. 5. Andrew Lyman, 7 b. Mankato, October 8, 1870. CHILD BY SECOND WIFE. III. Luman Silliman, b. May 24, 1844; residing in 1872 at Mankato, Min., unmarried. Josiah Cowles lived near Colebrook line on the Jacklin road, from 1800 to about 1805. Augustus Humphrey, last from Torringford, this year bought of Elisha Wilcoxson the William Johnson farm, above the Dugway, on the old Winsted and Winchester road, where he lived until 1810, when he sold to Abiel Loomis, and left the town. 1800. Caleb Beach, son of Joel, and grandson of Caleb, (he first settler of the town, is on the tax list this year, and spent his life in the town ; his residence not ascertained. He died March 10, 1851, aged 72. He married June 25, 1797, Sarah Blakesley. CHILDREN. I. Elizabeth, b. July 3, 1798 ; d. December 2, 1804. II. Jonathan, b. November 19, 1799. III. William, b. January 5, 1802. IV. Seba, b. January 8, 1804. V. Caleb, b. January 6, 1806. VI. Susanna Serepta, b. December 10, 1807. VII. Hezekiah, b. July 13, 1810. .VIII. Sarah, b. July 31, 1812. IX. Julia, b. April 25, 1815. X. Phebe, b. May 26, 1817. XI. Clarissa, b. June 2, 1819 ; m. December 31, 1837, Major Thorp of Barkhamsted. Arah Loomis, son of Epaphras, lived from 1800 until his death (September 10, 1844, aged 77), in the house now occupied by Samuel 216 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. W. Starks, on the road turning west above the Dugway, and leading to the center. He married May 15, 1799, Margaret Loomis. She died September 28, 1841, aged 69. I. Harriet, II. Mary, III. Harry, IV. Abigail, V. Ruby, VI. Harriett, VII. Lucy (twin), VIII. Luky (twin), CHILDREN. b. February 4, 1800 ; d. March 10, 1807. b. January 27, 1802. b. March 14, 1803 ; d. March 26, 1803. b. May 9, 1804. b. April 27, 1806. b. March 16, 1808. b. February 5, 1810. b. February 5, 1810. Isaac Wilcox, Jr., from Simsbury, in 1799 bought a house and land near Colebrook line, in third tier, third division, near Richard Slocum's, which he conveyed to Luther Phelps by a deed in which- he is named " of Pompey, Onondaga Co., N. Y." He is assessed this year as a resident of the town. CHAPTER XVI. EARLY SCHOOLS. We have found scant materials for a history of the rise and progress of schools, and have made no mention of them hitherto in our Annals, preferring to bring together all that we have learned of their history and condition in a separate chapter. The first recorded action in reference to schools is found under date of December 17, 1773, the year of Rev. Mr. Knapp's settlement ; it was voted " to raise two pence on the pound of the rateable estate for the support of schools in this [1st] Society." It was also voted that the north district begin at the house now owned by Medad Hills, and contain all the north part" (of the society), "that the west district contain all the inhabitants on the west road from the crotch of the paths and all west," and " the east district to contain all the rest of the Society ;" " that the money raised by the tax be divided according to the list, and that Warham Gibbs, Reuben Thrall, Ebenezer Preston, Seth Hills, Oliver Coe, Samuel McCune, Benjamin Benedict, Abram Andrews, and Daniel Piatt be school committee ;" "that money [raised?] in each district be laid out in each district as shall best accommodate the same, if it shall be laid out in the year ; if not laid out in the year, to be returned to the society treasury." The foregoing votes promised an excellent provision for the educa- tional interests of a community that as yet had only paths instead of roads by which to define the limits of its school districts. But unfortu- nately at an adjourned meeting, January 6, 1774, it was voted " to reconsider all the votes that have been passed in this meeting concerning schooling." Here the matter rested, so far as taxation and the organiza- tion of school districts was concerned, until December 2, 1777, when it was voted " to raise two pence on the pound on last August list, to sup- port schools," and Deacon Seth Hills, Ensign Ozias Brownson, Philip Priest, Eliphaz Alvord, Captain Gibbs, Phineas Griswold, Lieutenant Benedict, and Eleazer Smith were appointed school committee. Whatever may have been done pursuant to these votes, there is no record of their repeal, and at the annual meeting in 1778 similar votes were renewed, and a rate of sixpence on the pound was granted, and a collector in each district appointed to collect the same. 28 218 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, We have no means of ascertaining when or where the first school houses were erected, or what teachers were employed, or for what length of time ; but we have reason to suppose that schools were first opened in private houses by voluntary associations, and that these were aided, but not wholly sustained, by taxation. The next action appears on the society records in 1786, when a new school district was organized, " beginning at Torrington line, by a stream called the Branch, and to extend up said Branch so far as that an east line will include Captain Elmer [now Widow Norris Coe], from thence down y country road, including Doctor Everitt [now Theron Bronson], John Nash, and all on the north side of said country road, and to include Phinehas Griswold's, from thence south to Torrington line," and Jonathan Coe and Levi Brownson were appointed district committee. This description is not very definite, but probably is intended to designate the district which built about this time the " Two-Chimney School House " that stood, until burned down, in a southeast direction from the burying- ground. In 1788, on the petition of Eliphaz Alvord, and others, another dis- trict, to be called the Second District, was organized, beginning on Long Lake, at the mouth of Sucker Brook, and extending up said brook to the north end of the third tier, first division (near the Dugway school house), then to the northwest corner of the tier, then southerly along its west line to the southwest corner of Gershom McCune, Jr. (late Sylvester Piatt's) lot, thence easterly along his south line, direct to Long Lake, and thence northerly along the shore thereof to the mouth of Sucker Brook. In January, 1790, we find the following appointment of district school committees : — Samuel Clark, who lived in the Daniel Murray house, for the north- east district, which embraced the east part of Danbury Quarter, and extended south to Mr. Clark's. Andrew Everitt, who lived in the old Everitt house, for the north- west district, embracing the principal part of Danbury Quarter. Amasa Wade, for the southwest district, embracing the territory west of Branch Brook, nearly as far north as the Norfolk road. Captain Joseph Elmore, for the southeast district, embracing the center and the southern portion of the society, lying west of Branch Brook, and southwest of Sucker Brook. Captain Elisha Wilcoxson, who lived in the William Johnson house, for the second or Sucker Brook District. In 1798, by vote of the town, a new district was established, partly out of Winchester Society, and partly out of Winsted Society, the boundaries of which were directed to be placed on file in the Town AND FAMILY RECORDS. 219 Clerk's Office, but as no such file is to be found, its limits cannot be ascertained. It probably embraced the northern half of the present Sucker Brook district, and extended easterly to the Austin Mill, or Mad River, in Winsted. The committee were — Deacon David Austin, Levi Norton, and John Miner. In 1792 another district was formed, embracing essentially the terri- tory of the present West Winsted district, there then being no village in existence, all the inhabitants living on the Coe and Spencer street roads to Colebrook, the two roads there diverging from the original school house, which stood on the site of the present West Winsted school house, and was burned down about 1808 or 1809. In the records of Winsted Society, under date of December 27, 1784, we find a vote that the districts set off for schooling by a committee chosen for that purpose be established according to their doings, but no record of the districts so established is to be found. October 5, 1785, a tax of ''one penny halfpenny" on the pound was laid for the " use of schooling," but was reconsidered and annulled at an adjourned meeting on the 26th of the same month. December 8, 1788, Ebenezer Rowley, and Ensign Eleazer Kellogg were appointed school committee. No further reference to school matters is found until December 8, 1794, when it was voted to divide the society into school districts, and a com- mittee was appointed for that purpose, who reported January 12, 1795. The report was accepted and placed on file, but not recorded, and the file is not to be found. In the foregoing minutes and extracts we have collated all of the essential doings of the town, and of the two societies prior to the act of General Assembly, May Session, 1795, which appropriated the interest of the proceeds of the western reserve lands to the support of schools in the several societies constituted, or which should thereafter be constituted by law, and requiring such societies to hold distinctive meetings, as school societies, separate from their meetings for ecclesiastical purposes. This act left the ecclesiastical societies as it found them in respect to their religious functions, but invested them with new and distinct powers as school societies, so that persons qualified to vote on school matters might be disqualified as voters in ecclesiastical matters. As a consequence, the meetings and officers of each had a distinctive character, and distinctive records were kept. Little of detail is known in respect to the schools supported in the dis- tricts prior to the act of 1795. We know, however, that several school- houses were built in the old society, and that they swarmed with pupils. We know, too, that good teachers were employed, and that the mass of 220 ANNALS OF WINCHESTEK, the people were well instructed in all the branches of common school education. We have before us some of the early reminiscences of a lady,* born in 178G, which illustrate the school customs and mental culture at .the period referred to, from which we extract her notice " of the great day of exam- inations and exhibitions, when eight district schools assembled in the large, unfinished meeting-house in the winter of 1793-4. " The reading and spelling of the schools occupied the forenoon, and the afternoon was devoted to dramas, comedies, orations, etc. One corner of the church was enclosed in curtains, and each school took its turn behind the scenes to prepare for their special. exhibitions on the stage. " The late Deacon Levi Piatt was the teacher of the school to which I belonged. Well do I remember the directions given by him to the little girls, as to dressing their hair for exhibition, viz : The night previous, our mothers were to wet our heads with home-brewed beer, and our hair was to be combed and braided very tightly before going to bed. In the morning, the last thing after we were dressed for the exhibition, the braids were taken out, and the hair lay in waving lines all over our shoulders. " Among the variety of things he taught us, was the practice of spell- ing a whole sentence, all together, or more particularly the first class. The sentence to be publicly spelled, was : 'Abominable Bumble Bee, with his Tail cut off'; but Mr. Piatt thought best to shorten it to 'Abomina- ble tail cut off. ' " " Imagine, if you can, in soberness, a large, thoroughly trained school- class, spelling, or chanting, before the assembled families of the town, in this wise : A — there's your A. B-0 — there's your Bo, and your A-bo. M-I — there's your Mi, and your Bo-mi, and your A-bo-mi. N-A — there's your Na, and your Mi-na, and your Bo-mi-na, and your A-bo-mi-na. " ' B-L-E — there's your Ble, and your Na-ble, and your Mi-na-ble, and your Bo-mi-na-ble, and your A-bo-mi-na-ble. " ' T-A-I-L — there's your Tail, and your Ble-tail, and your Na-ble- tail, and your Mi-na-ble-tail, and your Bo-mi-na- ble-tail, and your A-bo-mi nable-tail. " ' C-U-T — there's your Cut, and your Tail-cut, and your Ble- tail-cut, and your Na-ble-tail-cut, and your Bo mi- na-ble-tail-cut, and your A-bo-mi-na-ble-tail-cut. * Mrs. Nelly M. Swift, daughter of Dr. Josiah Everitt. AND FAMILY KECOKDS. 221 " ' O-F-F — there's your Off, and your Cut-off, and your Tail-cut- off, and your Ble-tail-cut-off, and your Na-ble-tail- cut-off, aud your Mi-na-ble— tail-cut— off, and your Bo-mi-na-ble-tail-cut-off, and your A-bo-nii-na- ble — tail — cut — off. ' "In the afternoon, each school had its oration, poem, dialogue, comedy or tragedy. One of our dialogues was called ' Old Gibber,' in which the late Abel McEwen, D.D., of New London, took the part of Old Gib- ber ; his wife was Charity Bronson. Oliver Marshall, Seth Hills, Jo- seph Coit, and myself, had parts. "First Scene. — Old Gibber and wife talking about the war — wife stirring the hasty pudding — daughter Betty (myself) setting the table — John, the son, just home from the war, etc. " Another scene is a bar-room, with such talk as we may suppose would take place there during the war of the Revolution. " The boj s of this period were remarkable for their successful imita- tions of every kind of business. " The late Samuel Huidbut, Senior, was Justice of the Peace. Samuel Stanley (son of Dr. Everitt's third wife, who died young), was a lawyer, also Sylvester Griswold. Lemuel 'Hurlbut was constable, etc. Mock Courts were held in my father's long kitchen. Writs, attachments, and executions were all made out in due form. A statute book of laws was compiled, specifying a great variety of things contrary to law, for which culprits would be arrested, tried, and punished by imprisonment for so many hours, etc., etc. "Witnesses were summoned, examined, cross- examined, and impeached, etc. " A newspaper was edited and published weekly by Samuel Stanley, before mentioned. It was ruled in columns, had editorials, news, anec- dotes, advertisements, etc. These boys, at that time, were none of them over twelve years old ! " These glimpses of the common schools of that early day, before any School Fund existed, and of their results in stimulating the mental activ- ity of the youth, seem almost incredible. In this connection, a sketch of the first " General Training " in Win- chester, by the same lady, seems appropriate. " Up to this time (about 1793) the ' Green,' in front of the Meeting House, was ornamented with quite a number of chestnut stumps, which were (hen split down and drawn out piecemeal, by teams and chains, the holes were filled up and levelled, all the fences in every direction were removed, and the tables for dinner were set in my father's orchard. Nev- 222 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. er shall I forget the array of ladies in silks, satins, damasks, and change- able lustrings, of all colors, as they stood in a regular mass, directly opposite our house, on the other side of the road, for it was a new thing, and all the towns near contributed largely to this display of female beauty and rich dresses. It should be recollected that these robes were not worn every day, or even once a week, as they are now, and were of a far richer material than those flaunted by modern butterfly-belles. Every officer, and every soldier brought his wife, his lady-love, or his sister ; it was the grand holiday of the year. " Col. Ozias Bronson commanded the regiment, and I remember his coming to my father's to ask for my black ostrich plumes to wear on his hat. I also recollect that when the regiment was formed in a hollow square, the colonel tried to find a clergyman to make a prayer, but found none. He then took off his plumed cocked hat, as he sat on his horse, and said : ' I will pray ' ; so he did, and with great propriety. " It was customary for those who had been officers and soldiers in the then late war, to ride on horseback, single file, past the train band, take off their hats and bow to the company, who returned what was called the ' General Salute,' by fife and drum. Well do I recollect seeing my father at the head of such a procession, riding pa*t Captain Hurlbut's company. To play Indian, dressed like savages, and sound the ' War-Whoop,' used to fill one with terror, for nothing was so dreadful in the minds of children as ' Indians ' and ' British Regulars.' " CHAPTER XVII. EMIGRATION WESTWARD— FAMILY RECORDS. From 1801 to 1811. At the opening of the nineteenth century the old society of Winchester had reached or passed its culminating point, as to population and wealth, as well as social institutions. As we have traced its slow growth, we have found it a hard struggle of energetic men encountering and subduing a most forbidding and inhospitable territory. Victory has crowned their efforts. A virtuous, law-abiding, God-fearing community has been organ- ized out of the heterogeneous materials gathered from every part of the state. The roads have been made, the mills built, the church organized, the minister settled, the meeting house erected, the schools organized. Blacksmiths, tanners, shoemakers, hatters and tailors have begun to ply their trades, and even the dancing-master has found a lodgment, and held his assemblies once a fortnight, during the winter of 1793-4, at Captain Hurlbut's tavern. It would seem as if the labor- worn denizens should now in comparative ease enjoy the fruits of their hard toils and privations. Such had doubt- less been the fond hopes that cheered their exhausting labors : for as yet they knew of no more fertile lands to be possessed and enjoyed. The Dutch settlements along the Hudson, from New York to Lake Cham- plain, then formed a barrier to the westward march of the Yankee nation, and they knew little of the wilderness beyond. As new and improved roads were projected from Schenectady westward along the Mohawk to Utica and onward, enterprising men from this and neighboring towns con- tracted to build them. They hired their laborers and teamsters mainly from the Greenwoods towns, especially from Winchester and Torrington. These laborers bore no resemblance to the railroad gangs of our day. They were the elite of our young and middle-aged farmers. They went on a service not unlike a military expedition, camping out and working their toilsome way through the German Flats to the virgin soil of Oneida county. They found it "a goodly land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of vallies and hills, a land of wheat and barley, a land wherein they should eat bread without scarceness, and should not lack anything in it." 224 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, It was a region of beauty and fertility, well calculated to excite the desires of the hard-working and ill-compensated farmers of Western Con- necticut to better their lot, and to make them discontented with their own hard-featured, unproductive region. The spirit of emigration was again aroused. The men who had subdued the rugged hill sides of Northern Litchfield county bad accomplished labors, compared with which the clear- ing and bringing into cultivation the rich rolling lands of " the Oneida Country " was a mere pastime. They began to sell their newly-cleared lands before the stumps had decayed from their meadows, and to move away to the banks of the Mohawk, and to the shores of Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca lakes. All the new towns of Litchfield county were seriously retarded in their growth by this first emigration westward, and not one of them so irre- trievably as Old Winchester. The old inhabitants speak of it as "the Great Exodus." The Banbury Quarter, which, prior to this movement, was thickly settled, in a few years became almost deserteil, and has not to this day recovered from the exhausting drain of its inhabitants. Nume- rous old chimney places line the lonely roads where, in 1800, large fami- lies were reared, and school houses crowded. The late Dr. T. 8. Wet- more is said to have counted up the remains of more than sixty chimneys, within the society, where the houses had never been rebuilt. While many valued inhabitants were thus abandoning the town, immi- grants were, to some extent, filling their places, whose names, residences, &c, we propose to continue through another decade, connecting therewith, as heretofore, the doings of the town and society. The year 1801 is made memorable by the election of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency, and also by the occurrence of the great flood, which took his name in commemoration of the coincident events. The flood was one of unprecedented magnitude, carrying away nearly all the bridges, and doing other heavy damages throughout this region. An extra tax of five mills on the dollar was laid for replacing and repairing the bridges of the town. In society meeting a call was voted to Rev. Archibald Ba^sett, and a, salary offered him of one hundred pounds ($333.33), one-half "in mer- chantable pork, or beef, or butter, or cheese, or English grain, or Indian corn, or Wool, or Flax, if delivered by the first of each year, at current market prices." This not being accepted, the society proposed ninety-five pounds and twenty-five cords of wood ; and finally agreed to pay one hundred pounds, and to furnish wood as they had done to the former pas- tor. On these terms the call was accepted, and the union was consum- mated by an ordination, of which no minute is found, either in the Church or society records. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 225 The Waterbury River Turnpike, running through Colebrook and Win- chester, and then down the Naugatuck valley, was chartered this year, and soon after was opened. It crossed the Green Woods turnpike at the Crocker house, passed through Winchester Centre village, and thence southerly to and along the Naugatuck branch to Wolcottville. Much benefit to stockholders and travelers was anticipated, but was never re- alized. Its income in course of years ceased to pay expenses, and about 1850 the company threw open their gates and surrendered their charter. Richard Becklet, from Berlin, is on the list of this year; he lived and died on the cross-road or lane north of the Little Pond, in the house now occupied by his son, Daniel Beckley. He was father of Richard Beckley of Norfolk, Daniel and Norris Beckley of this town, and a daughter, who went West about 1815. His wife Susanna (Wilcox), died March 31, 1828, aged 62 ; he died May 2, 1841, aged 82. Richard Beckley, Jr., married October 16, 1825, Sabrina Spicer; she died and he married (2d) March 16, 1834, Mary Cook of Colebrook. CHILDREN. I. Elisha Morgan, b. April — , 1827 (son of Sabrina). II. Jane, b. September 16, 1828 (dau. of Sabrina). III. Julia Sabrina, b. March 4, 1833 (dau. of Sabrina). IV. William Edmund, b. July 2, 1837 (son of Mary). Roger Cook, son of Aaron, of Winchester, is on this year's list, though according to the record of his birth only twenty years old. He lived in town — the place of residence not ascertained — until about 1810. Abel Tibballs and Jane, his wife, this year, bought the farm in Danbury quarter now owned and occupied by their grand-son, George Tibballs. She died on this farm, October 5, 1809, aged 58, after which he married (2d) Anna, daughter of Eliphaz Alvord, and lived until his death (April 6, 1822, aged 71,) in the house that stood on the east side of the north and south Dugway road, opposite the parting of the road westerly to the center. Nathan Tibballs, son of Abel, occupied the original homestead un- til a few years before his death. He married Rebecca Green. CHILDREN. I. George. II. III. Huldah Rebecca, b. Jan. 6, 1821 ; m. May 20, 1841, Riley A. Grant, of Norfolk. IV. Nathan, d. April 1, 1841, aged 18. V. Sarah, d. April 1, 1842, aged 15. 29 226 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Nehemiah Bailey is on the tax list of this year, and owned and oc- cupied from 1802 to 1803 a lot of land on the old South Country road, near Torrington line. The severity of the contest between the Federal and Republican parties is indicated by the number of new electors admitted this year. They were Abijah Wilson, Jr., Wm. Filley, James Gilbert, Newell Haydon, Eli Andrews, Levi Daw, Levi Filley, Jonathan Douglass, Elijah Bene- dict, Lorrin Sweet, Cyrus Butrick, Anson Cook, Reuben Rowley, Joseph Ellsworth, Levi Fox, Joel Wright, Jesse Porter, John C. Riley, Obadiah Piatt, Levi Hoyt, Reuben Scovill, Joseph Mitchell, Luther Holcomb, Daniel Wilcox, David Holmes, Ebenezer Rowley, Stephen Knowlton, Samuel Wetmore, 3d, Orrin Bronson, Stephen Hart, John C. Barber, Moses Hatch, Nathaniel Hoyt, Micajah Hoyt, John Wetmore, Joseph Cook, Isaac Bronson, Chauncey Bronson, Eden Benedict, Joseph Pres- ton, Amasa Wade, Andrew Pratt, Anson Allen, Lyman Doolittle, Ozias Spencer, Zenas Wilson, Stephen Hurlbut, Abel McEwen, Levi Coy, Lloyd Andrews, Asahel Morse, Isaac Wade, Eliphalet Mills, Nathaniel Smith, Wm. Westlake, and William Chickley. Total, 56. 1802. The political feature of this year was the defeat of the Jefferson party and the restoration of the Federal party to the supremacy. The town and society records embrace only routine business. Mathew Adams, from Simsbury, this year bought a farm on both sides of the Winchester and Torrington line, partly in the third tier, first division, on which he resided forty-seven years. In 1849 his house was burned down, and he soon after removed to Granville, Ohio, where he died September 24, 1863, aged 93. He lived and died without an enemy ; — yet he was a man with decided traits of character. Integrity and kindness marked all his dealings and intercourse. He was a prominent citizen, often employed in town affairs, and five times elected to the Assembly. He was born in Sims- bury, October 8, 1770, son of Matthew and Keziah Adams. Married Bet- sey Coe, of Simsbury, by whom he had CHILDREN. I. Mathew, who went while a young man to Gayaraas, on the Gulf of Cali- fornia, and d. on the Pacific Coast within ten or fifteen years past. II. Susan, ; m. Coleman, of Ohio. III. Zelotes, who lived and died in Georgia. IV. Gatlord, who lived and died in Granville, Ohio. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 227 V. Betsey, who m. Atwood, and died in Ohio. VI. Normand, residing in Winsted, who m. Betsey, daughter of Dr. Luman Wakefield. VII. Marcia Ann, who died in Winsted unmarried. VIII. John, who lived and died in Georgia. IX. Oscar, now residing in Portage, N. Y. Theodore Bailey, probably from Goshen, this year bought the farm lately owned by John A. Bidwell, on the Waterbury River turnpike, in Danbury quarter, and lived on it a few years. He was " of Goshen " in 1807, and of Bath, Steuben County, New York, in 1817. Timothy Bailey bought of Theodore above, part of the Bidwell farm and other adjoining lands, on which he lived until 1807, or later. Ithamar Bailey, described " of Winchester," this year bought thirty acres of land with a dwelling-house thereon, now a part of the Bidwell farm, and sold it in 1803. James Barton, a hatter, resided in Winchester, and this year bought the house at the north angle of the road running east from the center and the north and south Dugway road, and sold it in 1804. William Chickley, a blacksmith, this year bought a lot near Goshen line, in Danbury quarter, and sold it in 1805. He afterwards bought and lived on a place between N. T. Loomis and Asaph Brooks, on the east side of Brooks street, which he sold in 1813. He married, March 28, 1802, Hannah Moore. CHILDREN. I. Harriet, b. March 16, 1803. II. William, b. Jan. 1, 1806. Jonas Ell well, a blacksmith, is listed this year in the old Society. He afterwards lived in the " old mill house " on Lake street, in Winsted, until 1805 or 1806, working in a blacksmith shop then standing on the west side of Lake street, nearly opposite the mill house. He removed to Barkhamsted or New Hartford. One of his sons was drowned by falling from the Kingdom bridge into the Farmington River in New Hartford. Benjamin Payne, named "of Bolton, Tolland County," this year bought the house and saw-mill property on Mad River, immediately south of the Danbury school -house, and sold the same in November, 1803, to Oliver Smith. He probably then left the town. The house and saw-mill have long since disappeared. 228 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Phinehas Warren, 2d, from Saybrook, this year bought of Samuel Clark, the farm on the old Winsted and Winchester road, late owned by Daniel Murray, and sold the same to Reuben Marshall, in November, 1806, — probably then leaving the town. Jesse Horton, "of Winchester," this year bought the Jonathan Blake house at the center, and sold it to Mr. Blake in 1812. He then bought and occupied, until 1823, the Samuel A. McAlpine place, half a mile south of the center, on the Waterbury River road. The Church voted him a letter to the Church in Trumansburg, New York, May 15, 1825. He had wife, Lydia, and CHILDREN. I. Julia, b. July 10, 1804. II. Harriet Rebecca, b. Aug. 6, 1810. III. Willis Dorrance, b. Jan. 11, 1814. IV. Henry Bishop, b. Sept. 1, 1819. The freemen admitted and sworn this year were Deacon Josiah Smith, Nathaniel Balcom, Michael Grinnell, Silliman Hubbell, Abel Stannard, Levi Ackley, Gideon Hall, Asher Rowley, Levi Norton, Jr., John Wet- more, Jr., David Coe, Moses Camp, Samuel Camp, Salmon Treat, Horace Eggleston, Reynold Wilson, Josiah Apley, Arah Loomis, John Deer, Elijah Starks, Hawley Oakley, Fisher Case, Rums Grinnell, James Henshaw, Ezra Rockwell, Truman Smith, Phinehas Warner, Rufus Holmes, and Roswell Grant. 1803. The records of the town and society this year embrace only routine business. Allen Burr, who lived in a hipped-roof house, now torn down, on the road east of the Little Pond, nearly opposite the lane to Daniel Beck- ley's, married, January 27, 1803, Anna Wade. He died June 22, 1806, aged 27. CHILDREN. I. Almira, b. Dec. 24, 1803; m. Oct. 17, 1821,Marova Seymour. II. Amasa, b. Oct. 24, 1805. John Hamilton from Goshen, owned a hundred-acre lot on both sides of Waterbury River turnpike, immediately north of the J. A. Bidwell farm, from 1803 to 1806, and is not afterwards found on the records. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 229 Jupiter Mars, a colored man from Norfolk, bought a small lot at the west end of the Amanda Church farm, on which he lived until 1805, and then bought thirty acres of land on the Waterbury turnpike, now owned by the heirs of Quashe Potter, on which he lived until his return to Norfolk in 1809. Jupiter was originally a slave in Dutchess, or Ulster Co., N. Y., and was bought as such by a Reverend Mr. Thompson, a resident of Virginia, who brought him to Canaan, Conn., and there married him to a female slave, whom lie brought from Virginia, and placed the married pair in charge of the farm on which his aged parents resided. They took good care of the old people, but did not make the farm pay. Their reverend master returning, and finding the state of things, took measures for carry- ing them back with him to Virginia. They found out his design, and fled with their children to the woods of Norfolk, where the few families around their place of refuge fed and concealed them. Mr. Thompson finding it impossible to get hold of them, or carry them out of the state, finally arranged that the two oldest boys should be sold within the county until twenty-five years old, when by law their slavery would end, and that Jupiter and his wife should at once go free. Joseph, the oldest boy, died before he was twenty-five ; James, the other boy, at twenty-one years of age told his master he would be a slave no longer, and finally arranged to pay him ninety pounds for his remain- ing five years of slavery, which he earned and fully paid. The family thus freed from slavery proved worthy of the boon. Jupiter, the father, was a burly, jovial man, fond of good eating and drinking, and disposed to enjoy life as it moved on. Fanny, the mother, was the best cook in the region, and a most estimable woman. The children had a high degree of self-respect and refinement. James, the slave boy, became deacon, first of the Zion African Church, at Hartford, and afterwards of the African Church, at Pittsfield, Mass. John, a younger son, became a Methodist preacher in Worcester Co., Mass., and afterwards served in the late war, first as chaplain of a colored regiment, in North Carolina, and afterward as minister among the freed men. Elizabeth, one of the daughters, was educated at Philadelphia, and went out as a teacher to Liberia, where she married, and is still employed in teaching. A daughter of her brother James has since joined her in the same capacity. Sherman, another son, was a sailor out of Stonington for many years before his death. Three other daughters, two of them still living, have ever commanded the respect of all who knew them. Oliver Smith from Southwick, Mass., this year bought and occupied a house and lot on the south side of Mad River, on the road running south from the Danbury school house. He afterward bought and occu- 230 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, pied the red house next west of the Green Woods turnpike toll gate, until about 1816, when he removed to Tyringham. He became a Methodist exhorter, but had not attained to the priesthood when he left here. In his zeal for purity and good morals, he was so exceedingly scan- dalized one day by the sight of Old Holcomb passing along the road with his beloved fiddle on his shoulder, that he incited a reckless neigh- bor to seize the profane instrument and dash it to pieces. Holcomb sued him as principal in the trespass, and made him pay heavily for his iconoclasm. Daniel Rice is assessed this year, but probably lived in the town earlier, as he had by wife Anna, a son, named Chester, born October 24, 1801. The electors admitted and sworn were as follows : — Phinehas Reed, Amos Hungerford, Joel Kimberly, Elisha Kimberly, Samuel Hoadley, Ransley Bull, Ithamar Bailey, Jacob Seymour, Stephen Wade, Stephen Gaylord, James Barton, William Phillips, Nathan Potter, Timothy Bailey, and Eli Marshall. 1804. The town and society meetings of this year were confined to routine business. The electors admitted were : — Daniel Coe, Daniel Mills, and Elihu Everitt. Elihu Everitt, son of Andrew of Winchester, came of age this year, and seems to have lived on the Norfolk road, near the west line of the town, from this year to 1809 or later, and is named of Vernon, N. Y., in a deed of 1812. He married Roxy, daughter of John Marshall of Winchester, as appears by the same deed. Isaac Jackltn came into the town this year, and resided until his death (May 13, 1834, aged 90), on a farm in Danbury Quarter, still owned by his descendants, and now occupied in part by Noah Barber. He is said to have been a servant of Secretary Wyllys of Hartford, from whom he ran away before the Revolutionary War, and took refuge in the Ragged Mountain region of Barkhamsted. Here he won the heart of a daughter of Chaugum, the head or chief of the Narragansett Indians, who held their council fire at the " Light House," but could not get Chaugum to sanction their marriage ; so they ran away, got married, settled down in Danbury Quarter, made baskets, and raised children, of whom John was the oldest, and lived and died (November 21, 1850, aged 58), on the paternal farm, leaving several children, among whom were Isaac of AND FAMILY RECORDS. 231 Colebrook and Samuel of Pennsylvania, or elsewhere. A daughter of Mrs. (Chaugum) Jacklyn married into the family of Elwells, who, in conjunction with the Wilsons, still linger around the Light House, occa- sionally lighting up the old council fires. Seth Porter from Goshen, this year owned and lived in a house on the west side of Brooks Street, somewhere near the old Everitt place, and the next year removed to the Luman Munsill house, near the center, and soon after left the town. Isaac Sweet, son of Peleg, and a native of the town, came of age this year. He owned twenty- five acres of the southwest part of his father's farm, until 1807, and probably removed soon afterwards with his father to the Western Reserve, O. 1805. In society meeting, December 30, 1805, "the question being put to said meeting by the moderator, on motion made and seconded, does this meeting feel satisfied with Mr. Bassett, as their minister ? — and it was voted in the negative," whereupon a committee was directed to wait on Mr. B. and inform him of this vote, and to report the result of their con- ference to an adjourned meeting, on January 6, 1805. The freemen admitted this year were : — Luther Hoadley, Oliver Smith, Timothy Porter, Jasper Videto, and Benjamin Johnson. James Beebe, Esq., son of Colonel Bezaleel Beebe of Litchfield, is this year assessed as an inhabitant of the town. He lived on the McEwen homestead from this time until 1838, soon after which he removed to Hartford, Trumbull County, Ohio, where he died in 1865. He was a man of the old puritan stamp, prominent in town and church ; was a justice of the peace for many years, a representative at three sessions of the assembly, and senator from the 15th district in 1836 and 1837. He married May 29, 1800, Abi, second daughter of Robert McEwen. CHILDREN. I. Julia Frances, b. May 24, 1801 ; m. June 26, 1827, Darius Phelps of Norfolk. II. Elizabeth Garrett, b. February 13, 1803; m. November 7, 1826, Birdsey Brownson of Winchester. in. Sarah, b. July 3, 1805; m. May 12, 1829, Doctor Benj. Welch, Jr., of Norfolk. IV. Robert McEwen, b. August 17, 1807 ; d. December 28, 1807. V. Mary, b. April 8, 1809 ; d. June 23, 1838. VI. Robert McEwen, b. April 28, 1811. Physician, Hartford, O. VII. James Hervet, b. August 8, 1813. VIII. Ebenezer, b. May 27, 1818. 232 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Jared Curtis, of Pompey, State of New York, m. Dec. 27, 1801, Submit Hubbard, daughter of Elijah Hubbard of W. He received a deed this year, from his father-in-law, of his homestead, in the vicinity of the Bronson & Rugg cheese box factory, and resided on the premises until 1816, when he bought the Rufus Drake farm, in Hall Meadow, which he occupied until 1823. He died in Norfolk, Jan. 1, 1861, aged 81. CHILDREN. I. Sylvia, b. in Fabius, Onondaga Co., N. Y., Dec. 17, 1802. II. True Worthy (son), b. Oct. 14, 1804. III. Jane Wyllys, b. Aug. 17, 1806. IV. Chester, b. Aug. 25, 1808. V. Hiram, b. Aug. 19, 1810. VI. Daniel, b. Aug. 12, 1812. VII. Emilia, b. May 24, 1815. VIII. Lorrain, b. Oct. 23, 1817. IX. Berona (dan.), b. Feb. 16, 1819. X. Ledelia, b. April 4, 1822. Levi Hoyt lived in a house on the north side of Mad River, and east side of the north and south highway, near the Danbury School-house, until 1807. In 1811 he lived in Litchfield. Elijah Pinney, this year lived in Winchester, and was " of Bark- hamsted," in 1814, when he bought the Harry Blake farm, on the old road from Winded to Winchester, on which he resided until 1835, when he removed to Erie, Penn., and died there. His widow, Mahala, died in Colebrook, in January, 1866, at the house of her son-in-law, Ralzemon Phelps. Isaac Tucker, son of Reuben, of W., and a native of the town, came of age this year. He m. Nov. 5, 1805, Pamelia Benedict. In 1811, he became the owner of his father's homestead on Mad River, near Norfolk line, which he occupied until about 1827. He died some ten years later. CHILDREN. I. Phinehas Jddd, b. May 17, 1807. II. Anna, b. June 8, 1809. III. Timothy Benedict, b. Dec. 29, 1811. IV. Willard, b. May 22, 1815. V. Wyllys, b. March 26, 1817. VI. Sarah Pamela, b. Oct. 16, 1820. VII. Isaac, b. Sept. 26, 1827. Chauncey White, a tailor, lived until about 1810, on the Norfolk AND FAMILY RECORDS. 233 road, beyond L. B. Hurlbut's, and then built and occupied a small house that stood near the stone house of Isaac A. Bronson, until about 1813, when he removed from the town. 180G. Either the " fathers of the town " had heretofore received the honor of their appointment as a sufficient compensation, or they had charged a higher price for services than their constituents approved, as would seem from a vote of this year, " to allow some compensation to select men for their services," and another vote fixing the compensation at fifty cents a day. The geese of the town, perhaps by reason of affinity to the selectmen, seemed to have been deemed worthy of " some compensation," which was provided for by the following vote : " Voted, that every goose found in the highway, if any person shall take up such goose, and drive the same to the owner, or to pound, shall be entitled to receive two cents for each goose or gander." * Manifestations of discontent, on the part of the Church and Society, with the pastorate of Mr. Bassett, began to appear at the close of the year 1805. Early in 1806, Mr. B. was requested to join in the call of a council with reference to his dismission. Further steps were taken in April, which resulted in the call of a council, consisting of Rev. Messrs. Bobbins of Norfolk, Hooker of Goshen, and Lee of Colebrook, and Dea- cons Norton and Frisbie, " to advise such measures as they in their wis- dom should think proper." The advice given does not appeal'. In May, following, a vote of very questionable propriety was passed, appointing a committee " to enquire of any person they may think proper, whether any, and if any, what allegations can be brought and substantiated against Mr. Bassett's moral conduct as a gospel minister or a Christian." After the report of this committee, a series of allegations were embodied in a complaint, and submitted to the moderator of Consociation. The Con- sociation met in August. Neither the charges exhibited, nor the result of council thereon, are found on Record. Mr. Bassett was dismissed from * That this was not a solitary instance of ambiguous legislation, is shown by the following extract from the records of Simsbury : ' At a Generall Town metting of the Inhabetanc of Simsbury, Regulerly convened febuery twenty-eight, 1718-19, these Sundery acts were past : Imrprs: Samuel har- bor was chosen to take care to prowide a bull for hop meadow in the Room of Ephraim buell said buell being dead." 30 234 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, his charge, but was not deposed from the ministry. In the following year he brought before the Association (or Consociation) a complaint against the Church, exhibiting eleven articles of charge for immoral conduct toward him. The church went into consideration of each of the articles of charge, and unanimously denied their being guilty of each and all of them. The church records do not show the nature of the charges, nor the result arrived at by Consociation ; and the record of the trial, and result of that body, if in existence, has not been accessible to the com- piler. Rev. Mr. Marsh, in his account of the Winchester Church, before referred to, writes as follows : " Mr. Bassett removed to Walton, Delaware Co., N. Y. How long he continued pastor of that church is not known to the writer. After his dismission from that people, he preached considerably in various places, but continued his residence at Walton. " He was a man of talents, had a high standing in a good class — wrote able, sound and discriminating discourses, — and merely as a preacher, might have been acceptable to his people. But unhappily, in his dealings with men, and management of secular matters, he was so indiscreet as to create difficulties which led to his dismission. He married Kezia, dau. of Mr. Zebulun Curtis of Torringford, a worthy woman." Their daughter, Mary, was baptized June 23, 1805. The electors admitted this year were Jared Curtis, Samuel Hurlbut, Jr., Warren W. Norton, Alexander Cleveland, Isaac Sweet, James Beach, Elizur Hinsdale, and Roger Root, Jr. Wait Loomis, from Torrington, brother of Lorrin and Arah of W., lived in the old house since torn down, at the parting of the roads above the Dugway, where he d. Feb. 25, 1849, aged 83. He m. in 1796, Sally Stone, who d. Sept. 25, 1845, aged 77 years, leaving one daughter, So- phronia, who has had two husbands, Swain and Leonard. Daniel Murray, b. Torrington, April 4, 1785, came to Winchester when a boy, and is on the assessment list of this year. In 1815, he bought of William Miner, the Samuel Clark farm, which continued to be his homestead until his death, Aug. 27, 1870. He m. March 25, 1810, Roxalany North, of Torrington ; born Nov. 2, 1785. CHILDREN. I. Philomela, b. July 7, 1811 ; m. Sept. 10, 1850, Wilkes, of Norfolk. II. Frederick, b. " 28, 1813 ; m. June 2, 1847, Ann M. Caul. III. Flora, b. Sept. 4, 1815; m. Samuel W. Starks. IV. Jennett, b. April 2, 1818 ; m. George Phelps. V. Lucretia, b. Dec. 15, 1820; m. Augustus Smith. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 235 VI. Sabra, b. July 24, 1823. VII. Prudence, b. Sept. 1826; m. (1st), Lucius Curtis; (2d), Ralph I. Crissey. Roger Root, from New London county, a shoemaker, came to Win- chester this or the preceding year. He owned no real estate in the town, — resided mainly in the Danbury Quarter, — and died Nov. 1, 1820, aged 84. His wife, Temperance, died July 2, 1833, aged 89. Roger Root, Jr., lived in the house since torn down, some thirty rods north of Joel G. Griswold's, on the west side of the old Winsted and Winchester road, until he removed to Erie Co., Penn., about 1820. He m. March 26, 1807, Florinda, dau. of John Miner. CHILDREN. I. Caroline Nancy, b. Feb. 9, 1808. II. Harry Oscar, b. Aug. 23, 1810. III. Lucius Miner, b. Feb. 28, 1814. IV. Juliette, b. June 26, 1816. Gurdon Root, son of Roger, and a bachelor, lived with his maiden sisters, Hannah and Nancy, in a house which was burned while occupied by them, on the old Waterbury turnpike, half a mile south of Mad River, and afterwards in the second house beyond the toll gate, on the north side of Green Woods turnpike, until his death, May 29, 1832, aged 50. Hannah resided with him and died in the same house, July 26, 1835, aged 58. Nancy, the other sister, in 1849, bought a house on north side of High street, Winsted, near Elm street, in which she came to her death by the accidental burning of her clothes, while alone in the house, Sept. 24, 1862. Asahel Smith, from Torrington, is on the tax list of this year. He m. Oct. 6, 1809, Elizabeth, widow of Luke Case, deceased, and lived on the east and west road, bordering the Torrington line, in a house now torn down, until 1828, when he removed to Winsted, and lived in the Russell house on the old Colebrook road until his death, May 29, 1832, aged 50. He represented the town in the General Assemblies of 1827 and 1831. His first wife dying he m. (2d), Oct. 27, 1828, Widow Sophia (Munson) Rice, of Barkhamsted, who m. March 7, 1842, Reuben Brown of Norfolk. CHILDREN BY FIRST WIFE. I. Abel Adams, b. March 10, 1811 ; m. Nov. 30, 1837, Ruth Coe; d. child- less, May 11, 1841. She d. April 18, 1847. 236 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, II. Minerva, b. Sept. 1, 1812 ; in. Nov. 7, 1825, Henry Stanton. III. Elizabeth, b. Aug. 14, 1814 ; m. March 16, 1836, Sheldon A. Wilcox. IV. Harriet, b. June 20, 1826. V. Eveline, b. Aug. 19, 1819. CHILD BY SECOND WIFE. VI. Ann, b. 1807. Rev. Thomas Robbins, D. D., son of Rev. Ammi R. Robbins, of Norfolk, was employed to fill the pulpit made vacant by the dismission of Mr. Bassett ; — and on the 20th of April of this year, a committee was appointed to ascertain his views of settling in the ministry ; and to secure the continuance of his labors as a candidate. In May following it was voted, " that we do earnestly and sincerely wish that Mr. Robbins would agree to supply the pulpit personally, when he is able ; but in case his health will not admit of it, that he should engage some one to preach in his absence, — and that he be indulged the liberty of taking all possible pains to gain his health." At the annual meeting, November 2d, it was unanimously voted (53 members of the Society preseut and voting), to invite Mr. Robbins to a settlement, with a salary of $430. The Church, with equal unanimity, voted the call. Owing to his feeble health Mr. Robbins declined the call, and soon afterward withdrew from the Society. The electors admitted this year were Jos. T. Cummings, Stephen Wheadon, Jos. Chamberlin, Chauncey White, Elisha Wetmore, and Jona- than Church. Samuel W. Baldwin, from Goshen, became the owner and occupant of the old Crocker house, at the parting of the Green Woods and Water- bury River turnpikes, half a mile above the toll-gate, and succeeded Simeon Moore as tavern-keeper, adding thereto the trade of blacksmith. In 1810 he sold out and left the town, but in 1818 resumed the owner- ship, and in 1819 conveyed the premises to his son, Norman Baldwin, who sold out to James Crocker in 1823 and removed to Vernon, New York. He had another son, George W., older than Norman, who was graduated at Yale College in 1811. Norman Baldwin, married, February 2, 1820, Lovisa Benedict. children. I. Moses Lyman, b. Jan. 1, 1822. II. Zalmon Luman, b. March 26, 1824. His name is last on the assessment list in 1824. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 237 Levi L. Hatch, son of Moses, of W., is on the list of this and the following years, until 1811, after which he resided at Coxsackie, New York, until a short time before his death. He died in W., August 6, 1845, aged 59. Zenas Neal, from Harwinton, owned and occupied a lot and house thereon, near Norfolk line, on the southern border of Danbury Quarter, until 1811, and thereafter disappears from the records. Lancelot Phelps, Sr., this year built the Green Woods Hotel building, at the parting of the Waterbury River and Green Woods turn- pikes near Colebrook line, in which he resided about a year and then re- moved to Colebrook. He was father of Warren, and grandfather of the late Wm. H. Phelps, of Winsted. Kooer Starkweather, from Windsor, bought and lived in the house at the parting of the north and south, and Old Country roads, be- low the burying-ground, now or lately owned by Nelson Hart. He died May 26, 1826, aged 44. Wife Martha. CHILDREN. I. Emily, b. March 5, 1807; m. Jan. 17, 1827, Wm. Phippenny, of Tor. II. Harriet, b. Sept. 17, 1809 ; m. Oct. 6, 1829, John C. Barber, of Tor. III. Thomas, b. Jan. 1, 1815. IV. Charles, b. March 26, 1817; d. Nov. 22, 1850. 1808. In 1799, one-third of the town meetings had been carried to Winsted and were held at the old Higley tavern, now standing in the West village ; — all of the electors' meetings being still held in the old Society. This year Winsted had so increased in population as to claim that both the town and electors' meetings should be there holden each alternate year. The result was a vote to hold half the town meetings in the Winsted (east village) meeting house ; — all the electors' meetings still to be held in the old Society. In Society meeting, January 1 1, 1808, the committee were directed to employ Rev. Frederick Marsh to supply the pulpit for the future at their discretion. February 12th, it was voted to paint the meeting house, — the body white, and the roof red. At the annual meeting, November 7th, it was voted to unite with the Church in their call to Mr. Frederick Marsh, to settle in the work of 238 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, the Gospel Ministry; — 33 in favor and 1 against the vote ; — and to give him a salary of $430. December 19th, Mr. Marsh declined the call, partly on account of lack of unanimity and partly on account of his inability to procure a residence without going into debt therefor ; — whereupon the Society voted unani- mously (42 present and voting) to continue their call, and to ascertain whether his first reason assigned would be insurmountable, provided the second were obviated. Mr. Marsh's answer to this overture was laid be- fore a meeting on the 30th of December, and was as follows : Brethren and Friends : Your call to me to settle in the work of the Gospel Ministry has re- ceived from me a deliberate and solemn attention. After a mature and prayerful consideration of the call, and the several subjects connected with it ; and after taking the advice of my particular friends, and others whose situation and experience enable them to assist me in making up my mind on so important a subject, I have thought it my duty to ac- cept, and accordingly do accept your invitation to settle with you in the work of the ministry, provided at the time appointed for the ordination no difficulty should then exist in Church or Society, which would render it improper for me to receive ordination. With sentiments of respect, and a desire for the peace and hajopiness of the people, I am yours &c, Winchester, Dec. 30, 1808. Frederick Marsh. The 1st day of February, 1809, was appointed for the ordination, and the previous Friday assigned by the Church as a day of fasting and prayer, and one or more neighboring ministers were invited to attend the exercises. Neither the records of the Society or Church, nor Mr. Marsh's histori- cal notes give any particulars of the ordination. It took place on the day appointed, and Mr. Marsh entered on his faithful and acceptable ministrations, and still lives, the venerable and be- loved Patriarch of the ministers of Litchfield County. He was son of Jonathan Marsh of New Hartford, where he was born September 18, 1780. He prepared for college with Rev. A. R. Robbins, of Norfolk, — graduated at Yale, September, 1805, — studied theology under Rev. Asahel Hooker, of Goshen, — was licensed as a preacher by the North Association of Litchfield County, — and was dismissed from his pastoral charge October 2, 1851, after a laborious ministry of more than forty-two yeai-s. He married, May 22, 1809, Parnal Merrill, of New Hartford, daughter of Joseph and Lydia (Flower) Merrill, born August 7, 1782 ; died March 11, 1860. ' v«r e --" ^r~^^^cA r ^rfo-vtfH AND FAMILY RECORDS. 239 CHILDREN. I. Louisa Merrill, b. May 1G, 1810; d. May 9, 1831. II. Catharine, b. April 3, 1812 ; m. June 17, 1835, Rev. Geo. Carrington, of Hadlyme, who tl. in Rushville, 111., Oct. 31, 1843. III. Jonathan Pitkin (deaf and dumb), b. April 26, 1814; in. Jan. 24, 1840, Paulina Bowdish. IV. Frederick Edward, b. Dec. 30, 1816; m. Jan. 2, 1844, Matilda Marsh; shed. Jan. 5, 1860, and he m. (2d), May 8, 1862, Mrs. Eliza A. Spencer. V. Sarah Ann, b. Dec. 29, 1819; d. Sept. 15, 1823. VI. Joseph Merrill, b. Sept. 15, 1823; m. May 5, 1848, Candace G. Eggleston, of AVinchester. VII. Howard Pitkin (twin), b. April 12, 1826; m. June 10, 1856, Harriett E. Hotchkiss, of New Haven ; d. New Hartford, Feb. 21, 1864. VIII. Henry Flower, (twin), b. April 12, 1826 ; m. June 11, 1855, Sarah E. Frissell, who d. Aug. 24, 1870. Asaph B. Brooks, from Chatham, became a resident this year. In 1816, in connection with his brothers, Samuel and Chauncey, he bought the Peleg Sweet form, in Danbury quarter, on Brooks street, on which he died November 27, 1866, aged 83. Asher Case, son of William R., once of this town, this year became the owner of the Rufus Eggle^ton farm, on the West side of Long Pond, which he conveyed away in 1820, by a deed in which he is named "of Hartford." He returned to this town about 1825, and after 1845, lived on the farm now owned by his sons, Edward and George. He d. Sept. 7, 1858, aged 67. Samuel Cone and Warren Cone, sons of Daniel Hurlbut Cone, of W., and natives of the town, are on the list of this year. Samuel lived here until about 1810, and then went to Norfolk, and carried on the scythe making business until his death. He was a Deacon of the Norfolk Cong. Church, and a man of eminent piety. His twin sons, John and James, reside in Winsted. Warren Cone went to Norfolk wi(h his brother Samuel, and was for some years partner with him in the scythe making business, and afterwards built and carried on a shop of his own. He was a prominent man of the town, which he represented in the Assemblies of 1834 and 1838. Erastus G. Hurlbut, from Torrington, is on the list of this year. In 1816 he bought the Frederick Murray farm, adjoining Sucker Brook, on the old Winsted and Winchester road, on which he lived until his re- moval to Torrington, in 1825. He m. Dec. 16, 1812, Clarissa, dau. of Russell Goodwin of W. 240 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Ammi Murray, brother of Daniel, of W., son of Daniel of Torring- ton, b. July 29, 1787, is on the list of this year as a resident. In 1822, he bought the old Roberts farm, and lived in the house thereon now torn down, on the old Winsted and Winchester road, some thirty rods north of Joel G. Griswold's, until his removal to North Bloomfield, Trumbull Co., Ohio, in 1831. He m. Feb. 23, 1814, Prudence, dau. of Remembrance North of Torrington. CHILDREN. I. Emeline, II. Juliette, III. Helen. John Storer, or Story, is on the list this year as a resident. He was by trade a Joiner, owned no real estate in the town, and had no fixed residence. About 1825, he left his family mid joined the Tyringham Shakers. He m. Jan. 7, 1808, Eunice, dau. of John Church. CHILDREN. I. Simeon, b. Sept. 30, 1808. II. David, b. Dec. 3, 1810. III. Eliza, b. Nov. 4, 1812; m. July 3, 1834, Samuel D. Sheldon; both of them run-away Shakers. George Tuttle, a blacksmith, came to the town this year. In 1817, he bought the second house west of the toll gate, on the north side of the Green Woods turnpike, and had a sho[> on the oppo-ite side of the road. He lived here until his removal to Colebrook, about 1825, where he died about 1850. He had several children, born in this town; among them, Joel, still a resident. The electors admitted this year were Elijah Blake, Jr., Jonathan Blake, Jo;-eph Coit, Jesse Clark, Elisba Rowley, Reuben Baldwin, Asa Mallory, Lemuel Hurlbut, Eben Coe, William Miner, Isaac Tucker, John Westlake, and Elisha Smith. 1809. The records of these latter years indicate that our town enjoyed great quiet if not prosperity. All the doings of this year, election of town officers and laying of taxes included, are recorded on a single page. The Society, too, under its new pastor, enjoyed great quiet ; the only extra -routine business recorded being a vote "to pay a leader of Psalm- ody, to instruct the youth and others in the art of singing," or in other words to hire a singing master. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 241 The only new names of residents appearing, are Fisk Beach, who has been noticed in connection with his father, and Noble J. Everitt, both natives of the town. Noble J. Everitt, son of Dr. Josiah, and grandson of Widow Han- nah of W., lived with his father during his life, and still lives in the lean- to house on the West side of the Waterbury River road, between Luman Munsill on the North, and Marcus Munsill on the South. He m. Roxy E , dan. of Elisha Cook, Esq., of Torrington, and had one child, Albert Chester, b. Dec. 22, 1816, who died in childhood. The electors admitted this year were William Chamberlin, 2d, Asher Case, Lyman Strong, Daniel Burnham, and Roger Starkweather. 1810. The town and society records of this year are without interest. The electors admitted this year were Ira Preston and Riley Whit- ing. Capt. Eli Richards, from Torrington, this year bought the farm recently conveyed by the widow of Artemas Rowley to Alonzo C. Par- cels, which he occupied until his death, Jan. 23, 1816, aged 66. By his wife, Lydia, who d. in W. Oct. 30, 1835, aged 74, he had an only child, Elizabeth, who m. Oct. 1, 1817, Joseph Miller, Esq., of Winsted, and d. in Michigan about 1855. William Crum, a saddler and harness maker, is on this year's list as a resident. In 1813, he bought of Chauncey White the house which stood adjoining Isaac A. Bronson's new stone house, in which he resided until his death, Dec. 14, 1824, aged 49. He m. Oct. 22, 1811, Hannah, dau. of John Nash of W., who is still living in Winsted. CHILDREN. I. Frederick, b. March 21, 1813; resident of Unionville, Conn. II. Sophia, b. Sept. 1,1815; m. May 6, 1846, Abram G. Kellogg, of W. 31 CHAPTER XVIIL STATE 0E SOCIETY— CUSTOMS— FAMILY RECORDS. 1811 to 1831. We find Old Winchester, at this period, in its full maturity and vigor — a staid agricultural community, with well-established institutions in good running order, with a homogeneous population, elastic in spirit, virtuous in morals, and orthodox in faith, with property as equally distributed as is consistent with the varied capacity of men to acquire and to hold it, with no overshadowing rich, and very few abjectly poor men. The compiler's first personal knowledge of this section of the town was acquired by attending a Fourth of July celebration there solemnized in 1810 or 1811. To a boy of eleven or twelve years, whose experience of the world had been hitherto limited by the hills and mountains surround- ing the Winsted valley, this outlook on the world was decidedly impres- sive. The elevated plateau of the centre village received the earliest rays of the rising sun, and the latest effulgence of the setting luminary. Around and near the village green were some half dozen most respectable lean-to houses, some of them in white paint and others in red, which were occupied by the clerical, legal, medical, and magisterial dignitaries. There were other houses indicating comfort and respectability : two gambrel- roofed stores, one Federal and the other Democratic, where they sold two and six-penny hum-hums for eighteen pence a yard, Barlow knives for nine-pence a piece, and New England rum for three shillings, and Jamaica for four and sixpence a gallon. The tavern was a one-story building of neutral tint, large on the ground, with a capacious garret. Two black- smith shops and the pound were on the outskirts of the village. The meeting-house stood near the centre of the triangular green, with its line of horse-sheds bordering the front line of Theron Bronson's prem- ises. The whipping-post and stocks, those indispensable pillars of New England law and order, stood on the green near the meeting-house. The post did extra duty as a sign post, on which public notices were fastened, and to which, when occasion required, the petty thief was tied, to receive from the constable his five or ten lashes " well laid on to his naked back." The "stocks" were an upper and lower plank, say six feet long, eight inches wide, and two inches thick, the lower one lying edgewise near the FAMILY RECORDS. 243 ground, mortised at one end into the post and firmly fastened to the ground at the other. The upper plank was attached to the post at one end by a heavy hinge, so that its lower edge came in contact with the upper edge of the other, and they were held together by a hasp and pad- lock at their outer ends. At the line of junction of the two planks were four holes, half in the upper and half in the lower plank, about three inches in diameter, ranged at suitable distances for receiving the ankles of two culprits. How often our worthy forefathers and their young chil- dren were treated with the edifying spectacle of a public whipping at the post or of a culprit in the stocks, is not ascertainable. A well authenticated tradition is handed down, of one Meacham, a hired laborer of old Squire Hurlbut, of very moderate intellect, who, after a faithful service and inoffensive life of several years, took it into his head to run away, and to carry with him a variety of articles of clothing, &c, purloined from his employer's premises. His theft being discovered, he was pursued, brought back, and tried on a grand juror's complaint, found guilty, and sentenced to be publicly whipped at the post. The sentence was duly executed on Saturday. On Sunday following, though not a church member, he attended public service, occupying a prominent seat. At the close of service, he arose, and the minister read to the audience his penitential confession, asking pardon of the church and the community, and that he might be restored to public confidence. The minister then exhorted the people to accept his confession, and to extend to him their sympathy and encouragement in aid of his reformation. He is said to have continued to live with his old employer for several years a blameless and exemplary life. To return from this episode to the celebration : — the day was fine, the gathering large. The long booth of green boughs stood on the green in front of the tavern and shaded a table of equal length, loaded with baked beef and mutton, roasted pigs, baked Indian puddings, and pies of every variety the season afforded. The sayings and doings of the occasion were fully reported in the Connecticut Courant of the following week ; how the procession was escorted into the meeting-house by Captain Bunnell's full militia company, the singing led by Major Lloyd Andrews, the prayer offered by Rev. Ammi R. Robbins of Norfolk, the able and brilliant oration pronounced by Rev. Chauncey Lee of Colebrook, the table presided over by Captain Abial Loomis of Winchester ; then followed the toasts fragrant with sentimental patriotism and Malaga wine, each followed by a feu-de-joie of musketry and the asthmatic cough of a cast-iron four-pounder field piece, mounted on cart-wheels which had been brought from Litchfield for the occasion, no cannon having ever before been fired in the peaceful town.* * The history of the old field-piece, prior to its advent in Winchester, whether it was a trophy of the Old French Wars or of the Revolutionary struggle, is lost in 244 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Such was Old Winchester sixty years ago. Several of the old lean-to houses have passed away. The venerable mansion where Squire Alvord dispensed justice for nearly fifty years, is gone, leaving no trace behind. The dwelling place of Rev. Mr. Knapp is also gone, and its location undefined by any visible mark of a former habitation. Captain Hurlbut's tavern at the center has given place to the present residence of his grandson bearing his name. Four or five others, at and near the center, still remain decayed and venerable, but not dilapidated. The old Meeting House, and the Tavern House of 1810, afterwards used as a store, are also gone, as well as the whipping post and stocks. The Green is no longer cumbered with church sheds, or other appen- dages. The more recent meeting house, a neat, well-repaired building, with its wooden Doric portico, tower, and bell, faces the Green at the east, end of the northern border, and the new and commodious store of Theron Bronson has superseded the former store building, while his dwelling occupies the intervening space in the rear of the old horse sheds. Several other large and commodious dwellings of modern date give to the village a cheerful and refined aspect. The subsequent history of the Society is barren of notable incidents. oblivion. Since it first gave voice to the patriotism of Old Winchester, its fate has been quite eventful. It never went back to Litchfield, having been bought of its former owners by old Uncle Richard Coit, who, some years after, parted with it to some un- known parties in Winsted. Here it was made to vomit small thunder from its rusty throat from Cobble Hill, Street Hill, and divers other places, on all festive occasions. It was brought into service to defend the liberty pole on the East Village Park against the assaults of the old Federalists during the War of 1812, and at a later period to break up meetings of the pestilent abolitionists. Some thirty years ago a couple of lusty old maids living at the East Village hotel, out of patience with the noisy thing, which had been fired off in front of the house half the night, and had been left on the ground, contrived to roll it into the garden, where they dug a grave and buried it. The gun was no more to be found for a dozen years, when the secret of its burial place leaked out. It was exhumed and again did service in celebrating the political victories of each party until the Buchanan campaign, during which the Republicans again secretly buried it, with the intention of resurrecting it for use in the event of Fre- mont's election. The Democrats discovered its grave in season to secure it for their use when tbe returns came in, showing the election of " the Old Public Functionary." They used it most savagely in front of the Herald office, breaking in the windows and doors and smashing things generally. Why it didn't burst with the enormous charges filling it to the muzzle, no one can tell. It was soon after taken by the Fremont men and thrown into the Clifton Mill pond, where it remained until mid-winter, when a West Village saloon-keeper and his patriotic customers turned oiit one cold night and made diligent search up and down the cold stream until they found and transferred it to a safe hiding place, where it was kept ready for renewed use in the Spring, to cele- brate the election of General Pratt for Governor. His opponent was elected, and the gun wasn't wanted. It was liable to be discovered in its hiding place, so the party in possession again buried it in an unknown grave, where it is said to remain to this day. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 245 With very limited accessions of population from abroad, and a continued though diminished draiuage by emigration, to the West ; and with a soil growing less productive from generation to generation, it has made little, if any, gain in its aggregate wealth and productiveness, and has diminished in numbers. In its general tone of morals there has been little, if any, deterioration, though in Sabbath observances and attendance on public worship there has been a great falling off from the old puritan standard. Excitements and dissensions, some of them of a very serious nature, have arisen and died away. Religious institutions, sometimes greatly im- periled, now stand on a solid basis of unity and piety. No intoxicating liquors are openly sold, and few intemperate men are found. Education is in advance of the average of retired communities around it ; property is more equally distributed now than it was twenty years ago, and the condition of the. Society is prosperous and happy. The new inhabitants appearing on the stage from year to year grow less frequent. We proceed to notice them in their order. Apollos Dean seems to have been a resident from 1810 for several years ; whether married or single is not ascertained. He may have been a tanner or shoemaker in the employ of the Wades, from whom he received a conveyance of land in 1823, in which he is named of Boston, Portage Co., Ohio. Joseph Eggleston, probably from Torrington, was a resident from 1810 to 1815, but not a land owner. His place of residence not ascertained. James Bragg came into the town from Springfield, Vt., in 1812. In 1820 he became the owner of the William Ghamberlin farm, one and a half miles northerly from the center, on which he lived till a short time before his death, January 30, 1871, aged 88. He married 1807, Susanna, daughter of Daniel H. Cone; she died February 11, 1816, in her 34th year, and he married (2d), 1821, Orpha, daughter of Wait Munson, of Barkhamsted; she died November 18, 1868, aged 76. CHILDREN. I. Daniel Hurlbut, b. September 6, 1808; m. Lavinia Gould of East Granby. He m. (2d) Gracy N. Calvert of Lexington, Ky., where he d. in 1847. II. Warren, b. February 13, 1810; m. Julia, daughter of Deacon Warren Cone. He m. (2d) Almira Gray of Sauquoit, N. Y. III. Clarissa, b. December 22, 1811 ; m. Henry Griswold of Hartland IV. Mary, b. April 19, 1813 ; d. December 28, 1813. V. James, b. September 27, 1814 ; d. October 5, 1819. 246 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER VI. Julia Lucretia, b. November 10, 1823 ; m. Frank L. Whiting of Torrington. VII. Mary Elizabeth, b. December 5, 1824; m. Rufus T. Towne of New Hartford. VIII. Huldah, b. February 20, 1826 ; m. Deacon Samuel C. Newton of Hartland. IX. Sarah, b. August 15, 1831 ; m. Henry M. Smith of Fairfield, a retired New York merchant. X. James Lorenzo, b. February 24, 1833; m. Eliza, daughter of Hiram Sage of Colebrook. He m. (2d), Sarah Spaulding, daughter of A. A. Spaulding of Norfolk. Doctor Zephania Swift married Nellie Minerva, daughter of Doctor Josiah Everitt of Winchester, and resided in the house recently owned by Samuel Hurlbut 2d, at the center, which he sold, and removed to Farmington before 1819, where he died. CHILDREN. I. Helen Abigail, born in Winchester July 10, 1814 ; other children were born to them after they left this town. Mrs. Swift still survives, living with a daughter, in New York or Brooklyn. To her the compiler of these annals is indebted largely for aid and encouragement in tracing out old families and delineating ancient customs. Luman Whiting, third son of Christopher Whiting of Winchester, came of age May 5, 1813, and occupied his father's homestead until his removal to Ashtabula County, Ohio, about 1815. He married Anna, daughter of Samuel Hayden, Esq., of Barkhamsted. Moses Drake and Moses Drake, Jr., of Torrington, in 1813 bought the farm of Oliver Coe, at the south end of Blue street, and occupied it during their remaining lives. Moses Drake, Sen., died July 3, 1831, aged 80, and Moses Drake, Jr., April 10, 1859, aged 71, leaving sons, Henry, who lives on the homestead, Martin V., who lives in Goshen, and several daughters. Edward Griswold and Phineas Griswold, Jr., owned and occupied after the death of Phineas, senior, in 1815, the farm next west of the Danbury school house, on the Norfolk Road, until 1822. Phineas Griswold was named in their deed as of Beaver Dam, Erie Co., Penn. Lewis Hart from Colebrook, purchased the above farm from the Griswolds in 1822, and occupied it until 1826, and then sold to Samuel D. Gilbert. He afterwards removed to Ohio, whence he returned to Colebrook about 1860, and died there in 1866. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 247 CHILDREN. I. Elmira, b. October 23, 1816. II. William, b. September 12, 1819. III. Lucy, b. September 17, 1821. IV. Erastus S. Samuel D. Gilbert came to Winchester when a boy, and resided here during his after life. In 1826 he bought of Lewis Hart the above- mentioned farm, and occupied it until his death, August 24, 1844, aged 46. He. married May 19, 1819, Candace, daughter of Reuben Hunger- ford of Winchester ; slie died June 17, 1840, aged 42. They left three sons, Newman B., Lyman, and Charles, and two daughters, who are wives of Erastus S. Hart, late of Canton, and Riley Grant of Norfolk. Charles Gilbert, son of Samuel D., was wounded and taken prisoner in the battle of Secessionville, S. C, and died of bis wounds in prison at Charleston, aged 29, unmarried. Ebenezer Cowles, from Norfolk, kept the Green Woods Turnpike Toll Gate, from 1816, for several years, and made coal baskets to eke out a living. He was a zealous religionist of the ultra Calvinistic school, — had a wife and two daughters. Joel Clark is on the tax lists from 1816 to 1830. No real estate is found in his name, and his place of residence is not ascertained. No rec- ord of his family. Henry Dayton, from Torrington, in 1816, owned and occupied a house and tannery in the south part of the Society, until 1824. Benjamin Phelps, son of Daniel of W., is on the tax lists from 1816. In 1823, he bought, and afterwards occupied a farm on Brooks street, near the old Everitt place, until his death, July 12, 1849, aged 54. He m. Feb. 6, 1826, Abigail Brooks. Frederick Phelps, son of Daniel, of W., came of age June 30, 1816, — owned and lived on land on Brooks street, near the old Everitt place, until his removal to Kinderhook, N. Y., not far from 1850, where he now resides. He m. May 22, 1826, Lucy W. Hurlbut, dau. of Stephen of W. Jonathan Saxton first appears on the tax list of 1816, and continues until his death, April 19, 1843, aged 66. He owned no real estate in the town. 248 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Salmon Bail, son of a Hessian soldier, appears on the tax list of 1816. He lived in the society from that date to the time of his death, Sept. 30, 18.53, aged 08. He was not a land owner, and his place of residence is not known. His wife Ursula is named on his gravestone, but no date of death given. Jonathan F. Baldwin is on the tax lists of 1819, and onward to 1821. He owned a blacksmith shop at the centre, which he sold in 1821, and then left the town. Randall Covey is on the tax lists from 1817 to 1821 ; and owned a wagon maker's shop at the Center, which he sold the latter year. George Chase, son of Gedeliah of W., married Artemisia, dau. of Oliver Coe; owned aitQ occupied from 1819 to 1823, the house on the north side of the Norfolk road, next west of the Center District school house. Dudley Chase, son of Gedeliah, of W., came of age Aug. 30, 1817 ; m. Simsbury, Sept. 27, 1826, Electa , b. Simsbury, Feb. 13, 1800. He settled first in Goshen, and since 1831, has lived on the farm where he now resides, on the road from the Center to Hall Meadow. He repre- sented the town in the Legislature of 1858. CHILDREN. I. Nathan, b. Goshen, Oct. 21, 1827 ; d. Feb. 3, 1856, unmarried. II. Henry E., b. G., June 3, 1829; drowned in N. J., March 19, 1852. III. Mart A., b. G., Aug. 30, 1831 ; m. Rev. A. V. R. Abbott. IV. Erwin E. (twin), b. Nov. 8, 1834; m. Mary Commerford. V. A Son " b. Nov. 8, 1834 ; d. Nov. 17, 1834. VI. Dudley, b. Oct. 19, 1S38; d. April 30, 1839. VII. Ellen E., b. Feb. 1, 1840. Reuben Chase, son of Gedeliah, of W., in 1844 bought a house and land in the south part of the sociely, which he has since occupied to the present time. He was b. March 25, 1800 ; m. Oct. 17, 1823, Lucy, dau. of Asahel Curtis, b. Oct. 22, 1806. CHILDREN. I. Adeline, b. June 8. 1825; m. Mathew Hart of Goshen. II. Lucy E., b. Jan. 30, 1827. III. Harriet, b. Jan. 27, 1829; m. George H. Cook of Torrington; d. Nov. 3, 1858. IV. Delia, b. March 21, 1832; m. May, 1868, Henry 0. Church, New Haven. V. Harmon, b. Nov. 8, 1839; d. Nov. 21, 1839. VI. Laura, b. July 5, 1843 ; m. Lemuel Munger of Torrington. AND FAMILY KECOHDS. 249 Sheldon Miller, son of George of Winchester, came of age Nov. 10, 1820; m. Oct. 30, 1822, Jerusha Ann Starkweather; lived in the Society until after 1825,and removed to Tyringham, Mass. CHILDREN. I. Lewis Allen, b. in W., Nov. 3, 1823. II. George Hudson, b. in W., June 24, 1825. III. Henry Elijah, b. in Tyringbam, Mass., April 18, 1830. IV. Ladrv Ann, b. in Lenox, Mass., Aug. 29, 1832. V. Mart Maria, b. in Lenox, Mass., Dec. 6, 1841 ; d. March 23, 1842. VI. Mart Jerusha, b. in Lee, Mass., Jan. 13, 1844. Hiram Church, a native of Vernon, N. Y., and grandson of the first Samuel Hnrlbut, — served his time as clerk to S. & L. Hurlbut, and con- tinued in their employ several years ; afterwards did business at St. Louis, and at Vernon, N. Y., and then returned to Winchester. He m. Nov. 7, 1838, Emily E. Eno, of Colebrook, who, after his death, m. Gail Borden, Esq., now of Texas. Samuel Bandle, a blacksmith, came from New Hartford ; m. a dau. of Samuel Hart of W. Lived in the Society several years, and then moved to Ohio. Willard Hart, son of Samuel, of Winchester; m. Dec. 11, 1822, Rhoda Matilda, dau. of Timothy Benedict, deceased, of W., and (2d), Maria, dau. of Daniel Andrews, Jr., of W. ; resided in Danbury Quar- ter ; d. May 5, 1840, aged 45, leaving a dau. Rhoda, by his'first wife, who m. in 1848. William Miner, and d. leaving one child. By his second wife he had children. I. Sarah, b. Sept. — , 1829 ; m. Geo. G. Camp. II. Henrt, b. 1831 ; d. ia 1846. III. Elizabeth, b. in 1835 ; m. James G. Ferris. IV. Lewis, b. in 1837. V. Henrietta, b. 1839; m Nelson Beers. VI. Willard, b. in 1840; m. May 6, 1860, Marietta Hill ; killed at Cold Harbor, Va., June 1, 1864, -while in the Volunteer Service, as pri- vate in Company E., 2d Conn. Heavy Artillery. Rufus Drake, from Torrington, in 1823, bought the farm in Hall Meadow, on which he has since resided to the present time. Harvey Ford, m. June 26, 1825, Mary Ann, dau. of Noah Drake, of Torrington. About 1830, he bought the farm, on Hall Meadow, which he has occupied till recently. 32 250 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. John M. Galagher, an Englishman, not far from 1825, began manu- facturing woollen cloths on the east branch of the Naugatuck River, in the south part of the Society, and removed from the (own about 1830. Archibald Dayton, from Torrington, m. Jan. 1, 1827, Lophelia, widow of Levi Bronson, and during his remaining life, lived on Blue Street, near the Stone School House. He d. Nov. 28, 1863. His son, Isaac Dayton, now occupies the same place. William S. Marsh, from Hartford, m. for his second wife, Sally, dau. of Richard Coit, — and moved to Winchester in 1825, where he re- sided, on the homestead of his father-in-law, until about 1834, when he removed to Canaan, and died there in 18G8. Daniel Beckley, son of Richard, Sr., of W., has occupied the for- mer residence of his father at the north end of Little Pond to the present time. Norris Beckly, son of Richard, of W., has resided from his child- hood, and still resides in the Society, mainly in Danbury Quarter. Oliver Loomis, from Torrington, bought the farm between the two lakes in 1827, and lived thereon until 1844, when he bought, and occupied during his remaining life, the second house west of Dudley's Tannery, on the north side of Main street, in Winsted, and died, childless, Feb. 7, 1872, aged 84 years, 9 months, leaving the bulk of his estate to the Meth- odist Episcopal Church and Society of Winsted, and a legacy of $1,000 to the M. E. Church of Wolcottville. His wife, Mary (Barber) Loomis, d. March, 1 870, aged 77 years. Mr. L. was a quiet, frugal citizen, of decided Methodistical and Anti-Slavery sentiments He was elected a representative to General Assembly in 1834, by a nearly unanimous vote of both political parties. CHAPTER XIX. ROADS, PAUPERS, SELECTMEN, ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS, MANUFACTORIES, SEMINARIES, &C. FROM 1831 TO 1872. After reaching the matured growth of the Winchester Society, materials for continued annals have steadily diminished in variety and interest. A retired farming community, homogeneous in its composition, with its institutions in running order — so staid that deep ruts mark its pathway — furnishes few events worthy of record. Changes, imper- ceptible in their progress to a resident inhabitant, may become strikingly apparent to a former resident returning after long years of absence. He may find the possessions of the rich of one generation divided and diffused in another ; the overshadowing influence of one class of men undermined, and another class or organization in the ascendant ; the all- engrossing dissensions of one period quieted, and new subjects of heart- burning and strife grown up in another. Such have been the course of events — of improvements and deteriora- tions — for the last forty years. We find no events of startling interest, no dissensions worthy of being resuscitated from the pall of oblivion, no special exhibitions of foul crime or eminent virtue. In the way of public improvements, the laying out and opening of several new roads, and the alterations of old ones, are worthy of men- tion, and preliminary thereto it is fitting to advert to the conservative and narrow-sighted policy of the town in reference to roads and bridges. This pig-headeduess may have had its origin in the heavy expense to which the early settlers were subjected in making their first roads by reason of the parsimonious allowances and reservations of lands for high ways by the proprietary body, which has been referred to in our earlier annals. Sectional jealousies of the two societies may also have had an influence in fostering opposition to improvements tending to specially benefit one section more than the other. Whatever may have been the remote causes, the effect was a prevailing hostility to almost every pro- posed improvement. If a road was laid out by the selectmen and 252 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, reported to the town, however important it might be for public conve- nience and necessity, if it promised a sectional benefit it was blindly- voted down, regardless of the certainty of its being ultimately carried through and established by appeal to the county court. Notable instances of this nature are found in the now traveled roads from Winsted to Wolcottville, and to Colebrook center, the first having been contested with blind obstinacy and reckless expense from 1822 to 1826, and the second from about 183U to 1835. In both of these cases litigation was kept up, and long trials without number were had before the court and its delegated committees, at an expense in each instance exceeding the actual cost of the roads when finally constructed. Add to this the point blank, contradictory swearing by platoons and battalions of excited witnesses, the pettifogging tricks of counsel unlearned in the laws of fair dealing, and the vindictive hatreds engendered among neighbors, and the evils cannot be over-estimated. The old roads from Winchester to Winsted were precipitous and cir- cuitous beyond the average of original layings out of roads. A shorter and every way better route was apparent to every observer. A new road over this route was advocated from time to time early in this century, but was strenuously opposed by influential parties favoring entire non-intercourse rather than free access between the rival sections. In 1836 the selectmen were instructed to report this or some other better route for a road. Some sinister influence, or non-agreement of the board, prevented any lay-out being reported at that time, and the matter rested until after the opening of the Naugatuck Railroad to Winsted, when, in 1853, the selectmen laid out and reported a road along the south border of the Little Pond, and onward to near the General Hurlbut place, with alterations of the existing roads connecting at each end of the new lay-out. This report, according to ancient usage, was summarily rejected in town meeting. Application was soon after made to the court for a road along this line, which was referred to the county commissioners in 1855. The commissioners of that year proved to be men of more than ordinary judgment and independence. They laid out the new road and alterations of the connecting roads in a way that can hardly be in any way improved. The distance saved is nearly half a mile, while the grades are far better than on the old routes. The lay-out was accepted, and the work completed. In 1871 a connecting link with these improvements was made by laying out a new road, known as Boyd street ; from the Connecticut Western Railroad Station, northerly and westerly to the old road above the Stabell place, thereby avoiding the long and steep ascent of Lake street to the lake outlet. This road was accepted, and is now completed, AND FAMILY RECOKDS. 253 opening an avenue of easy and pleasant communication between the two Societies heretofore greatly needed, and promising a freer communication and fellowship of the two sections. About 1830, a new road was laid out and accepted, running westerly from the Norfolk or Cooper Lane road, by the residences of Orrin 'fuller and Dudley Chase, to a new north and south road, along Hall Meadow in Goshen, which in 1831 was discontinued without being opened. It was soon afterward re-laid, either by the town or by order of Court, and opened to travel, — affording a long desired, and important avenue of intercourse with Goshen, Cornwall, and the Housatonic Valley. In 1838, a new road was petitioned for, to run from the Center, south- erly and easterly, by the house of Elias T. Hatch, near the south border of Long Lake, and thence in the direction of the Pine Knot, near the line of the Naugatuck Railroad, — to connect with a new proposed road through the south end of New Hartford to Canton. The town, according to usage, rejected the Winchester section, as did the town of Torrington the section within its borders ; — whereupon the petitioners applied to the County Court, and got a committee, which made short work of lay- ing out a line of roads, and improvements on the proposed route, which were confidently expected, by the projectors, to divert the Albany and Hartford travel from the old time route through Winsted, to this new thoroughfare. The road was petitioned for to the Court, laid and ac- cepted, during the smoke of the great battle then raging over the Cole- brook Road, without serious opposition from any quarter. The com- mittee is reported to have carried with them a jug of rum, while examining the route and laying the road, which accounts for the profound wisdom of portions of their lay-out. The road has never fulfilled the sanguine expectations of its projectors, but has nevertheless vindicated its necessity and convenience. Improvements and changes have been made in many other roads of the Society ; but the greatest and most beneficial change has been wrought by the entire abandonment of the old system of repairing highways, by a w r retched system of labor-taxation, inherited from "the fathers." At- tempts were more than once made to get rid of it by allotment of sections of roads to individual contractors, and by money taxes ; but this system failed to work satisfactorily, and others were tried until the annual town meeting in 1860, when it was voted, "that a thorough man be appointed in each district to repair the roads therein, and that the men so appointed bring in their bills for such repairs to the Selectmen for payment." This vote led to the most thorough repair and improvement of roads 254 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, ever made in the town ; yet the process did not prove so expensive as to prevent its being repeated with good results, until the annual meeting in 1865, when a commissioner was appointed in each society to supervise the repairs, under such a limitation of expense as not to exceed two thousand dollars for the whole town. The result was a partial repair of the Old Society roads, and an almost total neglect of those in Winsted. The same course was adopted in 1866, without a limitation of expenses, and repeated in 1867 and 1868, — when the appointment of district road masters was given to the select men, and so continued to 1870, when the entire supervision of the roads was restored to the selectmen, and it has continued in their hands to the present time. Up to about 1850 the model selectman, — however fair, honorable, and humane he may have been in his private transactions, seemed to become penurious and heartless when invested with this dignity. A capacity to systematize the affairs of the town, and to manage them with a view to general and permanent advantage, was held in small estimation. It was not supposable that he could, at the end of the year, render an intelligent account of his doings or do-nothings. He entered on his duties with an abiding fear of indiscriminate censure or any liberal act or comprehensive policy. At the year's end his report was criticised, and his doings were scanned without reason or mercy. Lucky was he, if his report was so blind as to cover up his mismanagement, and conceal the true financial condition of the town. He thereby stood a chance of re-election, and ultimately of representing the incapacity of the town in the General Assembly. On the other hand, instances have occurred of the election of indepen- dent, straight-forward men, who have blasted out obtruding rocks from the road-, or built permanent bridges, or kindly provided for the poor ; or, worst of all, have investigated the financial affairs of the town, and produced a reliable balance sheet, showing a before unknown amount of indebtedness. Rarely, in former times, did such offences as these escape the penalty of deposition from office. It has rarely been the wont of our town to avail itself of the experi- ence of a competent selectman, by continuing him in office for a long course of years as in many other towns. The darling principles of rota- tion in office, and the maxim that to the party victors belong the spoils, alike forbade it. These strictures, though applied specially to our own town, doubtless have a general application to many of the towns around us. In many respects, improvement has become manifest in our affairs. The financial condition of the town is clearly made known in printed reports, from year to year. There is a readiness to vote the taxes that AND FAMILY RECORDS. 255 are clearly seen to be needful. The principle of cash payments of cur- rent' expenses is established. About fifty-six thousand dollars of war loans have been paid off, and the financial condition of the town is pros- perous. But rare allusions have been made in our annals to the system, or rather want of system, of providing for the poor. We have quoted a few early instances of bringing these unfortunates to the auction block and of summarily attempting to vote them out of the town guardianship. Such cases are rarely found. As a rule the wants of the poor have been supplied at their own dwellings, or places have been provided for them in private families in the vicinity of their previous residences. About 1845 the system of contracting with some responsible individual of approved character, to provide for all the poor of the town, either in his own family or at their dwellings, was initiated, and was continued un- til 1871. Few well founded complaints of unkind treatment by contrac- tors have been made. The selectmen have been required to make month- ly inspections and careful inquiries as to the treatment of the poor ; and the ministers in charge of the different denominations have been invited by votes of the town to perform the same duties. This course of management has not been pursued without a conscious- ness on the part of the community of its evils and abuses. The records of the last fifty years abound with votes instructing the Selectmen to take measures for selecting and purchasing a town farm, and other votes ap- pointing special committees for the same purpose; — but no selection and recommendation was ever sanctioned by approval of the town until the month of June of the present year (1872), when the Whiting farm, on the east border of the town, was purchased, and is hereafter to be used, under the direction of the town as a home for the poor. The buildings are well adapted to the purpose ; and it is devoutly to be hoped that a competent and humane manager will be selected and such preparations made, as will give a fair start and ensure a successful working of the institution. It is also to be hoped and devoutly prayed for. that whether or not, worthy or unworthy, members of any of our churches are consigned to this refuge, their associated followers of Him who went about doing good will imitate His example, by conscientiously and systematically visiting and minis- tering to the needs and comforts of the destitute and forsaken.* * The following obituary notice of a worthy member of one of our churches who had for several years of poverty and disease, been an inmate of the poor-house, appeared in the Winsted Herald of December 9, 18(14. It needs no comment. "Exchanged his poverty for eternal riches, and his rags for a crown which fadeth not away — at the Winchester poor-house, Nov. 5, 1864, James C Smith, aged 67. The pall-bearers were few on this side — not so many perhaps as they that waited on the 'shining * shore/ and went up with the old man to ' his Father's house.' " 256 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Returning from this disquisition of town affairs, to the closing of our annals of the Old Society of Winchester, we find little more of history to be compiled ; while the sources from which to compile family records are exhausted. A noteworthy and creditable feature characterizing the Society, has been, and continues to be, the permanence, amid all divisions and excite- ments, of the Congregational Order, and the absence of all other organized denominations. At Noppit, beyond the Torrington border, — where Mr. Hungerford threatened going to get religion, — the fathers of the Drakes, Fylers, Norths, and others, were Baptists ; and early erected a meeting house for their order. The Methodists, in process of time, became nu- merous, and the two orders united in enlarging, repairing, and adding a steeple to the Baptist house, under an arrangement that each order should use it on alternate Sabbaths. This plan worked well until the Methodist quarterly meeting occurred on the Baptists' Sabbath, and they of that persuasion refused to yield their right of worship for the exigency. At the fever heat of the resulting odium iheologicum, — a new Methodist Church, with steeple and bell, was erected over the way. The process was the reverse of that of Peter Pinder's farmer, who burned his barn to kill the rats, but was equally unwise ; — for there were now two barns to shelter the vermin of sectarianism ; and the scant ability to sustain one house of worship became divided and utterly inadequate for the two. The Bap- tists have dwindled down to the shadow of a name, and the Methodists, overshadowed by the rising order of Adventists, yielded their house to the ownership and control of that persuasion about 1850. This new Evangel, for a few years, was gladly received b}^ large numbers, and re- ligious zeal pervaded the whole community. Both meeting houses be- came crowded with Sabbath worshipers, and continued so for a few years, when the flame of devotion and sectarianism died away leaving both houses permanently empty and dilapidated. Only a few of these "sectarians" lived in Winchester, so that the Congregational order was slightly affected by their controversies. Rev. Father Marsh, amid many trials growing out of internal dissensions of his Church, pursued the even tenor of his way sole pastor until 1846, when Rev. James H. Dill, a graduate of Yale College and Theological Seminary, was ordained as his colleague pastor, and was so continued until October 2, 1851, when they were both dismissed at their own request The pulpit was then supplied for a year or more by Rev. Alexander Cun- ningham, and afterwards by various ministers until October 1857, when Rev. Ira Pettibone, formerly pastor of the First Winsted Church, was in- stalled its pastor, and officiated as such until his removal to Stafford, Connecticut, in 1866. He was succeeded by Rev. Wm. M. Gay, as a AND FAMILY RECORDS. 257 supply, for one year. On the 28th of December, 1870, Rev. Arthur Goodenough, the present worthy pastor, was installed, Rev. Mr. Petti- bone having been on the same day formally dismissed. The present state of the Church and Society appears more auspicious than for many past years. In addition to the district schools in various parts of the Society, an academic school was for several years sustained at the center, under the successive charges of the late Silas H. McAJpine, Robert M. Beebee, WINCHESTER INSTITUTE. Henry Norton, James Coe, and others, in the lecture room of the Church. In 1858 Rev. Ira Pettibone, aided by other citizens of the Society, erected a commodious seminary building on an elevated site, immediately north of the village, which he opened as a boarding and day school, under the name of "The Winchester Institute," in conducting which he was assisted by his sons, Colonel Ira W. and Benjamin "W. Pettibone, gradu- ates of Yale and Amherst Colleges. The former entered the service in 33 258 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, 1862, as Major of the 10th Regt. Conn. Volunteers, and served in the North Carolina campaign, was promoted to Colonel, — and on his resig- nation, caused by constant ill-health, he assumed the entire management of the school and successfully conducted it until his removal to Beloit College, Illinois, as principal of the preparatory department of that instil tution. In 1869 the Seminary grounds and buildings were purchased by Mrs. Sabra Blake, and her daughter, Mrs. Mary Ann Mitchell, and were by them conveyed to seven trustees and their successors, "for the purpose of sustaining, carrying on, and maintaining a Seminary of learning similar to the Institute now and heretofore carried on in the conveyed premises and to possess all the powers necessary for that purpose." Since this pur- chase and dedication, the Seminary has been conducted by J. Walker McBeth, Esq., a graduate of Edinburgh University and an experienced educator, under whose auspices it is hoped that such a degree of success will be attained as will induce other wealthy citizens of the town to make similar endowments, and thereby raise the present standard of education among us. The streams adapted to water power run through the northern and southwestern parts of the Society ; and none of them are large and per- manent enough for large manufacturing purposes. No grist-mill was ever erected in the Society. The early settlers had their grinding done at a mill in the northwestern corner of Torrington, until Austin's mill was erected in Winsted. The first saw mill was built by Deacon Samuel Wetmore, near the bu- rial ground, with a privilege of flowing the meadow and marsh land bor- dering the stream above. It was early moved down the stream to a point near the site of the first meeting-house ; and, at a later period, was moved further down to the site of the McAlpine mill, below the junction of the east and west branches. A saw mill was early erected on Mad River, near Norfolk line, on the site of the Martin and Nelson Brooks mill ; and another, long since abandoned, on the same stream, near the Danbury school-house. The Trumbull Brooks mill, still lower down the stream, was first built early in the present century. Another saw mill was built on Sucker Brook in the last century by Samuel Clark, Christopher Whit- ing, and others ; and still another on the same site was erected by McPherson Hubbell, about 1848, which has now disappeared. Few branches of manufacturing have ever been undertaken in the Society, and none of them have been permanently successful. Dish and trencher mills were appendages of most of the early saw mills, for working up the slabs into primitive household utensils. The last one in the town, standing im- mediately west of Meadow street bridge, ceased operation as early as 1804. » AND FAMILY RECORDS. 259 A fulling mill is said to have been erected about 1776 by Daniel or Joseph Piatt, on tbe small stream running north and emptying into Mad River, at the mill dam of Trumbull Brooks. Samuel Clark built a trip- hammer works for welding gun-barrels, late in the last century, on Sucker Brook, just below the Dugway bridge. A bark mill, connected with the Amasa Wade tannery, on the Naugatuck Branch, near Torrington line, was erected early in the present century. The tannery went into new hands about 1844, and was essentially enlarged and inrproved in capacity and business, but was abandoned as a tannery about 1850, and was after- wards used for a time in manufacturing cheese boxes. Another tannery and bark mill was erected early in this century by Elijah Blake, senior, and carried on after him by his son, Deacon Allen Blake, now deceased. It stood on Taylor's Brook, and is now abandoned. Early in {his century, John McAlpine erected a shop on the east branch, near the burying ground, for cutting scale boards used in packing cheese in casks for mar- keting, which continued in operation until the packing of cheeses in sepa- rate boxes superseded the old method. In 1814 John Nash, James Beebe, and Dr. Zephenia Swift erected a clothiers' works, carding-machine, and fulling mill on the Naugatuck branch, between the McAlpine saw mill and the Wade tannery, which was operated a few years by Alva Nash, then sold to John Galagher, who introduced power looms, and went into the manufacture of broadcloths and satinets. David Bird succeeded Galagher in the business, and formed a joint stock company which operated the con- cern in a small way until the establishment was burned down about 1860. Prior to 1825, all the usual handicraft trades, such as blacksmiths, tanners and shoemakers, joiners and carpenters, tailors, hatters, coopers, wheelwrights, &c., were carried on and sustained in the society ; but since that period, in consequence of the growth of Winsted, most of them have been abandoned. From almost the beginning of the century to the year 1857 a large portion of the mercantile and produce business of the Society was trans- acted by the brothers Samuel and Lemuel Hurlbut, who early placed their business on a solid basis, and enlarged it by transactions beyond the line of ordinary country traders, identifying their interests with those of the community around them, and sustaining its rights and privileges against all outside rivalries. For a long course of years, before Winsted had be- gun to abound in wealthy men, they were the bankers of this region, and especially so of the dairy farmers requiring loans for the purchase and stock- ing of their farms. We have already in another place analyzed their characters and capacities, and referred to their introduction of improved breeds of sheep and cattle. On their deaths, occurring within a year of 260 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. each other, their large business was wound up, and their property distrib- uted among numerous and widely-scattered heirs. Compared with other forming communities around us, Old Winchester and the agricultural portions of Winsted are favored in a high degree with a distribution of wealth approaching equality, a freedom from embarras- sing debt, good education largely diffused, temperate habits, refined morals, and intelligent patriotism. Winsted Society and Borough. CHAPTER XX. WINSTED SOCIETY— FIRST SETTLERS AND FAMILY RECORDS. As already stated in our preliminary account of the township, the open- ing of the Old North Road was soon followed by a settlement in the northeast corner of the town, distinct and distant from the earlier settle- ment in the southwest section, to which our attention has thus far been directed. Long Lake, and the mountain ridges extending from its north end to Colebrook line effectually separated these communities from each other, until near the close of the last century ; when the improvement of the splendid water power along the Lake Stream, and at the Still River falls, gradually drew settlers to the intermediate region. The Winsted settlement began some twenty years later than that of the old society. The records show but four resident land owners there in 1771, when the town was incorporated ; and none of their names are found on the peti- tion for the incorporation. 1770. Lieut. John Wright, from Wethersfield to Goshen in 1740, came thence to Winsted, it is believed in 1769 or 1770, and settled, with his large family, on the northeast side of the old North road, near Colebrook line, on the site of the homestead now occupied by Edward and Edwin Rowley. His title of Lieutenant is said to have been acquired during his service in the French War. His will was proved in the Norfolk Probate Court, Dec. 24, 1784, in which are named his wife Dorcas, and his children, John, Jr., Jabez, Charles, Freedom, Dorcas, Mary, and Lu- cia. L. M. Norton, in his Goshen Genealogies, names Samuel, David, and Moses, as sons of Lieut. John. The relative age of their children is not ascertainable. His wife was probably a dau. of Benjamin Dem- ing, of Goshen. Samuel Wright, son of John, Sen., probably born at Wethersfield, 264 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER lived and died at Goshen. L. M. Norton gives his children, born in Goshen, as follows : CHILDREN. I. Josiah, b. April 1, 1753. II. Ozias, b. Sept. 1, 1755; d. young. III. Abigail, b. Jan. 8, 1757. IV. Ozias, b. Feb. 18, 1759. V.Andrew, b. March 17, 1763. Moses Wright, son of John, Sen., is probably the same Moses Wright who lived and died in Colebrook, and was father to Norton Wright, who formerly lived near the Old Hemlock Meeting-house, in Winsted, and Alvin Wright of Colebrook, who d. May, 1866. David Wright, son of John, Sen., is not noted on the Winchester Records as an inhabitant, though he probably came to the town with his father. He enlisted into Capt. Sedgwick's company in 1775, and while on the march to the Northern frontier, died of the camp distemper, at Lanesborough, Mass., unmarried. John Wright, Jr. probably came to Winsted with his father. He lived immediately east of his father, on the old North road, until his re- moval in 1801, to Morgan, Ohio. He m. Aug. 14, 1770, Lydia Mason, who d. Nov. 11, 1771. He m. (2d), March 24, 1774, Sarah, dau. of Lieut, Asahel Case, of Norfolk, by whom he had CHILDREN. I. Lydia Mason, b. Jan. 19, 1775. II. David, b. Aug. 16, 1778; d. Sept. 1, 1784. III. John, b. Jan. U, 1780. IV. Amos Case, b. Sept. 5, 1782 ; m. Lydia, dau. of Rev. Aaron Kinney. V. Sally, b. April 16, 1785. VI. David, b. July 27, 1787. VII. Alpha, b. Dec. 26, 1789. VIII. An Infant, b. April 25, 1791. Charles Wright probably came from Goshen to Winsted about 1775, and lived near his father until his removal in 1801, to Jefferson Co., N. Y. He served as Sergeant in Capt. Sedgwick's company, on the northern frontier, in 1775. He m. Nov. 11, 1767, Ruth Smith. CHILDREN. I. Tyrannus, b. Goshen, March 20, 1768 ; probably died young. II. Sarah, b. Jan. 29, 1770. III. Charles, b. July 28, 1774. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 265 IV. Stephen, b. Aug. 18, 1776; bap. July 30, 1797. V. Tyagustus, b. Feb. 6, 1779 ; bap. July 30, 1797. VI. Ruth, b. April 30, 1781 ; bap. July 30, 1797. VII. Erastus, b. ; d. Aug. 28, 1786. VIII. Erasths, b. May 28, 1787 ; bap. July 30, 1797. IX. Chester, b. Nov. 10, 1789; bap. July 30, 1797. X. Nathan, b. May 17, 1792 ; bap. July 30, 1797. XI. Matthew Miles, bap. July 30, 1797. Capt. Freedom Wright became a land holder in 1777, and lived and kept a tavern in the house now burned down, recently owned by Albert Kelsey and wife, in tbe same neighborhood with his father and brothers. He removed to Jefferson Co., N. Y., about 1801. He was a soldier in Capt. Sedgwick's company. He m. Sept. 1, 1777, Anna Hor- ton. She d. Sept. 18, 1788, and he ni, (2d), Aug. 10, 1789, Phebe Turner. She d. in 1793. CHILDREN BY FIRST WIFE. I. Asa Douglass, b. Sept. 18, 1778. II. Jabez, b. Feb. 6, 1780. III. Lucy, b. March 29, 1782; m. Abijab Wilson, Jr. IV. Abigail, b. July 6, 1784. V. Freedom, b. Sept. 25, 1787 ; d. same day. VI. Freedom, b. Sept. 13, 1788; d. same day. CHILDREN BT SECOND WIFE. VII. Anna, b. March 16, 1790. VIII. Freedom, b. Sept. 29, 1791 ; d. Oct. 20, 1791. IX. Freedom, b. Oct. 6, 1792. Lucia or Lucy Wright, a dau. of John Wright, Sen., named in his will, m. Elijah Rockwell, Esq., first Justice of the Peace and Town Clerk of Colebrook, and was the grandmother of John T. Rockwell, of Win- sted. She was b. Oct. 7, 1756. The Wrights were a highly intelligent, studious family ; supporters of religion and good order, and earnest patriots in the revolutionary struggle. 1771. Ebenezer Shepard, from Goshen, this year bought lands bordering on Colebrook line, on the road to Colebrook, by way of Nelson Beards- ley's, on which he lived until 1775, when he sold out to David Crissey, 34 206 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. and moved into Colebrook. He served in Capt. Sedgwick's company on the northern frontier, in 1775. Wife, Mercy. CHILDREN. I. Prudence, b. June 8, 1771. II. Caroline, b. July 26, 1773. John Balcom, Jr., from Mansfield, Windham Co., came into the town this year ; he owned and lived on a lot o! land east of Still River, nearly opposite the Horace Rowley place, and lived in a log house on the hill, adjoining Barkhamsted line. He lived in Winchester as late as 1808, and was of Sidney, Delaware Co., N. Y., in 1810, as appears by his conveyances on record. He m. Jan. 1, 1783, Lois Hudson. CHILDREN. I. Zilfha, b. Oct. 18, 1783; bap. July 22, 1784. II. Lois, b. May 22, 1785; bap. June 18, 1786. III. Ebenezer, b. June 15, 1786; bap. June 18, 1786. IV. Elizabeth, bap. Sept. 1, 1790. V. Una Vilda, bap. in Wd. Ch., Sept. 1, 1790. 1772. John Balcom, Sen., is named of Winchester, in a deed of this year, conveying to him Lot 10, 2d Division, next south of the Daniel B. Wil- son farm. He lived in a log house on the old North road, a little easterly of the Henry Dowd place. The Land Records show that he had sons : John, Jr., Jonathan, and Nathaniel. His wife's death in 1797, is noted in the Church Records. He renewed his church covenant in 1800, — and probably died in the town, though no record of his death is found. Jonathan Balcom, son of John, Sr., lived on Wallen's hill, between Roswell Smith's and Joel Meade's. The inventory of his estate was re- turned to Norfolk Probate Court September 6, 1790. Administration to his widow, Molly ; — distribution to his sons John, Jr., and Nathaniel, and to his daughters Keziah (who died unmarried), Mary, wife of Gates, Rhoda, Irena, wife of Seth Goodrich, and Esther (who died un- married). Nathaniel Balcom, son of John, Sr., lived on the homestead of his father until 1813 or 1814, when he removed to Wayne County, Pennsyl- vania. He married, September 2, 1782, Lois McEntire. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 267 CHILDKEN. I. Francis, b. II. Nathan, b. May 9, 1787. III. Jonathan, b. Aug. 18, 1791; enlisted in the war of 1812. IV. Silas, b. Elias Balcom is named of Winchester in 1774. In 1776 he had some interest in the mill lot and the corn-mill, saw-mill, and dwelling- house thereon, which he quit-claimed to Stephen Chubb, of New Hart- ford. The nature of his ownership does not appear on the records. He then resided on the 'premises, and had probably erected the mills and dwelling on some arrangement with the proprietors of Winchester, who afterwards granted to Stephen Chubb, Jr., a lease of the lot for 900 years. Jacob and Joseph, sons of Elias Balcom, were baptized in the Win- chester Church in November, 1775. — The former is said to have carried on horseback the earliest mail between Hartford and Albany. Elias Cabit Balcom (probably son of Elias above), married, Decem- ber 30, 1782, Mary Dickinson. CHILD. I. Sarah, b. Feb. 6, 1786. Nathan Balcom died August 7, 1808, aged 84. 1773. John Austin, of Winchester, is this year grantor of thirty acres of land, extending from the east shore of Long Lake to first tier line, and embracing parts of Rockwell and Prospect streets, and the Naugatuck Railroad depot grounds, which he sold in 1779. There is an ancient cel- lar on the east side of East Lake street on this land, which may have been his residence. Abel Hoskin, from Windsor, this year bought a lot, now a part of the farm of Anson Fosket, and lived thereon until after 1787. .In 1790 he lived in Hartland. Josiah Smith, from Wethersfield, owned, lived, and died on the farm, on the old Still River turnpike, now owned by Horace Rowley. He was a founder and one of the first Deacons of the Congregational 268 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER Church of Winsted, from which he withdrew during the dissensions in Rev. Mr. Woodworth's time, and became a member and Deacon of the Baptist Church then founded in the northeast corner of the town. He married, June 17, 1770, Elizabeth Merrill. She died November 26, 1829, aged 85 ; he died September 28, 1824, aged 81. CHILDREN. I. Salome, b. Oct. 12, 1770; m. Amasa Mallory. II. Sarah, b. Jan. 5, 1772 ; m. Feb. 13, 1794, Elisha Mallory, Jr. III. Josiah, b Jan. 9, 1775; d. Oct. 3, 1777. IV. Benjamin, b. Aug. 22, 1778. V. Truman, b. Nov. 22, 1780. VI. Josiah (twin), b. Aug. 29, 1784. VII. Elizabeth (twin), b. Aug. 29, 1784; m. Grandison Newell. Truman Smith, son of Deacon Josiah, lived with his father and con- tinued to occupy the homestead until after 1825, when he removed to Lenox, Ohio, where he died April 14, 1862, aged 81. He succeeded his father as Deacon of the Baptist Church. His son, Luman Smith, now resides in Winsted. Josiah Smith, Jr., lived in Winsted, and after 1810 was one of the Deacons of the Congregational Church till his removal to Windsor, after 1834, where he died, s. p., January 1, 1852, aged 67. All of the members of this family were eminent for piety and good works. 1774. Stephen Arnold's prior residence does not appear. In 1774 he bought of John Darbe furty-one acres of land on Wallen's hill, adjoining Barkhamsted line, now composing part of the farms of Sylvester Treat and Homer W. Whiting, on which he then lived. He sold out and prob- ably left the town in 1783. Wife, Lois. CHILDREN. I. Mart, b. Aug. 29, 1778. II. Stephen, b. Jan. 29, 1781. III. Lois, bapt. Nov. 9, 1782. Zebulon Shepard, of New Hartford in 1773, of Winchester, Jan- uary 10, 1784, and of Barkhamsted, March 16, 1774, — was interested with Ebenezer Shepard in the Crissey farm on Colebrook line, and must have lived there, if he ever had a stated residence in the town. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 269 Phineas Potter, from Woodbury, owned land in the east village of Winsted, which embraced the Holabird place, and extended northward on North Main street to the late residence of John Camp, deceased. He first built a shanty against the large rock on Hinsdale street, near the Champion barn, and afterward built and lived in a house, now torn down, in rear of the ancient elm, where the Henry Champion house now stands. Tradition says that when Mr. Potter moved to Winsted there was no road from the Old South road in Torringford to Winsted, and that on reaching the tavern of Landlord Burr (father of Russell and Milo), near the top of Hayden hill, Mr. Burr assisted him in cutting out a path for his team ; — that at the end of a hard day's labor, they accomplished a distance of five miles, — reaching the east bank of Still River, at or near the old Wheeler house, lately belonging to the Holabird estate, where they camped out for the night, — and on the following morning crossed to the west side of the river, and built the shanty before mentioned ; and that his was the first family settled in the Still River valley, south of the Old North road. Wife, Dorcas. ' CHILDREN. I. Sheldon, came with Ms father. II. Daniel, " " " " III. Salmon, b. May 25, 1774. IV. Freedom, b. Sept. 5, 1776. Sheldon Potter built and lived in the old Wheeler house, on the east side of Still River, nearly opposite the Holabird place, which he sold to Nathan Wheeler in 1786, and afterwards left the town. He married, November 2, 1786, Mary Knowlton, and had one CHILD. I. Cyrus, b. Feb. 28, 1788. Daniel Potter lived in a house which stood above the east bank of Still River, nearly due east of the east village hotel, on a road that then ran along the rear of the houses more recently built along the east side of the river. He sold out to Eleazer Porter in 1789. His name is on the tax list of 1796 ; he left town soon after 1798, and probably settled in Johns- town, Montgomery County, New York, as appears by a deed from him in 1801. He married, December 8, 1785, Naomi Crissey. CHILDREN. I. Daniel, b. Aug. 21, 1786. II. Abijah,' b. April 19, 1788. LIT. Joseph Crissey, b. March 24, 1790. 270 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, IV. Alvin, b. Nov. 4, 1791. V. Piiilo, b. Dec. 0, 1793. VI. Chester, b.. Feb. 13, 1796. VII. Hakvey, b. Nov. 10, 1798. 1775. David Crissey, from Waterbury, and originally from Woodbury, this year bought of Ebenezer Shepard, the farm adjoining Colebrook line, late owned by George Marvin. He died in 1803 ; his inventory was returned to the Norfolk Probate Court, March 14, 1804. He married at New Haven, Hannah Wilmot. CHILDREN. I. Preserved, b. m., January 11, 1787, Racbel Kellogg. II. Mary, m. Joseph Loomis of New Hartford. III. Naomi, ra. Daniel Potter of Winchester. IV. Israel was 13 years old when his father came to Winchester. V. Jemima, m. — Fairchild. VI. Asenath, m. Ira Mudge, of Pittsfield, Otsego Co., N.Y. VII. Liberty, m. Brainard and moved to Chatham. VIII. Hannah, m. Levi Dean of South Canaan, IX. Phineas, b. in Winchester June 19, 1778. Preserved Crissey, 2 a prominent citizen, first lived, until 1794, in a house then standing, where Mrs. Lucy Coe now lives, on Spencer Street, after which, until 1803, he lived in the house, now torn down, on West Lake street, nearly opposite the John Stabell house ; soon after which he removed to Litchfield, Herkimer county, New York. He married, January 11, 1787, Rachel Kellogg. CHILDREN. I. Electa, 8 b. March 14, 1788. II. Truman, 3 b. February 22, 1790. III. Alfred, 3 b. March 19, 1792. IV. Philo, 3 b. October 10, 1794. Israel Crissey lived on the eastern border of the Indian Meadow near Colebrook line. He removed in 1810 to Norfolk. He married February 7, 1788, Alice Woodruff. CHILDREN. I. MEHiTAnLE, b. July 21, 1789 ; m. Seth Barber, and removed to Western N. Y. II. Benjamin Wilmot, b. May 19, 1791 ; m., 1828, in Norfolk, Eunice Burr, and had Warren, b. 1831; Ralph Israel, b. 1833; Olive Elizabeth, b. 1835; Thcron Wilbert, b. 1837. III. Alice, b. June 15, 1793; d. unmarried in 1861. IV. Olive, b. February 28, 1795 ; m. Seth Barber, Western N. Y. ; living in 1859. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 271 1776. David Mills, from West Simsbury, now Canton, owned tbe lot which embraced the Wins ted Manufacturing Company's and Cook Axle Com- pany's premises, and extending easterly to Barkhamsted line. He lived on Wallen's Hill, where the clock-factory road joins the north and south roads, iu the red house afterwards owned by Lemuel Clark and Daniel Burnham. He removed with his sons, Eliphalet and Daniel, to Colebrook, about 1804 or '5, where he died. He was son of John 4 (born 1690 ; died Canton, 1774) and Damans (Phelps) Mills; grandson of John and Sarah (Pettibone) Mills ; great grandson of Simon and Mary (Buell) Mills, and great-great-grandson of Simeon and Sarah (Bissell) Mills, who came from England. He married, about 1761, Huldah Edgecomb ; she died February 7, 1787; and he married (2d) May 8, 17^8, Jane Hungerford; he mar- ried (3d), December 26, 1789, Abigail Shortman. CHILDREN. I. David, b. May, 1762; d. 3J years old. II. Chauncey, III. Phebe, m. David Smith. IV. Roswell, m. Ellis Apley. V. Elizabeth, m. February 4, 1795, Josiah Apley. VI. Huldah, b. in W. October 19, 1776 ; m., January 1, 1794, Thomas Boyd, of Amenia, N. Y. VII. Eliphalet, b. January 5, 1779. VIII. Daniel, b. February 6, 1782. IX. Sakah, b. January 10, 1785 ; m. Win. Shortman, of Kinderhook, N. Y. Chauncet Mills lived in a house next north of his father's, which stood on the site of the house now owned by George Raymond. He sold out in 1803, and is named of Adams, Jefferson county, New York, in a deed of 1806. He married September 26, 1784, Ruth Doolittle. children. I. Seloen, b. September 27, 1788. II. Anna, b. February 14, 1790. III. Fyler (twin), b. September 15, 1792. IV. Fanny (twin), " " " Eliphalet Mills learned the scythe makers' trade of Jenkins & Boyd, and resided in the town a few years after his majority ; and then, with his brother Daniel, erected and carried on a scythe works at Cole- brook River. He eventually migrated to Ohio, where he died. He mar- ried Eda Hurd. Daniel Mills learned the hatters' trade and afterwards went into the scythe-making business at Colebrook River, where he died. He married Hannah Hurd. 272 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, His son, Daniel H. Mills, and his daughter, the wife of C. S. Norton, now reside in Wi listed. 1777. Ensign Jesse Doolittle, from New Hartford, this year bought of Stephen Chubb, Jr., the mill lot reserved by the proprietors at the Still River Falls, where the clock factory is now located, and the land adjoining on the east bide of the river. His house was burned, after wdiich he built, on the same site, the Asaph Pease house, which has recently been taken down and removed, which stood where the road now runs, nearly opposite the house of Isaac B. Woodruff, and occupied it until his death, February 9, 1793, aged 55. The house previously occupied by Elias Balcom, and which Mr. Doolittle first occupied, stood on the site of the house next south of the Beecher store. His wife, Mary, died March 2, 1819, aged 82. Jesse Doolittle, Jr., oldest son of Ensign Jesse, lived about half way up Wallen's hill, on the south side of the road running east from the clock factory, in a house long since torn down. About 1812, he removed to Wolcott, Wayne county, New York, where he died about 1822. He married November 15, 1787, Hannah Jopp. CHILDREN. I. Marion, b. July 6, 1788; m. Moses Hitchcock. II. Lorrain, b. December 16, 1790. III. Silas, b. September 17, 1794. IV. Zebina, b. July 20, 1796. V Erwin, b. June 1, 1799 ; lived at Wolcott, N. Y., 1822. VI. Zerah, b. October 1, 1802. VII. Huldah, b. August 26, 1804. VIII. Hannah Henshaw, b. December 3, 1806. IX. Edward Houghton, b. January 29, 1809. X. Nelson, b. November 4, 1810. Zerah Doolittle, second son of Ensign Jesse, lived with his father, and continued to occupy the homestead until he removed to Vermont about 1800. He married Lucy Wheeler in 1793, who eloped with Major Seth Wetmore about eight years afterwards. Lyman Doolittle, third son of Ensign Jesse, born June 5, 1779, lived in the old homestead until 1819, when he bought the Zenas Wilson place, now owned by William F. Roraback, on the old North Road, where he died March 14, 1851, aged 72. He married Achsah Davis. She died October 9, 1854. He had a son, Lyman Jr., who died a soldier in the U. S. army near the time of the Mexican War, leaving a widow. One of his daughters married Daniel B. Wilson, one married Julius Weaver, and another married Henry Dowd. . The name of this Doolittle family has become extinct in the town. The descendants in the female line are numerous. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 273 Samuel Hayden, Esq., came from Goshen this year, and owned a farm on the old North Road ; his dwelling stood on the north side of the road, nearly opposite the late Riley Smith's. Before 1790, he sold ont and purchased a farm on Wallen's Hill, and built a house a little east of the town line, in Barkhamsted, which is still occupied by his daughter, Mrs. Laura Andrews. In his old age he removed with the family of his youngest daughter, to Ashtabula county, Ohio, where he died. He was a man of pure character, strong intellect, and quiet humor ; a justice of the peace, and three times a representative of the town of Barkhamsted. In his advanced years, he united with the Winsted Congregational Church and honored his profession. He was born in Windsor, January 12, 1748, son of Samuel and Abigail (Hall) Hayden; grandson of Samuel and Anna (Holcomb) Hayden ; great-grandson of Daniel and Hannah (Wilcoxson) Hayden ; and great-great-grandson of William Hayden, one of the early settlers of Windsor, and afterward of Killingworth. He married Rebecca Smith; she died September 1, 1793 ; he married (2d) Sally Maybee. CHILDREN BY FIRST WIFE. I. Samuel, b. October 24, 1774; d. September, 1799. II. Mary, b. December 4, 1776; m. 1797, Gideon Hall; d. March 16, 1830. III. Seth, b. June 8, 1781 ; m. Huldah Soper; d. 1845. IV. Moses, b. October 30, 1783 ; m. May 8, 1806, Sally Jenkins. V. Abigail, b. March 27, 1788; d. 1805. VI. Lauka, b. October 17, 1791 ; m. July 13, 1826, Charles Andrews. CHILDREN BY SECOND WIFE. VII. Anne, b. November 2, 1795 ; m. Luman Whiting, Austinburg, O. VIII. Sally, b. June, 1803 ; m. Solomon Curtis Smith. Seth Hayden, son of Samuel, Esq., lived on the southerly side of the Old North Road, adjoining Barkhamsted line, until 1827, when he migrated to Bethany, Wayne Co., Penn., where he died March 14, 1845, aged 64. He was a retiring man, of feeble constitution, and industrious habits, who reared and educated a large family of children, now occupy- ing stations of usefulness and honor. The compiler affectionately remembers him, after a lapse of nearly sixty -five years, as a 'mild, kind- hearted, and faithful schoolmaster. He married Huldah Soper. CHILDREN. I. Samuel, b. May 4, 1805 ; m. ; d. New Harmony, la., March 7, 1842; had two children, Laura and Henry. II. Seth, 1>. February 21, 1807 ; d. April 2, 1825 ; unmarried. III. Locien, b. October 31, 1808 ; graduated Hamilton College, 1836 ; ordained Pastor of Baptist Church, Dover, N. H., 1838; resettled Saxton's 35 274 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, River, Vt,, 1843; received degree of A.M. at Madison University, 1854 ; resettled New London, N. H., 1857 ; m. (1st), Caroline C. Smith, Keene, N. II., by whom lie had one child, Lucien Henry, b. May 21, 1839 ; he m. (2d), 1858, Mary J. Prescott of Concord, N. H. IV. Colin Marcos, b. January 15, 1811 ; farmer, J. P., and Deacon of Bapt. Church at Cornwall, 111. ; has two children, Samuel S. and Huldah Sophia. V. Corinthia, b. July 28, 1814; m. Benjamin Smith of Penn. VI. Huldah Rebecca, b. February 28, 1817 ; m. Levi Bronson, E. Saginaw, Mich. VII. Henry, b. February 28, 1817; m. Sophia Bowman, Town Hill, Penn.; lives in Muncy, Penn; has a son, William B.,b. June, 1851. VIII. William, b. September 9, 1821 ; graduated Castleton Medical College, Vt.; settled in Wyoming, 111. ; has children : 1. Isabella, b. 1848; 2. Frank, b. 1849. IX Laura Abigail, b. May 30, 1826. Moses Hayden, Esq., second sou of Samuel, resided, until his removal from the state, a little south of his father, iu a house built for Rev. Mr. Woodvvortb, the first pastor of the Winsted Congregational Church. He, too, was a schoolmaster in his early years, less kind, but more efficient than his brother. He early succeeded his father as justice of the peace, was a member of the Assembly during seven sessions, and in the war of 1812 commanded a company of state troops called out for the defence of New London. In 1815 he migrated to Bethany, Penn., where he was a justice of the peace. He died suddenly in 1829, aged 46. He married May 8, 1806, Sally Jenkins. CHILDREN. I. James Carleton, b. August 13, 1806; m. — Phillips; lives in Corn* wall, 111. ; has two sons and one daughter. II. Julia, b. October 25, 1807; m. Heman Arnold, Pa.; d. 1830. III. Joseph Addison, b. January 1, 1609; went to Michigan. IV. Lucia, b. February 16, 1810; m. H. Ames. V. Jane, b. April 21, 1811; m. (1st), — King; (2d), M. Greiner. VI. Helen, b. August 5,1812; m. C. P. Sweet; d. October 10, 1842. VII. Edwin, b. March 7, 1814. VIII. Lavinia, b. July 15, 1815; m. — Miller. IX. Samuel Sheridan, b. November 9, 1822. James Carleton Hayden, son of Moses, lived in Winsted for some fifteen years after coming of age ; afterward at Wolcottville, whence he removed about 1855 to Cornwall, Illinois. His residence in Winsted was in the house on the south side of Main street, nearest to Still River Bridge. The family name has become extinct in the town, but several descendants in the female line still remain. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 275 John Darbe or Derby, from Hebron, lived beyond the Barkham- sted line on Wall en's Hill, as early as 1773, and came into Winchester as early as 1778. He owned the land south of the road east from the clock shop up Wallen's Hill, afterward owned by Ensign Doolittle, and lived in the house near the top of the hill until 1782. He is named of Norfolk in 1787. He married September 22, 1773, Sarah Balcom; had one child, Phebe, b. July 8, 1774. Henry Walter from Torrington, bought and occupied land on Spencer street, now a part of the Lockwood farm, and lived in a log house near the Lockwood dwelling. His land was taken on execution for debt in 1793. John Walter, son of Henry, from Torrington, owned in 1779 a lot of land within the borough limits of Winsted, and in 1790 bought a part of the Lockwood farm, on which he lived until his removal to Burke, Vt., after 1798. He served in Captain Watson's Company, Colonel BurralFs Regiment, on the northern frontier. He married August 3, 1773,. Sarah Gleason. CHILDREN. I. Cynthia, b. April 7, 1774. . - II. Norris, b. October 25, 1775. III. Jerusha, b. January 18, 1777. IV. Andrew, • b. December 5, 1779. V. John, b. February 25, 1782. VI. Eber, a younger son, came back from Vermont, lived in Winsted several years, and removed to and died in Wayne Co., Pa. He married a daughter of Major Isaiah Tuttle of Torringford. Andrew Walter returned from Vermont to Winsted not far from 1805 ; married Abby Westlake, and raised a family of children, one of whom married Silvester Hart. He lived several years on the William -F. Hatch farm, and afterwards in various places. He died not far from 1840. Lemuel Walter, probably brother of the foregoing, also lived on a part of the Lockwood farm in 1781, and afterward in a log house on Spencer street, between Hinsdale street and the district school house. He died in the town in 1792. He had wife Mehitabel, and CHILDREN. I. Hannah, b. November 9, 1776. II. Roxt, b June 5, 1779. III. Lemuel, b. January 2, 1780 ; d. 1792. 276 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Daniel "Walter, in 1786, owned the western part of the Colonel Hinsdale farm, and sold the same in 1793. He married August 19, 1779, Mary Gleason. CHILDREN. I. Augustus, b. March 3, 1780. II. Leonard, b. April 19, 1782. III. Polly, b. September 29, 1784; d. July 17, 1785. IV. Daniel, b. November 13, 1787 ; d. June 17, 1792. Ira Walter, in 1793, bought land north of and adjoining John Walter's land, which he sold in 1797. Ebenezer Rowley, Jr.'s name first appears on the land records of 1781, but his name is on the Petition of 1777, for the incorporation of Winsted Society, as well as the recorded birth of his oldest child, indi- cates an earlier residence. He came from Chatham, and was probably the first settler on South street. He owned and occupied until his death, the dwelling and farm lately owned by Orson W. Jopp. He was a hard working, jovial, thrifty, and in earlier years, public -spirited man, who raised a large family, and by his practical jokes contributed largely to the cheerfulness of his associate pioneers. His brother-in-law, Knowlton, occupied the adjoining farm. Their cleared lands extended down the hill westward to Still River at the base of the mountains. "Uncle Ebb." had been out cooning through the night on the mountains and was returning at early dawn, when he hears Knowlton calling to his cow which had strayed into the forest. To Knowlton's call Uncle Ebb. responded in cow language from the foot of the mountain. Knowlton wades the muddy stream to reach the spot from which he had heard the looing. Rowley, unseen, ascends the slope and gives another cow-like moo-o, and Knowlton follows; Rowley reaches the top of the ridge and gives another moo-o, — and while Knowl- ton climbs from crag to crag, wondering how the " tarnal critter'* could get up there, Rowley slips down the mountain, crosses the stream to the cleared land and presents himself to the bewildered view of Knowl- ton from the mountain top, and explains the joke by another prolonged _ moo-o-o, and by throwing himself on all fours and kicking up his heels in the air, after the manner of sportive female oxen, and then sets off on the run for his chores and breakfast. -" Uncle Ebb." sometimes " found his match." It was in those days a stigma to a man's thriftiness to lay in a short stock of pork for the corn- in"- year, and our uncle was a self constituted inspector of his neighbors' pork barrels. Calling on the mild, sober-sided Squire Hayden, the squire lighted his candle to get a mug of cider from the cellar, when Uncle Ebb. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 277 proposed to go with him and examine his pork. The squire assented, and . showed him a barrel nearly full ; the inspector examined and smelled. The squire then called his attention to another barrel in a dark corner which he thought might have a little pork at the bottom, — and so turn- ing the light as to give an imperfect view, he raised the lid, — Uncle Ebb., in haste to complete the inspection, thrust his arm to the bottom of the barrel before discovering that it was filled to the brim with soft soap which adhered to his arm from the hand to the shoulder. A hardy race were these South street pioneers, from Still River bridge down to Major Isaiah Tuttle's, who sifted their corn-meal for hasty pud- ding " through a ladder." The Major remarked that by working bare- footed in the stubble fields, their heels became so hard and fiinty that if they happened to tread on the feet of their cattle it would make them bellow ! Apropos of the Major, — the horse-tamer, who could ride anything but chain-lightning. — With his boys he was felling timber on top of the same ridge of mountains. They felled a tall tree, so that one-third of its length extended over a precipice of some twenty or thirty feet. The Major ordered his oldest boy to go out on the trunk and cut away the top. Uriel went out and after striking a few blows came back with a swimming head. Daniel was sent out to finish the job, but soon came back equally dizzy. After blazing away in his characteristic manner at his boys for their want of pluck, the Major took up his axe and went out himself, and chopped away, until the top of the tree unexpectedly yielded. One of his feet was on each side of the chopping ; and as the one on the top section yielded he lost his presence of mind, and instead of grasping the main body of the tree threw his arms round the falling section and went down with it. The boys, hastening round the precipice, came down to the landing place of the tree top, and found the Major bruised and wounded, but on his feet, wiping away with green leaves the blood that was flowing into his eyes and mouth from a wound in his forehead " Father," said one of the boys, " you've had a terrible fall." " Yes ! yes !" said the Major, " a terrible fall ! Adam's fall was nothing to it ! " Returning from this undignified digression, we remark that Mr. Row- ley was a vivid type of the pioneers of this region ; a hardy worker, turn- ing his hand to any farming or mechanical labor, shaving his own shingles, splitting his own laths, hewing his own timber, and grafting his own trees # No man was more efficient and public spirited than he in getting up the East village Congregational meeting house and settling the pastor. A change in the mode of raising the salary of the minister by annual sale of pews instead of the old method of taxation, so disaffected him towards the society that he ceased to attend its worship and selected a spot on his 278 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, farm for his own burial.* He died at the age of 79, Aug. 25, 1834. Wife, Abigail. CHILDREN. I. Reuben, b. Feb. 10, 1775. II. Abigail, b. Nov. 5, 1779; m. Hazael Dunham. III. Erastus, b. April 17, 1782. IV. Antha, b. July 10, 1784; m. April 3, 1806, Thos. R. Bull. V. Ada, b. June 26, 1786. VI. Flora, b. April 15, 1789; m. June 1, 1809, John Westlake. VII. Betsey, b. June 10, 1791. VIII. Adna, b. about 1793. IX. Alpha, b. " 1795. X. Mira, b. " 1798; m. Ilalscy Bailey. XL Beulah, b. " 1800; m. May 27, 1829, Benj. Fowler. Asher Rowley, younger brother of Ebenezer, Jr., first appears on the list of 1789, though it is probable that he came to Winsted earlier. In 1794, his father conveyed to him the farm on South street, next north of his brother Ebenezer, which he occupied until his death. He was b. Jan. 18, 1765, at Chatham, Conn., and d. at Winsted, Sept. 7, 1844. He m. Mehetabel, dau. of Lieut. Jonathan Dunham, b. at Colchester in 1774. Shed. June 21,1839. CHILDREN. I. Betsey, b. Jan. 10, 1794; in. Lewis McDonald, from Wood- bury, Conn., and now (1872) living in Wisconsin. II. Ansel, b. Feb. 13, 1796; m. Lucy Clayborn, of Chester- field, Va. ; d. at Oakland, Missouri, Oct. 25, 1851. III. Elias, b. March 22, 1798. IV. Warren Dunham, b. June 20, 1800; m. (1), Nancy Stanton; (2), Har- riet Curry, both of South Trenton, N. Y., where he d. Sept. 25, 1854, highly respected, and entrusted with important offices. V. Sally M., b. June 28, 1802; m. Sept. 6, 1827, Chaunccy Shat- tuck of W. ; settled in Green Township, Pa., where he d. She now re- sides in Ackley, Iowa. VI. Harriet, b. July 20, 1804; d. Aug. 18, 1831, unmarried. VII. George, b. July 16, 1806 ; supposed to be living in Wisconsin. VIII. Harlow, b. July 12, 1808; m. Sarah A. Haynes. Now living in Brighton, Canada West. IX. Hiram, b. April 7, 1811; drowned while fording a stream near Little Rock, Ark., Jan. 7, 1841. X. CnARLES, b. May 3, 1813; d., unmarried, at Philadelphia, Dec. 21, 1833. XI. Charlotte, b. Dec. 6, 1815; d. Dec. 17, 1815. * His remains, and those of his wife, were transferred to the Central burying- ground, after the farm went out of the hands of the family. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 279 Elias Rowley, son of Asher, received a conveyance of his father's homestead and farm, in May, 1839. He sold the homestead on South street, and built his present residence on the Wolcottville road, about 1847. He m. Widow Laura Curtis, dau. of Lemuel Bushnell, of Hartland. CHILDREN. I. Hiram D., b. Sept. 4, 1828; now of Delphi, N. Y. II. George S., b. Oct. 20, 1830 ; m. Sophionia Buckman. III. Warren, b. Jan. 15, 1832. Supposed to be living in Idaho Ter. IV. Charles L., b. Jan. 10, 1834; m. Martha J. Simonson, of Watkins, N. Y. ; living at Willard, N. Y. V. Ansel, b. Dec. 28, 1836; m. Ruey Rogers, of Orwell, Vt., now of Hersey, Michigan. VI. John G., b. July 11, 1S38 ; m. Anna C. Latham, of Granby, Conn. VII. Henrt H., b. Aug. 26, 1839; m. C. Louise Grant, of Torrington ; now (1872) of Burrvillc, Conn. VIII. Catharine A., b. Dec. 11, 1841 ; m. Samuel H. Norton, of Otis, Mass.; d. May 18, 1861, leaving son Edward L. IX. Edward, b. Feb. 28, 1844; d. Sept. 18, 1S44. CHAPTER XXI. INCORPORATION OF WINSTED SOCIETY, AND CONTINUED IMMIGRATION. 1778. The families named in the preceding chapter, with those of the Austins on Lake street, composed nearly the whole population in 1778, while a settlement almost as large had been made in the west part of Barkhamsted. The circumstances of the new settlement at this period are fully set forth in the following petition to the general assembly for the incorpora- tion of the ecclesiastical society of Winsted. " To the Honorable General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, to be convened at New Haven on the second Tuesday of October next : — " The memorial of the subscribers hereunto humbly sheweth to your honors, that we are inhabitants of the east part of the town of Win- chester, and west part of the township of Barkhamsted, to the number of about twenty-five families, and nearly 130 souls, being destitute of the privileges of a preached Gospel, and that there having formerly been a tax granted by your honors to promote the Gospel in that society, and no tax on the land east of the Long Pond, and that said pond so divides the town that the inhabitants on the east side of the pond cannot attend worship with those on the west side of the same ; and that those inhabit- ants on the west side of Barkhamsted are so divided from those on the east side of said town by a rough and ragged chain of mountains and a rapid river, that it is impossible for them to have any communication as a society without the greatest inconvenience. We would further humbly shew to your honors that the greatest part of the lands are held by wealthy proprietors residing in other towns, who are not disposed to sell or settle, which is much to our detriment, in keeping out people that would otherwise come in, whereby the inhabitants are disabled from supporting the Gospel. We would not censure them too hard, but are humbly of the opinion that as we, by breaking the way and encountering the many difficulties and disadvantages that attend the first settlement of AND FAMILY RECORDS. 281 such a new, rough and heavy-timbered place have added to the value of their laud, it is no more than equitable that they, with us, should contri- bute towards defraying the costs that will arise in having the Gospel set up among us. " We, therefore, your honors' memorialists, would humbly pray that to so good an end your honors would form the part of Barkhamsted that is west of Farmington River, with the east part of Winchester, into one ecclesiastical society, with powers and privileges that other societies have, taking in all the land in said Winchester east of said pond, and to run by the end thereof with the line of the lots next to said pond, across the pond stream to the west end of said lots, and then running north- ward at the end of the lots to the river known by the name of Mad River, so as to take in all the land that has not been taxed before, and from thence up said river so far as to take in the third tier of lots, and from thence to Colebrook line, containing in the whole about 12,000 acres, and that your honors would grant a tax on all the above lands, sufficient for the purpose of hiring some suitable orthodox preacher, to preach the Gospel among us for the space of four years next coming, and that Mr. Charles Wright, whom we nominate for a collector, be empowered to gather said tax, and as in duty bound, your memorialists will ever pray. " Dated at Winchester this 1st day of September, Anno Domini, 1777. John Darbe, Josiah Smith, Enoch Palmer, John Balcom, David Mills, Reuben Sweet, Ebenezer Rowley, Charles Wright, John Wright, Jr., Freedom Wright, Phinehas Potter, John Walter, Isaac Kellogg, Eleazer Kellogg, Lemuel Walter, Abraham Catling, Foster Whitford, Jonas Weed, Jr., Stephen Arnold, Nathaniel Crowe, Robert Whitford." 1778. This petition, after continuance to the February session in 1778, was granted, and the Society of Winsted, embracing the territory prayed for, was invested with all the powers and privileges by law belonging to other ecclesiastical societies in this state, with the power of taxing the lands of non-resident proprietors two pence on the acre of their lands not taxed by the Society of Winchester, for the term of four years, for supporting the gospel. As we shall hereafter give in a connected form the history of the ecclesiastical society of Winsted, we proceed with our account of the settlers. 36 282 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, The inventory of John Steel, late of Winchester, deceased, was this year returned to the Simsbury Probate Court by Hannah Steel, his widow. He is not found on the records as a landholder, and his location is not known, but as the bondsman and appraisers lived near Barkham- sted line, his residence was probably in the same vicinity. Barzillai Handee from Woodbury, this year bought a tract of land near Colebrook line, now composing a part of the Wm. E. Cowles farm, which he owned and occupied until 1781, when he probably returned to Woodbury, his name appearing in " Cothren's History " as one of a committee to provide for soldiers' families in 1783. Wife Mary. CHILDREN. I. Clemons, b. August 29, 1762. II. Cykenus, b. April 13, 1764. III. Abel, b. August 13, 1767; d. March 13, 1769. IV. Lucy, b. May 13, 1769. V. Lyman, b. December 17, 1773. VI. Thankful, b. November 13, 1776. VII. Lucketia, b. August 4, 1779. Clemons Handee is on the tax list of Winsted, from 1796 to 1799, when he lived in one of the houses attached to the Upper Forge. He is believed to have been an iron refiner or bloomer. Cyrenus Handee lived as late as 1810 near the Old Forge in the southeast corner of Colebrook. He raised a family there, of whom three were Alpha, Hiram, and Leman, the latter of whom made extensive explorations in Africa and Central America, in pursuit of wild animals for the Westchester menageries. During the years 1779 and 1780, we find the names of no new settlers of the Winsted section. 1781. The following memorial shows more feelingly than any modern writing can do, the condition of this back- woods settlement, in this year. To the Honorable General Assembly of the State of Connecticut convened at Hartford: The Memorial of the subscribers hereunto humbly shows to your Honors, that we are inhabitants of the east part of Winchester, making part of the society called Winsted, and being the newest and youngest part of said Winchester, having just begun under low circumstances, on new and un- cultivated and exceeding heavy timbered lands, the expenses of the town and this society being greater than in older places ; having no meeting- AND FAMILY RECORDS. 283 house, nor minister settled in this society, most of us not having houses for ourselves scarcely to defend us from the inclemencies of the weather, and a number without barns ; our families consisting chiefly of small chil- dren that cannot provide for themselves, having many of us a considerable part of our provision to buy at a distance in these difficult times : expenses arising almost on every hand, and but little profit arising from our labor or lands ; our quota of men to find for the army, and to provide for, which comes very heavy on us ; a considerable of a tax arising on these lands, which are wild and useless at present to us. We therefore, your Honors' Memorialists, humbly pray that you would be pleased to compassionate us, in our infant and weak condition, and suf- fer us not to be crushed in the bud of our being by having more laid on us than we are able to bear ; but that your honors would be pleased to exempt us from county taxes, until it shall appear your duty to lay them on us, and we have ability to pay them. As in duty bound your memo- rialists shall ever pray. Dated at Winsted this 12th day of June 1781. Josiah Smith, Jesse Doolittle, Committee for the Memorialists. Enoch Palmer, Lazarus Palmer, Joseph Bown, David Crissey, John Walter, Nathan Balcom, Henry Walter, Simeon Rogers, Phinehas Potter, John Wright, Charles Wright, Freedom Wright, David Mills, Stephen Arnold, Samuel Hayden, John Balcom, Jonathan Balcom. In Lower House. On this memorial granted that the memorialists be abated of the 2 s. Gd. tax payable December, 1781, and of the 9 d. tax payable March of '82. Test, Jedh. Strong, clerke. Concurred in the Upper House. Test, George Wyllys, secretary. {Ecclesiastical Records, vol. 15, p. 132.) Uzal Clark, from East Haddam, bought and occupied the lot next south of the Ebenezer Rowley farm, on South street, and sold the same to Stephen Knowlton in 1784. He afterward lived in Torrington and Barkhamsted. Wife Azubah. 284 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, CHILDREN. I. Filenda (dau.), b. October 29, 1780. II. Joseph, b. January 1, 1783. Stephen Knowlton, Jr., from Chatham, brother-in-law of Ebenezer Rowley, bought and lived on the farm on South street, next south of Mr. Rowley's farm, in a house now torn down, afterward bought and occupied by Samuel Camp. He migrated to Western New York in 1804. He married February 1, 1780, Deidamia Chubb. CHILDREN. I. Rachel, b. March 31, 1781. II. Calvin, b. March 23, 1783. III. Deadamia, b. October 5, 1785; m., 1804, Moses Camp. IV. Laura, b. September 21, 1788. V. Stephen, b. August 25, 1790. VI. Samuel, b. June 6, 1793. Simeon Rogers owned a thirty-seven acre lot embracing the home- stead lots of John Camp, Edward G. Whiting and others, on North Main street. He lived on the east side of Still river, a little north of the old Potter house, now standing, until 1789, when he removed to Barkhamsted. He was by trade a blacksmith. He married August 12, 1782, Hannah Potter. CHILDREN. I. Joseph, b. January 16, 1783. | go rccor(1ed II. Polly Esther, b. October 31, 1783. \ III. Charry, b. May 16, 1785. Abu ah Fuller, from Chatham, owned and lived on 11 acres of land on Wallen's hill, adjoining Barkhamsted line, now a part of the farm of Homer W. Whiting. He is named of Barkhamsted in 1785. Elisha Spencer, from Saybrook, bought and lived on land immediately west of the pond causeway, on West Lake street, in a log house that stood a little east of the new dwelling recently built by Sherman T. Cook. About 1793 he removed to a house, now torn down, on the original Spen- cer Street road, about sixty rods north of the Manchester place. In 1812 he removed with his son, Ozias, to Colebrook, where he died May 3, 1817. His wife Mary died July 23, 1828. He was born in Saybrook in 1744, and had a wife Rachel, who died before he came to W., by whom he had one child. I. Ozias, b. Saybrook, October 1, 1769. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 285 CHILDREN BY SECOND "WIFE. II. Rannet, b. September 8, 1774 ; d. April 21, 1839. III. Elisha, b. November 12, 1777. Ozias Spencer resided with his father in both the houses above men- tioned, and removed with him to Colebrook in 1812, where he died April 8, 1858. He married September 29, 1799, Hannah Shattuck ; she died October 16, 1800; and he married (2d), October 5, 1801, Mary Shattuck. CHILDREN. I. Hiram Shattuck, b. June 12, 1800, by 1st wife. II. Hannah, b. March 21, 1804, by 2d wife. III. Elvira, b. October 8, 1805. do. IV. Amos Bartlett, b. April 16, 1808; m. Susan H. Deland. V. Robert Shattuck, b. September 7, 1810; married Charlotte Chapin. Ranney Spencer married, 1796, Cynthia Walter ; he moved to Ver- mont, and died March 21, 1839. children. I. Willard, b. August, 1798. II. William, b. June, 1808. III. Laurinda, b. 1821. Elisha Spencer, Jr., left the town in early manhood, and probably settled in Vermont. children. I. Erasmus, b. November 19, 1814. II. Chester, d. September 13, 1845. Hiram S. Spencer, oldest son of Ozias, lived on his father's home- stead, in Colebrook. He married, January 26, 1834, Mary Hill, and died Colebrook, 1869. CHILDREN. I. Amos B., 2d, b. June 29, 1835. II. Harriet C, b. November 28, 1838. III. Mary L., b April 25, 1841. 1782. Eleazer Porter, from Hebron, this year bought the original lot which embraced all of the east village between the Episcopal church and the Green Woods turnpike. He lived on the original road from the Doolittle Mill to Torringford, in a house in the rear of the George Roberts and Jonas Le Roy houses. During his ownership of this lot, there was no road on the west side of Still river, south of Hinsdale street. He sold 286 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, out the village lot in 1799, and his homestead in 1800, and soon after re- moved from the town. Wife Susanna. CHILDREN. I. Elijah, b. July 19, 1783. II. Roswell, b. July 9, 1785. III. Anna, b. January 7, 1788. Samuel Clark, of Chatham, this year bought lands now composing part of the Lockwood farm. He is named as Samuel Clark, 2d, on the list of 1783, being then a resident proprietor. In 1788, he is named in his deed conveying away the same land, as Samuel Clark of Canajoharie, New York. Timothy Cook, from "Windsor, this year became the owner of a lot on Still River and Wallen's Hill, embracing the Halsey Burr premises, on which he built a house and lived some years. In 1792 he owned and oc- cupied a lot on Colebrook line, west of Green Woods turnpike. He was defendant in a suit in 1797, after which his name disappears. His wife, Hannah, was daughter of Simeon Moore, Sr., of Windsor. 1783. Silas Dunham, from Chatham, bought and occupied a lot afterwards a part of the Jonathan Coe farm in Winsted, and since owned in part by E. S. Woodford, about 100 rods east of the toll gate on Green Woods turnpike. In 1794, he is named of Chatham ; and in 1787 of Nobletown, Columbia Co., N. Y. Comfort Goff, owned and occupied a part of the Gillett farm, on Colebrook road, and conveyed the same to Nath. Russell, in 1784. Elisha Mallort, from New Haven or Hamden, this year purchased the farm on Wallen's Hill, which he occupied during his remaining life. The house which he built and occupied, stands on the west side of the north and south road, nearly opposite the brick dwelling of his grandson, Homer W. Whiting. He was a man of great amiability and integrity of character ; a founder of the Winsted Congregational Church, from which he withdrew during the troubles with the first minister, after which he united in organizing the Baptist Church at the north-east corner of the town. He was born in February, 1736 ; married, March 12, 1762, Esther Chat- terton, born in June, 1742. He died March 23, 1812; she died August 27, 1828. CHILDREN. I. Amasa, b. February 20, 1763 ; m. Salome, daughter of Deacon Josiah Smith. He died November 9, 1855 ; she d. February 9, 1846, aged 75. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 287 II. Samdel, b. May 1, 1765. III. Lowly, b. November 9, 1769; m. Benjamin Wheeler, who went to Wayne Co., Pa. IV. Lue, b. April 21, 1770, m. John Hawkins; d. August 20, 1835. V. Elisha, b. July 7, 1772; m., February 13, 1794, Sarah, daughter of Deacon Josiah Smith. He d. November 6, 1853 ; she d. June 13, 1838, aged 36. VI. Esther, b. November 10, 1794; m. Salmon Treat; she d. August 21, 1853; he d. March 30, 1858, aged 91. VII. Lydia, b. July 19, 1777; m., November 26, 1801, Jesse Clarke, of Winchester. VIII. Peter, b. September 19, 1779; d. May 10, 1780. IX. Chloe, b. March 16, 1781, m. Reynold Wilson, son of Abija of W. X. Mary, b. May 24, 1784; m., May 1, 1806, Lorrin Whiting of W. She d. January 10, 1851. XI. Asa, b. December 7, 1786. Amasa Mallory married Salome, oldest daughter of Deacon Josiah Smith, and lived on the farm now owned by his daughter, Salome Mallory, on the Green Woods turnpike, a mile easterly from the east village. He died November 9, 1855, aged 93. His wife died February 9, 1846, aged 75. CHILDREN. I. Sally, m. January, 1812, William Dexter; went to Illinois, II. Amasa, settled in Illinois. III. Nancy, m. Henry B. Crowe ; lived and died in Winsted. IV. Polly, m. Lorin Sexton of Hartford. V. Betsey, m. Samuel S. Camp of Norfolk. VI. Anne, m. Miles C. Burt of Hartford. VII. Salome, unmarried. VIII. Harriet, m. Dr. Myron H. Hubbard of New Hartford, and m. (2d) Harvey B. Elmore of Winsted. Elisha Mallory, Jr., lived on the farm in Barkhamsted bordering on Winchester line, in the house now owned and occupied by his son Elisha 3d, and his daughter Sylvia. He married February 13, 1794, Sarah 2d, daughter of Deacon Josiah Smith. He died November 6, 1853, aged 81. She died January 13, 1838, aged 66. Asa Mallory, son of Elisha, lived with his brother Elisha in Bark- hamsted, until 1809, and afterwards in the old homestead with his father, until 1816, when he removed to Concord, near Painesville, Ohio He married December 8, 1807, Fanny Norton. CHILDREN. I. Riley, b. December 13, 1808. II. Harmon, b. January 2, 1811. Comfort Stanclift had a child born in the town this year. In 288 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, 1786 he bought the Andrew Pratt farm, a mile south of the Naugatuck depot, on which he lived until 1792 ; wife Hannah. CHILDREN. I. Margaret, b. July 26, 1783. II. Martin, b. March 11, 1785. III. Hannah, b. January 30, 1787. Samuel Stanclift from Torrington, first owned land in the old society, near Goshen line, and afterwards owned and lived on a farm adjoining that of Comfort Stanclift, in a log house, long since torn down, which stood on the north and south road, nearly east of the Pratt house. He sold to Aaron Marshall. In 1798 he is named of Norfolk. He married, November 12, 1783, Olive Balcom. CHILD. Samuel, b. August 10, 1784. John Sweet from Rhode Island, this year bought the Edward Manchester farm on Spencer street, and built the rear part of the dwell- ing thereon, in which he lived until he purchased the mill property and farm of David Austin, at the outlet of the lake, in 1796. He then lived in the house directly east of the bulkhead, at the pond outlet, a few years, and about 1800 sold out to the Rockwell Brothers, and bought the Erastus Woodford farm, on which he built the house at the parting of the turnpike and Colebrook roads. In 1806 he removed to Otis, Mass., whence he returned about 1812, and bought the farm between the lakes, and a few years later removed to Tyringham, Mass., thence to Staten Island, N. Y., and thence to East Hartland, where, at 90 years of age, he married his third wife, and died a few years later. He was a shrewd, long-headed, restless man, who made sharp bargains, but attained to no more than ordinary wealth, owing to his frequent removals from place to place. He early became a local Methodist minister, and preached and traded to the close of his life. He married, December 7, 1780, Phebe, daughter of Thomas Spencer. CHILDREN. I. Anna, b. August 16, 1781 ; m. November 23, 1797, William Keyes ; she m. (2&) Rev. Daniel Coe. II. Phebe, b. January 20, 1783 ; m. October 18, 1798, Cyrus Bertrick. III. Riley, b. August 16, 1785; was a captain in war of 1812, and left the town soon after the close of the war. IV. Adah, b. September 29, 1787. V. Orra, b. January 20, 1790. VI. John Wesley, b. February 18, 1792; m. Laura, daughter of Asahel Miller. He owned for a few years the farm between the lakes on the AND FAMILY RECOEDS. 289 Winchester road. He moved to Tyringham, Mass., in 1820, where he still lives. VII. Charles Wesley, b. July 28, 1794; left the state about 1815. VIII. Benedict, b. October 15, 1796; m. Lois Lucena Grant. IX. Addison, b. September 5, 1800. X. Algernon Sidnet, b. July 2, 1804. The only descendants of John Sweet remaining in the town are the children of Colonel Nelson D. Coe, son of Anna, his oldest daughter. Zebulon Thompson's name is on the tax list this year. In 1785 he lived in a log house then standing on the farm of Thomas Williams, on South street. In 1784 he and his son, Zebulon, Jr., were fined six shillings each for " prophane swearing " by 'Squire Alvord. David "West, Jr., from Chatham, first lived in a log house at the base of Cobble Hill, on Spencer street, a little south of the Joshua He wit dwelling. Prior to 1800 he built a small house on the site of George Dudley's residence, in which he lived until his death in 1822, at the age of 87. He was one of the early Methodists, a pious and .worthy man. His wife, Judith, died February 24, 1816, aged 80. Judah West, son of David, Jr., came to Winchester with his father, and first lived on the Halsey Burr place, on the old Still River turn- pike, and afterward, until his death, April 9, 1825, aged 60, in a house on the east side of the same road where the toll gate was located. He married, December 26, 1785, Mary Todd. CHILDREN. I. Mart, b. September 24, 1786; m. Erastus Burr. II. David, b. February 20, 1789 ; d. February 22, 1790. III. Alpha, b. September 4, 1790. IV. Nancy, b. September 6, 1792 ; m. Roswell Burr. They had other children whose .births are not recorded. Among them David, probably born in 1794; a daughter, born about 1797, who married John P. Oviatt ; Edgar, about 1799, and Flora, who mar- ried November 29, 1821, Hiram Wescott. None of this family or their descendants now live in the town. Most or all of them removed to Western New York or Ohio. 37 CHAPTER XXII. WIN8TED IMMIGRANTS AND FAMILY RECORDS. From 1783 to 1791. Nathaniel Russel, from Wethersfield, Rocky Hill Society, came to Winsted this year and settled on the farm, on the old road to Colebrook, now owned by Junius Gillett, and there spent his remaining life. He represented the town in the General Assembly in 1801, held sundry town offices, and reared a large and influential family. We are indebted to Hon. Edwin Stearns, late of Middletown, deceased, for the - following extracts from his genealogy of the descendants of William Russell, who came from England in 1639. Mr. William Russell, born in England, October .11, 1612; came from England in 1639, and soon after came to New Haven and signed the covenant agreement of the first settlers and free planters of Quinnipiack ; was a man of good standing and education, a. member for several years of the General Court, assessor of taxes, &c. He died at New Haven, Jan- uary 2, 1665. He married, 1649, Sarah, daughter of William and Martha Davis, of New Haven; she died December 3, 1664. children. I. Hannah, 2 b. July 29, 1650; m., November 21, 1670, Samuel Potter, of Wallingford, afterward of Newark, N. J. II. John,' 2 b. November 12, 1653; died young. III. William, Jr., 2 b. 1655; d. in infancy. IV. James, 2 b. 1657 ; d. in infancy. V- Noadiah, 2 b. July 22, 1659. Rev. No adiah Russell, 2 graduated at Harvard in 1 681 ; tutor in 1 682 and 1683 ; studied for the ministry; settled over the first society of Mid- dletown in 1688; was one of the founders of Yale College in 1700, and one of its trustees; one of the framers of the Saybrook* Platform, and a distinguished divine, beloved of his flock. He died at Middletown, De- cember 3, 1713, in his 55th year. He married, February 20, 1690, Mary, daughter of Captain Giles and Esther Hamlin. She died October 4th, 1743, in her 81st year. FAMILY RECORDS. 291 CHILDREN. I. Rev. William, 8 b. November 20, 1690; graduate and tutor of Yale, suc- ceeded his father in the ministry at Middletown; m., August 19, 1719, Mary, daughter of Rev. James Pierpont; d. June 1, 1760. II. Noadiah, 3 Jr., b. August 8, 1692; m. February 23, 1721, Desire Cooper, (daughter of ? ) a farmer in East Middletown; he d. February 20, 1734. III. Giles, 8 b. November 8, 1693; d. June 13, 1712. IV. Mart, 3 b. December 30, 1695; d. unm. February 27, 1723. V. John, 3 b. July 6, 1697; d. unm. October 17, 1780. VI. Esther, 8 b. August 14, 1699; d. March 21, 1720. VII. Rev. Daniel, 8 b. June 3, 1702. VIII. Mehitabel, 3 b. May 27, 1704; m. March 19, 1729, Daniel Deming, Jr., of Wethersfield. IX. Hannah, 3 b. February 23, 1707; m. Joseph Pierpont, of North Haven. Rev. Daniel Russell, 3 graduated at Yale in 1724; ordained first minister of S epney Society (now Rocky Hill) in 1724; died September 16, 17o4. He married, November 13, 1728, Lydia, daughter of George and Rebecca Stillman. She died September 3, 1750, and he married (2d) July 29, 1752, Catharine, daughter ot Rev. Nailianiel and Sarah Chauncey, of Durham, who died January 10, 1777, aged 71. CHILDREN. I. Giles, 1 b. November 8, 1729; graduated at Yale, 1751 ; lawyer at Stoning- ton ; Captain in Old French War ; Colonel in Connecticut Line in the Revolution; mortally wounded at Danbury and d. October 28, 1779. II. Lydia, 4 b. January 29, 1731 ; d. November 30, 1730. III. Daniel, 4 b. June 21, 1732; m., October 16, 1755, Rachel, daughter of Joseph Stowe, of Middletown. IV. John, 4 b. February 8, 1734; d. September 23, 1741. V. Benjamin, 4 b. December 13, 1735; d. January 31, 1758. VI. Mary, 4 b. August 18, 1737; m., November 25, 1784, John Robbins, of Stepney; she d. August 27, 1825, in 90th year. VII. Lydia, 4 b. Nov. 26, 1739; d. September 24, 1741. VIII. Nathaniel, 4 b. May 5, 1741. IX. John, 4 b. December 26, 1742; d. in the army September 16, 1760. X. Hannah, 4 b. May 31, 1746; d. August 23, 1753. Nathaniel Russell, 4 of Winchester, married, December 25, 1766, Elizabeth Willard, born in Wethersfield, April 26, 1741, daughter of Stephen. He died December 10, 1810, in his 70th year, and she died February 26, 1819, in her 78th year. CHILDREN. I. Daniel, 5 b. in Rocky Hill, January 18, 1768. II. John Willard, 5 b. in Rocky Hill, April 8, 1770. IH. Benjamin, 5 b. in Rocky Hill, November 26, 1772. IV. Giles, 5 b. in Rocky Hill, July 27, 1775. ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, V. Elizabeth, 6 b. in Rocky Hill, November 23, 1778; unm. ; removed to Mill Creek, Perm. VI. Hamlin, 5 b. in Rocky Hill, March 5, 1781. VII. George Stillman, 5 b. in Rocky Hill, October 21, 1783; d. unm. July 14, 1813, at Mill Creek, Penn. VHI. Mart, 5 b. in Winsted, July 28, 1787; unm.; removed to Mill Creek, Penn. Daniel Russel, 5 came with his father to Winsted, whence he emi- grated, about 1794, to the Genesee Valley, and settled in Williamson, Wayne Co., N. Y., as a farmer, and died in 1852, He married, 1792, Lucy Wright, of Colebrook. He married (2d) Lucy Aldridge. I. Emma, 6 II. Daniel W., 6 III. John, 6 unm. IV. Judah 6 , V. Nathaniel, 6 VI. Moses, 6 VII. George, 6 VHI. Lucy, 6 CHILDREN BY FIRST WIFE. m. Stephen Sanford. m., March 20, 1834, Rachel Prescott. CHILDREN BY SECOND WIFE. LX Mart, 6 X. Ann, 6 XL Louisa, 6 XII. Caroline, 6 XIII. Alfred, 6 XIV. Hamlin, 6 John Willard Russell, 5 was a sea captain in the African trade, in the employ of the De Wolfs, of Bristol, R. I. He settled at Bristol, where he died August 20, 1814. He married, June 1, 1802, Nancy Smith; she died September 5, 1810, aged 35. children. I. II. III. IV. Elizabeth B., 6 Parnell T., 6 Nancy Smith, 6 John, 6 Russell. b. September 11, 1803; m. Rev. Royal Robbius. b. October 18, 1805; unm. b. October 15, 1807 ; m. Henry Felix. b. May 25, 1810; was adopted by his uncle Benjamin Benjamin Russell, 5 emigrated in 1796 from Winsted to Mill Creek, Erie Co., Penn., and married, September 29, 1807, Maria C. Buchler. He died June 10, 1829, and his wife died March 16, 1841, aged 67; s.p. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 293 Giles Russell 5 lived with his parents until their death, and removed, in 1825, to Erie Co., Penn., where he died March 16, 1842, aged 67 years. He was for many years a successful teacher ; a man of literary taste and culture ; a member of the General Assembly in 1810 and 1816; a selectman of the town, and sheriff's deputy for many years. Returning to Winsted on a visit, and finding the old cemetery in a neglected condi- tion, he collected money enough to pay for clearing the ground, setting out the trees, and fencing the cemetery. He married, July 3, 1803, Lois, daughter of Urijah and Submit Cook. She died October 17, 1852. CHILDREN. L Louisa Lauretta, 6 b. in Winsted, January 9, 1804; m. A. E. Austin, of Austinburg, Ohio; she d. April 5, 1855. II. Mart Elizabeth, 6 b. W., March 18, 1K05; m. John Cook. III. Caroline Matilda, 6 b. W., February 27, 1807 ; m. 1835, Thos. G. Hurlbut. IV. Julia Ann Rhoda, 6 b. W., July 24, 1809 ; m. May 7, 1831, David Smith. V. George Stillman, 6 b. W., March 6, 1812 ; m. Juue 3, 1843, Jane Healey. VI. Sarah Sophia, 6 b. W., October 23, 1814 ; m., January 15, 1844, Jason R. Orton, M. D. VII. Giles Willard, 6 b. W., November 16, 1817 ; d. unm. August 4, 1836. VIII. Benjamin Cook, 6 b. W., August 31, 1820; m., April 13, 1849, Sophia Parker. LX. Rev. Edward Bradford, 6 b. W., July 24, 1822; m. May 25, 1853, Mary Woods; she d. January 27, 1855; and he m. (2d) March 7, 1857, Mary E. Cable. Hamlin Russell 5 removed from "Winsted to Erie Co., Penn., in June, 1802, where he was a farmer. He married May 29, 1811, Sarah Norcross, born December 22, 1788, in New Jersey. She died February 11, 1831 ; he married (2d) November 4, 1834, Rachel, daughter of Urijah and Submit Cook, who was living in 1862. He died September 19, 1852, aged 71 years. CHILDREN. I. Nathaniel Willard, 6 b. March 11, 1812. II. Polly Isabel, 6 b. July 14, 1813; m. Johnston Laird. III. Nancy Fleming, 6 b. December31, 1815; m. Samuel Christy,M.D. IV. Benjamin Stillman, 6 b. January 5, 1 822. V. George Jacob, 6 b. February 24, 1824. VI. James Cochran, 6 b. May 12, 1827. Daniel W. Russell, 6 eldest son of Daniel and Lucy, a farmer in Marion, Wayne Co., N. Y., married, June 17, 1824, Mary, daughter of Lewis Turner. children. I. Giles B./ b. April 17, 1825. II. Milo T., 7 b. October 29, 1826. 294 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, III. Cykus H., 7 b. July 27, 1828. IV. Lewis, 7 b. October 3, 1830. V. Avert P., 7 b. April 7, 1833. VI. Whitney D., 7 b. January 27, 1836. VII. Oscar F., 7 b. February 6, 1838. VIII. Francis M., 7 b. May 19, 1840. IX. Edwin M., 7 b. November 20, 1842. Judah R. Russell, 6 third son of Daniel and Lucy, removed to Tecumseh, Mich., in 1857, where he died in 1858; he married August 30, 1836, Prudence Prescott. She died June 19, 1851. CHILDREN. I.Ambrose, 7 b. December 15, 1837. II. Prescott B., 7 b. May 18, 1839. III. Charlotte F., 7 b. May 25, 1841 ; d. June 25, 1842. IV. Lucy A., 7 b. 1843; d. March 16, 1846. Benjamin Stillman Russell, 6 second son of Hamlin and Sarah, of Towanda, Penn., a banker in 1862 ; married May 20, 1827, Mary Gaskill from Philadelphia, Penn. CHILDREN. I. Sarah Norcross, 7 b. May 7, 1848 ; d. July 12, 1848. II. Edgar Fielding, 7 b. September 5, 1849 ; d. March 31, 1851. III. Hamlin, 7 b. May 30, 1852. IV. Edmund Gaskill, 7 b. March 23, 1854. V. Mary Elizabeth, 7 b. September 18, 1856. VI. Samuel Wagner, 7 b. September 27, 1857. VII. Benjamin Douglass, 7 b. April 8, 1861. VIII. Rebecca Gaskill, 7 b. May 11, 1862. George Jacob Russell, 6 third son of Hamlin and Sarah, a tanner at Mill Creek, Erie Co., Penn.; married January 26, 1854, Amanda J. Hayes, and had, in 1862, one CHILD. Minnie Myrtle, 7 b. October 20, 1856. James Cochran Russell, 6 fourth son of Hamlin and Sarah, at Belle Valley, Erie Co., Penn., a farmer; married February 7, 1856, Octavene A. Chambers, by whom he had one CHILD. James Lewis, 7 b. October 15, 1860 ; d. October 2, 1862. Benjamin Wheeler, Senior, probably came from Woodbury with his son, Benjamin Wheeler, Junior, in 1784. He died in Winsted, January 28, 1788. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 295 Benjamin Wheeler, Junior, named of Woodbury, May 4, 1784, owned and occupied the farm late owned by Gideon Hall, Sen., deceased, until about 1814, when he removed to Mount Pleasant, Wayne Co., Pa. He built the house at the junction of South street with the Green Woods turnpike, now occupied by Mrs. G. Hall, in which he kept a tavern at the beginning of this century. He was postmaster of Winchester until about 1807, when the office was removed to West Winsted. He mar- ried, May 5, 1785, Lowly Mallory. CHILDREN. I. Zatde (dau.), b. March 13, 1786. II. Heman, b. January 11, 1789; d. November 20, 1792. III. Franklin, b. February 25, 1791. They had several younger children, whose names and births are not recorded, among them Heman, Jeduthan, and Lowly are remembered. All their children went with them to Mount Pleasant, and were settled around him at the time of his death. 1785. Othniel Brainard, Jr., named of Chatham, bought a lot now com- posing the south part of the O. W. Jopp farm, and lived in a log house on the east side of South street until 1795, when he sold to Ezra Woodruff, and left the town. Seba Brainard, William Case (of Barkhamsted), and Nathan Hoskin were temporary residents of Winsted, as appears by the tax list of this year. John Jopp, a native of " Sterderton, Scotland," and a probable descendant of Wallace's armor bearer — Jopp — who " went on before, And tbe great warrior's massy buckler bore," came to America in 1760, at 22 years old; lived in Boston one year; afterward went to Leicester, Mass., and married, April 7, 1763, Hannah Henshaw ; thence removed to Glastonbury, Conn. ; thence came to Winsted in June, 1785, and settled on the Henshaw tract, owned by his wife's brother. His house stood on or near the site of the Thomas Williams house, on the west side of South street. He died in Winsted July 22, 1800. His widow removed to Butler, Wayne Co., N. Y., and died there in April, 1820, aged 77. CHILDREN. I. John, b. March 6, 1765. II. Elizabeth, b. January 7, 1767. 296 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, III. Hannah, b. August 25, 1769; d. November 25, 1857 IV. Huldah, b. April 24, 1780. V. Benjamin, b. September 21, 1782. John Jopp, Jr., came with his father to Winsted, and occupied, with him, the same premises. He built the Thomas Williams house, and occupied it until his death, November 4, 1829, aged 66. His wife, Jerusha, died December 22, 1 844, aged 78. CHILDREN. I. Russell, went west. II. Samuel Henshaw, died April 19, 1813, aged 19. III. Sally, m. Harris Brown. IV. Orson W., m. — Gilman; lives in Winsted. Nathan "Wheeler, son of Benjamin, Senior, from Woodbury, this year bought the Potter, farm, lately owned by the Holabird heirs, and occupied the old house on the east side of Still River, nearly opposite Nathan Champion's, until his death in 1800, at the age of 40, which was occasioned by falling from his hay-mow upon a pitchfork, which penetrated his bowels. His widow (Mary) resided in the house until her death, August 4, 1822, aged 55. He married March 23, 1786, Mary, daughter of Jesse Doolittle. children. I. Nancy, b. Sept. 5, 1788; m. Reuben Baldwin; sbe d. Feb. 13, 1854, aged 67. II. Minerva, b. March 17, 1791 ; in. Seth Bishop, Jr. III. Pamela, b. Aug. 6, 1792; m. David Marble. IV. Huldah, b. March 3, 1794; m. Raymond Mather. V. Anson, b. Feb. 3, 1796; m. Flavia Barber of Canton, Conn. VI. Alma, b. July 17, 1798; m. Philo Hawley. Anson Wheeler, Esq., son of Nathan, removed to Barkhamsted, not far from 1824, where he d. June 26, 1857, aged 61. He was m., but childless. Capt. Zebina Smith came from Goshen to Winsted in 1784 or 1785. He lived and died on the farm, and in the house now owned by Geo. R. Doolittle, on the old North Road, near Colebrook line. He d. Feb. 4, 1842, aged 82. His widow, Martha, d. June 29, 1845, aged 87. He was a man of great amiability of character, and of sincere and earn- est piety. He represented the town in the General Assembly in 1798 and 1802. He m., Norfolk, Aug. 1, 1780, Martha Benham. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 297 CHILDREN. I. Elisha, b. March 28, 1785; m. Sally, dau. of John Fyler. II. Orriel, b. Oct. 7, 1790; m. Samuel E. Mills of Colebrook. III. Miles Benham, b. 1795; d., uirm., March 14, 1816. Deacon Elisha Smith, son of Capt. Zebina, lived and d. on the farm, and in the house nearly opposite his father's, now owned by Solo- mon Sacket. He was a man of strong conservative mind and anient temperament, who filled a prominent place in the community, as Deacon of the Congregational Church, a Major in the militia, an Assessor of taxes at various times, and in 1856, a representative of the town. He d. Jan. 29, 1860, aged 75. He m. Sally, dau. of John Fyler; she d. 1862. CHILDREN. I. Aurelia, b. Aug. 30, 1813; m. March, 1835, Alexander P. Cleveland. II. Miles, b. July 6, 1817 ; m. Dec. 4, 1839, Matilda Baldwin. III. Zebina, b. Aug. 9, 1820; d. Nov. 25, 1841, unm. IV. Sarah, b. Dec. 11, 1825; m. Sept. 8, 1858, Rev. Henry A. Russell. Miles Smith, m. Dec. 4, 1839, Matilda Baldwin; lived in the house previously occupied by his grandfather, Capt. Zebina Smith, and d. July 27, 1851, leaving a daughter, Martha Baldwin Smith, b. May 18, 1848 ; m. April 23, 1872, King T. Sheldon. Aaron West, a minor, confessed judgment before Esquire Alvord, May 31, 1773, " for playing and laughing on y e Sabbath or Lord's Day," and was fined three shillings, and one shilling cost. His name next appears as grautee of the Lockwood Farm, on Spencer street, on which he lived until 1787, when he is named of New Hartford. John Shaw, a Hessian soldier from Burgoyne's Army, captured at Saratoga, is on the tax list of this and several succeeding years. He was a currier and flaxdresser by trade, and after living in various parts of the town, retired to the Bourbon region, where he d. April 13, 1806, leaving a widow [Eunice], who rode a black and white pacing mare between Bourbon and Winsted, as late as 1815. John Shaw, Jr., son of the Hessian, though a citizen of Barkham- sted, lived at frequent intervals in Winsted, grinding scythes through a long course of years, in defiance of the grinder's consumption, and dying at the allotted age of man, apparently uninjured by irregular habits. His sons, Levi and James, still dwell among us. He had other sons, Jehila- mon, Addison, and Andrew Jackson, and one or more daughters. 38 298 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Charles Barnes, son-in-law of John Shaw, Si\, lived at this period in a log-house on the Thomas Williams farm, and afterwards retired to Bourbon. 1786. John Allen's name is on the tax list of this year, as the owner of the farm on Spencer street, recently owned, successively, by Nishus Kin- ney, Lucius L. Culver, and Luther G. Hinsdale. He built the large red house, on the premises, in which he lived until 1798, when he sold out to his son-in-law, Elihu Rockwell, and removed, as is believed, to Oneida Co., N. Y. John Allen, Jr., supposed to have been son of the above, bought land in 1797, immediately north of his father's farm, which he sold in 1798. Jesse Fillet's name is on the list of this year as a resident of Wi nsted, and is not found elsewhere. David Holmes, son of Phebe Holmes, afterwards second wife of Chileab Smith, of Goshen, served in the army at New York, in 1776, and came to Winsted in 1786. He owned and occupied the south part of the Rockwell farm, now owned by Mrs. J. R. Boyd, and built the old farm house now standing thereon. He sold out to Merritt Bull in 1805, and removed to Russell, Hampshire Co., Mass. He was brother of Joseph Holmes, step-brother of Capt. Zebina Smith, and half-brother of Theodore Smith, all of Winsted. He m. April 29, 1784, Chloe Strong. CHILDREN. I. William, b. Sept. 18, 1784. II. Charlotte, b. Aug. 29, 1786. III. Asenath, b. Dec. 6, 1788. IV. Clara, b. Oct. 21, 1790. V. Chloe, b. May 7, 1792. VI. Lyman, b. March 7, 1794. VII. Sophia, b. Nov. 20, 1795; d. March 23, 1798, of small pox. VIII. Sally, b. Jan. 26, 1798; d. March 13, 1798, of small pox. IX. Sophia, b. Dec. 30, 1799. X. Sally, b. July 20, 1802. XI. Asahel, b. June 4, 1804. XII. David, b. Bussell, Mass., May 13, 1808. Isaac Wheeler, cousin of Benjamin and Nathan, in company with Levi Norton, bought the Deacon Hurlbut farm, east of Long Lake, in 1786. From 1788 to 1790, he lived on the south part of the farm be- AND FAMILY RECORDS. 299 tween the lakes. In 1795 he bought the part of the West Village ground south of M. & C. J. Camp's line, and in 1798 built the old Higley tavern house next south of Camp's brick block, the first frame building erected on Main street between Col. Hinsdale's corner and Still River Bridge. In 1799, he sold out to Horace Higley and removed from town. He married, October 17, 1784, Mehitabel Williams, and had one son: Riley, b. Nov. 29, 1785. Hezekiah Woodruff, Jr., named "of Southington," this year bought and occupied a part of the Amos Pierce farm, on Spencer street, and built his house on the summit of the hill a quarter of a mile east of Mr. Pierce's dwelling. An old orchard visible from the village indicates the place where his house stood. He sold out to Grinnell Spencer in 1791, and removed to Colebrook. Luke Hart's name is on the tax list of this year. In 1787 his wife, Deborah, became owner of a lot on the west side of Spencer street, nearly opposite Amos Pierce, on which they lived in a log house, and probably died there. They had three sons and one daughter, residents of Winsted, viz. : Selah, Stephen, Samuel, and , the wife of Hawley Oakley, and mother of Alva Oakley, now a resident of Winsted. Selah Hart, son of Luke and Deborah, lived until about 1812 in a log house at the parting of the two Colebrook roads, a little west of Jud- son Wadsworth's, and about 1816 removed to Canaan Mountain, where he died. He was the tallest man in town, and one of the four tallest in the county, the other three being • Elmore of Torrington, father of Peleg, Hon. John Allen, M. C, of Litchfield, and Rev. Aaron Kinney of Winsted. When straightened up, his height was 6 feet 6| inches. He worked at wall laying, was one of the fathers and pillars of the Methodist Church, a devout, kind-hearted, much-loved man. His children were : Deborah, wife of Zenas Alvord ; Damy, wife of David Andrews, Sally, Phoebus Budd, and Newton. None of the family now reside in the town. Stephen Hart, son of Luke and Deborah, lived and died in the house nearest to Colebrook line, on the west side of the old Still River turnpike. He died September 17th, 1833, aged 66. His wife was Sarah Munson, from Middlebury, Connecticut. Among their children were Chester, Roseville, and Lovina, who married, March 19, 1825, Zerah Doolittle. All of them .removed to the West. Samuel Hart, son of Luke and Deborah, lived in various parts of the town as a tenant farmer. In his later years he owned and occupied a house that stood opposite the Uri Church bridge, on the east side of the 300 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Green Woods turnpike, in which he died March 26, 1867, aged 70. He married a daughter of Elemuel Bassett. CHILDREN. I. Willard, who m Dec. 11, 1822, Rhoda M. Benedict; he ra. (2d) Maria Andrews. II. Sylvester, ra., June 23, 1822, Charlotte Walter. III. Wells. IV. Hawley. V. Sylvia. VI. Samuel, m., Nov. 14, 183.3, Laura Benedict. Of their daughters, one was wife of Samuel Bandle, one of Levi Tuttle, and another of Edward Albro. 1787. At the annual town meeting, November 12, 1787, in addition to routine business, it was voted " that the prayer of the memorial now lying in the General Assembly, for Winsted to be made a town, may be granted by the General Assembly, if they see fit to grant the same, without opposi- tion from the First Society of Winchester, provided the west tier of lots in Winsted be not included in the proposed town of Winsted. This project, now agitated for the first time, was repeatedly revived in after years. The main reasons for seeking a division of the town were, the want of a central place for public meetings, and the separation of the two portions by Long Lake, and the mountain ridges along the south- westerly side of Mad River, rendering communication difficult. Added to this was an embittered local feeling growing out of the superior number and refinement of the people of the " Old Society," who had become or- ganized and assimilated ; while the sparse population of Winsted was as yet in a state of comparative poverty and barbarism. The projected town of Winsted was to embrace the eastern third part of Winchester, and the part of Barkhamsted west of Farmington River. Similar difficulties of communication, arising from the chain of mountains west of the river cutting off the dwellers along the Farmington valley, rendered the new organization so objectionable that all the applications to the assembly were unsuccessful ; and the growth of the village of Winsted has put an end to all desire for a separation. Moses Darbe, named of Norfolk, this year bought the lot on South street, now owned by Jonathan Gilbert, on which he lived a short time. He is named of Norfolk in 1789. Benjamin De Wolf, " of Killingworth," this year bought jointly with his brother Daniel the lot on Spencer street, on which widow Lucy Coe now lives. About 1792 he bought and lived in a house now torn down AND FAMILY RECORDS. 301 on West Lake street, nearly opposite the John Stabell house, which he sold in 1 805 to Benjamin Johnson. He lived in Winsted several years later, and worked in a wooden dish mill on the lake stream. He was a man of violent passions and a blistering tongue, sometimes very pious in profession, but always quarrelsome and mischievous. He married, May, 1786, Jerusha Carter. CHILDREN. I. James (twin), b. Oct. 20, 1786. II. Charlotte (twin), b. Oct. 20, 1786. III. Miller, b. May 21, 1790. IV. Alvah, b. July 7, 1792. They had several other children whose names are not recorded. Daniel DeWolf, from Killingworth, lived with his brother Benja- min, on Spencer street, until 1793, when he bought and removed to a lot adjoining Colebrook line, opposite "William E. Cowles, on which he lived until his removal to the northeast part of Colebrook. He was father and grandfather to the De Wolfs now at Colebrook River. Eleazer Kellogg, from Barkhamsted, lived from 1787 to 1791, on the farm lately owned by Roswell Smith, in the northeast part of the town. Wife, Esther. children. I. Elijah (twin), m. Oct. 23, 1794, Mabel Clement. II. Elisha " m. June 28, 1792, Persis Dunham. III. Isaac. IV. Esther, b. Nov. 14, 1789. V. Crusa, (dau.) b. Aug. 13, 1791. Caleb Mdnson, Jr., from Waterbury, Middlebury Society, came to Winsted this year, and owned and occupied the David N. Beardsley farm, on the old hill road to Colebrook, living on the west side of the road in a house (now torn down) afterwards successively occupied by James Eggleston, Hine Clemons, Joseph Loomis, Stephen Hart, Cyrus Buttrick, and others. About 1800 he lived in a house, now torn down, on Lake street, near the "Old Factory house." About 1807, he migrat- ed to Marcellus, N. Y. He m. April 20, 1790, Mabel Tuttle. CHILDREN. I. Caleb Miles, b. Jan. 15, 1792. II. Glover Street, b. May 14, 1794. III. Leve Benham (dau.), b. Jan. 13, 1797. IV. Azdbah, b. May 21, 1799 ; d. Oct. 17, 1799. 302 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. V. Alvira, b. Nov. 24, 1800. VI. Jerry, b. March 25, 1803. VII. Lucy, b. March 8, 1806. Norton Wright, oldest son of Moses, and brother of Alvin of Cole- brook, lived in the old deserted house on the east side of the Old Still River Turnpike, near Colebrook line, from this year until 1817, when he moved to Western or Northern New York. He m., July 7, 1781, Lucy Banning. CHILDREN. I. Samuel, b. Aug. 9, 1792. II. Lucy, b. June 21, 1794. III. Sarah, b. June 5, 1796. IV. Abigail, b. May 23, 1798. V. Moses Norton, b. Sept. 1, 1800; d. 1803. VI. Wealthy, b. Oct. 2, 1802. VII. Jonathan Norton, b. Oct. 31, 1805. VIII. Moses, b. Nov. 21, 1807. 1788. Deacon Shubael Cook and Urijah Cook, of Winsted, herein- after mentioned, were sons of Deacon John Cook, 4 of Torrington, who was son of John, 3 b. in Windsor in 1692, and d. May 25, 1751 : grandson of John, 2 b. Windsor, April 3, 1662; m. Nov. 26, 1686, Mary Downs, of Northampton ; and great grand-son of Nathaniel, 1 an early resident of Windsor, who m. June 29, 1649, Sarah Vare. He, Deacon John 1 , m. June 22, 1741, Rachel Wilson, of Windsor. They were among the constituent members of the First Church of Tor- rington, Oct. 21, 1741. children. I. Rachel, 5 b. May 2, 1742; m. David Soper. II. John, 5 b. Aug. 29, 1743 ; d. in Torrington, aged 80. III. Eunice 5 b. March 5, 1746; m. Ensign Jonathan Coe, of Win- chester. IV. Frances, 5 b. Sept. 18, 1747; d. Dec. 23, 1750. V. Dea. Shubael, 5 b. April 21, 1749. VI. Sarah, 5 b. Oct. 31, 1750 ; m. Hurlbut. VII. Ede, 5 b. Nov. 28, 1752 ; d. in early life. VIII. Urijah, 5 b. Sept., 1754. IX. Lucy, 5 b. Oct. 3, 1756; m. Moses Loomis. X. Hannah, 5 b. March 13, 1758; m. Simeon More. XL Elihu, 5 b. March 18, 1760 ; d. July 20, 1760. XII. Elihu, 5 b. March 29, 1761 ; d. in Torrington. XIII. Mary, 5 b. Nov. 10, 1764; d. in early life. /^l^^^^T^^ £*T&^\_ AND FAMILY RECORDS. 303 Deacon Shubael Cook came to Winsted in 1792, and settled on the Daniel Tattle farm, adjoining Torringford line on South street. His house, long since torn down, was on the west side of the road, a little north of the Daniel Tuttle house. About 1815 he removed to a house on the south side of Green Woods turnpike, in which he died, Dec. 27, 1824, aged 75 years. His wife died in 1827, aged 79. In 1802, he was chosen Deacon of the Congregational Church, which office he filled with great fidelity and acceptance, until his death. Deacon Cook was a man of warm and cheerful piety, poor in this world's goods, but rich in Chris- tian attainments, and in the love of his brethren. He m. Sept. 17, 1778, Sarah Bassett Gillett. CHILDREN. I. Rosinda, 6 b. 1776; m. Asher Loomis of Windsor, where she d. in 1855. II. Reuben, 6 b. d. young, scalded. III. Ede, 6 b. 1783; d. single, Feb. 1, 1818, aged 35. IV. Reuben, 6 b. Sept. 10, 1786. Urijah Cook, 5 came to Winsted in 1788, and settled on the east side of Spencer street. He built and lived in the Lockwood House, at the top of the hill, in sight of the West Village. In 1819, he sold out and removed to Barkhamsted (Wallen's Hill), where he died June 28, 1832, aged 73. His wife (Submit) d. Dec. 16, 1844, aged 88. In addi- tion to farming, he carried on brick making in a swale at the east end of his farm, in the early part of this century. He was a man of ardent temperament, a zealous Federalist, and equally zealous theologian of the Hamiltonian and Hopkinsian schools, — not over tolerant of opposing views, either in politics or religion. In his old age, Christian charity pre- dominated over party and sectarian zeal, and he died in peace and love with all men. He m. Feb. 8, 1779, Submit Tuttle. CHILDREN. I. Anson, 6 b. in Torrington, Oct. 4, 1779. II. Lois, 6 b. " March 25, 1781 ; m. Giles Russell. III. Sally, 6 . b. " March 28, 1782; d. unm. IV. Rhoda, 6 (twin), b. Winsted, Jan. 7, 1790; d. April 29, 1807. V. Rachel, 6 " b. Jan. 7, 1790; in. Hamlin Russell. VI. Huldah, 6 b. Feb. 9, 1795. VII. Philo, 6 b. Sept. 28, 1798; in. a dau. of Capt. William Swift, of Colebrook, moved with his father to Barkhamsted, where he d. about 1858, s. p. Reuben Cook, 6 son of Dea. Shubael, 5 came to Winsted with his father, — was clerk for S. Rockwell & Brothers, and soon after coming of age, went into the manufacture of bar iron in the works erected by 304 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, him on Still River, recently owned by the . Cook Axle Co. He lived in the house on North Main street, nearly opposite the bridge leading to his works, until a recent period. He m. April 15, 1811, Ruth Shepard. She d. Jan. 8, 1841. He d. March 16, 1872. CHILDREN. I. Jkuusha, 7 b. March 17, 1812; in. Jan. 1856, Daniel Spring. II. Sarah, 7 b. June 9, 1813; m. Shepard S. Wheeler; d. Feb. 8, 1855. III. Charles, 7 b. Oct. 15, 1815; in. Sept., 1837, Mary Jane Lewis, <>t Suffield. CHILDREN. 1. Jane Elizabeth, 8 b. 1838; d. June, 1842; 2. Rolliu Hillyer, 8 b. Aug. 24, 1844, m. June — , 1866, Minnie Graves, of New Milford ; she d. Oct. 20, 1868, leaving children, Minnie Graves, 9 b. June, 1867, and Eliza Jane, 9 b. Sept. 30, 1868. IV. Harriet, 7 b. May 29, 1818; m. Sept. 7, 1853, Eli R. Miller. V. Julia, 7 b. Dec. 1, 1820; d. Jan. 22, 1837. VI. John R., 7 b. Feb. 18, 1823; m. Oct. 15, 1845, Marietta A. Phelps, of Norfolk; she d. Jan. 21, 1861 ; and he m. (2d) Sept. 29, 1863, Jane M. Dickinson, of New Britain. CHILDREN. I. John Phelps, 8 b. Jan. 25, 1849 ; 2. Eliza Phelps, 8 b. Feb. 15, 1851 ; 3. Marietta, 8 b. June 5, 1861, d. at Chicago, July 12, 1864. Anson Cook, 6 son of Urijah, came with his father to Winsted. He was by trade a millwright, and lived for several years in the west village, and afterward in a house on the north side of the Wallen's Hill road, a little east of the clock shop, until a few years before his death, when he removed to the house in the east village immediately south of the Epis- copal Church, in which he died December 17, 1860, aged 81. His wife, Amelia, died May 15, 1851, aged 70. He was an industrious, quiet, upright man, and sincere Christian. He married, December 31, 1806, Amelia Hinsdale, sister of Colonel Hosea. She died May 15, 1851, aged 70. CHILDREN. * I. James, 7 b. March 9, 1809. II. Rhoda A 7 ., b. December 16, 1810. III. Sherman Tuttle, 7 b. March 22, 1813; m. November 27, 1839, Cornelia Emeline Jacqua, b. Canaan, October 16, 1817. She died by a railroad accident about 1858, and he married, 2d, Mrs. Lucia (Stillman) Cross. CHILDREN. 1. Edward Sherman, b. December 20, 1841. 2. Frederick Monroe, b. March 28, 1843. 3. Cornelia Elvira, b. September 15, 1850. 4. Emma Amelia, b. October 3, 1853. IV. Anson Bissell, 7 b. December 12, 1814. V. Laura, 7 b. May 24, 1818. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 305 Lieutenant Jonathan Dunham, named of Colchester, this year bought a part of the Moses M. Camp farm on South street, on which he lived until 1790, when he moved to the highest point of Wallen's Hill, and lived until 1800 in the house afterward occupied successively by Reuben Palmer and George Treal, and now torn down, when he removed to "Whitestown, Oneida Co., N. Y. His children are not on our records. The following may be only an incomplete list of them : — Jonathan Dunham, Junior, married, November 24, 1791, Susanna Kelloffgr. Elias Dunham married, March 10, 1791, Jerusha Lewis. Mehitabel Dunham, married Asher Rowley. Hazael Dunham, married Abigail Rowley ; lived in Utica, N. Y. William Dunham, settled between Erie and Ashtabula, O. • Deacon Michael Grinnkll's name is on the tax list of this year. He was born in Saybrook, Conn., March 20, 1752; removed with his parents to Salisbury, Conn., at the beginning of the Revolution, and about 1788 came to Winsted. He first owned land on the east side of Long Lake. In 1793 he bought the Wedge lot at the northeast corner of the town, lately owned by Joel Mead, on which he lived (in the Partridge House) until 1823, when he removed to Clinton, Wayne Co., Penn., where he resided until his death, on the 12th day of February, 1858, aged one hundred and six years. He served in the Revolutionary Army, and witnessed the tearing down of the leaden statute of George III. at the Bowling Green in New York. His hearing almost entirely failed during the last thirty years of his life, while his sight continued nearly unimpaired until past his hundredth year. He was a deacon of the Baptist Church in this town, and was always in his place in the stated meetings of the Church, until more than one hundred years old. He married in 1777, Susanna Balcom, perhaps daughter of John ; she died in August, 1825, aged 70 years. Of their six children only two births are recorded in this town. children. I. Rufus, b. in Salisbury ; lived in this town on the old North road, nearly- opposite Biley Smith's, from 1805 to 1810, and afterward removed to Clinton, Penn. His second wife was Harriet, daughter of Grinnell Spencer, and widow of Sheldon Norton. II. Beulah, b. December 31, 1787. III. Michael, b. May 28, 1790; m. Susan Hurlbut, b. Goshen, Conn., March 26, 1788, daughter of Gideon and Anna ( Beach) Hurlbut. They had two sons and two daughters. He d. November 30, 1857. She was living in 1858, and so were Sally and Sibyl, her sisters, who were born at the same birth with her. 39 306 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Salmon Treat came from Wethersfield, when a boy, with Deacon Josiah Smith, from whom he this year received a deed of the farm on Wallen's Hill, now owned and occupied by his son Sylvester, on which he lived during the remainder of his long life. He died March 30, 1858, aged 91. He married November 2, 1794, Esther, daughter of Elisha Mallory, who died August 21, 1853, aged 79. They had sons, George, Syra, Asa, Sylvester, Luke, Luther, and a daughter Betsey, who married, April 17, 1831, Asahel Castle of Harwinton. No record of their births is found. William Waterman, Jr., lived, it is believed, on the premises east of the Still Biver turnpike, near the Halsey Burr place. There is a tradition of his being routed out of the town, in consequence of the quarters, hide and horns of an ox belonging to his neighbor Captain Whitford being found ingeniously hid under a pile of lumber near his house. There appears to have been also a William Waterman, Senior. There is a quit claim in 1793 of the interest by inheritance or otherwise in the same land by Walter, Zebulon, Lucy, John, and Fanny Waterman of Barkhamsted. 1789. Daniel Eggleston, Jr., from Colebrook, bought land in the town this year, and his name also appears on the tax list as a resident. His farm on the old road adjoining Colebrook line is now owned by William E. Cowles. He died on this farm about 1820. Wife, Anne. CHILDREN. I. Erastus. II. Chauncet, m. Chloe Coe. III. Nancv. IV. Anne, b. Winsted, July 17, 1792. V. Sidney. Daniel Eggleston, Senior, was of Winchester in March, 1779, and by wife Sarah had daughter Sarah, born September 17, 1779. He was from Windsor, and removed to Colebrook as early as 1785. None of the family remain in town. Lewis Miller, probably from Torrington, is on the list of this year. He lived from 179G to about 1803 or 1804 in a small house that stood on north side of West Lake street, in front of the Sherman T. Cook house. He had a wooden dish mill on or near the site of the Beardsley Scythe Co.'s grinding works. He went to parts unknown not far from 1803, leaving behind him a wife and AND FAMILY RECOEDS. 307 CHILDREN. I. Belinda, the first wife of James C. Cleveland; she died December 26, 1819, aged 27. II. Sheldon, b. November 10, 1799. III. Aurelia, d. young. IV. George. Sheldon Miller married, October 31, 1822, Jerusha Ann Stark- weather. CHILDREN. I. Lewis Allen, b. Nov. 3, 1823; m. in Lee, Mass., April 8, 1846, Phebe Ann Sheffield, b. Stonington, Jan. 21, 1822. Children: Frances Ame- lia, b. Lee, Aug. 11, 1847 ; Edward Lewis (twin), b. Lee, April 2, 1851 ; Eunice Louisa (twin), b. Lee, April 2, 1851. II. George Hudson, b. June 24, 1825; m. in Canaan, N. Y., October 16, 1848, Eusebia N. Herrick. Children : Emma Jane, b. West Stockbridge, Nov. 9, 1849; d. July 13, 1850; Eva Maria, b. West Stockbridge, June 6, 1857. III. Henry Elijah, b. April 18, 1830; m., Nov. 29, 1853, Caroline Moore. IV. Laura Ann, b. Aug. 29, 1832; m. May 7, 1851, Henry McCullock. Chil- dren : 1. Agnes Marilla, b. April 9, 1852; 2. Albert Henry, b. April 5, 1853, d. Aug. 28, 1853 ; 3. Lila Ann, b. May 1, 1855, d. March 8, 1857 ; 4. Charles Sheldon, b. April 8, 1857. V. Mart Maria, b. Dec. 6, 1841 ; d. March 23, 1842. VI. Mary Jerusha, b. Jan. 13, 1844. Daniel Marshall, son of Eliakim of Windsor, first appears on the list of this year as a resident. He built a fulling mill on the lake stream below the works of the Henry Spring Co., and a clothier shop where Lake street now runs above the stone tenement house of E. Beardsley. He resided until his death in a dwelling house which stood adjoining his clothier shop. He died in 1804, and was buried in the old burying ground above the clock shop. His monument is the only one now stand- ing in that ground. Wife Sarah. CHILDREN. I. Abraham, b. April 11, 1789. III. Daniel, b. June 12, 1792. II. Lucy, b. July 6, 1790. IV. Garrison, b. July 20, 1794. 1790. John Burton, supposed from Middlebury, this year bought the farm on the hill road to Colebrook, now owned by David N. Beardsley, on which he lived until about 1810, and then removed from the town. He married, May 7, 1787, Phebe Wooster. She died February 15, 1807 ; he married (2d) Hannah, daughter of George Miller. 308 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, CHILDREN. I. Sally, b. March 10, 1789; m. Spencer Shattuck. II. Silas, b. March 15, 1781 ; m. Lucia, daughter of Asahel Miller. III. David, b. Feb. 18, 1793. IV. Polly, b. May 12, 1795. Thaddeus Fay's name is on the list of this year. He owned the part of the Augustus Perkins farm lying west of the brook, and lived in a log house on the original road from Old Winchester to Colebrook, which has been discontinued since about 1800. He died September 1, 1798, aged about 30 years. He married, October 7, 1793, Esther Lucas. CHILDREN. I. Lucy, b. May 1, 1794. II. Electa, b. Feb. 5, 1796 ; d. Feb. 8, 1796. III. Sally, b. March 20, 1797 ; d. June 25, 1797. IV. Thaddeds, b. Nov. 11, 1798; d. next day. Ezra Griffin, from Barkhamsted, owned land lying east of the Win- sted Manufacturing Company's Works from 1788 to 1794, and is on the list as a resident this year only. He is named of Barkhamsted in 1794. Wife Margery. CHILDREN. I. Abigail, b. Dec. 12, 1785. II. Elizabeth, b. Nov. 17, 1788. III. Sevilla, b. October 6, 1790; d. Aug. 11, 1792. Theodore Hoskin, son of Joseph, 1 who removed from Torrington to Old Winchester in 1771, this year came to Winsted and settled on the old Colebrook road, and built the house now occupied by his son-in-law, Alvah Oakley, in which he resided until his death, December 18, 1839, aged 74. Eunice, his wife, died June 4, 1849, aged 83. The names and births of his children are given in connection with the family of Joseph Hoskin. He wore, as did others in his clay, a cue which hung down his back some fifteen inches. He persisted in wearing it after most of his cotemporaries had abandoned their "caudal appendages," and would probably have carried it with him to the grave had not the doctor ordered it to be "exscinded" while he was confined to his bed with sickness. Roswell Hoskin, brother of Theodore, came with him to Winsted, and was joint owner with him of the farm, which he quit-claimed to The- odore in 1792. He afterward removed to Vernon, N. T. Solomon Palmer, son of Enoch, a shoemaker, this year bought land on Wallen's Hill, and lived in a logdaouse on the highway at the east line AND FAMILY RECORDS. 309 of the town, between Harris Brown's and the Wallen's Hill school house. He is named in 1795 of Barkhamsted. He married, October 14, 1787, Hannah De Wolf. CHILDREN. I. Stephen De Wolf, b. April 3, 1788. II. Lamentine, (dau.) b. Jan. 7, 1791. Jonathan Rogers, from Lynn, a blacksmith, and brother of Simeon, already named, owned the land on which the houses of John Camp and Edward Whiting stand, and extending from the east side of Still River westerly to the second tier line. His house and shop stood on the road then running along the east side of the river. He sold out in 1794, and is named of New Marlborough, Mass., in 1798. Wife Ruhama. CHILDREN. I. William Peck, b. June 1, 1790. II. Joseph (twin), b. Nov. 17, 1792. III. Benjamin (twin.), b. Nov. 17, 1792. Joseph Looms, from Torrington, this year bought of John Burton, a part of the D. N. Beardsley farm, on the hill road to Colebrook, and sold the same to Asahel Miller in 1800. He is named of New Hartford in 1806, in a joint deed of himself and his wife Mary, who is described as daughter of David Crissey. 1791. Jonathan Coe, 3d, son of Ensign Jonathan, of Winchester, this year came to Winsted, and built the rear wing of the red house on the Cole- brook road, one mile northerly from We~t Winsted, now owned by Judson Wads worth. The upright part of the house was built soon after 1800. In this house he lived until about 1830, when he built and moved into the brick house, on the west side of the same road, now owned by his son Jehiel Coe, in which he died May 31, 1849, aged 79. He was a tall, reverend-looking man, slow of speech, a man of great shrewdness and moderation, an early Methodist and a Jeffersonian Democrat ; steadfast in the support of his sect, yet catholic in spirit : zealous in politics, yet incapable of changing his principles to square with the changing ideas of party expediency. When it became democratic to ignore the manhood of the African race and deny the right of petition and free speech in its be- half, he cheerfully accepted the offensive epithet of Abolitionist, and stood in the front rank of the little band that battled for the right and prevailed. He died with his armor on, while the conflict seemed doubtful to men of feeble faith. In him there was no doubt, no fear, nor trembling. When 310 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. the minister refused to read from the pulpit the notices of prayer meetings for the slave, he would rise from his pew and give the announcement. His house was one of the stations of the " Underground Railroad " from Dixie to Canada, where the panting fugitive was fed, clothed, and speeded on his journey. His influence in the town during his middle age probably transcended that of any other man. He held at different times nearly every town office, and represented the town in the Assembly in four ses- sions between 1822 and 1828. His family record has already been given on page 53. CHAPTER XXIII. winsted immigrants and family records continued. From 1791 to 1801. 1792. Jenkins & Boyd, the pioneer manufacturers of Winsted, came into the Society this year, and erected the first scythe factory in the state and the third in the country, on the site of the Winsted Manufacturing Company's East Village Works. About 1795, in company with Thomas Spencer, Jr., they erected the first forge for making bar iron in the town, on the lake stream, opposite the grinding shop of the Winsted Manufacturing Company. In 1802 they erected another scythe factory on the site of the Winsted Hoe Company's shop, near the corner of Lake and Meadow streets. Benjamin Jenkins, of the above firm, was born October 15th, 1765, at Scituate, Mass., and learned the scythe maker's trade of Colonel Robert Orr of Bridgewater, Mass., who was the first manufacturer of scythes by water-power in this country. From Bridgewater he went to New Windsor, adjoining Newburg, N. Y., as foreman of the scythe works erected by Colonel Robert Boyd, where he married, September 10, 1791, Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel Boyd of Little Britain, soon after which he removed to Torrington, and thence in 1792 to Winsted. In company with Mr. Boyd he built, in 1795, the double house afterward owned and occupied by Rev. James Beach, in which he lived until about 1806, when he built and moved into the original building of the Winsted Hotel. In 1812, he built a scythe shop on the site of the Strong Manufacturing Company's Works, which he carried on until about 1816. In 1818 he removed with his family to Wayne County, Penn., and began the world anew, in the then unbroken forest, on the Lackawaxen, four miles west of Honesdale. Here he. cleared up a new home, built a scythe shop and saw mill before the first explorers of the Hudson and Delaware Canal and Rail Road route visited that region, and before Honesdale existed. The rail road was located through his farm, and the pleasant village of Prompton grew up around him, and principally on the land which he had first cleared. Here he lived to a good old age, the pioneer and 312 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER revered patriarch of a region which he had first entered at the age of fifty-two. He died January 18, 1853, aged 87 years, 4 months and 26 days. His wife, with whom he had lived more than sixty years, died April 25, 1851, aged 81. Mr. Jenkins was a man of fine personal appearance, and pleasing address — genial and kind-hearted — liberal and public-spirited — ener- getic and honorable — a good husband and kind parent. He represented the town in the general assembly in 1803 and 1804. CHILDREN. I. Elizabeth, b October 5, 1792 ; m. Horace Kent of Boston; d. October 24, 1820. II. Susan, b. April 25, 1794 ; m. Doctor Henry Noble ; d. 1814. III. Benjamin, Jr., b. December 6, 1796; rn. October 4, 1820, Mary Kent. IV. Samuel, b. December 4, 1798; m. 1st, Elizabeth Buckland ; 2d, Mary Jane Buckland. V. Lionel, b. 1799; A. May 18, 1807. VI. Louisa, b. 1801; m. 1st, Arab. Bartlett ; 2d, Jacob S. Davis. VII. Edward, b. 1804; d. 1854, unmarried. VIII. Maria, b. 1806; m. Kalph Case. IX. John, b. 1808; m. Jane Greeley. X. Henrietta, b. 1810; m. Luman Hubbcll. XI. Marietta, b. 1812; m. Benjamin Jenkins 3d; she d. 1842. James Boyd 3 came to Winsted with his brother-in-law and partner, Benjamin Jenkins, in 1792, having previously learned from him the scythe maker's trade at New Windsor, his native place. He first lived in a small house that stood on the west side of North Main street, nearly opposite the parsonage house of Rev. James Beach, which was built by him and his partner in 1795, and jointly occupied by them until 1802. He then built and moved into the house on the east side of Main street, west village, opposite Munro street, now owned by John T. Rockwell, where he spent his remaining life, and died February 1, 1849, aged 78 years. In 1803 he dissolved partnership with Mr. Jenkins, taking for his share the joint property of the firm in the west village. In 1808 he built-a forge and saw mill on the water-power opposite the Clarke House, now owned by the New England Pin Company. In 1822 he built a drafting and forging shop in rear of the Beardsley House, and in 1828 he rebuilt the " Upper Forge," on the lake stream, above Hulbert's present iron works. He also built, in 1816, the old iron store on Main street, next north of Dudley's brick block. He was a man of indomitable energy. Few men ever did more hard work, and more thoroughly managed a large business than he, until past the prime of life. Frugal and temperate in all his habits, and retiring in his disposition, he was also public-spirited and benevolent. No wandering outcast, however degraded, ever turned away from his door AND FAMILY RECORDS. 313 without food, and lodging if needed. With a good common school educa- tion, he possessed a strong, discriminating mind and studious habits. His range of reading extended from " Tristram Shandy " through general history to " Edward's on the Will," and other abstruse theology. Trained in the faith of the Scotch seceders, he made the Bible his con- stant study, and deduced from it his own independent belief, matured by careful study, and reverently cherished. With an erect figure and rapid gait, he had a sternness of aspect and an immovable decision which repelled familiarity ; yet, he had a strength of affection and tenderness of heart little realized by those who superficially knew him. Perfect integrity was a dominant trait of his character. The Little Britain branch of the Boyd family, to which he belonged, was of the Kilmarnock stock, originating in Ayrshire, Scotland, trans- ferred to County Down in the North of Ireland, from whence four brothers, Samuel, Robert, James, and Nathaniel Boyd migrated to America. Samuel Boyd, the oldest of the brothers, may have been the one among the so-named North of Ireland men who came over to found the Londonderry settlement in New Hampshire about 1720, many of whom finally went to other places. He settled in the City of New York about that period, accumulated a large estate, and died a bachelor. By his aid and counsel, his three brothers, before named, and a sister Mary, who married — Wargh, came over from County Down, and settled in the town of New Windsor, Orange Co., N. Y. Robert Boyd, above-named, settled at New Windsor, near the mouth of the creek which empties into the Hudson a mile below Newburgh. He had a son Robert, 2 and a daughter Mary, 2 who married — Harris. Colonel Robert Boyd 2 erected iron and scythe works on the creek before mentioned. He inherited the estate of his bachelor uncle, and removed to the City of New York early in this century, and there held the office of sheriff of the county. He died Oct. 29, 1804, aged 70, as ap- pears on his monument in Little Britain Church-yard. He married — Smith, and had CHILDREN. I. Samdel, a Counscllor-at law in the City of New York. II. John, of Ogdcnsburg, Sheriff of St. Lawrence Co., N. Y. III. Jennett, wife of Rev. James Schrimgeozir. IV. Agses, wife of Dr. Baltus Van Klcck. V. Elias, died a bachelor. VI. George, Episcopal clergyman, Philadelphia. 40 314 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Nathaniel Boyd, the fourth brother, lived in Little Britain Parish, New Windsor, and had sixteen children by his first and second wives. BY MARGARET BECK. I. Jane, w. of — Butler. II. John, of Amenia, N. Y. III. Samuel. IV. James S. V. Mary, w. of William Bradner. VI. Nathaniel. 2 VII. Martha, w. of — Etonian. BY MARTHA MONSEL. VIII. Jane. 2 IX. Elizabeth. 2 X. Nathaniel. 2 XI. Mary, 2 w. of — Thompson of Esopus. Xll. Charles. 2 XIII. Hannah, 2 w. of — Alexander. XIV. Jane. 2 XV. Robert W. 2 XVI. Nathaniel. 2 James Boyd, 1 the third brother, sailed from Belfast, Ireland, August 9, 1756, with his second wife and children, whose names and date of birth are recorded in his family bible, as follows : — BY SARAH, HIS FIRST WIFE. I. Samuel, 2 b. 1734. II. Sarah, 2 b. August 13, 1738. III. Robert, 2 b. January 10, 1740. IV. Mary, 2 b. March 2S, 1742, married and settled in Scotland. V. Jean, 2 b. January 20, 1749; m. — Soper of Esopus, N. Y. BY MARY, SECOND WIFE. VI. Seaborn Agnes, 2 born on the voyage, September 23, 1756; m. Richard Hudson of Newburg. VII. James 2 (date of birth torn off). VIII. Elizabeth, 2 b. February (torn off) ; m. — Belknap of Newburgh, N. Y. IX. David, 2 b. December , of Fhelps, Ontario Co., N. Y. X. Nathaniel, 2 b. XL Alice, 2 b. ; m. John Wood. Samuel Boyd, 2 oldest son of James, 1 visited America four years earlier than his father, and returned to Ireland, whence he came back as a permanent settler in 175 G, and thereafter resided in Little Britain Par- ish until his death, May 27, 1801, in his sixty-seventh year. He served in the French Canadian War, and furnished a substitute in the Revolu- AND FAMILY RECORDS. 315 tion. He- ra. (1st) Elizabeth, dau. of Mathew McDoel, of New Wind- sor, who d. Aug. 25, 1775, and (2d) Mary Lyon, who d. in 1812, s. p, CHILDREN BY FIRST "WIFE. I. Elizabeth, 3 b. at Little Britain, N. Y., 1769; m. Benjamin Jenkins. II. James, 3 b. L. B., Nov.*15, 1770. III. Mathew, 3 b. d. young. IV. John, 3 b. d. young. James Boyd, 3 son of Samuel, 2 settled in TVinsted as already stated. He m. at Torringford, Conn., Dec. 23, 1795, Mary Munro, b. Boston, Mass., March 10, 1771, dau. of Alexander and (Mcintosh) Munro, from Inverness, Scotland. She d., Winsted, Sept. 2, 1821 ; and he m. (2d) June 27, 1822, Jane Munro, b. at Bridgewater, Mass., June 8, 1788, dau. of Alexander and — (Hutchinson) Munro, and half-sister of his first wife. She d., Winsted, Dec. 29, 1852. CHILDREN. I. Nancy, 4 b. May 27, 1797 ; m. 1820, Lucius Clarke. II. John 4 (twin), b. March 17, 1799. III. James Munro 4 (twin), b. March 17, 1799; d. Aug. 28, 1826. IV. Eliza, 4 b. March 18, 1801 ; d. April 1, 1801. V. Samuel, 4 b. June 24, 1802. VI. Eliza, 4 b. June 25, 1804; d. Sept. 10, 1821. VII. Mary, 4 b. Aug. 11, 1807 ; d. Aug. 30, 1821. VIII. Jane Munro, 4 b. Dec. 10, 1812; m. human Hubbell. IX. Susan, 4 b. March 19, 1815; m. Sept. 7, 1836, Elijah Phelps Grant, b. Norfolk, Conn., Aug. 23, 1808, son of Dea. Elijah and Eliza- beth (Phelps) Grant. He graduated Yale College, 1830; lives at Can- ton, Ohio; a lawyer and banker. Children, all born in Canton, Ohio : 1. Elizabeth, b. May 21, 1838 ; m. May 18, 1858, Thomas J. Hurford, of Omaha, Neb.; 2. Susan, b. Jan. 8, 1841 ; d. July 19, 1841 ; 3. Ma- ry, b. Sept. 12, 1842; m. ; 4. Charles .Fourier, b. Aug. 12, 1844; d. May 25, 1845; 5. Jane, b. Nov. 27, 1846; 6. Martha A., b. April 30, 1849; d. June 27, 1859; 7. James Boyd, b. Nov. 10, 1853. X. Alexander Munro, 4 b. July 2, 1823; d. June 12, 1824. XL Jennett, 4 b. May 16, 1825; d. April 14, 1827. XII. Elizabeth, 4 b. Oct. 23, 1827 ; m. June 1, 1859, Stephen A. Hub- bard, b. Sunderland, Mass. XIII. Robert Lewis, 4 b. Aug. 15, 1831 ; commenced and carried on the manufacture of planter's hoes, in Winsted, from 1852 to 1860; then went to New York, where he now resides. He m. Nov. 6, 1862, Helen A. Peck, dau. , of Edward B. and Mary Ann Peck, of Fairfield Co., Conn., b. April 18, 1840. Her name changed, by adoption, to Helen Annette Wooster, in which name she was married. CHILDREN. 1. Anna, b. N. Y. city, June 30, 1864; d. July 2, 1864. 2. A son, still born, in Brooklyn, July 6, 1865. ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, 3. Ralph Booth, b. Brooklyn, June 4, 1866. 4. Louis Roland, b. Brooklyn, Dec. 10, 1867 ; d. Aug. 13, 1868. 5. James Hubbcll, b. in B., Nov. 13, 1369; d. Aug. 17, 1870. JoHtf Boyd, 4 m., New Haven, May 17, 1831, Emily Webster Beers, b. N. H., March, 1805, dau. of Elias and Jerusha (Fitch) Beers. She d. Nov. 25, 1842; and he m. (2d) Dec. 10, 1843, Mrs. Jerusha (Rock- well) Hinsdale, widow of Theodore Hinsdale, and dau. of Solomon and Sarah (McEwen) Rockwell. He grad. Yale Coll. 1821 ; admitted to the bar of New Haven Co., 1825; Rep. General Assembly, 1830 and 1835; County Commissioner, 1840, 1849, and 1850. Town Clerk, 1829-33, 1837-41, and from 1855, to the present time, Judge of Pro- bate for fifieen years, till disqualified by age, in 18G9 ; State Senator, 1854; Secretary of State of Conn., 1859, 1860, and 1861 ; a manufact- urer of the firm of J. Boyd & Son, 1827 to 1850, afterwards to 1853, alone. CHILDREN. I. Ellen Wright, 5 b. Sept. 3, 1833. II. James Alexander, 5 b. Nov. 12, 1835; d. Oct. 5, 1837. III. Emily Beers, 5 b. June 23, 1842; d. Oct. 16, 1852. James Munro Boyd, 4 was trained to business as an iron manufact- urer and trader, under his father, which he followed with decided ability and energy until his death. He was an extensive reader, social, warm- hearted and upright. He died unmarried, Aug. 28, 1826, beloved and lamented. Samuel Boyd, 4 m. Sept. 20, 1825, Sylvia Coe, b. Aug. 12, 1806, dau. of Jonathan and Charlotte (Spencer) Coe. He was a trader and manufacturer in AVinsted, till 1833; Custom House Appraiser in New Orleans, till 1850; Commission Hardware in New York, till 1860; Appraiser in Custom House, in N. Y. to the present time. CIIILDREN. I. James Munro, 5 b. Winsted, Sept. 28, 1826; was drowned in Mad River, June 10, 1829. II. Marianne, 5 b. W., July 31, 1828; m. Aug. 28, 1850, Henry Bas- com Keen, a merchant and banker, of New York ; b. Pittsburg, Penn., July 18, 1825, son of Robert Lewis and Phebe A. (Page) Keen. He d. Dec, 1868. CHILDREN. 1. Eobert Lewis, 6 b. Brooklyn, N. Y., Aug. 23, 1851 ; 2. Henry Boyd, 6 b. B., Jan. 9, 1854 ; 3. James Munro, b. B., July 16, 1856. III. Sarah Jane, 5 b. W., June 10, 1831 ; m. Brooklyn, N. Y., Sept. 30, 1853, Thomas Howe Bird, b. Boston, Mass. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 317 IV. Robert Munro, 5 b. W., Aug. 12, 1834 - ; m. Nov. 10, 1859, Kate Baldwin Crane, b. Bloomfield, N. J., Dec. — , 1838, dau. of Matthias and Su^an (Baldwin) Crane. He is a merchant of New York; resides at Mont Clair, N. J. Children : 1. Susie; 2. Robert M. ; 3. Bertha. V. Alice Isabel, 5 b. New Orleans, La., June 26, 1845 ; m. May 11, 1869, Rev. Nelson Millard. Child : Ernest Boyd, b. Dec. 11, 1870. Crnus Curtis, of Colebrook, bought land adjoining Colebrook line, and lived thereon in a house on the west side of the road above Wm. E. Cowles' dwelling, and probably left town the next year. Deacon John Lee this year bought the Fyler farm, on South street, and lived in the Albro Fyler house, recently burned down, until about 1799. He was chosen Deacon of the Congregational Church in 1795. EpnitAm Scovill and Reuben Scovill, father and son, from Col- chester, this year bought the farm on South street, now occupied by Good- loe H. Camp, which they occupied during their remaining lives. Ephraim quit-claimed his half of the farm to Reuben in 1801, and lived not many years after. Reuben Scovill died August 5, 1821, aged 55. He had a daughter Deborah who married John Maltbie ; a son, Truman, who married a daughter of David Talmadge and continued to occupy the homestead until about 1837, when he removed to Granville, Mass. ; and a daughter Lydia who married, January 17, 1821, Miles Marsh, of New Hartford. Capt. Abijah "Wilson, 2 from Torrington, this year bought land at the crossing of the old North Country road and the old Still River turnpike, and soon after built the house at that point now owned and occupied by his youngest son, Daniel 13. Wilson, which he occupied until his death, March 24, 1833, aged 86. He was a representative of the town in 1798 and 1802. He was born in Torrington, December 18, 1746, son of Noah 1 and Ann Wilson ; married, October 5, 1767, Margaret Beach, of Torring- ton. She died 1794, aged 47, and he married (2d), Hannah Bushnell, of Haitland; she died June 16, 1844, aged 81. children by first wife, born in torrington. I. Zenas, 3 b. Jan. 22, 1768; d. April 15, 1769. II. Zenas, 3 b. April 11, 1769; m. Polly, daughter of Daniel Coe Hudson, of Torrington '. III. Solomon, 3 b. Feb. 8, 1772; d. Nov. 26, 1775. IV. Reynold, 3 b. June 18, 1774. V. Okrel, 3 b. Jan. 5, 1777 ; m., 1795, Nathaniel Bacon, of Fabius, N. Y. 318 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, VI. Abijaii, 3 b. June 8, 1779; m. Lucy, daughter of Freedom Wright, of Winsted. VII. Lovisa, 3 d. unmarried, Dec. 16, 1806, aged 20. CHILDREN BY HIS SECOND WIFE, BORN IN WINSTED. VIII. Margaret, 3 m. Edgar West, of Chardon, Lake Co., Ohio. IX. Amanda, 3 ■ m. Henry Munson, of Mentor, Ohio. X. Daniel. 3 b. Nov. 27, 1800; m., April, 1825, Adeline, daughter of Lyman Doolittle. Capt. Zenas Wilson 3 lived on the old North Country road, on the farm, and in the house recently sold by Henry Dowd to Allen N. Hitch- cock, until his removal, about 1821, to Fabius, N. Y., whence he afterward removed to Concord, Lake Co., 0., where he died in 1847. His wife died in 1843. CHILDREN. I. Ansel 4 had children, George 5 and Hiram. 5 II. Orrin 4 (twin) had children, Zenas 5 and Hudson. 5 III. Orson 4 (twin) had children, Henry, 5 Eliza, 5 and Jane. 5 Reynold Wilson 3 lived until his removal to Fabius, N. Y., about 1815, on the farm on Wallen's Hill recently owned by Lorrin Smith. He married Chloe, daughter of Elisha Mallory. He died 1835. Abijah Wilson, Jr., 3 lived on and owned until his death the Stephen Rowley farm on the Old Country road west of Still River. He died April 17, 1813, aged 34. He married Lucy, daughter of Freedom Wright. He died April 17, 1813; she died November 15, 1817. children. I. Nelson Wright, 4 b. Feb. 13, 1799; m., May 10, 1820, Wealthy Coe, daughter of Jonathan and Charlotte (Spencer) Coe; she d. at Sudbury, Vt., Feb. 2, 1845; he d. Nov. 21, 1851. Children: 1. George Coe, 5 b. Dec. 13, 1821 ; m., Lenox, Mass., Oct. 19, 1843, Caroline Miles, b. Lenox, Nov. 26, 1822, daughter of Richard and Rhoda (Porter) Miles. He d. March 4, 1854. Children : 1. Franklin Henry, 6 b. Jan. 4, 1845 ; d. Jan. 6, 1S45; 2. James H., 6 b. Jan. 27, 1846; 3. Alice, 6 b. July 28, 1847; 4. Ida, 6 b. June 2, 1849, d. Sept. 7, 1849; 5. Charles, 6 b. Sept. 17, 1850. 2. Charles Horton, 5 b. May 22, 1826 ; d. May 18, 1847. 3. Harriet Elizabeth, 5 b. -April 23, 1831; m. Feb. 6, 1850, Alexander Charles Thompson, b. Martinsburgh, N. Y., July 20, 1822, son of Enoch and Betsey (Murdock) Thompson. She d. Jan. 7, 1855, s.p., and he m. (2d) May 31, 1856, Mrs. Caroline (Miles) Wilson, widow of George Coe Wilson. He d. July 14, 1866. 4. Henry, 5 b. Oct. 20, 1833; d. Oct. 19, 1836. II. Harriet E., 4 'm., May 22, 1825, Charles W. Horton, M.D. ; had children Jane E., 5 and Rollm C. 5 III. Hiram A., 4 b. Dec. 19, 1812; m., May 12, 1841, Hannah Bosworth; grad- uate of Wesleyan University, Middletown, Coun. ; late principal of Janes- AND FAMILY RECORDS. 319 ville Academy, N. Y. Now resident of Saratoga, N. Y. Children : 1. A son, 5 b. October, 1844, d. young; 2. Laura, 5 b. July 20, 1846, d. Sept. 15, 1847 ; 3. Hiram B., 5 b. April 17, 1848, d. Feb 2, 1849 ; 4. Mary Lenita, 5 b. March 5, 1S50. Daniel B. Wilson 3 has owned and occupied the homestead of his father since his death. He married, April 25, 1827, Adeline, daughter of Lyman Doolittle. CHILDREN. I. Elvira J., 4 m., Nov. 25, 1846, V. Rollin, 4 Allen M. Hitchcock. VI. Emorett, 4 II. John, 4 VII. Adelaide, 4 III. Margaret, 4 VIII. Henry, 4 IV. Jane, 4 IX. Isabel. 4 1793. Levi Acklet, from Chatham, owned and lived on a farm on the east side of Long Lake, now owned by John T. Rockwell. He sold out to John Westlake, in 1807, and removed to Tyringham, Mass., and died there November 10, 1817, aged 52. He married January 6, 1795, Lois Alvord, daughter of Eliphaz. She died April 20, 1841, aged 70. Jehiel Ackley Burr, son of Jehiel Burr of Torrington and adopted son of Levi and Lois Ackley, born June 25, 1795, and died November 24, 1814. Epapiiroditus Bligh this year bought a lot " on the brow of Dish Mill Hill," with a potashery, tannery and dwelling house thereon, supposed to be the tannery and dwelling on Still River turnpike, near Daniel ' B. Wilson's, now owned by Frederick Woodruff. He sold out to Asher Loomis in 1795. Israel Douglass this year bought the portion of West Winsted vil- lage lying south of M. and C. I. Camp's store and dwellings. He sold to Isaac Wheeler in 1795, and bought the Nisus Kinney farm, on Spencer street, and lived in a log house nearly opposite Amos Pierce until after 1804, when he removed to Leyden, Lewis Co., N. Y. Wife Ruth. children. I. Ruth, b. Oct. 29, 1794. III. Anna, b. March 10, 1798. II. Anselm, b. April 28, 1796. IV. Elizabeth, b. April 16, 1800. Benjamin Whiting, Jr., (see his father's record under 1779), this year bought and settled on the farm on Colebrook road lately owned by Silas 320 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Hoskin. He lived in what is now the rear part of Mr. Hoskin's house until his removal to Austinburg, Ashtabula Co., Ohio, in 1811. He mar- ried, May 24, 1791, Rebecca Swift. CHILDREN. I. Myron, b. Jan. 3, 1795. III. Benjamin, b. Dec. 30, 1801. II. Milo, b. Feb. 26, 1793. IV. Melissa, b. Guernsey Goff, this year bought a lot at the outlet of Long Lake, on which the Beardsley saw-mill stands, which he sold out in 1794 to Ananias Dearthick. Enoch Goff, from Colchester, this year bought the Deacon Hurlbut farm on the east side of Long Lake, — and sold out to Levi Norton in 1796. William Merriam, a joiner, this year bought the farm on Wallen's hill, now owned by Florin Parsons, near the school house, on which he lived until 1797, when be sold out to Samuel and Moses Camp. He married, Aug. 8, 1793, Lydia Wright. CHILDREN. I.William, b. Sept 14, 1794. II. Sally Wright, b. Aug. 12, 1796. III. Sopiironia, b. Aug. 26, 1798. Joseph Mitchell, a wheelwright, from Chatham, first lived on the west side of South street, a little south of the Ebenezer Rowley house. About 1805 he built a house, recently torn down, at the east corner of Main and Walnut streets, in which he lived until his death April 2S, 1847, at the age of 81. No record is preserved of his family. His chil- dren, as far as recollected, were Selden, who built and occupied until 1822 the Sheldon Kinney h<5use, on the south side of Main street, and died in Granville, Mass., — Diademia, wife of Henry S. Brown, of Winsted, — Hubbard, who died in Granville, Mass., — Muldah, wife of Zenas Cady, and Cordelia, wife of Harmon Cady. Andrew Pratt, from Saybrook, this year bought of Martin Hurlbut, his subsequent homestead on the hill, three quarters of a mile southerly from the railroad depot, now occupied by his grand-son, James W. Ward. He was a very shy, retiring man, rarely seen away from his farm, who ac- quired a large eslate of timber land, which he carefully preserved during his life. He died May 2, 1849, aged 83. His wife died April 18, 1835, aged G4. He married March 7, 1796, Sarah Miller of Torrington. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 321 CHILDREN. I. Sally, b. Oct. 7, 1797; m. Oct. 19, 1820, Harry Ward, of Torring- ton; had one child, James W. Ward, of Winsted; she d. 1858. II. Phebe, b. Feb. 22, 1800; d. single. III. Orrel, b. Dec. 18, 1802; d. single. IV. Andrew, b. ; d. 1810. V. Newell, b. ; m. Esther Ann Barnes ; and lived on part of his father's farm until 1S50, then moved to Norfolk, and from there to Illinois. 1794. Thomas Boyd, from Amenia, New York, is on the tax list of this year. He married, Jan. 1, 1794, Huldah, daughter of David and Huldah Mills, born Oct. 19, 1776. He soon after returned to Amenia, New York, where he died, leaving children, — one of whom, a son, became a resident of Alabama. Ananias Dearthick, a Baptist preacher, this year bought ten acres of land on which now stand the Second Congregational Church, the Win- sted Bank, S. W. Coe's store, and the residences of Doctor Welch, Moses Camp, and Caleb J. Camp. He also owned the Beardsley saw-mill site and lands adjoining on the west, and lived in a log house thereon. He sold out before 1797 ; in which year he is named of Warren, in a writ be- fore Justice Alvord. James Frisbie is on the tax list of Winsted this year, with ten acres of land set to his name, of which the records say nothing. Godfrey Jones, "of Winchester," this year bought land on the hill road to Colebrook, between the Everitt C. Holmes and the Elihu Rock- well farms, which he sold soon after. In a court record of 1 79 G, he is named as " late of Hartland, Conn., and now of Burke, in the State of Vermont." Joel Lucas this year bought the Clothiers' works, dwelling house and the land on the south side of Lake street from the top of the hill to Lake street bridge, previously owned by Daniel Marshall, which he sold in 1795. His name is on the tax lists of 1795 and 179G ; and he lived in Sandisfield, Mass., in 1797. Zacjieus Munsill, this year bought of Ananias Dearthick, the land in West Winsted on which stand the Second Congregational Church and other huildings. In 1798, he built and occupied the old house recently torn down on the north side of West Lake street, opposite the Stabells 41 •322 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, brick house. He conveyed this property in 1801 to Preserved Cri?sey by a deed in which he is named "of Westmoreland, Oneida County? N. Y." He married, December 10, 1796, Lovisa, daughter of Stephen Spencer. CHILDREN. I. Stephen, b. June 12, 1796. II. Lucy, b. Oct. 27, 1800. William A. Stone, " of Winchester," this year bought thirteen acres of land near the west end of the Everitt Holmes farm, which he conveyed away in 1795 by deed, in which he is named of Goshen. The names of Daniel Brown and Absalom Griffin are on the tax list of this year as residents of Winsted, and are not found elsewhere. Timotiiy Cannon's name is on the list of 1795. His wife Lucy was received into the Church in 1794 by letter from Southwick, Mass. They probably lived on South street. He died soon after 1800. They had children, Benjamin, Nathaniel, Elijah, and Tracy, who lived in Winsted after 1800. David Collins is on the list of this year as a resident. From 1797 to 1799 he owned land on the east side of the road, north of David N. Beardsley, adjoining the Everitt Holmes farm. In 1799 he is named of Colebrook. Samuel Cummins, and his wife Margaret, from Torrington, this year bought the farm on Spencer street now owned by Edward Manchester, which they sold to Ensign Jonathan Coe in 1796, and then moved out of the town. Josiaii Curtis, and his wife Emma, named of Sheffield, Mass., this year bought a house and land on the west side of South street, near Tor- rington line, which they conveyed to Ulysses Fyler in 1798. James Eggleston, and Jemima, his wife, this year bought a house and lot on the east side of the road, north of David N. Beardsley, which they sold in 17i'8, to Hine Clemmons, and left the town. Horace Higley, from Windsor, this year, jointly with Daniel Phelps, bought the Artemas Rowley farm, south of the burying ground in the old society. In 1799, he bought of Isaac Wheeler, the tavern property on Main street, south of Camp's Block, and all the land on Main street from M. & C. J. Camp's south line to the Clifton Mill Bridge, and including High, Elm, Center and Willow streets, most of which was then a forest, AND FAMILY RECORDS. 323 without an inhabited tenement thereon. The tavern buildings were erected the year before in anticipation of the opening of the Green Woods Turnpike, a new and shorter avenue of travel, which was to su- percede the Old North road, on the route from Hartford to Albany. Mr. Higley was a model farmer and tavern keeper of the old school. His lands were thoroughly cleared and skilfully tilled. No tippler ever haunted his bar-room. His table lare was suited to the taste of an epi- cure ; his beds were ever clean and well aired ; and his guests found him a social, dignified, and gentlemanly host. The travel on the new road was so abundant that he could choose his guests ; and his choice of cus- tomers gave him an aristocratic reputation, which was by no means les- sened by a sight of the unchained lion on his sign-board, indicative of his strong federal propensities. He was a public-spirited and influential man in the community, largely employed in public business, — was Postmaster from 1806 to 1830, and six times a representative of the town in the General Assembly. In 1828, he retired from the tavern, and built and occupied the house on the flat, now owned by A. N. Beach. In 1838 he moved to Painesville, O., where he died Jan. 5, 1842, aged 77. His wife d. at Painesville, Aug. 17, 1849, aged 82. He was son of Nathan and Anna (Barret) Higby, of Windsor, was b. East Windsor, 1765, and m. Eleanor Looniis. CHILDREN. I. Hoeace Loomis, b. Windsor, Dec. 29, 1794; lived at Pensacola and Mo- bile; d. Mobile, Aug. 20, 1856, leaving a family. II. Homer, b. "Winchester, Dec. 30, 1796; m. Amelia, dau. of Ra- phael Marshall, Tor. ; moved to Painesville, O., in 1829, where be d. in 1862. III. Peter, b. Feb. 10, 1802; d. Sept. 17, 1813. IV. Marv, b. May 18, 1804; d. in Painesville, O., Aug. 10, 1841; unmarried. V. Charles, b. Nov. 14, 1806 ; d. at Satartia, Miss., Aug. 19, 1835 ; unmarried. VI. William, . b. April 3, 1809 ; m. Sept., 1831, ~ Beach of San- disficld, Mass.; d. at Springfield, Mass., in 1863. Asher Loomis, a tanner and shoemaker, from Windsor, this year bought the Widow Hawley place on Dishmill Hill, immediately west of Daniel B. Wilson's, where he lived until about 1800, after which he lived on South street, near the Salmon Burr place, until about 1808, when he returned to Windsor. He m. in 1796, Rosinda, dau. of Deacon Shubael Cook, and had sons and daughters born in this town. One of his daugh- ters was second wife of Riley Smith, of Winsted. Setii Lucas, from Torrington, this year bought a farm now compos- ing part of the Gillett and Fosket farms, and lived in a house now torn 324 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, down, on the discontinued road north of Gillett's. He sold out to Theo- dore Smith, in 1803, and removed to Colebrook. Tutjman Seymour, from Colebrook, a blacksmith, came from Cole- brook and resided in Winsted two years, — after which he lived in Colebrook, until 1807, when he returned to Winsted and lived in the pambrel-roofed house on Lake street, near the bridge, until 1815, when he removed to Oneida Co., N. Y. He was an ingenious mechanic, and much esteemed for his social qualities and obliging disposition. He had a large family of children, among them three sons, George, Chauncey, and Aiah, and three daughters, Ann, Sophia, and Parnel. There were younger children, whose names are not remembered. Amos Tollf.s, from Durham, Green Co., N. Y., owned the farm on Coe street, late owned by Anson Fosket, and buiit the house thereon, in which he lived until 1837, when lie went to live with a son-in-law and daughter in Barkhamsted. He d. July 18, 1845, aged 80. His wife d. June 2, 1838, aged G4. He m. Marian Baldwin, b. Goshen, Conn., INov. 29, 1773, dau. of Bruin Baldwin. CHILDREN. I. Hannah, b. about 1793; m. Daniel Sage, of Colebrook. II. Eli^ha, b. about 1794; m. Harriet Frisbie ; d. at Cincinnati, July 13, 1849. III. Riley, b. 1796; d. at the South, unmarried. IV. Lucia, b. 1798; m. Amasa Mallory, Jr. ; d. Dec. 17, 1834. V. Sylvia, b. m. May, 1826, William S. Boyd. VI. Mary Ann, b. m. Amasa Mallory, Jr. CHILDREN OF ELISHA AND HARRIET (FRISBIE) TOLLES. I. Helen Maria, b. March, 1820; m. Augustus B. Clark, of New Britain. II. Robert Bruce. III. Hiram Frisbie. IV. Mary Augusta, m. May 16, 1830, Elder Miles Grant. V. Harriet Frisbie. Elisha Lewis, from Goshen, this year built a gambrel-roofed house, that stood on the site of Moses Camp's dwelling, on Main street, opposite Lake street bridge, in which, in company with Moses Lyman and Elihu Lewis, of Goshen, he kept a store until 1798, when he returned to Goshen. 1796. Levi Barnes, from Torrington, owned a lot with a house and barn AND FAMILY RECORDS. 325 thereon, now owned by Jonathan Gilbert, on the east side of South street, until 1799, and continued to reside in the town until 18U2. Jkhiel Burr, from Torrington, -lived first on the east side of South street, below Jonathan Gilbert's, and afterwards in a house on same street, next south of Whiting J. Miner's. He and his wife, Mabel, d. about 1800. They had three sons, who resided in the town. CHILDREN. I. Erastus, m. Polly West; moved to Western N. Y., about 1812. II. Roswell, m. Nancy West; moved to Ohio about 1830. III. Hclsey, d. in Winsted, Jan. 25, 18G1, aged 71. Eli Fox, probably from Chatham, this year bought the Roswell Pond lot on North Main street, and became a pauper, as appears by a vote of the town in 1802, directing a >-uit to be brought against the town of Chatham for his support. Levi Fox is on the tax list of this year. In 1797 he boughL the Halsey Burr place, and sold it the following year. In 1798, he bought the Roswell Pond place, above mentioned, and sold it in 1802. Doctor Aaron Moore is on the tax list of this year as a resident of Winsted. In 1802 he bought the Roswell Pond lot, and during his re- maining life resided in the house now torn down, about eight rods east of the road. He was a physician of some note in his day, being the only practitioner in the society until 1810, and the teacher of many doctors who have recently gone off the stage, among whom were Doctors Luman Wakefield, and T. S. Wefmore, of this town, lie died February 16, 1S13, aged 40, of pulrid pleurisy, which prevailed at that period. The doctor of the beginning of this century was a more marked personage than his successor of the present day. Doctor Moore, mounted on his Narraganset pacer, with his capacious saddle-bags crammed with phy.-ic enough to doctor a cavalry regiment, hordes and riders, projecting beyond and above the sides of the animal, making a safe seat for the rider, with stirrups so shortened as to bring his knees to a right angle, was a sight next in solemnity to that of his cotemporary, Parson Kinney, with his gaunt six-and-aJaalf-foot length of figure, surmounted with a cocked hat and white flowing wig. He married Polly Fyler, sister of Ulysses. She died May 26, 1807. CIIILDREN. I. Cullen, ' drowned in Georgia ; ivnm. II. Erasmus Darwin, b. September 30, 1802; a clergyman. III. Osta (daughter), b. March 12, 1805 ; d. Nov. 30, 1806. IV. Jeremiah Markham, b. May 9, 1806; d. Nov. 16, 1806. 326 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Gideon Hall came from Litchfield a young man, and had charge of a store near Wallen's Hill school-house, owned by Arthur Emmons. In 1803 he bought the Moses M. Camp farm, on South street, and there re- sided until 1814, when he bought of Benjamin Wheeler the farm at the parting of South street from the Green Woods turnpike, which he occu- pied, with an interval of a few years of tavern keeping in the East Village hotel, until his death, February 23, 1850, aged 75. He was a shrewd, uncultivated man of indomitable energy, but without system or method in his business transactions. He was largely employed in public affairs, and in settling the estates of insolvent and deceased persons. As a select- man he managed the affairs of the town with economy, but could render no intelligible account of his doings. As sheriff's officer, in which capacity he acted for many years, his success was wonderful in escaping the conse- quences of his bungling mode of serving and returning legal process. As a politician, he could pull the strings and manage the wires of a can- vass with great adroitness. As a neighbor he was kind and useful in ways of his own. His religious profession was zealous and sincere, but spas- modic. He filled a large place in the doings of the community, worked hard during the day, and spent the night in serving writp, canvassing votes, and attending political or religious meetings. He accumulated a handsome estate, and enjoyed the good will of the community. He mar- ried, in 1797, Polly, daughter of Samuel' Hayden, Esq. She died March 16, 1830, aged 53. He married (2d), October 4, 1835, Lavinia, daughter of Daniel White, who survives him. CHILDREN BT FIRST WIFE. I. Samuel Hayden, b. April 9, 1801 ; cl. October, 1820. II. Abigail, b. Oct. 17, 1S04; d. Sept. 12, 1823. III. Gideon*, Jr., b. May 1, 1808, m. Lydia Foskett; graduated at Litch- field Law School and admitted to the Litchfield county bar 1829. He practised law with success in Winstcd until 18C6, when he was appointed a Judge of the Superior Court, which office he held until his death, Dec. 8, 18G7. He was representative of the town in 1838, 1846, and 1854; a state senator in 1847, and Judge of Probate from 1839 to 1841, and from 1S44 to 1848. IV. William Smith, b. June 26, 1817; d. Feb., 1819. CHILD BY SECOND WIFE. V. Jane Catharine, b. Oct. 20, 1845; m. May 9, 1871, Samuel A. Wctmore, of New Haven; had a son, b. Sept. 18, 1872. Nathan Rose, when a child, was brought away from Wyoming to Woodbury by his mother, after the British and Indian mnssacre, cf which his father was a victim. He came from Woodbury to Winsted this year, married a daughter of William Davis, lived in a log house on Pratt street, AND FAMILY RECORDS. 327 afterwards owned successively by Aaron Marshall, and Joseph Cook, until his removal to Bridge water, Herkimer Co., N. Y., in 1798. Samuel Westlake, an iron refiner from Orange or Rockland Co., N. Y., came into the employ of Jenkins & Boyd this or the preceding year, and lived in a house long since torn down, which stood near Timothy Hulbert's office. He died October 13, 1818, aged 75. His wife died June 7, 1815, aged G4. CHILDREN. I. Sarah, b. March 31, 1770; m. Timpson. II. Mary, b. Dec. 17, 1777 ; m. Blakcslce. III. William, b. March 18, 1780. IV. Samuel, b. March 24, 1782. V. Abigail, b. Jan. 9, 1785; m. Andrew Walter. VI. John, b. April 26, 1787. VII. Thomas, b. Nov. 20, 1789. VIII. Nancy, b. March 12, 1792 ; m. Daniel Albro. Saimuel Westlake, Jr., removed, soon after his first marriage, to Wolcottville, where he died. He married (1st) Clarissa, daughter of Christopher Whiting, by whom he had a daughter. "William Westlake resided in one of the two houses recently removed from the Connecticut Western Railroad track to the bank of Mad River, near the pin factory, from 1809 to the time of his death on January 7, 1848, and worked in the forge of James Boyd, opposite the Clark House. He married Laura Peet, of Sheffield, Mass. CHILDREN. I. John, who d. young. VI. Laura Ann, m. Woodward. II. George, d. unmarried. VII. James. III. Fanny, m. Franklin Wolcott. VIII. Jane, m. Martin. IV. Mary', m. Wm. Barker. IX. Samuel, d. young. V. William. X. Louisa. John Westlake came into the town with his father and was esteemed the best iron refiner in the place. He first lived in a hou?e adjoining his brother William's residence, near the pin factory, for several years. About 1831 he bought the Philo G. Sheldon place on Main street, where he lived until his removal to Utica, N. Y., in 1841. Returning to Winsted in 1848, he soon after built the house at the east corner of High and Union streets, where he lived a few years, and then moved to the Old Society of Win- chester, where he died Nov. 9, 1860, aged 74 years. He w r as a kind- hearted man, of genial humor and unblemished character, respected and 328 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, loved for liis many virtues. He married, in 1809, Flora, daughter of Ebenezer Rowley, of W. CHILDREN. I. Riley, who d. unmarried. III. Florania, m. Lcm'l Hurlbnt, Jr. II. Julia, m. Edwin R. White. IV. Amanda, m. Thomas Senior. Thomas Westlake became a permanent resident of Winsted about 1816. He first lived southward of the pin factory,and afterward, until his death, in the house of his son-in-law, Philo G. Sheldon, on Main street. He was an industrious, well-informed man, and good citizen. He married, in 181 6, Sophia Goodwin of New Hartford. He died July 11, 1858, aged G8 years. She died June 11, 1864, aged 69. . CHILDREN. I. Matilda, b. January 1, 1817; m. August 18, 1835, Philo G. Sheldon. II. Rltii, b. November 20, 1825 ; m. October 22, 1845, Upson Bunnell. III. Horace, b. February 9, 1828; m. at Hillsdale, N. Y., in April, 1851, Henrietta Foster. He was licensed as a physician in 1850, and has since practised at Hillsdale to the present time. Randall Shattuck "of Middletown," owned a dish mill near Meadow street bridge, on the lake stream, from 1797 to 1S03. He is said to have lived in a log house on the site of the Beardsley House. He removed to Torrington in 1803, and had a son, Randall Shattuck, Jr., who is now living. Oliver White is on the tax list of Winsted for 1796 and 1797, and lived in the Lazarus Palmer house, near the Wallen's Hill school- house, w r hence he moved over the line into Barkhamsted, and thence to Dyberry, Wayne Co., Penn., where he died about 1855, aged 82. He manied Lucy Wood. CHILDREN. I. Oliver, b. November 12, 1796. II. Ralph, b. 1S03 ; d. December 27, 1809. III. Daniel. IV. Lucy, m. Halscy Burr. V. Charlotte. VI. Maria, m. November 25, 1838, Alonzo R. Bishop. VII. Rietta, m. March 8, 1S37, William Weaver. VIII. Eliza, m. Jonas Stanton. Oliver White, Jr., as early as 1825 began to manufacture farming implements, between the Clock Factory and the Cook Axle Factory, on the road east of Still River, where he still resides. He married, July 6, 1817, Pamelia Bacon of Barkhamsted. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 329 CHILDREN. I. James, b. April 9, 1S18; m. Charlotte Greene. II. Luman, ' b. July 19, 1819; m. Sarepta Reynolds. III. Orrin Washington, b. April 5, 1821 ; a clergyman. IV. Wilson B., b. January 24, 1823 ; m. Harriet Leach. V. George, b. June 4, 1825; representative in 1861; m. Ellen M. Kelsey ; she d. December 24, 1864, and he m. (2d) Mrs. Emily M. Putnam. VI. Julia A., b. May 29, 1827 ; m. Charles H. Wattles. VII. Aurelia A., b. July 18, 1830; m. Grove Stannard. VIII. Susan P., b. May 11, 1832; m. Hiram J. Norton. 1796. Asaiiel Miller from Torrington, owned and lived from 1797 to about 1810 on the farm lately owned by Anson Fosket, on the old hill road to Colebrook, in a house that stood nearly opposite that of D. N. Beardsley. About 1811, he built the house on the easterly side of Main street, next above the Dudley Tannery, and in company with James Shepard built the original tannery at that point. In 1815 he sold out to Abiel Loomis, and removed to Tyringham, Mass. He was a carpenter ; an intelligent, industrious man, and much respected. He was born at Torrington, October 24, 1760, son of George and Sarah Miller. Married, October 26, 1788, Lovina, daughter of Ensign Jonathan Coe of Winchester. They died in Erie, Penn. CHILDREN. I. Joel, b. Tor., June 26, 1790. V. Willard. II. Lucia, m. Silas Burton. VI. Kirby. III. Laura, m. John W. Sweet. VII. Sarah. IV. Arvin. Joel Miller, oldest son of Asahel, an ingenious mechanic and deeply religious man, married a daughter of Grove Pinney of Colebrook, and resided in Wins led, dying childless before middle life. Timothy and William Soper, father and son, from Windsor, lived from 1797 to 1800, on the Roswell Smith farm, on Wallen's Hill, and returned to Windsor. Daniel Wilcox from Berlin, this year bought the clothier's shop and fulling mill on Lake street, and lived in the " Old Factory house," at the easterly corner of Lake and Rockwell streets, until 1813, when he sold out to S. Rockwell & Brothers, and removed to Great Barrington, 42 330 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Mass. He was- a man of iron constitution, energetic, social and hos- pitable. He married, September 7, 1797, Mehitabel Wright. CHILDREN. I. Patty, b. August 31, 1799 ; m. — Beckwith of Great Barrington. II. Maurice, b. May 15, 1801. III. Mercy, b. June 29, 1803. IV. Emily, b. December 11, 1805. V.Juliette, b. April 30, 1808. ■ Frederick Eggleston from Colebrook is on the list of this year. In 1799 he bought the house that stood on the site of George Dudley's dwelling on Main street, which he sold in 1801 to David West, and then returned to Colebrook. He again lived in Winsted from 1810 to 1814, working for S. & M. Rockwell as a blacksmith, after which he returned to Colebrook. Samuel and Moses Camp, sons of Moses Camp of Norfolk, and grandsons of Abraham Camp of New Milford, this year bought the Florin Parsons farm, near the Wallen's Hill schoolhouse, where they carried on the hatter's trade until 1804, when they bought the Stephen Knowlton farm on south street, next south of the Ebenezer Rowley farm, and lived in a house, now torn down, on the east side of the road. Samuel Camp continued his residence here until his removal in 1824, to the farm now owned by Hiram Burnham, in Barkhamsted, where he died May 10, 1850, aged 77, a pious and highly respected man. He was born in Norfolk, March 4, 1773 ; married July 10, 1799, Mercy Sheldon of New Marlboro, Mass. She died August 21, 1854. CHILDREN. I. Samuel Sheldon, b. December 13, 1800; m. Elizabeth, daughter of Amasa Mallory. II. Moses, b. October 5, 1803; m. Miranda Goodwin of Goshen. She died April 7, 1865, aged 57 years, s. p. He m. (2d) February 12, 1867, Amelia S. Humphrey of Guilford, N. Y. He has been town clerk, representative in general assembly, and president of the Winsted Savings Bank. III. Electa, b. November 27, 1806; m. April 28, 1831, George Dudley, b. Bloomfieid, September 17, 1803, son of Levi and Abigail (Hitchcock) Dudley. He was a manufacturer of bookbinders' leather; president of the "Winsted Bank for many years ; postmaster, state senator, and presidential elector, at General Grant's election. CHILDREN. 1. Jane Mehitabel, b. June 28, 1833 ; d. October 6, 1851. 2. Emily Sheldon, b. July 17, 1838. 3. Mary Beach, b. May 21, 1840. AND FAMILY EECORDS. 331 4. Alice Mercy, b. April 6, 1842; m. June 11, 1868, Theodore F. Vaill, editor of The Winsted Herald, and Adjutant of the Second Connecticut Heavy Artillery. 5. George, b. July 1, 1844. IV. Edward, b. April 25, 1809; m. September 29, 1831, Maria Norton, daugh- ter of Deacon Lewis M. Norton of Goshen ; she d. October 6, 1848, and he m. (2d) December 18, 1850, Desiah Knapp, daughter of Bushnell Knapp of Norfolk; she d. November 29, 1856, s. p., and he m. (3d) January 20, 1858, Louisa A. Williams of Natick, R. I. He represented the town of Barkhamsted in 1848 ; has been selectman of Winchester, and burgess of the Borough of Winsted ; has one child, Frances Maria, b. July 28, 1844. V. Beulah, b. June 20, 1811 ; m. September 29, 1845, George Kellogg. VI. Mehitabel, b. May 9, 1813; m. October 22, 1840, George Kellogg; she died at Columbus, O., June 13, 1842. VII. Caleb Jackson, b. June 12, 1815; m. May 22, 1839, Mary, daughter of Rev. James Beach ; was associated with his brothers, though, being a minor, his name did not appear in the mercantile firm of M. & E. Camp, organized March 1, 1835 ; in the firm of M. & C. J. Camp, which suc- ceeded it, March 1, 1839, and that of M. &. C. J. Camp and Co., formed March 1, 1854, he has long been the principal manager. CHILDREN. 1. Mary Mehitabel, b. March 4, 1842; m. October 23, 1866, Her- man E. Curtis of N. Y. ; settled in Winona, Minnesota, where her son, Clinton James, was born August 21, 1870. 2. Augusta, b. April 3, 1845; m. October 17, 1871, Franklin A. Rising of N. Y. 3. James Beach, b. October 15, 1846; d. November 13, 1849. 4. Anna Beach, b. August 2, 1850; d. March 24, 1852. 5. Ellen Baldwin, b. August 16, 1855. Moses Camp, Sr., in 1814, bought the farm on the South street, now owned and occupied by his son, Moses M. Camp, where he died March 6, 1852, aged 78. He was a man of strong mind and decided principles, highly esteemed and respected. He married Deidamia Knowlton, daugh- ter of Stephen. CHILDREN. I. John, the able and efficient manager of the Winsted Manufacturing Com- pany from May, 1835, till his death Aug. 16, 1862, aged 56 years. He was Representative, Selectman, and Judge of Probate. He m. Ursula Whiting, who d. s. p. ; and he m. (2d), Julia Root; had CHILDREN. 1. Julia, d. 4. Alice. 2. Electa, d. Jan. 16, 1866, aged 17. 5. Lewis L. 3. John K. 6. William. II. Harriet, m. Henry Dutton of New Hartford. III. Mary, m. Sept. 4, 1833, Elijah B. White. IV. Adeline, m. James J. Preston. 332 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, V. Gooploe H., m. Tuttle. VI. Moses M., m. Worthington. VII. Emeline, m. Lewis E. Loomis. VIII. George G., m. Sept. 19, 1850, Sarah A. Hart. Aaron Marshall, from Torrington, this year bought a farm, with a log house thereon, on the east side of Pratt street, three quarters of a mile south of the depot. He died Sept. 7, 1807, aged 74, leaving two in- competent daughters, Chloe and Asenath, both of them now deceased and unmarried. Daniel White is on the tax list of this year as a resident. He after- ward lived for many years over the Barkham stead line on Wallen's hill, where he raised a family of children. In his latter years, he resided with his daughter, Mrs. Hall, where he died Dec. 28, 1859, aged 85. His wife, Clarissa (Cleveland), died June 12, 1822, aged 40. CHILDREN. I. Emily, b. Feb. 9, 1801 ; m. Hezekiah G. Butler. II. Lavinia, b. Aug. 20, 1 803 ; m. Gideon Hall of Winsted. III. Mart Cleveland, b. Jan. 31, 1805 ; m. Edward A. Pugg. IV. Harriet, b. Jan. 28, 1807 ; m. Oren Kellogg. V. Horace Cleveland, b. Feb. 22, 1809 ; m. Susan A. Wolcott. VI. Urania Clarissa, b. July 20, 1811; d. near Lake Superior, Aug. 5, 1839. VII. Philenda Miller, b. June 11, 1814; m. Elizur G. Perry. VIII. Jennett, b. April 6, 1816 ; d. July 26, 1816. IX. Pembroke, b. Sept. 18, 1819; went to Iowa. See Allyn S. Kel- logg's White Memorials, p. 179. 1798. Merritt Bull, came from Harwinton to Winsted and served his ap- prenticeship as a scythe maker. He is first on the tax list as an inhabi- tant this year. He first lived in the house on Spencer street, now owned by Sarah Loomis, and carried on blacksmithing in a shop that then stood on the house lot of Samuel W. Coe. In 1802 or 1803, he built a scythe hop where the stone shop of the Winsted Hoe Company now stands, on Meadow street, which he carried on until his death. In 1809 he bought, and thereafter occupied, the gambrel-roofed house which stood on the site of Moses Camp's dwelling, opposite Lake street. He was instantly killed by falling among the gears of his grinding works, May 28, 1824, at the age of 49. He was an amiable and industrious man, who failed of success in business by attempting more than he could accomplish. He repre- AND FAMILY RECORDS. 333 sented the town in the General Assembly of 1827. He married, Nov. 26, 1801, Hannah, daughter of Aaron Cook, of Winchester; born Jan- uary 20, 1775. CHILDREN. I. Eliza Mieiam, b. Sept. 20, 1802. II. Nelson, b. Feb. 6, 1804 ; d. April 17, 1817. III. Sidney, b. " 18, 1806. IV. Trumbull, b. Dec. 2, 1807. V. Henry Bogue, b. Feb. 2, 1810. VI. Wolcott, b. Nov. 2, 1812 ; d. May 7, 1815. VII. Delia, b. May 29, 1815. Cyrus Butrick, a blacksmith, is on the tax list of this year as a resident of Winsted. In 1801 he bought the house that stood where Lake street now runs, at the turning of the hill a little east of the works of the Henry Spriug Company, and worked in a shop that stood on the west side of Lake street, opposite the old mill house. In 1803 he re- moved to the old hill road to Colebrook, above the D. N. Beardsley place. He left the town about 1805. He married, Oct. 18, 1798, Phebe, daughter of Rev. John Sweet. CHILDREN. I. Polly, b. Dec. 16, 1799. II. Phebe, b. Feb. 21, 1802. Joseph Cook, son of Aaron and Lydia, and a native of the town, is on the list of this year as a resident of the Old Society. In 1809 he bought the Aaron Marshall place, on the Pratt road, where he afterward dwelt until his death Oct. 11, 1814, aged 39. He left a son and two daughters. One of the latter is wife of Allen Roberts, of this town. He married, July — , 1803, Amelia Davis, who, after his death, married Syl- vester Roberts. Jonathan Douglass, brother of Israel, owned from 1798 to 1801, a part of the Kinney farm, on Spencer street road, and lived on the west side of the road, not far from Amos Pierce's residence. Capt. George Frasier, a Scotchman, is on the tax list of this year as a resident of Winsted. He was a trader near the Wallen's Hill school-house for a few years, and probably for the most part resided over the line in Barkhamsted. Levi Norton, 2d, from Norfolk, lived in the northernmost of the two contiguous houses recently owned by Halsey Burr, deceased, on the west side of the old Still River turnpike until after 1817. In 1822, he is 334 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, named " of Hartland," in a deed on record. His wife was Rhoda, daughter of Enoch Palmer ; the land records give the names of five of their children, viz : CHILDREN. Eden, of Benson, Vt., in 1822. Fanny, wife of Asa Mallory. Isaac A., of Cornwall, in 1821. Jemima, Solomon. Elihu Rockwell, youngest son of Joseph, and descended in the fifth generation from Deacon William Rockwell, a first planter of Dorchester, Mass., and Windsor, Conn., came this year from Torrington to Winsted, and purchased from his father-in-law, John Allen, the farm on Spencer street recently successively owned by Nisus Kinney and Luther G. Hins- dale. He lived on this farm until his removal to Euclid, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, in 1825. He was a man of marked character and influence, enter- taining political and religious sentiments not in harmony with those of his Puritan ancestors. No record is found of his family. His daughter, Lydia, by his first wife, married Clarke H. Roberts, late of Colebrook, deceased. He also had by his second wife a son and daughter who re- moved with him to Ohio. Reuben Rowley, oldest son of Ebenezer, and a native of the town, is on the list of this year. In 1801 he became owner of the portion of the East Village bordered by the Holabird property on the north, Still river east, Main street south, and Oak street west, which he exchanged in 1802 for a farm in the northeast corner of the town, recently owned by Joel Mead, now deceased, on which he lived until his removal to Hitchcockville in 1847, where he died May 2, 1851, aged 74. CHILDREN. I. Orpha, m., Oct. 23, 1823, Isaac Brown ; she d. Sept. 26, 1827, aged 23. II. Sophronia, m., Aug. 29, 1832, Allen Bacon; she d. ahout 1855. III. Gad. Joel Wright lived on the road to Colebrook above David N. Beards- ley's until his death, March 16, 1813. He was a hard-working, faithful man, much employed as a farm laborer and teamster. His wife died Feb- ruary 21, 1813, aged 40. They had children, Sally, Joel, Flora, and Artemas. Flora married, February 7, 1821, Alexander Baldwin. Joseph Holmes, brother of David, named in 1786, while living in Torrington, owned land in this society as early as 1796, but his name first appeai-s on the li^t as a resident in 1798. He owned and occupied the farm on the Spencer street road, near Colebrook line, afterward occupied by his 6on Willard, and now by Everett E. Holmes, son of Willard. He AND FAMILY RECORDS. 335 represented the town in six sessions of the Assembly between 1807 and 1815, and was in all respects an exemplary man and citizen. He died September 1, 1826, aged 68. His wife died October 31, 1820, aged 68. He married, at Torringtou, Conn., .Sept. 9, 1788, Lydia Curtis, born in Torringtou, Dec. 29, 1751. CHILDREN. I. David, b. April 27, 1779 ; d. at the age of 9 years. II. Rufus, b. April 29, 1781. III. Jekusha, b. April 25, 1783; m. Jan. 27, 1807, Henry Bass, of Colebrook. IV. Roxana, b. Sept. 21, 1785 ; m. David Collins, Blanford, Mass. V. Phebe, b. 1787; m. Daniel Deming, Colebrook. VI. Polly, b. d. aged 2£ years. VII. Willard, b. Nov. 14, 1792. Rufus Holmes, second son of Joseph, lived after his first marriage in Colebrook, adjoining Winchester line, until 1850, when he bought of Henry E. Rockwell the Seminary building near High street in Winsted, in which he and his son, Lucius L., afterwards resided until their death. He was a thrifty farmer, an upright, public-spirited, and highly respected man, and a sincere Christian. He married (1st), Esther Eno, of Cole- brook. She died August 18, 1831. He married (2d), July 1, 1835, Be- linda, daughter of Nathan Bass, of Colebrook. He died Juue 26, 1855, aged 74 years. She died October 6, 1855, aged 60. CHILDREN BY FIRST WIFE. I. Lucius Lorenzo, b. Colebrook, Nov. 7, 1811 ; m., March 20, 1833, Mary A. Gaylord, b. Nov. 7, 1810. He d. at Winsted May 14, 1854. She d. at Winsted Nov. 26, 1854. II. Susan Jennett, b. Colebrook, Dec. 6, 1816; m. Rollin S. Beecher. CHILD BY SECOND WIFE. III. Rufus (Edward), b. Colebrook, May 4, 1857. He m., Dec. 24, 1857, Lucy, daughter of Nelson D. Coe, b. Winchester, Nov. 18, 1834. He was cashier of the Hurlbut bank from June 3, 1857, to Dec. 7, 1863; cashier of the Winsted bank from Dec. 7, 1863 to Aug. 27, 1864; and president of the Hurlbut bank from the last date to the present time. Children: 1. Anna Louisa, b. Sept. 17, 1860; 2. Susan Beecher, b. Oct. 27, 1862; 3. Rufus, b. April 4, 1865, d. March 16, 1866 ; 4. Edward Rufus, b. March 7, 1867; 5. Ralph Winthrop, b. Oct. 6, 1869. CHILDREN OF LUCIUS L. AND MARY G. HOLMES. I. An infant b. Jan., 1834 ; d. Feb., 1854. II. Susan Jane, b. Colebrook, March 26, 1835; m. Dec. 10, 1854, Edward Clarke, b. Winsted. III. Lucius Lorenzo, b. April 12, 1840; m., Dec. 25, 1861. IV. Charles Beecher, b. Jan. 25, 1846 ; m. Abby, daughter of Amos. Pierce. 336 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Willard Holmes, youngest child of Joseph and Lydia (Curtis) Holmes, resided from birth to death in his father's homestead. On the night of Feb. 22, 1857, he was awakened by finding his house in flames. He and his wife, the sole occcupants, having escaped to the open air, he re-entered the burning building to secure his papers and valuables, when suffocation ensued, and he was burned in the ruins. He was a well- educated, thoughtful man, of strong convictions and independent actions ; a friend of the slave, the opponent of every wrong, and a humble Christian. He married at Norfolk, Oct., 1819, Miranda, daughter of David and Mary (Everett) Frisbie. CHILDREN. I. Luther Willard, b. Sept., 1820; m. II. Everett Curtis, b. April 28, 1821 ; in., Nov. 1, 1848, Laura Pease, b. April 22, 1824. III. Lydia, b. 1823 ; d. August, 1833. IV. Mary Melissa, b. CHILDREN OF EVERETT C. AND LAURA (PEASE) HOLMES. I. Edward E., b. Dec. 27, 1849. II. Elizabeth S., b. Sept. 1, 1852, adopted Nov. 1, 1854. III. Willard P., b. Aug. 22, 1857. IV. Lumas H., b. Nov. 4, 1864. V. Mary Isabel, b. July 25, 1867. 1799. Isaac and Mary Bellows owned land on the Colebrook road, and lived above D. N. Beardsley's. They sold out in 1800, — and afterwards lived until 1814, on Colebrook line on the site of the house recently built by Birdsey Gibbs. Roswell Marshall, from Torrington, this year lived in the De- Wolf house on the west side of Colebrook road, adjoining Colebrook line, above the house of W. E. Cowles. He removed, in 1800, to his adjoining farm in Colebrook. Charles Osborn is on the Winsted list of this year, and owned land west of the D. N. Beardsley road, near Colebrook line. Charles and William owned land on east side of Green Woods Turnpike, opposite the Uri Church bridge, from 1801 to 1805, and probably occupied the house thereon, which has been recently torn down. Nathaniel Parks, probably from Bristol, this year lived in a " pest house " that stood on East Lake street, near the great spring. He after- wards owned and lived on land on the Still River Turnpike, south of AND FAMILY RECORDS. 337 Roswell Pond's, which he conveyed to the town of Bristol in 1801. He was a miller, and had charge of the Doolittle Mill, opposite the Clock Factory. His wife was a woman of weight, who pressed her cheese by sitting on the driver of the hoop while knitting her stockings, thereby dispensing with a cheese press. Their son, Jonathan, became a showman of pictures, through a magnifying glass; — and when moving from house to house, with his show box on his bark, appeared as majestic as a cas- tellated elephant. His drawling, snuffling, yankee twang, in describing his pictorial views, was inimitably and irresistibly ludicrous. He outgrew his maternal fatness, and became a Daniel Lambert. While on a visit here, about 1812, his pants were surreptitiously obtained from a tailor, with whom he had left them to be mended ; and three full grown men invested themselves within their ample fold?, adjusting their right and left legs in the corresponding legs of the garment — and after some prac- tice in the lock step, were able to march around the east village green, to the great entertainment of the public. The fit of the garment, however, to the triple nondescript, was not perfect, — there being room within the girth for another legless body. Jonathan was self-important, and affected sanctimony. He gave up the show business, and took to distributing tracts and bejrain" - for cinder- bread and other sweet food, — was advertised as an impostor, and died in a poor house. Byron may have had his epitaph in view when he wrote, " 'Tis Greece, but living Greece no more." Tiieodore Smith, from Goshen, first lived on Brooks street, in the Danbury quarter, south of, and adjoining the Asaph Brooks farm. In 1803, he removed to Winsted, and lived until 1815, in the house now torn down on the discontinued part of the old Colebrook road, between Junius Gillett, and Anson Fosket's. He removed thence to Tolland, Mass. He was son of Chileab, of Goshen, and half-brother of Capt. Zebina, of "Winsted. His wife's name was Rhoda. They had sons, Erastus, late of Colebrook ; Riley, who cl. June 4, 18G5, in Winsted, on the Old Country road, west of Daniel B. Wilson's, leaving two sons, who live at Riverton. Roswell living on Wallen's Hill, and Lorrain living over the line in Barkhamsted. Henry Sanford, from Barkhamsted, lived first on South street, and after 1801, in a log house on Hinsdale street, on land lately owned by Nathan Champion. He left the town about 1805. His son, William Sanford, kept the Tavern and Livery Stable, south of Camp's Block, for several years before his death, which occurred Jan. 20, 1859, at the age of 53 years. He m. (1st) Sophronia, dan. of Stephen Fyler, who d. May 7,1832, aged 32; (2d), Harriet Wade, now living. By first wife he 43 338 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, had daughter, Jane, now wife of George M. Wentworth. By second wife, he had a son, William. 1800. The new comers of this year were Bissell Hinsdale, Philemon Kirk- ham, Josiah Apley, Elijah Benedict, Nathaniel Smith, Solomon Lemley, Jacob Lemley, William Davis, and Gedeliah Chase. Bissell Hinsdale, a native of Windsor, began mercantile business on the old North Country road in Colebrook, near the Rowley Pond, whence he this year removed to Winsted, and built the store which was removed about 1848, to make room for the brick block, at the corner of Main and Lake streets. Here he carried on a large and for many years a prosperous business, — selling goods, buying and slaughtering cattle for the West India trade, making potash and buying cheese for the New York and Southern markets. He bought the gambrel-roofed house, built by Mr. Kirkham on the site of Weed's brick block, where he lived until 1814, when he built and occupied the house removed by Doctor Welch from the ground now occupied by the Second m Congregational Church. In 1826 he became involved in the failure of his brothers, J. & D. Hinsdale, of Middletown, on whose paper he was indorser to a large amount, and thereby his business was broken up, and his property swept away. He continued to reside in AVinsted until about 1842, when, after the death of his son, Theodore Hinsdale, he removed to Rochester, N. Y., where his two daughters resided, and where he carried on a com- mission business for several years. He died at Rochester, in February, 1866, aged ninety-one years, and his remains were buried in Winsted. Mr. Hinsdale was a thoroughly trained merchant of the old school, — large of frame, dignified and reserved in manner — diligent in business, a stern but indulgent parent, a firm supporter of good order and good morals. He made a profession of religion at middle age, which he sus- tained by a consistent life, and verified by a steady growth in Christian graces to the close of life. He was liberal in the support of education and religion, kind to the poor, and firm for the right. If there were those who considered him overbearing in his prosperous days, their hos- tility was disarmed by his patience in adversity, his cheerful acquiescence in his altered circumstances, and his blameless life. For many years after removing to Rochester he annually visited his family friends in Winsted, and was greeted with reverent regard by all who had known him in his earlier years. The infirmities of age abated not his loving trust in his Saviour. He was gathered to his fathers as a shock of corn fully ripe. AND FAMILY KEC011DS. 339 The following line of families shows his descent from an early settler of New England : — Robert Hinsdale 1 was one of the founders of the church at Ded- ham, Mass., November 8, 1G38, freeman of Mass., March 13, 1639; member of the Artillery Company, 1645; had wife Ann; removed to Medfield, Mass., where he aided in forming the church ; thence, as early as 1672, to Hadley, Mass., where he lived several years, and married (2d) Elizabeth, widow of John Hawks ; removed to Deerfield, Mass., where he was gathering his harvest in the cornfield, and was killed, with his sons, Barnabas, John, and Samuel, when Captain Lathrop, with the flower of Essex, fell at Bloody Brook, surprised by the Indians, Sept. 18, 1675. His widow married (3d) Thomas Dibble. CHILDREN. I. Elizabeth, 2 m. July 7, 1657, James Rising of Boston. II. Barnabas, 2 b. November 13, 1G39; bap. November 17, 1639. III. Samuel, 2 birth record not found; m. Mehitabel Johnson, and had six children before he was killed by the Indians. IV. Gamaliel 2 , (supposed by Savage to be a mistake for Samuel), b. March 5, 1642; bap. March 13, 1642. V. Mary, 2 b. February 14, 1644 - ; bap. February 25, 1644. VI. Experience, 2 b. January 23, 1646 ; bap. February 8, 1646. VII. John, 2 b. January 27, 1648; bap. April 16, 1648. VIII. Epuraim, 2 b. September 26, 1650 ; bap. October 27, 1650. Barnabas Hinsdale, 2 of Hatfield, Mass., married October 15, 1666, Sarah (White) Taylor, daughter of John and Mary White, and widow of Stephen Taylor. He was slain by the Indians, September 18, 1675. CniLDREN. I. Barnabas, 3 b. Hatfield, February 20, 1668. II. Sarah, 3 b. — ; m. January 8,1691, Deacon Samuel Hall of East Middletown, now Chatham. Conn. III. Elizabeth, 3 b. October 29, 1671"; d. March 8, 1672. IV. Isaac, 3 b. September 15, 1673. V. Mary, 3 b. March 27, 1677. Barnabas Hinsdale' 3 was admitted an inhabitant of Hartford, Conn., in 1693, and died there January 25, 1725, aged 57. He married, November 9, 1693, Martha Smith of Hartford, who died December — , 1738, aged 68. CHILDREN. I. Barnabas, 4 b. August 28, 1694 ; settled in Tolland, Conn. II. Martha, 4 b. February 17, 1C96; m. November 9, 1736, Thomas Bull of Harwinton, Conn., and d. April 15, 1761. III. Jacob, 4 b. July 14, 1698. 340 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, IV. SARAH, 4 b. July 22, 1700; m. Nathaniel White [see "White Memo- rials," pp. 32-3, and 49]. V. Elizabeth, 4 b. January 9, 1702; m. April 4, 1728, Jacob Benton of Harwinton. VI. Mary, 1 b. July 13, 1704 ; m. March 30, 1738, James Skinner, Jr. VII. John, 4 b. August 13, 1700. VIII. Daniel, 4 b. May 15, 1708; m. August 21, 1737, Catharine Curtis of Wcthersfiehi, who was buried April 12, 1788, aged 68. He was a deacon; lived in Hartford; buried Septemhcr 13, 1781, aged 73. IX. Amos, 4 b. August 24, 1710; m. Experience — , who d. May 4, 1781, aged Gl. Captain John Hinsdale 4 married, November 8, 1733, Elizabeth Cole, born March 18, 1711 ; she died July 1, 1784, aged 73. He lived in Kensington, now Berlin, Conn., and died December 2, 1792, aged 86. CHILDREN. I. John, 5 b. August 19, 1734 ; d. October 13, 1743. II. Elizabeth, 5 b. June 29, 173G ; m. David Atkins of Middletown. III. Theodore, 5 b. November 25, 1738. IV. Lucv, 5 b. July 16, 1741 ; m. Samuel Plumb of Middletown; d. Ecb. — , 1791. V. Elijah, 5 b. April 1, 1744^ m. Ruth Bidwell; had a daughter Eliza- bctb, who was the mother of Elijah Hinsdale Burritt, the astronomer, and of Elihu Burritt, " the learned blacksmith." VI. Lydia, 5 b. August 11, 1747 ; m. Samuel Hart of Berlin, and was the mother of Mrs. Emma Willard, and of Mrs. Almira-Lincoln Phelps, each of them widely known as an instructress and authoress. VII. John, 5 b. August 21, 1749. Theodore Hinsdale 5 graduated Yale College, 1762 ; was ordained pastor of the church at North AVindsor, April 30, 1766 ; married July 14, 1768, Anna Bissell, born March 11, 1748. They removed to Hins- dale, Mass., which town was named in his honor, where she died, March 14, 1817, in her 69th year. He died December 29, 1818, aged 80 years. CHILDREN. I. Anne (Nancy) , b. April 16, 1769; d. Troy, N. Y., May 16, 1851. II. Lucy, b. December 31, 1770 ; d. March 21, 1792. III. Theodore, 6 b. November 12, 1772; d. October 14, 1855. IV. Josiah Bissell, b. November 15, 1774; he discarded the first name " Josia'.!," and was always known as Bissell. V. James, b. September 28, 1776; d. September 28, 1777. VI. John, 1). November 10, 1778; d. Brooklyn, N. Y., March 13, 185G. VII. Levi, b. November 29, 1780 ; d. February 19, 1S30. VIII. Altamiua, 6 b. November 8, 1782; m. — Emmons; she d. at Princeton, N. J., November 11, 1836. AND FAMILY RECORDS . 341 IX. Daniel, b. March 22, 1785; d. at Rising Sun, la., May 4, 1837. X. Horatio, 6 b. November 3, 1787; d. April 9, 1813. XI. William, 6 b. March 5, 1790. John Hinsdale 5 married Philomela Hurlbut, daughter of Dr. James Harvey, and — (Hart) Hurlbut. She died in 1790, aged 3G years. He died at Berlin, Conn., December 9, 1795. CHILDREN. I. Rosea, 6 b. Berlin, Conn., February 15, 1775. [Sec 1802.] II. Abigail, 6 b. — ; m. Wm. Benham ; settled in West Hartford. III. Esther, 6 b. — ; m. Amos Hills of Farmington ; d. at Cabot, Vt. IV. Amelia, 6 b. — ; m. Anson Cook ; had five children. V. Nancy, 6 b. — ; m. Norman Spencer ; lived in Winchester, and in Ypsilanti, Mich. ; had seven children. Bissell Hinsdale married Temperance Pitkin, born May 8, 1772, daughter of Rev. Timothy and Temperance (Clap) Pitkin. She died August 13, 1817. He died at Rochester, N. Y., February G, I860. CHILDREN. I. Theodore, 7 b. Colebrook, Conn., December 27, 1800. II. Ann, 7 b. W., Oct. 16, 1802; m. September 12, 1825, Fred. Whittlesey of Rochester. III. Mary Pitkin, 7 b. January 10, 1806 ; m. September 21, 1829, Selah Matthews of Rochester. IV. Timothy Pitkin, 7 b. May 5, 1809; d. February 5, 1810. V. Charles, 7 b. May 23, 1812; d. March 1, 1814. Theodore Hinsdale, Esq., son of Bissell, graduated at Yale College in 1821, read law for a biit j f period with Seth P. Staples, Esq., of New Haven, and afterwards studied at Andover for one or two years ; and in 1827 went into manufacturing business with his father-in-law, in the firm name of Rockwell & Hinsdale, successors of the Rockwell Brothers, who for nearly fifty years had conducted the same business. After the death of Mr. Rockwell in 1837, he was associated in the same business with the late Elliot Beardsley, deceased, in the firm name of Hinsdale & Beardsley until his death. As a business man, he manifested great energy and executive ability ; while as "a citizen he was prominent and influential in advocating every good cause, and leading others by his activity and ardor. Gifted with a commanding person, a fascinating manner, and a native oratory, he became widely known and admired, and was sought as presiding officer or prominent speaker in the largest public gatherings in the coun- ty and State. 342 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, In the meridian of his manhood, with a career of distinguished useful- ness and honor in prospect, he was struck down by typhoid fever, and died Nov. 27, 1841, in the fortieth year of his age. He married, April 26, 1826, Jerusba Rockwell, born March 28, 1803, daughter of Solomon and Sarah (McEwen) Rockwell. After his death she married (2d), Dec. 10, 1843, John Boyd. CHILDREN. I. Sarah McEwen, 8 b. April 2, 1827 ; d. in New London, Aug. 17, 1833. II. Maky Pitkin, 8 b. Dec. 11, 1828. III. Solomon Rockwell, 8 b. Aug. 25, 1835; m. in Baltimore, Md., Jan. 26, 1864, Julia Mcrritt Jackson; b. in N. Y., Aug. 4, 1840, daughter of Samuel and Julia Ann (Brown) Jackson. He has a son, Theodore Rockwell, 9 b. in Ellenville, Prince Georges County, Md., Jan. 31, 1865. Philemon Kibkum, Esq., attorney at law, came from Norfolk to Winsted in 1800, and built a house on the site of Weed's Blcck, which was burned down March 25, 1853. He soon sold this house to Bissell Hinsdale, and in 1807 he built the original house on the lot next north of the Congregational Chapel, which was taken clown by Dr. Welch to make room for his present dwelling. In this house he lived until his re- moval to Norton, Ohio, in 1814. He was a native of Guilford, Conn., — served for four or five years in the revolutionary war, afterwards studied law with Augustus Pettibone, Esq., of Norfolk, and was in due course ad- mitted to the Litchfield bar. Tall of stature, erect of form, imposing in manner, fluent of speech, imaginative and impetuous, a Jeffersonian of the first water, he was a man of note in Northern Litchfield County. As a lawyer, he was well read, ingenious in argument, and oratorial in manner. The drawback to his professional success, and the blemish of his life, was an excitable and uncontrollable temper, mounting at times to frenzy. His competitors at the bar, when unable to cope with him in argument, not unfrequenfly con- trived to arouse his passions, thereby upsetting his argumentative facul- ties and destroying his self-control. He eventually withdrew from the bar, and limited his practice to Justice Courts. He was the sole representative of the Democratic party in the village during its early growth. His neighbors were straight-haired Federalists. He was thoroughly indoctrinated and saturated with the principles of liberty and equality. The Democratic farmers, on the surrounding hills, looked to him as the advocate and defender of their political faith, and the organizei of their party. It was deemed necessary that a Democratic store should be got up in opposition to the Federal s!ore of Mr. Hins- dale. Some twenty of his friends furnished the capital and made Mr. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 343 Kirkum the managing partner. The Federals owned or controlled every foot of ground on Main street from George Dudley's down to Clifton Mill bridge, and would not, for love or money, allow the new store to he built on the street — consequently the gambrel-roofed building west of the Lake street bridge was erected and stocked with goods. A large, fanci- ful sign-board on the eastern gable, announced that " Philemon Kirkum & Co.," were prepared to sell goods to their friends and the world at large. It was the first sign-board ever erected in Winsted, and it made a sensation. The twenty partners, as they had spare time, were in atten- dance, to see the working of the new institution, and to discuss the politi- cal issues of the day. Crowds of customers and idlers were attracted to the " free and easy " establishment, and captivated by the principles there inculcated. It was soon decided to expand the business, and the building in the East village, now occupied by Mr. Bird, was erected for a branch store. A business so auspiciously inaugurated did not fulfill its promise. Clouds began to obscure its horizon. The partners began to perceive that a free and equal distribution of worldly goods, to customers unable or unwilling to pay for them, brought no percentage of profit, and an inadequate return for meeting the bills payable, and revoked his agency. Mr. Kirkum was found to be too imaginative and unsystematic for a country merchant ; but his integrity was unimpeached. He resumed practice as a lawyer in a small way — talked philosophy, wrote poetry, made political speeches, and rode his old white horse as if he were channirjr the ranks of Cornwallis at Yorktown. His tall, erect figure and soldierly gait, combined with fluency of speech, rising at times to real eloquence, made him a man to be noted among thousands. In 1814, as. before stated, he left our village, with his wife and son and worldly goods, in a covered wagon drawn by a pair of oxen, and wended his weary way to the Western Reserve, where he invested the small avails of his Winsted property in an uncleared but now valuable farm, located in Norton, Ohio, which he occupied. and im- proved during his remaining life, and left to his worthy grandson, Charles Coe, Esq., who was his stay and comfort in his declining years. A change of residence and associations essentially modified his peculiarities and smoothed down his sharp angularity of character. He diversified his farm labor with occasional law practice, and in his later years became a most popular "stump speaker " in the Harrison and subsequent campaigns. Mr. Kirkum failed to square his sharp cut principles of Democracy with slavery propagandism. He saw with loathing the political ascendency of the South and the knuckling of the North, and would none of it. He watched the progress of events with deep sorrow, and predicted the bloody issue which he did not live to see. He died in 1855 at the age of 91 years. Age had not bent his erect form, nor scattered his flowing gray 344 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, locks, which he wore in a revolutionary cue or club until the last years of his life. His teeth, with one exception, continued sound and white as long as he lived. His wife was a Mills, of Ea*t Windsor, who died before him. They had a daughter Eliza who married Eben Coe, son of Jonathan 2 in the Coe Genealogy ; and a son George who became a highly esteemed member of the liar in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, and died not far from 1860, leaving one or more children. Josiaii Apley, from Torrington, this year bought a house and land on the hill road to Colebrook, north of Nelson Beardsley, where he lived until his return to Torrington in 1804. He married, Feb. 4, 1795, Elizabeth, daughter of Chauncey Mills. Elijah Benedict, a blacksmith, came in this year, and worked in a shop on the west side of Lake street, opposite the old lean-todiouse, in which he resided. After two or three years he moved out of the town. He returned about 1810, and after remaining about five years, removed to the West. His first wife died during his second residence here, and he married (2d) Lovina, dau. of Simeon Moore. He had children by his first wife, Gershom, Hepzibah, and Ketuka, and perhaps others. Nathaniel Smith is found on the tax list of this year, and in 1801 he purchased land in the vicinity of Everett C. Holmes, on which he lived until his sale of the same in 1806 to Zebina Smith. Solomon Lemly, a forgeman, came from Colebrook this year, and lived in a house, now torn down, on Lake street, above the parting of the new Winchester road, until about 1815, when he moved to Salisbury. He had a brother, Jacob Lemly, who came here the following year, and lived in a house now torn down, adjacent to Hurlbut's forge dam, until his death, about 1815. They were of Low Dutch extraction, and each had a large family of children, most of whom were named in pairs, — distinguished from each other by taking their patronynim Christian name as a surname. There was a John Solomon and John Jacob, Hannah Solomon and a Hannah Jacob, a Sol. Sol. and a Jake Jake, and a like duplication of Sally and Polly. No descendants of either family remain in the town. William Davis first appears on the list of this year. He lived on West Lake street, in a small house then standing in front of the first house west of the lake outlet, until his death in 1805. His wife was a Hancock, from Southwick, Mass. They had two dau., Lucy and Sally, who m. Timothy and Alpheus Persons, — and a son. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 345 Lyman, who went to Clayville, N. Y., about 1820, and probably died there. Gedeliaft Chase, a miller, came from New Hartford to Winsted in 1799 or 1800, and took charge of the Austin Mill, living in the old lean- to Mill House on Lake street, near the lake outlet, until his removal to Old Winchester about 1807, where he afterwards resided most of his remaining life. He was b. Nov. 28, 1761, and d. July 4, 1832. He m. Nov. 11, 1790, Rebecca , b. July 14, 1768. CHILDREN. I. George, b. Ap. 18, 1792. V.Reuben, b. March 28, 1800. II. Charlotte, b. Aug. 15, 1794. VI. Harriet, b. May 8, 1804. III. Dudley, b. Aug. 30, 1796. VII. Jerusiia, b. June 20, 1810. IV. Betsey, b. May 22, 1798. VIII. Horace, b. Oct. 24, 1812. 44 CHAPTER XXIV. ANCIENT AND MODERN WINSTED.— ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. In tracing the settlement of the Winsted section of the town, we have thus far made no mention of the Ecclesiastical Society of Winsted as an organized body. Its religious services up to this period were mainly held beyond the eastern border of the town. Its first meeting-house was there erected, and the first minister there ordained and settled. Its original members were residents along the old North Country road and its vicinity, a larger -portion of them in Winchester and a considerable number in Barkhamsted. f To modern Winsted, its origin and growth, its struggles and dissensions prior to 1801, would seem a myth, did not its quaint old records avouch the reality of its history. These records begin with a society meeting lawfully warned and held March 17, 1778, at the dwelling-house of John Balcom, by a warrant granted by Matthew Gillett, justice of the peace, dated seven days earlier. Of this meeting John Wright was chosen moderator, and Eleazer Kellogg clerk ; and Isaac Kellogg, Josiah Smith and John Balcom were appointed committee men ; and it was voted that the annual meetings of the society should be holden on the second Monday of December annually, and that warnings therefor should be set up at Austin's Mill, Abram Callers' shop, and at the crotch of the road that goes from John Wright's to Lemuel Walters, twelve days before such meeting. Another meeting, held September 15 of the same year, voted that the money paid to Mr. Porter and to Mr. Ausbon for preaching, and also the money due Mr. Balcom for boarding Mr. Ausbon, should be paid out of a tax when collected. At the annual meeting of this year it was voted " that a meeting be warned to see if this society are a mind to be made a distinct town." The same subject was brought up at various sub- sequent meetings, but no definite action appears to have resulted. At the annual meeting in 1780 the matter of locating and building a meeting-house seems to have been first agitated : and it was voted " that we w T ill git the original plans of Winchester and Barkhamsted, and apply to Cornal Shelding to find the middle of this society, and if he cant by them give us the senter, then to measure the bounds of this society, the said FAMILY RECORDS. 347 Shelding to measure, and that this society will pay the cost to Cornal Shelding for doing the business for said society, and that Lieut. John "Wright to see the Bisness done." The subject was resumed May 24, 1782, when it was voted "that we do try to agree to pitch a stake for a meeting-house," and " that we apply to the next county court for a com- mittee to pitch a stake for our meeting-house," and that we nominate Esq. Asaph Hall of Goshen, Major Jiles Pettibone of Norfolk, and Esq. En- sign of Hartland." In December, 1792, Col. Sheldon was substituted for Esq. Ensign on this committee, and at a meeting, August 25, 1783, it w 7 as voted " to establish the stake for our meeting-house where it now stands pitched by Col. Shelding, Major Pettibone and Esq. Hall, and that Ensign Jesse Doolittle shall go and make returns to the Honorable County Court of our voting the establishment of our meeting-house stake." This looked like an auspicious beginning of the constructive work of the society, but the appearance was deceptive. A meeting was called, Dec. 22, 1783, '"to see if the society will go on to bild our meeting-house where the stake now stands," and the question was decided in the negative. On the 2d of February, 1784, it was voted "that we chuse a comitte to go and view the society and se if we can't pitch a stake for ourselves ; " and December, 1784, it was voted "to go on and build a meting-house at the stake pitched by the committee " the house to be 45 by 35 feet and a suitable height for galleries ; and a tax of sixpence on the pound was laid for defraying expenses. This again looked hopeful ; but at a meeting in January, 1785, the hopeful project was knocked in the head by a vote "that all the bisness voated" in the previous meeting "be holy set aside consarning bilding a meeting house in this society." On the 9th of May, 1786, another committee, consisting of Capt. Josiah Smith, Nathaniel Russell, Ensign Jesse Doolittle, Othniel Brainart, Capt. Robert Whitford, and Sergt. Reuben Sweet pitched a stake at the "West end of Jonathan Sweet's lot, where it was voted by more than two-thirds to build the house. In June following it was decided to build a house 50 by 40 feet with height in proportion, and that an agent be sent to the county court to get the stake established. Again the project was nullified by a vote of Sept. 4, 178G, " that we will not send an agent to 4he County Court." Another stake- pitching committee was appointed Sept. 25, 1786, which seems to have performed its duty. In October following it was voted " that this meeting be adjourned to the place where the committee have prefixed for to build a meeting-house ; " and it was there " voted, by more than two-thirds, that we will bild a meeting house where the committe have pitched the stake." Although this vote of more than two-thirds was solemnly taken on the very ground " prefixed by the committe, yet subse- 348 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, quent records show that the stake would not yet stay pitched. But, before tracing these measures to a final result, it is fitting to advert to other occurrences in the history of the Society. Up to 1786, preaching was had at irregular intervals, and no money raised by taxation for its support. Individuals seem to have advanced money, and to have found difficulty in getting it refunded. The Society, in 1780, voted "to make up the sink of money due individuals for ad- vancements, according to Congress scale." In 1782, May 14, it was voted to hire preaching, and " that the committe do advise where to apply for a candidate," and that Lieut. Josiah Smith be appointed to read the Psalm on Sabbath days, and that Eleaser Kellogg read the Psalms when Lieut. Smith is absent. In 1783 it was voted to have preaching in the summer, and in the fall a tax of seven pounds was voted " to be applied for the youse of supporting singing." A committee was aLo chosen " to regulate the singing in this society on the Sabbath-day, and to introduce such tunes as they shall think proper to be sung on Sabbath days ; " and it was also voted that preaching should continue during the winter. It might be inferred, that with preaching summer and winter, and the support and regulation of singing under the supervision of three choristers and a committee to introduce tunes proper to be sung on the Sabbath, harmony and concert of action might have been promoted : but stakes could not be pitched and voted on so often without moral friction. Heart- burning and dissensions prevailed to such a degree that in October, 1785, a mutual council consisting of Rev. Messrs. Taylor of New Milford, Can- field of Roxbury, Huntington of Middlebury, Belclen of Newington and Smalley of New Britain, was called to advise with the church and society in regard to the subsisting difficulties. The records fail to show the re- sult, if any was reached. Harmony, in any event, was not restored. Meetings were frequent, and contradictory in action. Votes passed at one stage of a meeting were not infrequently voted down before adjourn- ment, and the doings of one meeting were undone by another. The meetings were often protracted into the night, and unfair advantages taken in carrying measures at a late hour, that could not be accomplished in a full meeting. To correct some of these irregularities a standing rule was adopted about this time, "that no vote should be put after sunset for the futer, except the business so drive them that they find it necessary, and passed a vote to continue the same before sunset." Another vote re- quired " that all accounts against the society shall be brought to the annual meeting yearly, or shall be forfeit for the futer, except it be made to ap- pear that it could not be done." The following votes illustrate the way of doing business in committee AND FAMILY RECOKDS. 349 of the whole, under the new rule, and show an example of thoroughness worthy of all imitation : Voted, Elkana Phelps, £1, lis., 4d. for boarding Mr. Fowler eleven sabbaths. Voted, Eleanor Kellogg, £9, Gs., Od. for the youse of his house. Voted, Enoch Palmer for boarding ministers and house room for hold- ing meetings sabbath days, £1, 9s. Voted, Elisha Mallory for boarding Mr. Beach 1 week, 4 days, 12s. Voted, Capt. Josiah Smith, for boarding Mr. Hitchcock and other min- isters 3i- weeks, and keeping their horses, £1, Gs. 3d. Voted, Ensign Doolittle for going to Torringford to get Mr. Edmund Mills to preach hear, 3s. Voted, Samuel Hayden for holding meetings in his house for 28 Sab- baths, £2, 2s. Voted, That those that board ministers in the summer season, and keep their horses for the futer, be allowed 7s. Gd. a week. The pitching of stakes for a meeting house having been played out in 178G, it was thought best to defer the building of a meeting house, and to settle a minister; and accordingly, at the annual meeting of the year, it was "voted, by more than two-thirds, that we give Mr. Parsons a call, in order to a settlement." It was also voted to give him a salary of forty pounds a year, and the use of two hundred pounds as a Settlement. A committee was also appointed to purchase a place or settlement for the use of the minister of the value of about £200, to be holden as the prop- erty of the society. The church having united with the society in a call to Rev. Stephen Parsons to settle with them in the gospel ministry, his reply was laid before the society on the 12th of March, 1787 ; whereupon it was voted to settle Mr. Parsons agreeable to his Ritten Answer, which is as fol- lows, viz : March ye 11th, 1787. To the CJiurch and Society of Winsted, wishing grace, mercy and peace to be multiplied unto you. Having taken into consideration the call you gave me to settle with you in the work of the Gospel Ministry, as it appears to me a matter of great importance that I am lead by the Spirit of God in the right way to promote the general cause of God in the world. I thought it my duty to give you some idea of my present profession and principles, respecting Christian fellowship and connection with churches. As to my profession it is what is called, in this state, a strict congrega- tionalist : and my connexions are with the ministers and churches of that 350 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, denomination, which appears to me the nearest to the rule given in God's word, of any within the compass of my acquaintance, — on which account I can by no means renounce my connection with them. Yet I could heartily wish the wall of partition between the different denominations was broken down, that all the true friends of Christ were united in one army, under the glorious captain of our salvation, against the kingdom of Satan, the prince of darkness. Wherefore, I think it my duty to maintain and cultivate liberal sentiments, and hold fellowship with all those who appear to practice and love the truth ; and if I was to receive an ordina- tion, I should choose to apply to a number of ministers of different de- nominations, not exceeding that of my own. If the church and society in this place can receive me on these princi- ples, and there is a prospect of their being united so that I may be use- ful in this part of the vineyard of Christ, and at the same time promote the general good of mankind, it appears to be my duty to comply with your call. Otherwise, I have no desire to be received, by giving up my principles, or renouncing my connections. I close with subscribing my- self, yours to serve in the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. STEPHEN PARSONS. Why this acceptance of the call did not result in the settlement of Mr. Parsons, does not appear. It may have been frustrated by a conflict of views between the candidate and the consociation, in regard to church order and fellowship. It only appears on record that the church and society, on the 18th of April, 1787, voted "to continue the call to Mr. Parsons to settle with us in the Gospel Ministry. The Parsonage Lot, which, a few years after, became a subject of fatal contention, was purchased at this time, and a tax was laid to provide the first payment therefor, and a parsonage house was soon after erected thereon, and so far finished as to serve as a place of worship until a meet- ing house should be located and erected. It stood east of Barkhamsted line, at the intersection of road from the clock factory, with the Old Country road, was occupied successively, by Rev. Mr. Woodvvorth, Moses Haydon, Isaac Brown and others, and was torn down many years ago. The location of a meeting house site was again attempted this year [1787]. A stake was pitched; and the society voted that they "be agreed to build," etc., but no building was built, and no further steps were taken in that direction until 1791. The records during this interval show the progress of events and the nature of the business transacted. A better knowledge of the law of stake pitching and other ecclesiastical matters, was provided for by the purchase of a Society Law Book, and a quire of paper " to keep accompts AND FAMILY RECORDS. 35 on." The Law Book was ordered to be kept two months at David An- stus', two months at Nathan Wheeler's, two months at Othniel Brainard's, two months at Sergt. Jonas Weed's, two months at Enoch Palmer's, and two months at Zebina Smith's ; and other regulations were adopted for a general diffusion of legal knowledge. An application to the Assembly was voted for a Land Tax " to better enable us to pay for the Parsonage Lot, and to build a Meeting House," — and then a vote was passed " that we will build a meeting house if we can be agreed on a place." In August, 1791, Rev. Ezra Woodworth preached in the society as a candidate, and a sharp negotiation soon followed, with reference to his settlement. No little diplomatic skill was found requisite to adjust the terms. Mr. Woodworth wanted an absolute conveyance to himself of the Parsonage Lot as a part of the bargain. A large portion of the society, on the other hand, were strenuously opposed to alienating the property to a minister, whose long stay with them would be very preca- rious. The minister carried his point, and on the 7th of November the society decided to make the conveyance in accordance with his demand, and the compact was completed. On the loth December a committee was chosen to proceed with the ordination, and the 18th of January, 1792, was assigned for the ill-omened ceremony. In the mean time, deep trouble in regard to the hard bargain of Mr. Woodworth with the society, was daily becoming more manifest. Six days before the ordination a meeting was called, and a committee appointed " to go and see if Mr. Woodworth will make any alterations as to his settle- ment or not," and another committee was appointed " to appear before the Ordaining Council, and oppose the opposition, if any there be, against his ordination." Four days after, another meeting was called " to see if the society will make any alterations as to giving our Society Farm as a settlement to Mr. Woodworth," and a committee of six was appointed to converse with him, and agree on some different plan of settlement. The interview resulted in the following change of terms, committed to writing : " Whereas, there is a dissatisfaction in some persons' minds in the pro- posals made to Mr. Woodworth in respect to his settlement, and in order to form a better union, propose to exchange the terms of the same as fol- lows, viz; to except of the yuse of said farm as a Parsonage with the house and barn, said farm to be appraised by indifferent men when he re- ceives the same, and also when he resigns the same, and the betterments, if any there be to be allowed to him or his heirs, and the property to be kept good, to be as a settlement in the room of receiving the property of said farm as in the former plan : the vallew of said former proposals of settle- 352 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, ment being made equal thereto, to be determined by the judgment of in- different men, to be paid in neat cattle in the spring, or fat cattle in the fall, as agreed on, and the salary to remain as in the former proposals. Dated Winsted, Jan. y e 16th, 1792. Ezra Wood worth, Nath. Crowe, Elkena Phelps, "William Moore. This agreement removed all hindrance to the ordination, which took place on the day appointed. Had the agreement -been adhered to in good faith, it is more than probable that harmony would have been restored ; and that the faithful ministrations of a pastor valuing the souls of his flock more than their fleeces, would have strengthened the walls and en- larged the borders of this feeble Zion. Mr. Woodworth, now invested with the pastoral office, had a field for eminent usefulness. An inviolate adherence to the terms of adjustment effected two days before his ordination, was a dictate alike of policy and duty : but he and his adherents seem to have thought otherwise. A meeting of the society was called, April G, 1792, which voted to reconsider the prior vote of Jan. 1G, by which the tenure of the society par- sonage lot was changed, and that Mr. Woodworth should be put into pos- session of the same according to the terms first agreed on. The society, though hitherto divided as to the location of their meeting- house, seems to have acted harmoniously in other matters ; and nearly all were of the standing order : but this breach of faith on the part of the minister and his adherents produced irremediable discord. Certificates of withdrawal began to be handed in by seceding members, most of wdiom connected themselves with the infant Methodist and Baptist churches in the vicinity. Endeavors were made to recall members already withdrawn, and to prevent others from withdrawing, by an offer of the minister to relinquish a portion of his salary for the five coming years, but without avail. Secession went on until many of the best and ablest members of the church and society had identified themselves with other denominations. Notwithstanding this debilitated and distracted condition of the society, the adhering members resumed the project of locating and building a meeting-house, as the only means of sustaining their position. They voted, Sept. 14, 1792, not to build at the stake established by law, where- ever that might have been, and " to see if the sosiaty will Be willing to Bild a meeting-house at the senter of the land of the sosiaty, allowing those things that ought to be considered to draw from the same its due and proper weight ; " then followed a vote to build on " a certain nole of AND FAMILY RECORDS. 353 land at the "West end of Mr. "Woodworth's land, as near the town line as the ground will admit of;" and (hen a committee of nine men was ap- pointed to pitch a stake and apply to the Assembly to establish the same. The committee thus appointed reported to an adjourned meeting, October 2, as follows : "To the Inhabitants of the Society of Winsted, convened at the usual place by us, the 2d day of October, 1792 : " Whereas, we, the subscribers, being appointed a Com. at the last special meting, to fix a Stake on a Sertain Spot of Ground near the town line, so called, on the Rev. Mr. Woodworth's lot, at the most convenient spot to erect a meating-house for the inhabitants of said society near tli3 town line, in consequence of our appointment, we, on the above said 2d day of October, repaired to said place, and after taking into the mosto mature and Deliberate consideration, all those matters and circumstances that ought to be considered according to the besl information gained and our ability, we are of opinion that the Sartain spot of ground is situated near the heighth of said nele upon said lot, or near the south end to Beach Stake and Stones cast up, to be the most convenient and commodious place for the same, and have fixed the above said stake and stones, and marked the same on the particular spot of ground which we have estab- lished for said purpose, the day and date above certifyed by us, the day and date above." This lucid report wa<=, by vote, "excepted," and measures were taken to get the place established by the Assembly. Measures were also taken to ascertain the size and length of timber required, and to see bow cheap they could pet some man to build the house, and a tax of a shilling on the pound was laid. The Beach Stake, now planted, marked, reported, and accepted, was destined to stand. A day was fixed for the people to meet for the purpose of finding stone and laying the under-pinning. It was also voted that the people will find cake and cheese by free donation for refreshment at raising the meeting-house. At this stage of the proceedings, another attempt was made to conciliate "those of the society that think themselves agreaved as to giving away the society's farm," &c, by submitting the matters of grievance to arbitra- tion, but no conclusion was reached. The meeting house was raised, cov- ered in and floored in season for the Annual Meeting, Nov. 25, 1793. It stood on the south border of a grove near the east and we-t road, between the late residence of Harris Brown, deceased, and the old country road. It was 5') feet long, 40 feet broad, and two stories high, without tower or steeple, a very unpretending and short-lived sanctuary. No traces of it now remain except a large stone horse-block. It was sold and taken 45 354 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, down, when the present house of worship was first erected. Some of its timbers were worked into the original building of the East Village Hotel. The doings of the Society have now been brought down to 1793, a period of fifteen years. It took twelve years of controversy to locate a meeting house, and it might have required a dozen years more had not the intervening contest about the settlement of a minister led to the withdrawal of some twenty members. The unfinished church opened its doors to a congregation, small in numbers, disheartened by long dissen- tions, and unable to sustain the burdens they had assumed. The records of the following seven years indicate the quiet of exhaustion rather than the prevalence of Christian graces. Taxes were more easily laid than collected. New names from time to time appear on the records, but the accessions brought no element of strength to the Society as then con- stituted and located, for the new comers were mainly from the Still River valley, now filling up with settlers interested in a transfer of the meeting house to their vicinity. Patient endurance of the burden of supporting a grasping minister had its limit. At the annual meeting in 1797 it was voted " to choose a committee of five to treat with Rev. Mr. Woodworth, to see what measures can be come into on account of the burthen the Society is under as to paying his salary, and whether he is willing for a dismission or not." This vole was followed by another in December following, " to choose a committee, with power to agree with Rev. Mr. Woodworth on his dismission, and that said committee allow him no more than the Society's former contracts." This committee arranged with the pastor that the existing connection should be dissolved at the expiration of the year, and that the Society should pay and confirm all contracts with Mr. Wood- worth, and what should be found due him to be paid or secured by notes of hand on demand. It was also voted to call a dismissing council on the 9th of January, 1798. The result of this council is not recorded, but the dismission took place at or near the date specified. Mr. Wood- worth was afterwards settled at Whitestown, near Utica, N. Y., for several years. His subsequent history is unknown. In January, 1799, Rev. Salmon King, after preaching as a candidate for settlement, received a call, which he declined, and in October follow- ing a call was voted to Rev. Noah Simons, but was not accepted. About this time Rev. Aaron Kinney was employed and continued to supply the pulpit for four or five years. Hitherto the old north road had been the great thoroughfare of travel for the adjoining region, and a large portion of our inhabitants had settled along its borders, on Wallen's Hill, and northwestward to Cole- brook line, and the location of the meeting house best suited their con- AND FAMILY RECORDS. 355 venience. But near the close of the century the water power of the Still River and Mad River valleys began to attract manufacturers to those secluded and comparatively inaccessible regions. The Green Woods turnpike, a shorter and far more level line of travel than the old road over the hills, was opened in 1799. It at once diverted all the long travel from the hill road and opened a direct access to the valleys. Hamlets grew up around the Doolittle and Austin Mills. The Wallen's Hill meeting house ceased to be central, and it became apparent that the young and energetic new comers of the valleys were soon to assume the lead, and take the direction of Society affairs out of the hands of the dispirited and exhausted champions on the Old Country road. In July, 1799, a vote was carried for building a new meeting house by subscription, in one year from the first of October then next, where Captain Charles Wright and others had that day pitched a stake, and on the 7th of October following, Colonel Hezekiah Hopkins of Harwinton, Esq. Elisha Smith of Torrington, and Major Jeremiah Phelps of Norfolk, were appointed to advise as to the location, and at the annual meeting following it was decided to build the house where this committee had put a stake and stones, if the county court should establish the same. These brief votes embrace all the preparatory measures recorded in reference to building the present house of worship in the east village of Winsted, and the virtual extinction of the ancient regime on Wallen's Hill. New men, not identified with old controversies, took the lead, and effected an entire renovation of the Society. The new meeting house, particularly described in the following chapter, was raised, covered in, and floored in 1800, and in this condition was used for worship until its final completion in 1805 ; the funds originally subscribed and contributed not being adequate for its comple- tion, application was made to the legislature for a lottery in aid of the enterprise. There were at the same time two other like applications from the societies of Preston in New London County, and Canterbury in Windham County, and a joint lottery was granted to the three societies. They were jointly represented in the management of this gambling scheme, and the details were so arranged that the two drawings were allowed by the Winsted Society to be made in Preston and Canterbury ? in consideration of some equivalent advantages conceded to Winsted. As a result of these arrangements, the two eastern societies failed to realize any profit, while Winsted secured about six hundred dollars. With this sum, and additional subscriptions, the interior of the house was finished and the building painted in 1805. The pulpit of the new meeting house was first supplied by Rev. Aaron Kinney, who had been for a few years previous the minister in 356 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, charge at the first meeting house on Wa'len's Hill. He continued his labors two cr three years, and then removed to Alford, Berkshire Co., Mass. Several candidates were then successively employed for brief periods, the last of whom was Rev. James Beach, who received a pastoral call, and was ordained on the 1st day of January, 180G, with a salary of $350 a year, and an advance of funds to purchase a dwelling, repayable in installments from year to year. His pastorale continued until his dismi-sion in 1842. His ministerial character and labors, as well as those of Rev. Mr. Kinney, are referred to in personal notices of them in their order as incoming citizens of the Society. Mr. Beach was succeeded by Rev. Timothy M. Dwight, who, after supplying the pulpit until February, 1844, received a call for settlement, which he declined ; soon after which Rev. Augustus Pomeroy, after sup- plying the pulpit for two or three months, received a nearly unanimous call to the pastorate, and was presented to the consociation for approval and installation in June following. After a long and searching examina- tion on the question of approval, it was found that there was a majority of one in the united body sustaining his examination, but on ana'yzing the vote, it appeared that there was a majority of two of the lay delegates sustaining, and a majority of one of the clerical members of the body non-sustaining the examination. By one of the rules of the body, in case of non-concurrence of either, the clerical or lay delegates — although there should be a majority of the whole — in case of a call for the appli- cation of this rule, the candidate should be rejected. The call was made by a lay member, and the synodal body refused to install the candidate. Mr. Pomeroy continued to supply the pulpit for about a year after this result ; near the end of which the church dissolved its connection with the Consociation ; and the call for his settlement was renewed on the 19th of November, 1844; but the majority in his favor being essen- tially reduced, he declined acceptance, and withdrew to another field of labor. Wc state the facts of this case in the briefest possible form, with- out note or commentary, save that the grounds of objection to Mr. Pom- eroy were doctrinal rather than personal, and that his Christian character was unquestioned. After Mr. Pomeroy, several other candidates filled the pulpit, — the most prominent of whom, and the longest incumbent, was Rev. John D. Baldwin, — afterwards member of Congress from the Worcester District, Mass. After his departure, Rev. Ira Pettibone, from York Mills, N. Y., was employed, called and settled early in 1846. He continued his pas- torate until measures were taken for the formation of a Second Congre- gational Church in the West Village, when he resigned, and engaged in teaching at Cornwall. His resignation was not occasioned by discontent or dissention in the Con cremation. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 357 In 1833, fifty-one members of the church, residing in the West Village, were regularly dismissed in order to form themselves into a new church. They were immediately thereafter organized as " The Second Congrega- tional Church of Winsted." In February, 1854, Rev. Henry A. Russell, a graduate of Yale Theo- logical Seminary, was called and ordained to the pastorate of the first church, and continued his ministrations until his resignation and dismissal, Aug. 25, 18.38. On the 30th December, 1859, Rev. James B. Pierson was called; and the call was unanimously renewed in May, 18G0, and he Avas ordained Nov. 14, following. His ministrations continued until his dismission in March, 18 02. Rev. M. McG. Dana, now pastor of the First Cong. Church, Norwich, supplied the pulpit from May 11, 1862, until Dec. 25, 1864; and during the intermediate time a call for settlement was tendered him, which he declined. In January, 1SG7, a call to the pastorate was tendered Rev. — "Walker, and accepted by him, but was not consummated by installation. He sup- plied the pulpit until April, 18 GO. Rev. II. E. Cooley afterwards supplied the pulpit for one year, ending Sept. 1, 1870. On the 15th of October, 1870, Rev. Thomas M. Miles, the present worthy incumbent was called, and on the 10th of November, following, was installed as pastor. The centennial of the First Congregational Church of Winsted will occur on the 17th day of March, 1878; when it is to be hoped that its birth will be suitably commemorated, and its interior workings, its periods of depressions and revival, — its diminutions and accessions of member- ship, — the merits and demerits of its pastors, office-bearers, and mem- bers, will be set forth in due order by a clerical hand. CHAPTER XXV. VILLAGES OP WINSTED.— EARLY ASPECT AND GROWTH. Until 1799, the territory now within the Borough lines of Winsted was mainly a wilderness, with fifteen to twenty families along its northern border. A road had been brought down from Old Winchester to Austin's Mill, near the outlet of the lake stream, and thence down the hill to the new forge immediately below. Around these establishments a small hamlet had arisen. From the east, another road came down to Doolittle's mill, on Still River, immediately south of the stone-arched bridge. A bridle-path was opened near the close of the Revolutionary War running eastward down the hill from Austin's Mill to the depot grounds of the Connecticut Western Railroad, thence crossing the Lake stream near Meadow Street Bridge, and Mad River, where the Rockwell tannery now stands, then following the line of Hinsdale street easterly to Still River, and then following its west bank northerly to Doolittle's Mill. Subsequently the traveled road diverged from the bridle path at the depot grounds, and crossed the river at the present Lake Street bridge, and thence, following the line of Main street northerly some fifty rods, turned northeasterly, crossing over the site of John T. Rockwell's house, and re- joined the original bridle path near the old school house of the Fourth District, and then followed its line to the Doolittle mill. The school-house of the Fourth, or West Winsted, District was a cen- tral point where the Spencer Street road, then populated with nearly twice as many families as at present, joined the Hinsdale Street road. The Coe Street road, then largely populated, came down along the line of Indian Meadow Brook and Mad River to near the residence of Mrs. Samuel W. Coe, where it turned easterly, and passing below the house of Sarah Loomis, joined the Spencer Street road near the school house. From the Doolittle Mill a road ran southerly, east of Still river, towards Torring- ford, on which the Potters, Rogers, Wheelers, Rowleys, Porters, Knowl- tons, Brainards and others had settled. In 1799 the old Higley tavern, still standing, immediately south of Camp's brick block, and a gambrel- roofed house on the site of Moses Camp's residence, were the only build- ings on the line of Main street between the bridge crossing Indian Meadow brook, and the Green Woods turnpike bridge crossing Still river. With these exceptions, the whole area of the borough lying south of Hinsdale FAMILY RECORDS. 359 street, and bordered by Mad river and Still river, was without a habitation and without a road, except the part of Main street between John T. Rockwell's and the old tavern above mentioned. The only way of reach- ing Hartford or any of the other Eastern towns, from the Winsted valley, was. up Wallen's Hill, by way of the Doolittle Mill, and then by the Old North Road. There were no light wagons or carriages in those days ; and if there had been any, the roads were too rough for their use. White- wood lumber and white-ash oars and sweeps, nearly the only marketable products of the forests, were carried to Hartford, Windsor, and Wethers- field, on ox carts and sleds. Fat beeves and hogs for the West India market went on foot to tide water to be butchered and packed. Every farmer went to the Connecticut river in shad time, with a strong empty bed tick, in which to stow away his year's supply of fish, and bring them home loaded across his horse's back. From Old Winchester to the north end of New Hartford was a good day's journey. With a good horse, good weather, and good luck, the shad fisheries could be reached in another day. If the shad could be bought for a copper a-piece, and the journey accomplished in five days, the venture was considered a prosperous one. In this state of things, the opening of the Talcott Mountain and Green Woods turnpikes was an event as auspicious to our fathers, as was the opening of the Naugatuck Railroad to their children, or as is the majestic march of the Connecticut Western Railroad trains up the Norfolk hills, to our present community. The Old North Road avoided the water-courses, and sought the hill tops. It crossed the streams at the foot of one steep hill and forthwith began the ascent of another, sometimes by a zig-zag path. The turnpike, on the other hand, followed the line of the Farmington and its Pleasant Valley tributary, then up the line of Mad river to Norfolk and onward towards Albany by comparatively easy grades and a smooth well rounded roadway. Entering the Borough at the Still River bridge in the south- east, it penetrated the tangled forest of hemlocks and ivies* along the bank of Mad river northwesterly, and gave easy access to the present centre of business and population. From the Doolittle Mill another road was at once extended west of Still river down to the turnpike ; and these two roads, now known as Main street and North Main street, made a natural connection of the. two ham- lets, and formed the nucleus of our consolidated village, The level area at the joining of the two roads made a natural and convenient centre of population for the renovated church and society, and an eligible parade ground. The original highway was laid six rods wide through the centre of the present Green Woods Park, and the new meeting-house lot was * The misapplied term "ivy," has so long been used to designate the "caiinia" that this most splendid of our flowering shrubs is almost unknown by its true botani- cal name. 3G0 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, loci ted on the west side of the highway, extending westerly to the west border of the Park, and southerly to the turnpike. The house fronted on the highway and extended back to Woodruff's confectionery store. It was built, floored and covered in 1800, a year after the opening of the turnpike ; and was, for the period when it was built, the best proportioned and finished church edifice in the region. The interior was completed five years afterward, in a style of the then modern composite architecture. For its day, it was a sightly, well-proportioned building, with tower and cupola at the east end. Its inner furnishing and adornment was pic- turesque. The body of the audience room was occupied by three aisles, with high -paneled, square pews of unpainted pine. The pulpit was an eight square tub, supported by a single pillar, standing about ten feet high, and resembling an immense goblet. Narrow, rectangular stairs, with elaborate railings, ascended from each end of the altar to half the height of the structure, and then turned toward each other, and met at a two and - a-half-foot platform in rear of the tub, from which a door opened to receive the preacher, and on being closed a seat was turned down for him to sit on, and affording scant room for a companion to sit by his side. The crowning appendage of this unique structure was an eight-square wooden sounding board, suspended by a half inch square iron rod fastened in the arched ceiling. It resembled a woolen tassel attached to a frail cord in- capable of sustaining it. It vibrated sensibly with every motion of the aii', and fearfully when the windows were open, and a thunder storm im- pending. This feature gave to the concern an element of the sublime, which modified its fantastical character, especially in the eves of the youth- ful worshippers, whose fears of the demolition of the minister by the breaking of the imaginary string were not altogether unreasonable. A row of columns, arranged in an ox-bow line, supported the gallery, the curve at the east end of the room being opposite the pulpit at the west end. A single row of singer's seats went around the entire front line of the gallery, so that every singer could see the majestic swing of the chief chori.-ter's arm as he bpat the time from the center of the arched line, though they at the extreme ends could but faintly hear the pitch- pipe. A narrow, elevated alley ran in the rear of the singer's sea's ; and in the rear of this, on the sides of the house, were still more elevated pews, furnishing admirable places of concealed retirement for the boys and girls who chose to worship in a more cheerful way than their parents below would have approved. In rear of the chorister's seat, and falling back into the tower of the building were two commodious pews, one appropriated to the class of young men who brushed and greased their upper hair into a high pyra- mid over the forehead, and lied that which de-cended behind into a pipe- stem cue, -who wore wide projecting ruffles at the bosom, and Suwanow AND FAMILY RECORDS. 361 boots, with pendant silk tassels at the knees, and magnified their strut by anchoring their thumbs in the arm-holes of their waistcoats ; and the other appropriated to the young women who wore gunboat-bonnets, well- displayed bosoms and street-sweeping skirts or trails. By what rule of selection the parties were dignified to these high places, was never made known to the compiler ; but according to his best recollection, they were mainly composed of clerks and schoolmasters, tailoresses and school- marms. Into these pews, compeers of their occupants from neighboring parishes were ushered, in stately form. As the congregation increased in numbers, the two gallery pews before appropriated to worshippers of the colored persuasion were needed by their white brethren and sisters, and two corner pews were erected over the gallery stairs, for the special use of the colored worshippers. The position of these pews was lofty, but the access was so difficult, and the honor of occupancy so dubious, that the prayers and praises of the sanc- tuary ceased to be participated in by the African race. The parishioners were seated in the lower pews by an annually ap- pointed committee, who were required to take into consideration the com- bined elements of age, wealth, and official position in assigning seats of honor or mediocrity. This heart-burning method of seating the congre- gation grew out of the system of supporting the gospel by taxation, and ceased when the funds were raised by annual sales of the pews by auc- tion, about 1820. In Norfolk, and perhaps some other neighboring par- ishes, the old system is believed to be still retained. The interior of the house retained its pristine form and adornments until 1828, when the pulpit, sounding-board and all, was taken down, and a less pretentious, but more convenient one, was placed at the east end of the audience room, the floor was laid on an inclined plane, raising it some four feet above a level at the west end, and modern slips were put thereon which faced eastward. In the gallery the aristocratic front pews, and the devil-possessed side pews were removed. Rising tiers of seats for singers occupied the place of the former, and open seats along the walls, without high screens to hide the unruly boys and girls from the view of their parents below, were erected. The untenanted cock-loft negro pews over the stairs were left intact. In 1848, the house was removed to its present site, and so entirely remodeled, without and within, that only the frame of the original building remains. The interior is tastily and con- veniently arranged and furnished. A fine toned organ has recently been purchased, at a cost of $2,000, and placed in the choir, indicating the prosperity and liberal spirit of the congregation. The six-rod highway being insufficient for a parade ground, the society purchased, in December, 1802, a strip of land five rods wide, extending northerly on the east line of the highway, to near the Episcopal Church, 46 362 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. " to be forever kept for a public parade." About the same time a strip of land was purchased, by individuals, on the west side of the six-rod high- way, extending north from the north line of the meeting-house, a distance of nine rods, and with a width of fifty-four feet, for the purpose of erect- ing horse sheds thereon. The sheds were eventually built in the rear of this land, opening on its west line and leaving the land open to the public. A strip of the same width was some years after thrown open to the pub- lic, extending north to the Holabird premises, thus making a parade ground about fourteen rods wide from east to west, and twenty-five to thirty roods long. From the Rock House, westerly, to the Old Tavern in the West Vil- lage, the turnpike, when opened, ran through a nearly unbroken forest There was one small opening on the flat, where some unknown person had once built a log shanty, which had then been abandoned ; and anoth- er a little north of High street, and a little east of Elizur B. Parsons house, where a log house once stood, of unknown origin. We have re- ferred to the two hamlets around the two mills at the lake outlet, and the stone bridge on Still River. The first of these extended down the hill to, and along the turnpike at Lake street bridge. The other extended south along the new road to the parade ground or green, and the contiguous Turnpike. These sections, under the designations of West street and East street, became separate and rival villages, whose bitter and frequent contentions about Post Office location, road improvements, and business enterprises, have given to our community an unenviable notoriety, and to the Post Office Department a constant annoyance. The extension of the Naugatuck Railroad to Winsted, with its termi- nus intermediate between the two villages, gave rise to another distinct village on " the Flat," which has expanded in each direction, so as to unite with both of the rival sections. It would seem a natural result of this physical consolidation, that sectional feelings and interests would have died away, but as yet, old animosities and new causes of contention have prevented this most desirable consummation. Jrtec Zus^Z- CHAPTER XXVI. SETTLERS— FAMILY RECORDS— SCHOOL HOUSES AND SCHOOLS— STATISTICS. 1801 TO 1811. The Rockwell Brothers — Solomon, Reuben, Alpha, and Martin — were engaged in the iron business in Colebrook, at the close of the last century. Their works were on the stream flowing out of the meadows at the center, which were submerged by their dam, making an extensive pond of shallow water ; and a nuisance was generated thereby which caused the death of several residents of the vicinity by fever. It con- sequently became necessary to lower their dam and drain the meadows in order to disinfect the atmosphere. This rendered the water power insufficient for their works, and obliged them to change their locality. In 1799 they bought the Austin Mill and water power from the lake outlet to Meadow street bridge, except the Jenkins & Boyd interest in the upper forge, and in 1802 removed one of their Colebrook forges to the site of Timothy Hulbert's present Iron Works, and a few years after, built another forge on the site of Lathrop & Barton's Lake Stream Cutlery Woi'ks. Solomon Rockwell, Esq., came to Winsted this year, and took up his abode in the house built by David Austin, Jr., near the lake outlet, and continued his residence there until the completion of the homestead of his after life, now owned by his daughter, Mrs. Jerusha R. Boyd. No one of the founders of our village made a deeper impress on its institutions and moral character, or did more to increase its business and stimulate public improvements than Mr. Rockwell. He was the first justice of the peace in the Society, and was the foremost in all measures of public and benevolent enterprise. The following sketch of his character was drawn in substance by another hand, soon after his death : " As a business man he possessed great energy, and a good degree of prudence and sound discretion. He successfully accomplished most of his business project*, and although in his early career some of his enter- prises were attended with disasters which would have crushed an ordinary 364 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, man, he was never disheartened. If one project failed he tried another. Experience taught him prudence, without in any degree diminishing his energetic and sanguine temperament. He was a man of integrity, con- stitutionally and from principle, and was liberal and generous, without a narrow or contracted streak in his character. He practised hospitality, without stint or grudging. His unwearied cheerfulness, his genial humor, and exhaustless fund of anecdote made him the favorite of old and young, wise and simple. He was a true gentleman of the old school, a puritan of the puritans, yet liberal and catholic in his religious views. " His profession of faith in the Redeemer was made after his fiftieth year, and his subsequent life gave witness of a good pi'ofession. His faith rested not in abstractions, but was manifested in works of love and mercy. After the prostration of his body and mind by paralysis his faith knew no abatement, but shone clear and tranquil to the closing scene of life." In May 1835, while present at a fire which consumed his woolen factory, he was struck down by paralysis, which for some time rendered him helpless and speechless. After a partial recovery, a second attack in 1838, followed in a few weeks by a third, so impaired his bodily and mental powers that death was a messenger of mercy rather than of judgment. He died August 1, 1838, aged seventy-four and a half years. 1801. Deacon Alt-ita Rockwell, younger brother of Solomon, was the first male child born in Colebrook, as indicated by his baptismal name. He came to Winsted in 1801, and during the same year erected his homestead on the corner of Main and Lake streets, where the Beardsley House now stands. His health was impaired in childhood by whooping cough, which permanently affected his lungs and terminated in death by consumption, in the fifty-first year of his age. Associated in business with his more versatile and sanguine brother, Solomon, his vigilance and method, and his skill as an accountant and financier imparted to the firm the qualities essential to success in its varied and complicated transactions. No two brothers ever acted more in accord with each other, or were bound together by more sincere affection. As a member of society he was active in promoting education and good morals. As a father, husband, and brother he was affectionate and loving beyond most men. As a Christian he was eminent for piety, and zealously efficient in furthering the interests of the church of which he was a member and office-bearer. He died in the triumph of Christian faith, June 1, 1818, aged 50 years. ^7e^. ^^^^^^> AND FAMILY RECORDS. 365 Though only two of the Rockwell brothers moved to Winsted, yet descendants of four of them are now, or have been, residents here, while the fifth died childless. Deacon William Rockwell, 1 from England, came to Dorchester, Mass., in 1630, thence with the early planters to Windsor, Conn., where he died May 15, 1640. He married in England, Susanna Chapin, born April 5, 1602, who married (2d) May 29, 1645, Mathew Grant, and died ?\ /euioer 14, 1666. CHILDREN. I. Joan, 2 b. England, April 25, 1625 ; m. Jeffrey Baker. II. John, 2 b. England, July 18, 1627. III. Mart, 2 probably died young ; not named in Mathew Grant's record. IV. Samuel, 2 b. Dorchester, Mass., March 28, 1631. V. Ruth, 2 b. Dorchester, August — , 1633; m. October 7, 1652, Christo- pher Huntington, and among her descendants is General Ulysses S. Grant, the President of the United States. VI. Joseph, 2 date of birth not known ; d. young. VII. Sarah, 2 b. Windsor, Conn., July 24, 1638 ; m. Walter Gaylord. Samuel Rockwell 2 married, April 7, 1660, Mary Norton of Say- brook, daughter of Thomas and Grace (Wells) Norton of Guilford, Conn. CHILDREN, ALL BORN IN WINDSOR. I. Mart, 3 b. Jan. 18, 1662; m., Oct. 23, 1683, Josiah Loomis. II. Abigail, 3 b. Aug. 23, 1664; d. May 3, 1665. III. Samuel, 3 b. Oct. 19, 1667 ; m., Jan. 10, 1694, Elizabeth Gaylord. IV. Joseph, 3 b. May 22, 1670; m. Elizabeth Drake. V. John, 3 b. May 31, 1673; m. Anne Skinner. VI. Abigail, 3 b. April 11, 1676; m. John Smith. VII. Josiah, 3 b. March 15, 1678; m., Dec. 14, 1713, Rebecca Loomis, of Lebanon. Joseph Rockwell, 3 "sarjant," m. Elizabeth Drake, born Nov. 4, 1 675, daughter of Job and Elizabeth (Alvord) Drake. He d. June 26, 1733, aged 03 years. CHILDREN, ALL BORN IN WINDSOR. I. Joseph, 4 b. Nov. 23, 1695; m. Hannah Huntington. II. Elizabeth, 4 b. Dec. 12, 1698. III. Benjamin, 4 b. Oct. 26, 1700; m. Margaret Drake. IV. James,* b. June 3, 1704; m., Nov. 7, 1728, Abigail Loomis. V. Job, 4 b. April 13, 1709; m., Jan. 20, 1736-7, Miriam Hayden. VI. Elizabeth, 4 b. July 24, 1713; m. Jonathan Huntington. Joseph Rockwell 4 married Hannah Huntington, born Norwich, Conn., March 25, 1693-4, daughter of John and Abigail (Lathrop) Huntington, and grand- daughter of Christopher and Ruth 2 (Rockwell) 366 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, She died of small-pox Huntington. He died Oct. 16, 1746, aged 51 Jan. 18, 1761, aged 67 years. CHILDREN, ALL BORN IN WINDSOR. I. Joseph, 5 II. Hannah, 5 III. A son 5 (twin), IV. Jerusha 5 (twin), V. Jonathan, 5 VI. Samuel, 5 VII. Samuel, 5 b. March 15, 1715-16; m. Anna Dodd. b. Dec. 25, 1717. b. June 5, 1 720 ; d. same day. b. June 5, 1720. b. May 2, 1723. b. March 9, 1725-6 ; d. young. b. Jan. 19, 1728; m. Hepzibah Pratt. — , 1775. Joseph Rockwell 5 married Anna Dodd. He died aged 60. CHILDREN, ALL BORN IN EAST WINDSOR. I. Anna, m. Nathan Bass. II. John." III. Elijah, 6 b. Nov. 14, 1744, O. S. ; m. Lucy Wright. IV. Mary, 6 m. William Goodwin. V. Jerusha. 6 VI. Elizabeth. 6 . VII. Gurdon. 6 VIII. Joseph. 6 IX. Elihu, 6 lived in Winchester. Samuel Rockwell 5 married Hepzibah Pratt, born hi East Hartford (date unknown), daughter of Jonathan and Mary (Benton) Pratt, grand daughter of John and Hepzibah Pratt, and great-grand-daughter of John Pratt, one of the original members of Mr. Hooker's Cambridge Church, and an early settler of Hartford, where he died July 15, 1655, leaving a widow Elizabeth, and sons John and Daniel. He died at Colebrook Sept. 7, 1794, aged 66. She died , 1814. I. Samuel, 6 II Timothy, 6 Canaan. III. Solomon, 6 IV. Solomon, 6 V. Reuben, 6 VI. Alpha, 6 town ; hence his name. VII. Martin, 6 b. C. VIII. Luman, 6 b. C. IX. Hebzibah, 6 b. C. CHILDREN. b. East Windsor, Feb. 18, 1759. m., 1793, Mary Burrall, of He d. Sept. 4, 1794, aged 34 years, s. p. bap. East Windsor, Oct. 3, 1762; d. young, b. East Windsor, Jan. 20, 1764; bap. Jan. 22, 1764. b. East Windsor, Oct, 1, 1765; bap. Oct. 6, 1765. b. Colebrook, Sept. 21, 1767, the first child born in the 1772. d. Nov., 1777. d. Nov., 1777. Elijah Rockwell 6 married, Jan. 19, 1775, Lucy Wright, born in Goshen, Conn., Oct. 7, 1756, daughter of Capt. John Wright. He was AND FAMILY RECORDS. 367 the first justice of the peace, and the life-long town clerk of Colebrook. She died at Colebrook, May 24, 1830. in her 74th year. He died August 2, 1841. CHILDREN. I. Lucr, 7 b. June 8, 1776; d. April 2, 1778. II. Elijah, 7 b. Nov. 9, 1 "77 ; m. Sophia Ensign, daughter of John. III. Lucy, 7 b. Jan. 8, 1779; m. Aaron Case of Norfolk. IV. Theron, 7 " b. June 5, 1782. V. Anne, 7 b. Oct. 9, 1783; m. Joseph P. Hurlbut. VI. Betsey, 7 b. Feb. 18, 1789 ; m. Dr. Luman Wakefield. Samuel Rockwell, 6 a physician, settled in Salisbury, Conn. ; after- ward removed to Sharon, where he died June 24, 1836. He married 1788, Eunice Canfield. She died and he married (2d) 1798, Hannah Reed. CHILDREN BY FIRST WIFE. I. Hepzibah, 7 m. Nathaniel B. Gaylord. II. John Canfield," d. at Colebrook, unm. CHILDREN BY SECOND WIFE. III. Mary Ann, 7 b. Salisbury, June 2, 1800; m. Aaron Hawley. IV. William, 7 grad. Yale College Law School ; lawyer in Brooklyn, N. Y. ; Judge of Superior Court of Kings county at the time of his death : m. Susan Prince of Brooklyn. Solomon Rockwell 6 married, July 2, 1800, Sarah McEwen, born March 2, 1775, daughter of Robert and Jerusha (Doolittle) McEwen. She died March 15, 1837 ; he died Aug. 1, 1838. CHILD. I. Jerusha, 7 b. March 28, 1803; m. Theodore Hinsdale ; and (2d) John Boyd. Reuben Rockwell, 6 of Colebrook, born in East Windsor Oct. 1, 1766, married Rebecca, daughter of Col. Bezaleel Beebe of Litchfield. CHILDREN. 1. Julius, 7 grad. Yale College; lawyer at Pittsfield, Mass.; representative and senator from Mass. in Congress; and now judge of supreme court, Massachusetts. II. Louisa, 7 m. Giles H. Bass, of Colebrook. III. Bezaleel Beebe, 7 of Winsted, b. Oct. 28, 1809 ; m. April 23, 1834, Caro- line, daughter of Col. Hosea Hinsdale. Children: 1. Elizabeth, 8 b. Jan. 8, 1836; 2. Julia, 8 b. Oct. 13, 1838; 3. Caroline Rebecca, 8 b. June 1,1840; 4. Mary Pitkin Hinsdale, 8 b. Sept. 10, 1844; 5. John Hinsdale, 8 b. Sept. 27, 1847 ; d. April 10, 1848 ; 6. Kate Louisa, 8 b. June 29, 1850 ; 7. Lilian, 8 b. Feb. 22, 1854. He resides in Winsted, holds the office of assistant assessor of U. S. Internal Revenue. 368 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, IV. Elizabeth, 7 living in Colcbrook. V. Rhoben, 7 of Colcbrook, m. Amelia L. Eno; representative and senator of Connecticut legislature, and now holds the office of collector U. S. In- ternal Revenue, Fourth District of Connecticut. Alpha Rockwell, 6 married, May 20, 1800, Rhoda Ensign, born in Salisbury, , 1775, daughter of John and Rhoda (Lee) Ensign. She died Feb. 25, 1817; he died May 31, 1818. CHILDREN. I. Edward, 7 b. Colebrook, June 30, 1801. II. Samcel, 7 b. Winchester, April 18, 1803. III. Caroline, 7 b. Dec. 27, 1804; m. William Lawrence, of Norfolk, who d. at Northampton, Mass., Feb. 22, 1867, s. p. IV. Cornelia, 7 b. March 23, 1808; m., Oct.—, 1838, Osmyn Baker, of Amherst, Mass., and d. Feb. 12, 1840, leaving one child, William Law- rence, 8 b. Oct. 5, 1839; "grad. Dartmouth College, 1858; made the tour of Europe, 1860; was commissioned second lieutenant of artillery in the regular army, August, 1861 ; was promoted to first lieutenant, November, 1861 ; was in the battles of Winchester, Port Republic, Man- assas Heights, Chantilly, South Mouutain, and was killed at Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862, aged 23 years." V. Delia Ellen, 7 b. Jan. 16, 1811 ; m. March 28, 1838, Dea. Elliot Beards- ley, b. Monroe, Conn., Dec. 26, 1801, son of Elliot and Abigail (Patter- son) Beardsley. He moved from South Britain to Winsted in 1840, and engaged in business, in company with Theodore Hinsdale ; and after the death of the latter became sole owner of one of the largest manufac- turing establishments in the Society, and managed it with consummate ability during his remaining active life. Reticent and deliberate by na- ture and habit, he minded his own business entirely, yet had an eye on all that was going on around him, and participated influentially, though quietly, in public affairs. No man in the town was more looked to for advising and giving a direction to all measures for public interest ; and none more respected for purity of life, religious example, and earnest patriotism ; he was one of the first office bearers of the Second Congre- gational Church ; a Director and President of the Winsted Bank ; a Representative of the town and Senator of the 15th District in the State Legislature, and held various other offices. The war of the rebellion opened near the close of his active life ; — and no citizen of the town ex- ceeded him in energetic and persistent efforts to aid the Union Cause. A slow decay of his physical faculties, and eventually of his mental powers, clouded the last years of his life, which terminated Jan. 19, 1871. Mr. Beardsley, by a former wife, (Johnson), had a daughter, Martha E., b. in South Britain, Feb. 13, 1856, now living. CHILDREN BT SECOND WIFE. 1. Edward Rockwell, 8 b. Jan. 10, 1839; grad. Yale College, 1859; m. Jan. 10, 1867, Emma Adelaide Watson, b. in New Hartford, Jan. 30, 1840; has twin sons, Elliot Gay, 9 and Edward Watson, 9 b. June 4, 1868. \ t cu/thjUsiJ AND FAMILY RECORDS. 3(39 2. Cornelia, 8 b. July 27, 1840; m. Oct. 23, 1867, Rev. Samuel Baker Forbes, b. in Westborough, Mass., Aug. 1, 1826, son of Nahum and Polly (Davis) Forbes; hegrad. Williams College, 1855 ; East Wind- sor Theological Seminary, 1857; licensed by Hartford Fourth As- sociation, 1856 ; ordained at Manchester, Conn., Oct. 20, 1857 ; dis- missed April, 1859 ; resides in West Winsted ; his one child, Henry Stuart, 9 b. June 16, 1871. 3. Sarah Hinsdale, 8 b. Jan. 9, 1842 ; m. Oct. 13, 1868, Eugene Potter; she d. April — , 1871, at Lexington, Mich., leaving a son, Lawrence William, b. April 4, 1871. 4. Elliot, 8 b. Nov. 17, 1843 ; d. June 12, 1862. 5. Julia Plummer, 8 b. Oct. 1, 1845 ; m. May 28, 1867, George F. Bar- ton ; hives at W. Winsted ; has children, Elizabeth Nichols, 9 b. April 4, 1869, and George Elliot, 9 b. Dec. 19, 1870. 6. Theodore Hinsdale, 8 b. April 13, 1851 ; m. June 15, 1870, Alura Francis Harrison, b. in New Milford, Conn., Feb. 7, 1850; has one daughter, Sarah Harrison, 9 b. May 11, 1871. VI. Rhoda, 7 b. Feb. 22, 1817 ; m. May 2, 1838, Rev. Clement Long, b. in Hop- kinton, N. H, Dec. 31, 1807, son of Samuel and Mary (Clement) Long; Prof, of Int. and Moral Philosophy in Wes. Res. Coll., O., 1834-1852 ; Prof, of Christian Theology in Auburn Theol. Sem., 1852-1854; Prof, of Int. and Moral Phil, in Dart. Coll., from 1854 till his death, at Han- over, N. H, Oct. 14, 1861. CHILDREN. 1. Mary, 8 b. in Hudson, 0., June 8, 1839. 2. Samuel Rockwell, 8 b. H, April 25, 1841 ; d. Aug. 3, 1842. 3. Caroline Rockwell, 8 b. H., Oct. 24, 1844. 4. Julia Russell, 8 b. H., April 6, 1851. 5. Cornelia Baker, 8 b. in Auburn, N. Y., Dec. 5, 1853. Martin Rockwell, 6 of Colebrook, married (1st), Mary (Burrall) Rockwell, widow of his brother, Timothy Rockwell, deceased, and by her had CHILDREN. I. Eliza, 7 who m. Rev. Ralph Emerson, D. D. II. Timothy, 7 who lived in Winsted until 1827, and thence removed toPaines- ville, O., where he still resides. He m. Helen Maria, daughter of Seth Marshall, Esq. III. Mary, 7 living (1872) in Colebrook. IV. Susan," m. Rev. George E. Pierce, D. D., minister at Har- winton, Conn., and afterwards President of Western Reserve College, Hudson, O. V. William, 7 m. Maria Roberts; d. at Honesdale, Penn. VI. Charles, 7 grad. Yale College ; Chaplain U. S. Navy; clergyman. VII. Charlotte," living (1872) in Colebrook. He married (2d), Lucy (Beebe) Robins, who survived him ; he died Dec. 8, 1851. Theron Rockwell, 7 married, September 6, 1814, Clarissa Treat, born in Hartland, Conn., September 6, 1788, daughter of John Treat. They settled in Colebrook, where he died January 30, 1848. 47 370 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, CHILDREN. I. James Sidney, 8 b. Oct. 2, 1817; m. Nov. 11, 1844, Catharine A. Corley ; lives in Brooklyn, N. Y. CHILDREN. 1. Clara, 9 b. 1847; d. 1851. 2. Fanny, 9 b. April 17, 1850; m. Nov. 16, 1870, James Dunham Carhart. II. Henry Edwards, 8 b. Feb. 12, 1824; d. May 20, 1825. III. John Treat, 8 b. Jan. 21, 1827. IV. Annie Clarissa, 8 b. Sept. 29, 1832; m. Sept. 28, 1854, Frederick Michael Shepard, b. in Norfolk, Sept. 24, 1827 ; lives in the city of New York. CHILDREN. 1. Annie Rockwell, 9 b. June 7, 1856. 2. Frederick Michael, 9 b. June 8, 1858. 3. Clara Margaret, 9 b. Oct. 12, 1862. 4. Joseph Minot, 9 b. Aug. 31, 1864. 5. John Andrus, 9 b. March 15, 1869. Edward Rockwell, 7 graduated at Yale College in 1821 ; admitted to the bar at New Haven in 1825 ; removed to Ohio, and was Secretary of Cleveland and Pittsburg Railroad Company till 1867, when he re- signed and moved to New York. He married Matilda du Plessis Salter, of New Haven. CHILDREN. I. Sarah, 8 b. m. John M. Isaacs, Cleveland, O. II. Matilda, 8 ; b. m. George E. Kent, N. Y. III. Cleveland, 8 b. Engineer U. S. Navy. IV. Edward, 8 b. d. young. Samuel Rockwell 7 graduated at Yale College in 1825 ; admitted to the ministry in 1828; ordained pastor at Plainfield, April 11, 1832; dismissed April — , 1841 ; installed pastor of South Church, New Britain, January 4, 1843 ; resigned his pastorate June 20, 1858 ; elected Representative to the Legislature of Connecticut in 1862 and 1869, and Senator in 1865; Judge of Probate, Berlin District, since July 4, 1861 ; Treasurer of Savings Bank of New Britain, from its incorporation in 1862. He married, June 6, 1833, Julia Ann Plummer, who died April — , 1838; and he married (2d) May 5, 1840, Elizabeth Eaton, of Plain- field. She died, and he married (3d), July 29, 1844, Mrs. Charlotte (North) Stanley. CHILD BY FIRST WIFE. I. George Plummer, 8 b. May 9, 1834. CHILD BY SECOND WIFE. II. Elizabeth Eaton, 8 b. April 9, 1843; d. March 11, 1866. John Treat Rockwell, 8 married, December 14, 1853, Harriette Ann Burt, born April 19, 1830, daughter of Miles C. and Ann (Mallory) AND FAMILY RECOKDS. 371 Burt. She died Oct. 24, 1855 ; and he married (2d), Feb. 26, 1857, Mary Ann Hawley, born in Sharon, Conn., June 22, 1827, daughter of Aaron and Mary Ann (Rockwell) Hawley ; she died June 5, 1859, and he married (3d), April 18, 1861, Jane Elizabeth Arcularius, born in New York, May 14, 1828, daughter of Andrew Merrill and Eliza Lucretia (Saltonstall) Arcularius. CHILDREN. I. Annie Mallory, 9 b. March 14, 1855. II. Theron, 9 b. July 18, 1863. III. Eliza Saltonstall, 9 b. Jan. 2, 1867. IV. James Sidney, 9 b. July 18, 1868. Ezra Rockwell, this year bought and occupied the house on South street, near Torringford line, previously owned by Jehiel and Mabel Burr, which he sold in 1803. He lived in the town some years later. Jacob Chamberlin, from Colebrook, this year bought the Israel Crissey farm, adjoining Colebrook line, and now a part of the William E. Cowles farm, which he occupied until 1805, and then returned to Cole- brook. Aaron Loomis owned and occupied land on South street, near Tor- rington line, from 1801 to 1806, or later. He was b. May 25, 1766, son of Ephraim and Jane (Campbell) Loomis. He m. Feb. 12, 1789, Anne Drake, of Windsor. Their children were probably b. in Torrington. CHILDREN. I. Aaron, b. May 16, 1790. II. Jane, b. March 11, 1792. III. Laura, b. Feb. 17, 1794; m. Jan. 5, L809, Erastus Hodges. IV. Annes, b. June 23, 1797. V. Alvan, b. Dec. 22, 1800. [Loomis Genealogy, p. 111.] 1802. Col. Hosea Hinsdale, 6 [see Genealogy under 1799,] from Berlin, came to Winsted in the spring of this year, and resided in the gambrel- roofed house that stood on the site of Moses Camp's present dwelling. He was a tanner by trade, and had made arrangements to begin the world in Western New York ; but the discovery at that time made, of the tan- ning properties of hemlock bark, changed his plans, and he came here to avail himself of the abundance of this material found in our forests. In company with his brother-in-law, Major James Shepard, afterwards of Norfolk, he built the tannery at the corner of Spencer and Hinsdale streets, the last vestiges of which have this year (1871) been obliterated, by the excavation of Mr. J. T. Rockwell's skating pond, where he did a leading business for some thirty years. In 1810, Major Shepard with- 372 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, drew from the concern, and it was conducted solely by Col. Hinsdale until about 1845. Colonel Hinsdale, in addition to the tanning business, was largely engaged in public affairs, " swinging around the circle " of town offices, and trying his hand as grand juror, constable, selectman, assessor, justice of the peace, and representative, and of military affairs from private to colonel of cavalry. He was also for several years a deputy, under Sheriff Landon, who prided himself on his selection of a staff of not only able but portly and fine looking assistants, thereby sustaining the dignity of the county magistracy. He closed his public life with the presidency of the Litchfield County Temperance Society, which he filled with punctuality and ardent zeal for seven or eight years. His social qualities were of a high order. His acquaintance with men of the county and state was extensive, and his memory of events accurate in a remarkable degree. At ninety he could recall an acquaintance or event of early days with the readiness of a young man. Like most of his neighbors he was a reading man, well posted in all current events. In person and manner dignified, fluent and attractive in conversation ; he was the chronicler and patriarch of the village, the last of the generation of men who laid the foundations and controlled the destinies of our com- munity. He married, March 2, 1798, Elizabeth Shepard, born at Hart- land, September 2, 1777, daughter of Eldad and Rebecca (Seymour) Shepard. She died January 25, 1861. He died October 21, 1866. CHILDREN. I. Elizabeth, 7 b. December 17, 1798; d. December 4, 1804. II. Harriet, 7 b. September 25, 1801 ; d. December 10, 1804. III. Julia, 7 b. November 14, 1805. IV. Henry, 7 b. August 31, 1807. V. Caroline, 7 b. July 19, 1811; m. April 23, 1835, Bezaleel Beebe Rockwell. VI. Harriet, 7 b. December 6, 1813 ; d. October 7, 1816. VII. John, 7 b. May 10, 1817. Henry Hinsdale, 7 married October 13, 1834, Jane Coe, born August 14, 1812, daughter of Jonathan Coe. She died October 5, 1839 ; he died October 14, 1846. CHILD. I. Harriet Amelia, 8 b. October 22, 1835 ; d. June 1, 1842. John Hinsdale, 7 married August 31, 1841, Amanda Malvina Alvord, born August 20, 1821, daughter of Deacon James H. Alvord. CHILDREN. I. Mart Elizabeth, 8 b. March 18, 1848; m. June 19, 1867, Robert R. Noble, b. September 27, 1840; had, 1. Susie Alvord, 9 b. April 9, 1868; d. March 1, 1869 ; 2. twins, John Hinsdale and Robert Chamberlin, b. Oct. 3, 1872. II. John Alvord, 8 b. October 22, 1858. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 373 Colonel James Shepard from New Hartford, came to Winsted with, or soon after, Colonel Hinsdale, his brother-in-law, and in 1803 built the house at the parting of Slain and Spencer streets, afterwards the life-long homestead of Colonel Hinsdale, with whom he was associ- ated in the tanning business until 1810, when, in company with Asahel Miller, he built the original tannery on the site of the present establish- ment of George Dudley & Son. In 1815 he removed to Norfolk, where he resumed the tanning busi- ness for a few years, and afterwards became a highly respected tavern keeper and stage owner. He married Abigail Andrus, and had CHILDREN. I. John Andrus, b. July 15, 1802. II. Laura Seymour, b. March 19, 1804. III. James Hutchins, b. August 11, 1806. IV. Jerusha Treat, b. September 27, 1808; m. A. E. Dennis. V. Samuel, b. December 10, 1812; m. — Dennis; kept the Beardsley House for several years ; d. Norfolk, January 14, 1872. Jesse Clark became a resident of Winchester this year. He owned and lived until 1837, on the farm on Wallen's Hill, which he then sold to Elisha Kilbourn, and moved into Barkhamsted, where he died December 17, 1853, aged 76. His wife died December 11, 1849, aged 72. His parents were Paul Clark, born August 29, 1750 ; died March 1, 1804, and Sarah Wheeler, born March 28, 1754 ; died August 14, 1829. He married, November 26, 1801, Lydia, daughter of Elisha and Esther Mallory. CHILDREN. I. Nathan Wheeler, b. April 25, 1803. II. Orlando Mallort, b. March 11, 1805; d. November 7, 1807. III. Esther, b. March 9, 1807. IV. Amasa, b. March 24, 1809; d. December 8, 1809. V. Zatda, b. October 18, 1810. VI. Betsey, b. December 24, 1812; m. October 5, 1848, George E. Shelton ; d. March 17, 1850. VII. Sarah Ann, b. April 8, 1815 ; d. October 16, 1817. VIII. Orlando, b. December 25, 1820. IX. John Benjamin, b. April 20, 1820; d. March 20, 1842. Nathan Wheeler Clark, oldest child of Jesse and Lydia, a resi- dent of the town from birth, resides on Wallen's Hill, near his father's old residence. He married, June 5, 1830, Rebecca Cordelia Dickinson, born November 7, 1805. children. I. Lucius Wadsworth, b. September 19, 1831. II. John Benjamin, b. April 14, 1834. 3Y4 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, III. Emma Harriet, b. March 22, 1836. IV. Burton Mallort, b. October 11, 1838; d. December 7, 1840. V. Mart Betset, b. December 2, 1840. Orlando Clark, eighth child of Jesse and Lydia, removed with his father to Barkhamsted, where he still resides. He married, November 30, 1852, Melissa Race, born June 25, 1821. CHILDREN. I. Alrert Mallort, b. October 12, 1843. II. Sarah Ann, b. December 21, 1844. III. George Orlando, b. August 17, 1848. IV. Geougiana Melissa, b. August 17, 1848. V. Miles Belden, b. July 31, 1851 ; d. September 5, 1853 Salmon Burr from Torrington, this year came to Winsted, where he built and occupied the brick dwelling on the west side of South street, now owned by Hilamon Fyler, until his death, December 19, 1851, at the age of 77 ; a man of retiring manner and sterling worth. He married Mary Ensign, born September 8, 1776; died December 29, 1846. CHILDREN. I. Maria, b. February 17, 1799; m. November 29, 1820, Ansel Shattuck ; d. July 29, 1840. II. Rufus, b. December 17, 1800 ; m. May 10, 1828, , daughter of Barzillai Hudson of Tor. III. Samuel, b. September 22, 1802; m. February 22, 1831, Louisa Flowers. IV. Wilson, b. April 11, 1804; m. May 5, 1829, Morinda Cadwell. V. Mart, b. June 12, 1806 ; m. May 11, 1827, Porter Gibbs; d. November 23, 1835. VI. Rhoda, b. January 11, 1808 ; m. George Ransom. VII. Sarah, b. March 2, 1810 ; m. February 22, 1831, Anson H. Stuart. VIII. Willard, b. February 8, 1812 ; m. September 1, 1843, Sarah, daughter of George Burr. IX. Huldah, b. May 21, 1814 ; m. October 5, 1834, Luman Smith. X. Harmon Ensign, b. November 13, 1818 ; m. May 1, 1849, Ann Squire. XI. Charlotte, b. October 3, 1820 ; m. June 29, 1839, Erasmus N. Ransom. Jacob Seymour, a carpenter and joiner, this year bought the land around the new meeting house, now constituting the larger portion of the east village, and lived in a dwelling that stood on the site of Normand Adams' store. He sold out his purchase in a few years, and subse- quently lived in the old hemlock building then standing at the north corner of Hiusdale and North Main streets. He left the town about 1810. The first gravestone in the central burying ground was erected by him over the remains of a deceased child. John Seymour, brother of Jacob, also lived in the Society for a few AND FAMILY RECORDS. 375 years at this period, and became part owner of the east village property. John Phillips, an iron refiner, of Welsh extraction, came into the employ of the Rockwell Brothers this year, or earlier, and lived in the rear wing of the house on Lake street, adjoining the carriage entrance to Mrs. J. R. Boyd's premises. He had a son, William, who lived in the same dwelling until his death, February 26, 1817, leaving a son, William S., born December 22, 1816, who lived in this Society from 1846 to the time of his death, aged 41 years. He was trained to business in Sandisfield, Mass., where his widowed mother resided until her death, and came here as a partner-in-trade with his brother-in-law, David A. Rood, now of Hartford. He built the house now occupied by his widow, at the head of Spring street, where he died of dysentery, August 19, 1860. He was a retiring, exemplary, kind-hearted, Christian man < highly esteemed, and sincerely lamented. He marrhd June 10, 1844, Frances Slocum Hamilton, born in Tolland, Mass., February 2, 1822, daughter of Henry and Maria (Slocum) Hamilton. She in died Otis Mass., May 13, 1845 (leaving a son, William Henry, born March 30, 1845, who died January 14, 1846). He married (2d) October 18, 1847, Harriette J. Rood; she died Winsted, July 31, 1848, aged 23 years, s. p., and he married (3d) March 18, 1850, Ellen Amantla Griswold, daughter of Roswell and Jerusha (Grant) Griswold. children. I. William Banister, b. February 16, 1853. II. Mart Louise, b. April 29, 1857. The other children of William Phillips were Aurelia, who died unmar- ried, Semantha, born February 11, 1805, now living in Winsted unmarried, Emeline, wife and widow of Lemuel K. Strickland, Esq., late of Sandisfield, deceased, and Clarissa, wife of Carlton Hayden. Thomas R. Bull is on the list of this year. He worked with his brother, Merritt Bull, in a blacksmith shop, afterwards burned down, that stood near the premises of G. W. Gaston on Main street. He afterwards moved to Colebrook, from whence he returned in 1810, and bought the old Jenkins & Boyd Scythe Works, and lived in the house on the top of the knoll east of the parsonage house of Mr. Beach. In 1816 he bought an interest in the Cook forge, which proved an unfortunate investment, bringing him to poverty, in spite of his untiring industry and frugal habits. He died November 6, 1829, aged 49. He married, April 3, 1806, Diantha, daughter of Ebenezer Rowley, by whom he had 376 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, CHILDREN. I. Celestia, a deaf mute, who m. Isaac Davis. II. Mart, m. Lucius Phelps. III. Clorinda, m. Lemuel Munson IV. Jane, m. James Gilman. V. Catharine M., m. — Clapp. VI. Thomas. Timothy Persons came into the town this year, and continued a resident until about 1807, when he moved to Colebrook river, where he carried on a tannery until his death, a hard-working, honest man. He married Lucy Davis of Winsted. Alpheus Persons, brother of Timothy, came here about the same time with his brother, and left the town with him, moving to North Colebrook, and carrying on a tannery there during his remaining life. He died in August, 1858, aged 72. His wife died in 1821, aged 32. He married in 1810, Sally Davis, sister of Lucy aforesaid. Their son, Wing Persons, came to Winsted in 1851, and has since resided here, living on the north side of Hinsdale street, adjoining the graded school building. He married, in August, 1843, Flavilla, daughter of Travis Phillips of Colebrook. children. 1. Benjamin Franklin, b. January 8, 1844. 2. Grace, b. July 6, 1851. 3. Charles, b. June, 1865. 1803. With the year 1803 the personal reminiscences of the compiler begin. The Green Woods turnpike then, as now, ran along the easterly and northerly border of Mad River, from Coe street to Chestnut street. The green, or east village park, and the road northward, now constituting North Main street, had been recently laid out, and was cleared in its whole extent. At the south end of the park was a gravel knoll of eight or ten feet elevation, and to the west of it, about opposite Woodruffs confectionery store, was a sink hole or frog pond, depressed to the level of the river channel, which was soon after partially filled with flood-wood logs from the river, which were covered over at successive " spells " by plowing the knoll and spreading the gravel on them, until the depression and elevation were graded to one level. The level land north of the lake stream, through which Meadow street now runs, was an unbroken forest ; so also was the westerly and southerly AND FAMILY RECORDS. 377 border of Mad River from near Lake street to Still River, the meadow land south of the east village being an impenetrable morass covered with timber, where the flood-wood of Mad River had lodged and accumulated to such a degree that in time of winter and spring floods the road above the creek bridge would be submerged and covered by broken ice, not unfrequently to a depth of six feet, rendering it impassable until the water subsided, and the cakes of ice could be removed from the road path. The hill lands, encircled on three sides by Main and North Main streets, and bordering Hinsdale street, were an unbroken forest, save at points where houses had been erected. A part of the flat had been cleared, but the aboriginal stumps remained, only partially decayed. On Lake street stood nearest the lake outlet the one and a half story house built by David Austin, Jr., and then occupied by Solomon Rockwell and his recently married wife. Next northerly on the east side of the street was the two-story lean-to hou^e built by Deacon David Austin and then occupied by the miller and one or two other families. Next northerly stood the Daniel Wilcox house, immediately west of which Rockwell street now runs. The Lake street road then ran. directly down the hill in front of this house, and has since been swung around to the north for ease of grade. The lake stream was then conducted by a canal easterly across the street opposite the lean-to house and then on the east border, to near the Wihox house where it again crossed back, and poured its waters on the wheels of the old Austin Mill, which stood where the road now runs, a little below the Henry Spring Company's works. On the westerly side of the road, immediately below the first canal crossing, stood a blacksmith shop and dish mill, and below the corn mill, a clothn r's shop, fulling mill and carding mill. A dwelling house, soon after this period burned down, stood below and adjoining the clothier's shop. There was another dish mill where the Beard-ley company's grinding shop now stands. Below this stood the old original forge where the Winsted Company's grinding works now stand, and "the middle forge" then recently erected by the Rockwells and now rebuilt and owned by Timothy Hulbert. Around these forges were three tenements for workmen, and two others stood on Lake street. On the depot grounds of the Connecticut Western Railroad Company stood the oldest store building within ih% borough limits, built before 1800 by Thomas Spencer, Jr., and Hewitt Hills. Below the middle forge stood a saw mill, on the site of which " the lower forge " was built a few years after by the Rockwell Brothers. On the next privilege stood the scythe works of Meritt Bull, this year completed, where the stone shop of the Winsted Hoe Co., adjoining Meadow Street bridge, now stands. Be- low this on the northerly side of Lake 6treet, immediately east of Meadow 48 378 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, street, was James Boyd's scythe works ; and nearly opposite them stood and now stands the gambrel-rooted store-building, that year erected by Mr. Kirkum. On the turnpike, or Main street, there stood an old house on the site of George Dudley's residence, occupied by David West. The next house was erected and afterwards occupied during his life by James Boyd, and now owned by John T. Rockwell. The next house was built in 1802 by Deacon Alpha Rockwell on the site of the Beardsley House. The Lyman & Lewis store-building stood on the site of Moses Camp's dwelling until taken down and re-erected about 1842 on Prospect street and now owned by Benjamin Lawrence. On the south corner of Main and Lake streets stood the small gambrel-roofed store built two years earlier by Bissell Hinsdale. Next south of this stood, and still stands, the old Higby tavern ; and beyond this, on the site of Weed's block, the gambrel-roofed Kirkum dwelling. From this point to the new meeting-house in the east village, not a single building had been erected on either side of the road, except the store now occupied by T. Baird. There had been a log house on the fiat and another on High Street hill, but both had disappeared. In the East Village the original hotel building had been raised and covered, and a small dwelling or shop, stood on or near the Normand Adams store site, and a coarse hemlock covered dwelling, built by one of the Potters, stood behind the ancient elm tree at the corner of North Main and Hinsdale streets. There was a small opening in the woods through which Hinsdale street ran, near the residence of John G. Wetmore, on which stood a small log-house occupied by a shoemaker named Henry Sanford. Around the Doolittle mill, on the east Aving of the clock-factory dam, stood the Jesse Doolittle dwelling, afterwards owned by Asaph Pease, and now removed, nearly in front of the new James G. Woodruff house, on the west side of the North Main Street road, as it then ran. North of this, on the same side of the road, stood a small house occupied by the miller ; and still further north another small house, which was afterwards removed to the top of the high knoll, beneath which it before stood. Opposite this house, on the east side of the street, stood, and still stands, the double house of Jenkins & Boyd, afterwards the parsonage house of the late Rev. James Beach, in which the compiler was born. The district school-house of the West District was a building of dubious age and color on the site of the long one-story school-house standing west of the newly erected Graded school edifice. The Coe Street road, Spen- cer Street road, and Hinsdale Street road concentrated at that point ; and it was reached from Lake street by way of the new turnpike. On the now discontinued road on the east side of Still River stood, and now stands, in a ruinous condition, the Nathan Wheeler house, with a floating foot bridge crossing the river, and two other houses near the AND FAMILY RECORDS. 379 Turnpike bridge, which have since disappeared. The Widow Hall house at the parting of the turnpike and the Torringford road, had been recently built for a tavern by Benjamin Wheeler, who kept the only post-office in the town. The elms around the East Village Park were set out this year and were probably the first transplanted shade trees in the society, with the excep- tion of an occasional willow. Most unfortunately for New England, the spiky Lombardy poplar was first imported about this period, and gained a most unaccountable popularity. Its easy propagation by slips, of rapid growth, and its singular though graceless form, gave to it almost universal favor. It had a run of a whole generation to the almost entire exclusion of our beautiful native shade trees. Fortunate indeed were the older villages which had reared their wide branching, majestic elms before this graceless and short-lived tree gained a footing among us. On the subsidence of the Lombardy poplar mania, the rock-maple found general favor by reason of its cleanliness and depth of shade, rather than the grace and majesty of its matured form. The elm, though somewhat later in its introduction, has proved itself a more rapid grower and a more hardy tree. None of ours away from the East Park have yet attained the maturity of size which developes their full grace and majesty ; yet the large number now in process of healthy growth. give assured promise of a beautiful town in the future, in spite of its ill proportioned and comfortless residences. For the edification of the antiquary of nineteen hundred and three, — in the event of a copy of these annals reaching his hands — we here note the date of transplantation of some of the trees now standing on Main and Lake streets, as follows : The elms around the East village Park, as already stated, in 1 803 ; — and those in the vicinity on Main street perhaps a year later ; — the maples around the Solomon Rockwell place on Lake street, and in front of the Congregational Church, about 1818. The elms in front of the E. S. Woodford place about 1825, and those fronting Moses Camp's place about 1830; those in front of the Winsted Savings Bank and the S. W. Coe store, in 1832. Of the seedling elms along the bank of Mad River, which may be known by their irregular positions, probably not one had sprung up be- fore the opening of the Green Woods turnpike, in 1799. In recalling Winsted as it was in its infancy, memories of the West village school house and its occupants crowd upon us. It was there that we this year began to ascend the hill of science, seated on one of the slab benches, supported by four rough-hewn legs, — without backs, — and a little too high for our feet to touch the floor. The building was erected in 380 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, the last century, — ■ how early no one now living can tell, and no record in- forms. It was of mature age, — had once been painted red, but then had a dirty, brindle look, neither venerable nor picturesque. It had a large stone fire-place at the north end, with the entry from the outer doors on one side and " the dungeon," — a dark closet, — on the other. A smaller fire-place and chimney of later construction stood at the south end. Writing desks, fronting inwards, stood near the east and west walls. In front of these were the hemlock slabs in two tiers for torment- ing the young children, — and teaching them at the outset, the rugged- ness of the path of learning they were to ascend. The teacher's table, a small platform of boards, fastened on top of an over-grown saw-horse, and a splint-bottom chair, were the only other articles of furniture or adorn- ment, save that sundry hieroglyphics and portraits were frescoed on the walls, by using the end of a tallow dip for a pencil or brush, and bringing out the figures in relief by the vigorous application of a black felt hat. New inscriptions and new pictures would from time to time appear, as some new genius in the school developed his talents. In the rear of the school house ran a little brook, well stocked with striped dace, on whom the sporting boys tried their first experiments with a crooked pin attached to a linen thread, and baited with a grub. It is hard to realize, that before there were half a dozen dwellings along the Mad River, this school house was filled to overflowing with strapping boys and girls from the surrounding hills. There were the Spencers, the Loomises, the Cooks, the Douglasses, the Harts, the Wal- ters, Millers, Burtons, Osborns, Apleys, Butrixes, and Wrights, from Spencer street ; the Sweets, Coes, Whitings, Hoskins, and liussells, from Coe street; the Chases, Ilolmeses, Elwells, De Wolfs, Westlakes, Phillipses, Lemleys, Munsons, and Davises, from the upper part of Lake street. The butternut coats of the larger boys were all too small of girth to button round their bodies, and leather straps, from three to six inches long, with button holes at each end, were used to hold them together. High peaked, woolen caps of mitre shape, made of alternate perpendicu- lar stripes of " white, red, and blue," or other fancy colors, were in gen- eral vogue for winter wear. Long leggins, of mixed sheep's wool, tied close to the cowskin shoes with tow-strings, were chiefly used instead of boot-legs to keep out the snow from the feet. The girls had winter dresses of cam-wood colored cloth, or red flannel, for winter wear, and calico or home-made gingham petticoats and short gowns for summer, with pockets, fastened outside, around the waist. There were no puny children in those days. The big boys were bullies, and the small ones game cocks. One strapping girl I remember who could flax out any boy in school. She was called " Bonaparte's AND FAMILY RECOKDS. 381 wife." There was a big boy, Miles Munson by name, who was proud of his strength and prowess, and had curious ways of showing himself off to the smaller boys. One day he laid himself down on the descending ground between a large, half rotten saw-mill log and the brook, and told the boys they might roll the log over him, — not dreaming that the little imps could move it. They laid hold of the log with a will, and it yielded to their united strength. Before Miles could get out of the way it had flattened him down and gone over him, into the brook. Strange to say, it didn't kill him, nor break his bones. It was pitiable and laughable to see the poor fellow gather up his scattered senses and limbs, and straighten himself up ; — and to hear him with mouth full of dirt, stream- ing eyes and flattened drooling nose, pour forth, with Yankee drawl, his emphatic " Gaul darn you, boys ! what on airth did you du that for ? " Snow-balling was a science in those days ; and so was sliding down the hill above the school house. A dozen boys would come down on their sleds at locomotive speed. Another dozen would form a gauntlet near the foot of the hill, with each a pole to place before the sled runners, and overturn the rider. The boy who could run the whole gauntlet, right side up, was a trump. One of the indoor games was gambling for pins. Two boys would each place a pin parallel to that of his opponent on the crown of a hat. One would strike the side of the hat with his hand so as to jostle the pins, and then the other would follow, until one of them had thrown one of the pins across the other, when the two became his, and then a new stake commenced. The most successful gamblers in this line were distinguished by the long rows of pins dis- played on their coats sleeves. This game gave rise to a brisk manufac- ture of pin-boxes, by pealing the bark from an elder stick, punching out the pith, fitting a plug into one end and a stopper at the other. The price of these varied from two to six pins, according to quality. The school-masters and " school-marms " of this model school come up before us. The good Deacon Lorrin Loomis, lately gone to heaven at nearly a hundred years old, first appears on the vista of memory, — a kind, loving, cheerful-spirited man, — who impressed his Christ-like character on more of the children of Winchester than any other, — priest or layman. Then comes the hated vision of Doctor Pratt, — a tyrant of the hyena sort, who brought in his whips from the woods by the armful, — ran them through the hot embers to make them tough and supple, and was never without one in his hand. His amateur diversion was to switch the small boys into a bolt upright position on their slabs, and to wallop the bigger ones with or without cause, until his savage nature was soothed into com- placency. The classes were marshaled for reading or spelling with the whip. Its hissing sound, as he swung it around his head at the door of the school house, was the signal to come in from play ; and woe to the 382 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, urchin who was among the last half of the in-gathering procession. A worthy resident of the Western Reserve, who went from this seminary with his parents to the West, remarked in mature life that he was at peace with all the world except Dr. Pratt ; and that if he should ever see him again he would thrash him if he died for it. Next come the two Haydens, Seth and Moses. Seth was a mild, kind-hearted man, who ruled by love more effectually than any tyrant of the rod could do by force. Moses was a crack teacher, a good disciplinarian, and skilled in show- ing off his school to the visitors at the end of his term. We remember on one of these occasions his calling up his youngest geography class, remarking that time would only permit of his asking each of them a single question. He then began with the question, " What is geography ?" to the first ; to the second, " How is the earth divided ?" ; to the third, " What portion of the earth is land ?" and so on. The third question had been previously given out to our sister, and she had learned to answer, " About three fists (fifths) of the whole," and this was her whole stock of geographical knowledge. Each of the other members of the class had been drilled in the same way to one question and answer, and knew nothing more of the science. The pitiful farce worked to a charm, and added a new laurel to the brow of the pedagogue. Giles Russell was a flippant, sarcastic teacher, who could work con- siderable learning into a blockhead in the course of a winter. Our first teacher in this school wore a female garb, but possessed mas- culine powers. Miss Roxy F was the name of this semiramis. She was large-boned, corpulent, loud and sharp-voiced, choleric, and at the meridian of single blessedness. She had a ferule that she carried in her capacious pocket, something like a watchman's billy, only that it had a round head two and a half inches in diameter, beveled down on one side, so as to make a flat surface, fitting the palm of an urchin's hand. This was freely applied, secundum artem, to the hands of delinquents within her reach, and thrown with unerring aim at any disorderly boy in a distant part of the room, who brought it back for application to his own hand. Miss F. had her predilections and antipathies. She hated the itch, and rapturously kissed the children that came to school with a strong smell of brimstone. In striking contrast with this virago was Miss Sally Sherman, after- wards wife of Joseph Miller, Esq., a young lady of exquisite refinement and cultivated intellect, adorned with grace of manner and a loving heart. No unkind word ever escaped her lips. If she ever used a ferule, it was so mildly applied as to give no pain, and to escape remem- brance. The tired and sleepy child on the hemlock slabs, instead of having its ears cuffed for falling to the floor in pure exhaustion, was AND FAMILY EECORDS. 383 gently laid on a blanket in the center of the room and allowed to sleep away its fatigue and petulance. It was not uncommon for half a dozen of these wearied sleepers to occupy the blanket during a warm afternoon. Other teachers, male and female, might be named — some of them love- able and some of them hateful — but the specimens given must suffice. The punishments of those days inflicted on such of the children as inherited dispositions too sprightly for puritanic decorum were various. The birch was in use to some extent, but the beech was the more favored implement, as being tougher and more durable. The "dungeon "in the old school house was a dark, unwholesome cell, unventilated and un- lighted. It was the imaginary habitation of she bears, snakes, and vermin, and cruel was the shock to children of sensitive natures con- signed to its darkness. Various amateur punishments would be intro- duced by different teachers. One master would make the delinquents crawl under and between the cross legs of the school table ; another would fasten a split stick to their tongues ; another would make them stoop over with unbent knees, and place the forefinger of the right hand on a nail head in the floor. •The saturnian " school marms " were generally powerful with the ferule, and effective in the cuffing of ears, and some of them in pulling hair. Fine sewing, working muslin, and especially making " samplers " of block lettering, were an important part of the teaching of the female scholars in the summer months. The catechism tasks, and the reading of the New Testament as a school book, in all the drawling tones and halting utterances of unsophis- ticated Yankee children, were ill calculated to impress the mind with a favorable view of Calvinistic doctrines, or of the divine teachings of the Saviour. 1803. Samuel and Luther Hoadley (brothers) from Waterbury, became residents of the town during this or the preceding year. The Doolittle mill had been swept away previously, and they became the owners of the dam, water privilege, and the land adjoining on both sides of the river. They built a saw mill on the old corn mill site, and soon after erected a new grist mill on the east side of the stream, on the site of the brick clock factory, recently burned down. They also built for the town the wooden bridge crossing the chasm where the stone arched-bridge has been, within a few years, erected. The original bridge crossed the river above the dam, nearly opposite the Rollin L. Beecher's late residence, and was abandoned on the erection of the wooden bridge before mentioned. About 1807 they erected a small wooden clock factory adjoining the east wing of the bridge on the south side of the road," in which they did a large and prosperous business in connection with Riley Whiting, who married their sister. 384 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, They were for ten years prominent and highly esteemed business men, and by their ingenuity and enterprise contributed largely to the growth and prosperity of the village.* Samuel Hoadley retired from business on his appointment as Major of Volunteers in the war of 1812. He was promoted to a colonelcy, and served through the war, mainly at New London. He continued his residence in Winsted until his removal to Ohio about 1825. He built and resided in the two story house west of and nearly opposite the stone bridge. He married, about 1801, Content Barnes, from near New Haven. CHILDREN. I. Sarah Anna, b. January 1,1802; m. Bennett Blakeslce of Medina, Ohio. II. Amelia, b. October 25, 1803; in. Dr. Deming of Ashland, O., ami (2d) — Du Bois. III. Harriet, b. August 6, 1805; d. November 27, 1817. IV. Sophronia, b. May 2, 1808 ; m. Wm. P. McCrary of Paris, O. V. Samuel Buckley, b. April 20, 1810; m. Jemima Hiekox. VI. Juliette, b. March 3, 1812. VII. Charlotte, b. VIII. Lucius, (twin). IX. Lucien, (twin). X. Charles, died when six years old. Luther Hoadley, son of Lemuel and brother of Samuel, built and lived in the first house south of the Wallen's Hill road, near the clock factory. In 1813 he went to New London as captain of dratted militia, and died there Sept. 8, 1813, aged 31 years. He married, in 1810, Sophia Dexter of Windsor. CHILDREN. I. Sophia Dexter, b. Feb. 1, 1812; m., at Harwinton, Cone, of Pe- oria, 111. II. Luther J., - b. March 6, 1814; after his father's decease, m. (1st), at Harwinton, Jane, daughter of Truman Kellogg, Esq.; (2d), Hannah Wood ; (3d), Hannah Abby Wood. He settled at Brownsville, Nebraska. * They were sons of Lemuel and Urania (Mallory) Hoadley, whose children were as follows : — I. Mart, m. Asabel Osborne, Esq., of Columbia, Lorrain Co., O. II. David, the builder of many churches in Conn. III. Sally, m. Zaphni Potter of Columbia, O. IV. Calvin, settled and died in Columbia, O. V. Samuel, see text. VI. Luther, see text. VII. Urania, b. May 5, 1788; m. February 9, 1806, Riley Whiting. She m. (2d) December — , 1841, Erasmus Darwin Calloway. VIII. Lemuel, d. Olmsted, or Concord, Ohio. IX. Marshall, was drowned when about twelve years old. AND FAMILY KECORDS. 385 Hawley Oakley, lived on West branch of Spencer street above Nelson Beardsley's from this date for five or six years, and then moved to Canaan, Conn. He married Lydia, daughter of Luke Hart, and had CHILDREN. I. Alva, b. Hartland, Oct. 13, 1799, now a resident of Winsted, and William, now of Norfolk, and may have had other children. Alva Oakley, son of Hawley above named, came from Canaan to Winsted, not far from 1830, and has since resided in the Hoskin home- stead on Coe street. He married, May 25, 1826, Roxana, daughter of Theodore Hoskin. CHILDREN. I. Henry, b. Canaan, April 13, 1827 ; d. W., Oct. 27, 1846. II. Helen, b. C, April 13, 1827; m. Thomas Atkins. III. Junius Silas, b. C, June 12, 1829; m. Mary A. Atkins. IV. Maria Elizabeth, b. C, April 23, 1831 ; d. W., Sept. 6, 1834. V. Jennett Alma, b. W., Jan. 18, 1833; d. VI. Sarah Elizabeth, b. Jan. 1, 1839. 1804. Ekastds Burr, son of Jehiel and Mabel, appears on the list of this year. He learned the scythe maker's trade of Jenkins & Boyd, and in 1806 bought their original scythe works of Mr. Jenkins, which he operated until 1810 when he sold out to Thos. R. Bull, and soon after moved to Western New York. He married, about 1806, Polly, daughter of Judah West of Winchester. Roswell Burr, younger brother of Erastus above, lived on the east side of North Main street, half a mile north of the Woodruff tannery until 1833, when he moved to Ohio. He married Nancy, daughter of Judah West, and had a son David, who married a daughter of Reuhen Rowley, and lived in the same house with his father until his removal to Ohio in 1846; and had other children, Luther, Halsey, and Roswell. Halsey Burr, younger brother of Erastus and Roswell, learned scythe making of Benjamin Jenkins, and in 1814 built a scythe shop on North Main street, which he operated until about 1853, when he sold his shop to B. & E. Woodall, who erected the long factory building now standing on. the premises. He lived on the West side of the road, opposite the shop, until his death, Jan. 15, 1861. He married Lucy, daughter of Oliver White, Sen., by whom he had CHILDREN. I. Eliza, b. July 19, 1819. II. Dency, b. April 10, 1821 ; d. May 26, 1848. III. Matilda, b. July 28, 1822. 49 386 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, IV. Jehiel, b. Aug. 24, 1824. V. Lucy, b. July 5, 1827. VI. Mary, b. June 13, 1829. VII. Jane A., b. June 27, 1831. VIII. Nancy, b. July 7, 1833. IX. George H., b. Aug. 7, 1837. X. Abby M., b. June 2, 1839. XI. Carlos, b. Dec. 29, 1841. Luke IIayden, from Torringford, this year bought the John Wright farm, on the Old Country road near Rowley pond, on which he lived until his removal to Hartland, in 1814. 1805. Reuben Baldwin, from Derby, a joiner, came to Winsted this or the preceding year, and superintended the finishing of the meeting-house in the east village. He continued his residence in the Society until his death, Dec. 15, 1855, at the age of 71. His residence was in the one-and-a-half- story house near the Lake outlet. He married, July 13, 1807, Nancy, daughter of Nathan Wheeler. She died Feb. 7, 1854, aged 65. CHILDREN. I. Emeline, b. Sept. 20, 1808; m. Sept. 27, 1832, William F. Hatch; d. Sept. 22, 1870. II. Lyman, b. March 12, 1810; m., Nov. 30, 1837, Rebecca C. Mather, of Middletown : Child: Sarah Gray, b. July 16, 1852. III. Matilda, b. Feb. 15, 1816; m., Dec. 3, 1839, Miles Smith, who d. July 27, 1851. Child: Martha Benbain, b. May, 1848; m., April 23, 1872, King T. Sheldon. Eliab Bunnell this year bought the lot east of the Park, on which the James T. Norton house now stands. In company with Reuben Bald- win, he built thereon, for a work shop, the house since owned by Chester Soper, and afterwards removed to the south side of Main street, east of Hiram Perkins, in which they made patent washing machines until about 1810, when Mr. Bunnell removed to Vernon, N. Y. Andrew Walter, son of John, of Winchester, this year returned from Vermont, and spent his remaining life in the town. He was born Dec. 5, 1779 ; married, , , Abigail, daughter of Samuel Westlake, of W., and had several children, of whom Charlotte, the oldest, married Sylvester Hart, of W. 1806. Rev. James Beach was ordained pastor of the First Congregational Church on the first of January of this year. He was a native of the town, but resided from infancy to early manhood in Torrington. He was graduated with honor at Williams College, studied divinity with Rev. £^WA/ Itt AND FAMILY RECORDS. 387 Asahel Hooker, D. D., of Goshen, and after a brief candidacy, was called to and settled over this church on a cash salary of $350 a year, with an advance of funds to purchase a dwelling, repayable in yearly installments. No record is found of the ordaining exercises. He was sound, dignified, and conservative; faithful in his parochial duties, — especially in his pastoral visits and his supervision of the schools. The faithfulness of his ministry was attested by repeated re- vivals and the exemplary lives of most of the converts. He was dis- missed from his charge, at his own request, January 26, 1842, but con- tinued his residence until his death on the 10th day of June, 1850, at the age of 70 years. His character and standing in the ministry is happily portrayed in the following sketch by Rev. Doctor Eldridge of Norfolk. " Rev. Mr. Beach had been settled in the ministry at Winsted many years when I came to reside in Norfolk. I immediately formed his ac- quaintance, and soon came to look to him with filial affection and confi- dence, feelings that I continued to entertain towards him to the end of his life. " Mr. Beach was endowed with strong intellectual powers. His bias was more towards the practical than the merely speculative. This ten- dency, combined with a calm temperament, fitted him to be a wise coun- selor, and a most useful member of our ecclesiastical associations. " His disposition was social and genial. He was a pleasant man to meet. He had a considerate regard for his ministerial brethren, in re- spect to their feelings and reputations; rejoiced in their success and in their usefulness. I never saw him out of temper, never heard him utter a harsh or censorious remark ; he never thrust himself forward, was more disposed to stand back and make room for others. " I heard him preach but a few times. His sermons were full of truth, clearly and plainly expressed. In their delivery he was earnest, but never impassioned ; — perhaps more of emotion would have improved them. His prayers in public, especially those on special occasions, such as ordinations and the like, were very remai-kable for their ease, their felicitous adaptation in all respects to the circumstances of the case, and the happy introduction of scriptural quotations ; and at the same time re- markable for their exemption from everything of the nature of effort at display, and for their simple tone and humble earnestness. " My recollection of Father Beach, as I used to call him, are very dear to me. I loved him in life, and lamented him in death, and feel that I owe it to his kindness and his encouragement and advice in no small de- gree, that I have so long remained where I am." He married, Oct. 28, 180G, Hannah Clarissa Baldwin, born in Goshen, 388 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Conn., March 10, 1784, daughter of Isaac and Lucy (Lewis) Baldwin. He died June 10, 1850 ; she died May 7, 1752. CHILDREN. I. Lucy Baldwin, 2 b. Aug. 20, 1807 ; m. Dec. 16, 1830, Henry Hazcn Hyde, b. in Catskill, N. Y., July 1, 1805, son of Wilkes and Sarah Hazen Hyde. She d. Feb. 7, 1846; and he m. (2d), Feb. 14, 1856, Sarah B. Shepard, of Boston. CHILDREN. 1. James Beach, 3 b. Nov. 14, 1831 ; d. Jan. 8, 1850, while in Col- lege, an undergraduate. 2. Henry Baldwin, 3 b. Feb. 15, 1834; m. March 20, 1864, Annie Fitch, of New York ; is Vice-President of the Equitable Life As- surance Company of New York ; has children: 1. Annie Baldwin, 4 b. Jan. 15, 1865; d. Sept. 2, 1865. 2. Mary Baldwin, 4 b. Nov. 9, 1867. 3. Mary, 3 b. Sept. 4, 1839; d. Jan. 4, 1840. 4. Lucy Baldwin, 3 b. Aug. 20, 1841. II. Hannah Clarissa, 2 b. March 20, 1809 ; d. Oct. 26, 1815. III. Mary, 2 b. Dec. 16, 1814; m. Caleb J. Camp. (Their chil- dren noted in connection with the family record of Samuel Camp.) Captain Ezekiel Woodford, from Avon or Bloomfield, this year purchased of John Sweet the house and land at the corner of Main and Coe streets, and there resided during his remaining life. During most of this period he kept a tavern, and managed a saw-mill nearly opposite his house. He died May 10, 1820, aged 71 ; his wife, Anne (Bishop), died December 23, 1831, aged 77. CHILDREN. I. Lucy, m. Wadsworth of West Hartford. II. Erastds, late of Winsted. III. Jeremiah, late of Bloomfield. IV. Nancy, V. Bomanta, VI. Ezekiel, late of Winsted, b. June 30, 1790. VII. Mary, VIII. Harriet, m. Shepard. IX. Lester, b. June 19, 1797. Erastus Woodford, son of Ezekiel, came to Winsted soon after his father, and owned and occupied the Green Woods Hotel property, on the Green Woods turnpike, near Colebrook line, until soon after 1820, when he removed to his father's late homestead, where he resided until his death, April 20, 1855, at the age of 74. He was Town Clerk from Octo- ber 1826, to October 1829, and filled other town offices from time to time. He married, November 14, 1805, Ruth Barber, born October 27, 1780, daughter of Benjamin and Ruth (Bolles) Barber. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 389 CHILDREN. I. Benjamin Barber, b. Jan. 22, 1807. II. Erastus Sterling, b. Sept. 20, 1808. III. Julia Ann, b. Feb. 14, 1811 ; m. Willard S. Wetmore. IV. Lucius Jonah, b. May 16, 1814. V. Cordelia Rutht, b. June 2, 1818; m. James H. Tuttle. Romanta Woodford, son of Ezekiel, came into the town a few years after his father, and built and occupied the house on Main street, next his father's homestead, carrying on the tinning business until his removal to Bennington, Greene County, New York, in 1818. Ezekiel Woodford, son of Ezekiel, sen., came into the town with his father in his minority. He bought his brother Romanta's Homestead in Dec, 1817, and there resided until his removal to Windsor in 1832. Returning to Winsted in 1857, he lived in the house on the north side of Hinsdale street, next east of the graded school house, until his death, August 14, 1859, at the age of 69. He was born June 30, 1790; m. Sept. 7, 1825, Roxana Lyman, b. June 18, 1797; died Dec. 2G, 1871. CHILDREN. I. Andrew D., b. June 15, 1826; d. Dec. 9, 1826. II. George L., b. Dec. 29, 1827. III. John, b. March 4, 1831. Lester Woodford, youngest son of Capt. Ezekiel, came with his father to Winsted while a minor. In 1823, in company with N. Kinney, he bought the Elihu Rockwell farm on the Spencer Street road north of Amos Pierce, and resided there until his removal to the Russell homestead on the Coe street, now owned by Junius Gillett, where he afterwards resided until his removal to in 1867. He married, Dec. 10, 1823, at W., Rosanna, daughter of Luke Case, late of Winchester, deceased. children. I. Lyman Case, b. June 15, 1826, d. Feb. 10, 1835. II. Caroline Elizabeth, b. April 28, 1832, d. May 21, 1836. IH. Charles Bishop, b. Feb. 10, 1837. IV. Marianne, b. Oct. 16, 1839. V. William Sterling, b. Sept. 3, 1842. Benjamin Barber Woodford, oldest son of Erastus, lived in the Green Woods Hotel, his father's early residence, from his first marriage to about 1848, when he built a small brick house on High street, which he occupied until his removal to Derby about 1851. He now lives in Spring- field, Mass. He married Polly Ann Hills, and has one daughter, Mary C, his only child. 390 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Erastus Sterling "Woodford, second son of Erastus, became a partner with Samuel W. Coe and Luman Hubbell, under the firm name of Coe, Hubbell & Co., about 1830, and continued with them in mercantile business until 1842, when he withdrew from the firm, and did business in his individual name until about 1849, when he went to California, whence he returned some three or four years later, and engaged for a few years in the manufacture of pins, and was subsequently engaged in Insurance business until his death. He was a man of refined literary culture and modest deportment, kind-hearted and public spirited ; as a neighbor, obliging ; as a citizen, liberal, not only in his contributions to public ob- jects, but indefatigable in his personal labors for their advancement. He married, October 13, 1834, Huldah Coe, born April 6, 1809, daughter of Jonathan and Charlotte (Spencer) Coe. She died of consumption, April 18, 1859. He married (2d), June 20, 18G2, Anna J. Coe, daughter of Asahel M. Coe. He died Sept. 26, 1870. children. I. Frank Munro, b. August 10, 1843 ; d. Dec. 25, 1848. II. Louise Hale, b. June 6, 1863. Lucius J. Woodford, third son of Erastus, lived as a farmer on the old Waterbury turnpike, near Colebrook line, from his first marriage, until his removal to the Daniel Tuttle farm on South street near Torringford line, in 1845. It is painful to refer to the long protracted and bitter con- troversy between him and his brother-in-law, resulting in the death of the latter by a gun-shot wound inflicted by the former, and the conviction of Mr. W. of murder in the first degree, for which he was sentenced to state prison for life by the superior court for Litchfield county in 1866. On his application for pardon in 1869, evidence was introduced before the legislative committee, which made a report recommending his pardon, and in accordance with the recommendation, he was by the Assembly pardoned and liberated. He married Catharine, daughter of Daniel G. Tuttle, by whom he had a son, George E., born , , who married, Nov. 27, 1864, Rosa A., daughter of John S. Fyler. CHILD. Frank, b: Feb. — , 1S68. George Woodford, oldest son of Ezekiel, 3 learned the joiner's trade, and resides in this town. He married, Sept. 15, 1856, Helen J. Watson, born June 5, 1833. CHILDREN. I. Ella Louisa, b. Jan. 18, 1859; d. Nov. 23, 1S60. II. Cora Isabelle, b. Jan. 19, 1862. III. De Witt Clinton, b. May 16, 1863. IV. Frederick Ezekiel, b. Oct. 5, 1865; d. Sept. 5, 1869. VFirz^Arr-vL/ AND FAMILY RECORDS. 391 John Woodford, second son of Ezekiel, 2 served his time as clerk in the mercantile firm of M. & C. J. Camp, and was received into and con- tinues a partner in the concern. He married, May 24, 1860, Laura C, daughter of Hiram and Irene (Sanford) Burnham, born March 6, 1840. CHILDREN. I. Arthur Burnham, b. Oct. 7, 1861. II. Frank Clarke, b. Nov. 24, 1867 ; d. Nov. 17, 1868. III. Fannie Louise, b. Jau. 18, 1870. 1806. Joseph T. Cumming this year came from Kinderhook, N. Y., and, in company with Benjamin Jenkins, went into trade in the store building on Main street, east village, now occupied by Theophilus Baird, and lived in the Ezra Baldwin house adjoining. In 1 809 he moved to Otis, Mass., where for several years he kept a store and tavern. Samuel Rowley, Jr., from Torrington, this year bought the home- stead on the Old North road, adjoining Colebrook line, now occupied by his son Edwin Rowley, which he occupied until his death in 1854. No record is found of his family. His widow died several years after him. They had children. I. Calvin, who died a resident of Illinois. II. Eliza, wife of Orrin Freeman of Winchester. III. Lucia J., of Colebrook, in 1858; d. in Illinois about 1869. IV. Edward (twin). V. Edwin (twin), of Colebrook. VI. Mary, (twin), m. — Miller. VII. Mariaii (twin), m. Darwin Smith. Benjamin Johnson, a cabinet maker, owned and lived in a house, now torn down, on the north side of West Lake street, nearly opposite the brick house built by John C. Stabell, from 1806 to 1812, when he moved to Ohio. Among other children he had one daughter, who mar- ried Dr. Steese of Massilon, O. Bkmsley Carpenter, a singing master, is on the list of this year. From 1807 to 1816 he lived on the Jonathan Gilbert farm, on South street. He had one or more sons and two daughters — Eunice, now living (1872) here, and Emily, who married, August 24, 1834, James B. Phelps, from Leicester, Mass., and resided here until his death, March 25, 1857. She died in 1870. Elizur Hinsdale came from Torrington in 1805. He this year 392 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, built, and afterwards occupied, the house on north side of Main street, now owned by Philo G. Sheldon, and a trip-hammer shop on the site ot the Foundry & Machine Co.'s AVorks, in which he manufactured axes until his removal to Leroy, N. Y. His first wife, Olive, died October 28, 1816, aged 30. He married (2d) Mrs. — Everett of New Milford, in 1817. CHILDREN. I. Mary Elizabeth, baptized June 7, 1807. II. Morris. III. Charlotte Maria, bap. October 16, 1814. IV. A Daughter, bap. , 1819. Elam Rockwell appears on the list as a resident this year. From 1812 to 1814 he owned and lived on Mad River, near the Danbury schoolhouse. Daniel Burnham, from 1806 to 1814, owned and lived in a house nearly opposite and west of the stone bridge over Still River, and car- ried on a chair factory in the upper part of Hoadley's Mill. In 1826 he bought the Lemuel Clarke place on Wallen's Hill, which he occupied until his death, May 19, 1836, at the age of 54. His wife, Clarissa C, died February 22, 1855, aged 74. The names of their deceased children, as found in their burial lot, are — I. Daniel C, d. January 19, 1810, aged 6. II. Luther, d. August 23, 1837, aged 26. III. Erwin, d. February 12, 1812, aged 19. IV. Henry S., d. July 5, 1818, aged 2. V. Sally A., m. December 9, 1830, Rufus Cleveland; d. April 17, 1854, aged 51. They had another daughter, Clarissa, who m., September 13, 1831, Milo Hall of New Marlboro, Mass. Joseph Miller, Esq., attorney-at-law, commenced practice in Win- sted this year. In 1807 he built the house on the north side of Main street, now owned by Mrs. Parke, iu which he lived until his removal to Kalamazoo Co., Michigan. He was a graduate of Williams' College, and of the Litchfield Law School ; a man of literary tastes and sound legal acquirements ; a kind, generous-hearted man, genial and upright ; a good neighbor and citizen. As a lawyer, he was able in argument, and honorable in practice. An inborn principle of uprightness unfitted him for resort to professional tricks, and his moral sense revolted at whatever was mean or treacher- ous. By the court and bar he was highly respected. n 1834, with a view to the advancement of a large family, he AND FAMILY RECORDS. 393 removed to Richland, then a sparsely-settled region, where he devoted himself to clearing and cultivating his new homestead, and limitedly to law practice. His children grew up around him, prospered and respected. While a resident of Winsted, he was chosen a delegate to the conven- tion which framed the constitution of Connecticut in 1818, and was subsequently a representative of the town in the general assembly. In Michigan he was also a delegate of his county to the constitutional convention of that state, and held other public offices. He married, in June, 1808, Sarah Sherman, who died December 30, 1816; married (2d) October 1, 1817, Elizabeth, daughter of Eli Richards, who died July 17, 1858, aged 73. CHILDREN BY FIRST WIFE. I. Sherman, b. April 29, 1809; lost on the steamer Pulaski, on the Carolina coast, in June, 1838, unmarried. II. Sarah Ann, b. January 28, 1811 ; m. Ira Peake ; d. at Richland, Mich., January 27, 1859 ; left six children. III. Jane, b. December 23, 1812 ; m. Doctor E. Stetson of Neponset, 111. IV. Ltdia M., b. Apr. 5, 1825; m. Enos Northrup, Richland, Mich. V. Joseph, b. December 13, 1816, studied law with his father and was admitted to the bar of Kalamazoo county. Prosecuting attorney of said county for several years; U. S. Attorney, District of Michigan, from 1857 to 1861 ; an able and upright lawyer, a public-spirited and influen- tial citizen. " Thoroughly identified, both by early associations and matured intimacy with the people among whom he lived, his genial nature, his ripened and unerring judgment, his high legal attainments, and above all, his pure and unsullied integrity and entire truthfulness of thought and expression, won the heart and secured the attachment of all who approached him." At the session of the U. S. District Court, holden at the time of his decease, the district attorney, in announcing his death, remarked, " The period of our deceased brother's connection with the officers and bar of this court is so recent that it is unnecessary to call to mind the ability, the courtesy, the clear intellect, and the warm heart which characterized him in the manifold relations of his official and professional life. He was endowed by nature with a mind of high order, and with sympathies unusually tender, which drew around him troops of friends, whom his talents enabled him to serve. A handsome ' competency, and the best practice of his section of the state, was the fruit of his diligence and ability." He m. Charlotte B. Brown. CHILDREN BY SECOND WIFE. VI. Eli Richards, b. Oct. 12, 1818; m., 1st, Artheusa Mills; 2d, Harriet Cook. VII. James, b. Feb. 11, 1838; m. Mary Ada Smith. 1807. Benjamin Skinner, from East Hartford, a miller, came to Winsted this year and had charge of Rockwell's mill during his remaining life, and lived in the old lean-to house on Lake street. He was a man of most 50 394 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, industrious habits and sincere piety, training and educating his large fam- ily, and discharging the duties of a Christian citizen with exemplary fidelity. He died Feb. 5, 1814, aged 48. His wife Nabby (Spencer) died Dec. 2, 1830, aged 59. CHILDREN. I. James, b. m., , Harriet Spencer, of Hart- ford ; d. iii Hartford. Children: 1. Edward, d. young ; 2. James, m. Harriet Spencer. II. Benjamin,, b. 1794; m. d. Sept., 1854, aged 60; has one son (Henry) now in. and living in Ohio. III. Abigail, b. 1797 ; d. unmd. June 16, 1842, aged 45. IV. Rhoda, b. d. unmd. Feb. 17, 1864. V. Horace, b. m. (1st) Charity Sage, (2d) Sarah Clark. Children by first wife: 1. Charles; 2. Horace; 3. Sarah. By second wipe : 4. Abby; 5. Mary; 6. Belle; 7. Sarah Beaeh. Had seven children, all dead in 1872. VI. Henry. VII. Timothy Phelps, b. Sept. 11, 1807 ; m., March — , 1840, Mary T. Jaques. VIII. Frederick. IX. Lucius, b. m., June 20, 1836, Lucy Champion; was drowned in Naugatuck river by railroad disaster at Plymouth, Conn. Children : 1 . Ellen Maria, b. May 22, 1838 ; 2. Hannah Clark, b. May 10, 1840, d. ; 3. Lucius Spencer, b. March 28, 1843; 4. Frank Bevins, b. April 23, 1850. Capt. Lemuel Clarke, from Whately, Mass., came to Winsted this year, and bought the David Mills farm, afterwards owned by Daniel Burnham, on Wallen's Hill, on which he resided until 1826. He served as a sergeant in the Continental army in the Revolutionary War ; was in the battle of Bunker Hill and other engagements, and retired from the service with a certificate of honorable discharge signed by Washington. He was born at , Mass., March 24, 1755 ; married at Sunderland, Mass., by Rev. Mr. Ashley, in October, 1779, to Kezia Hubbard: he died Aug. 22, 1840; she died March 22, 1843. CHILDREN. I. Lucius, b. July 14, 1780, d. March 9, 1782. II. Levi Hubbard, b. Sept. 22, 1782; grad. Yale College, 1802; states attorney Middlesex Co., Conn., 1807-8; judge of Monroe Co. court, N. Y., in 1818; judge of seventh and tenth ward court, N. Y., in 1835; assistant editor of New York American, 1821-4, and New York Com- mercial Advertiser 1833-5. He m. Nov. — , 1809, Mary Ann, daughter of John Griswold, of Lyme, Coun., eldest son of Gov. Matthew Gris- wold. She d. Jan. 30, 1812, aged 26. child. Elizabeth Brainard, m. Sept. 14, 1844, Bushnell White, Esq., a lawyer of Cleveland, Ohio. Child; John Griswold White, b. August 10, 1845, at Cleveland, Ohio, and now practising law in that city. AND FAMILY RECORDS . 395 III. Caroline, b. Feb. 6, 1785, d. May 11, 1790. IV. Kezia, b. Dec. 21, 1787 ; m., , William Moore, d. De- cember, 1824. V. Lucius, b. Wbately, Mass., Aug. 22, 1790, d. Dec. 28, 1863. VI. Erastus Lemuel, b. May 21, 1793; m. ; d. Oct. 27, 1835. VII. Augustus, b. Sept. 8, 1796; d. Aug. 9, 1803. VIII. George Hubbard, b. Dec. 27, 1799; d. Feb. 22, 1852; m. (1) Lucius Clarke, son of Capt. Lemuel, married, Jan. — , 1819, Nancy, daughter of James Boyd, of Winchester. CHILDREN. I. Caroline, b. Rochester, N. Y., May 4, 1822 ; d. 1822. II. Frederick Boyd, b. Rochester, N. Y., Dec. 11, 1823; d. 1825. III. Lucius Hubbard, b. Winsted, Sept. 25, 1825; d. s. p. IV. Mary Munro, b. Winsted, May 4, 1827 ; m. H. B. Alvord. V. Thomas Montague, b. Winsted, Jan. 4, 1830 ; m., May 6, 1839, Julia Cat- lin, daughter of Dr. Orrin B. Freeman, Canton, Conn.; Children: 1. Carrie, d. in infancy; 2. Lucius F., d. in infancy; 3. Harry Catlin ; 4. Caroline Freeman; 5. Boyd; 6. Munro, d. in infancy; 7. Thomas M., d. in infancy; 8. Fanny; 9. Jessie. VI. Edward, b. April 15, 1832; m. Susan Holmes. VII. Martha, b. Springfield, Mass., 1834; d. VIII. Susan, b. Feeding Hills, Mass., July 10, 1838; m. Rev. Mal- colm McGregor Dana, minister of First Congregational Church, Nor- wich. Children: 1. Jasper Grinnell appears on this year's list. He built a house on the south side of the Wallen's Hill road, a little east of the ancient bury- ing ground near the clock factory, in which he resided until his death, Feb. 24, 1832. Of his family we have no record except his marriage to Lucy Filley, Sept., 1811, and the grave stones of two children. Lydia E., d. March 28, 1809, aged 8. Edwin D., d. Feb. 10, 1814, aged 2. David Tallmadge is on the assessment list of this and many suc- ceeding years. He was not a land owner, and had no permanent residence. He raised a family of children, of whom the wife of Truman Scovill was one. Eben Coe, son of Ensign Jonathan, married, Dec. 1, 1806, Eliza, daughter of Philemon Kirkum, and after living with his father, built and occupied the Jesse Williams house, on Spencer street, until near the date of his death. He died Sept. 10, 1813, aged 33, soon after which his widow and children moved to Ohio. (See Coe Record.) Deacon Elisha Smith is on the list of this year. He is noticed, and his family record given in connection with the record of his father, Capt. Zebina Smith. 396 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, 1808. Dr. Lyman Strong, from Southampton, Mass., this year began prac- tice in Winsted as a physician, and in 1809 became principal of the grammar school or Academy then first opened there, and continued to teach and practice until his removal to Guilford in 1810, where he prac- ticed until 1816, when he moved to Hartford and opened a boarding and day school for young ladies. In 1821 he moved to Beaufort, S. C, and officiated as president of a college in that place. Here he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Charleston, S. C, he having, before coming to "Winsted, studied theology with Rev. Asahel Hooker, of Goshen. Re- turning to New England, he was, in 1825, settled in Hebron, Conn., and in 1830, at Colchester, Conn., where he spent his remaining life, and died Dec. 31, 1861, aged 80. He graduated at Williams' College in 1802, and was tutor for one year ; studied medicine with Dr. Sumner, of Westfield, Mass. He was a man of fine appearance and address, and a teacher of high order — a Puritan of the Puritans ; " an industrious, earnest, cheerful man, full of joy in his life of active service to God and mankind." He was born Sept. 12, 1781 ; married, March 12, 1808, Clarissa Morse, daughter of Jacob Morse, of Westfield ; she died at Colchester, Dec. 20, 1821, aged 49; and he married (2d) at Middletown, Conn., Widow Rhoda Matson, daughter of Israel Newton. She died Dec. 18, 1843, aged 58; and he married (3d) widow Olivia (Bridges) Brooks, b. March 24, 1808. CHILDREN BY FIRST WIFE. I. Clarissa Morse, b. at Winsted, June 24, 1809; m., May 4, 1837, Rev. Jason Atwater, a grad. of Yale in 1825, and pastor at Middlebury, Conn., where she d. Feb. 13, 1844. II. Elizabeth, b. June 5, and d. June 8, 1812. III. Lyman, b. in Guilford, Feb. 20, and d. July 21, 1815. Hermon Munson, from Middlebury, Conn., is on the list of this, and several following years. He moved into Barkhamsted, after his marriage, and lived on the Green Woods turnpike, about half a mile east of the town line, until his death, April 7, 1854, aged 72. He married, Jan. 1, 1810, Polly, daughter of Benoni Bronson of Winchester. She died May 9, 1849, aged 60, and he married (2d), Mrs. Smith. He had children by his first wife. I. Mart, who d. unmarried, Jan. 30, 1831, aged 21. II. Sidney, of Minnesota. III. Emerett, m., Nov. — , 1837, Henry E. Rockwell ; d. Aug. 22, 1852, aged 36. IV Abigail, of Minnesota. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 397 1809. Deacon James H. Alvord* moved from East Hampton, Conn., this year, and soon after built the house at the north corner of North Main street and the lane leading west of the center burying ground, where he lived the remainder of his days a quiet, industrious, and exemplary life, devoted to the wise training and educating of a large family, and the up- building of the Church, of which he was an office bearer from 1836 to his death. He was born in Chatham, Conn., Aug. 8, 1781 ; married Oct. 11, 1804, Lucy Cook, born Aug. 7, 1784. He died July 29, 1868. She died Sept. 11, 1850. CHILDREN. I. Clarissa Pitkin, b. Aug. 7, 1805; resides in Winsted. II. John Watson, b. April 18, 1807; began life as a merchant's clerk in Hartford, Ct , in 1828, and during the next year becoming convinced that he must preach the gospel, declined an offer of partnership, and in 1830 began his preparation, studying at Oneida Institute, Lane Seminary, and Oberlin, where he graduated in 1836, and was ordained the same year. He preached one year at Maumee City, O., and since that has preached at Barkhamsted, and Stamford, Conn., and at South Boston, Mass. ; has been District Secretary of American Tract Society, Boston ; Inspector of Schools and Finances for the Freedmen, under Maj. Gen. Howard; and since 1809, Pres. of the Freedmen's Savings Bank and Trust Com- pany at Washington, where he now resides. He m. June 3, 1845, Myrtilla Mead Peck, b. Greenwich, Conn., Oct. 11, 1819, daughter of Obadiah and Lisette (Mead) Peck. CHILDREN. 1. Mary Anna, b. Granville, Ct., July 21, 1846; d. Boston, Mass. Aug. 18, 1847. 2. Julia Mead, b. Boston, Aug. 8, 1847; m. in Washington, D. C, Dec. 15, 1870, John L. Cole, and has a son, Dorr Edward, b. Dec. 29, 1871. *His father, Ruel Alvord, son of Seth and Elizabeth (Spencer) Alvord, was cousin to Deacon Eliphaz Alvord, who has already been noticed. He married, Nov. 15, 1774, Hannah Hall. He settled in Chatham, Conn., where he died, March 27, 1810, in his 60th year. She died, Aug. 3, 1830, aged 77 years. CHILDREN. I. John, b. Chatham, Oct. 14, 1775; d. at sea, Nov. 11, 1800. II. Sibtl, b. " May 30, 1777; m. Parmenas Watson. III. Mart, b. " March 14, 1779; m. March 14, 1802, Elisha Rowley, b. C, March 14, 1780; they settled in Winchester in 1805. IV. James Hall, b. Chatham, Aug. 8, 1781. V. Lucy, b. Durham, Conn., May 14, 1785 ; m. Sept. 30, 1806, Chaun- cey Brooks; settled in Winchester, where she d. Sept. 1, 1831. VI. Esther, b. Chatham, July 18, 1789; d. Aug. 28, 1835, unmarried. VII. Jabez, b. " Sept. 27, 1792; d. Feb. 28, 1828, VIII. Hannah, b. " March 1, 1795; d. Aug. 17, 1832, " 398 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. 3. Charles Stewart, b. Boston, March 3, 1849; d. Boston, Jan. 3, 1853. 4 John Watson, b. Boston, Nov. 20, 1852; d. Greenwich, Conn., May 8, 1853. 5. George Lewis, b. Groton, Mass., Aug. 2, 1854; d. Groton, Oct. 21, 1855. 6. Samuel, b. Newton Centre, Mass., Feb. 23, 1857. 7. James Hall, b. Newton Centre, Mass., April 23, 1858 ; d. New- ton Centre, March 19, 1861. 8. John Watson, b. Newton Centre, Jan. 25, 1861. III. Mary Cook, b. W., Feb. 26, 1809; d. Feb. 12, 1830. IV. Susan B., b. Feb. 12, 1811 ; m. May 30, 1838, Asahel M. Rice, of W., has one daughter, Harriet M., b. March 24, 1848. V. Richard, b. March 8, 1813 ; d. Dec. 1, 1818. VI. Catharine, b. Feb. 12, 1815. VII. James, b. " 10, 1817; d. March 17, 1820. VIII. Charles, b. Aug. 16, 1819; m. June 5, 1844, his cousin, Melissa Wat- son, b. Jan. 4, 1818, daughter of Parmenas and Sibyl (Alvord) Wat- son ; has CHILDREN. 1. Lucy Cook, b. June 5, 1846. 2. Theodore Watson, b. April 11, 18-18. 3. Clara Melissa, b. July 25, 1850. 4. Jabez, b. " 15, 1858. IX. Amanda Malvina, b. Aug. 20, 1821 ; m. Aug. 31, 1841, John Hinsdale. . X. James Richard, b. Oct. 7, 1823; m. Dec. 3, 1849, Mary Eliza Landon, b. in Poultney, Vt, Sept. 12, 1824, daughter of Rev. Seymour and Phebe (Thompson) Landon. children. 1. Louise Landon, b. Sept. 5, 1852 ; d. Jan. 4, 1870. 2. Charles, b. March 20, 1854. 3. Seymour Landon, b. Aug. 6, 1856. 4. Elliot Beardsley, b. Aug. 2, 1859; d. Aug. 19, 1859. 5. James Richard, b. April 3, 1860; d. .1865. XI. George, b. Aug. 23, 1825; m. June 1, 1863, Elizabeth Peck Hubbard, b. Sunderland, Mass., May 19, 1830, daughter of Ashley and Betsey (Dole) Hubbard ; has been clerk in the Navy Department, Washington ; Cash- ier of Hurlbut Bank, West Winsted ; is now in the printing business in Winsted ; no children. XII. Jabez, b. Feb. 3, 1828 ; a machinist ; a soldier of the w of 1861, and Postmaster of Winsted ; unmarried. 1810. Jesse Byington came to Winsted this year, and in the following year built the Evert Beviiis house, on the west side of North Main street. He also built a nail factory on the water privilege of the Winsted Manu- facturing Company (long since burned down), in which the nails were cut, and another shop, opposite his house, where the nails were headed by hand- AND FAMILY RECORDS. 399 blows. He employed a large number of hands, and did a prosperous business until about 1815, when he abandoned the business. He died Sept. 12, 1831, aged 46. He married about the time of his coming to Winsted, and had two daughters, Jane and Finette. Jane was of Torrington, and Finette of New Haven, in 1839. William Gouchek, an iron refiner, lived in Winsted from 1809 to about 1825. He had among other children, Samuel, who went to En- field and died there; Polly, married, Jan. 13, 1833, Legrand Hubhell, who was killed in October, 1838, by the bursting of a grindstone, aged 32, and Hiram, now (1872) living, a bachelor, in Winsted. His wife died December, 1833. Joshua Hewitt came to Winsted in his boyhood, and came of age this year. He worked as a shoemaker a few years, and then became an iron refiner, which trade he pursued until about 1835. He built the house on Spencer street, at the foot of Cobble Hill, in 1850, in which he afterwards lived until his death, April 13, 1864, aged 73. He married, April 24, 1808, Polly Williams. She died April 14, 1842, aged 55. CHILDREN. I. Sally, b. July 8, 1809; m. Squire Sackett. II. Homer, b. January 14, 1811 ; d. November 2, 1831, unmarried. III. Maria, b. ; m. August 23, 1837, Francis Brown. Child: Sarah, b. ; m. Charles Perry. IV. Abigail, b. ; in. Daniel Brown. V. Lucia, b. ; m. August 16, 1838, Justin Hodge, Captain of Volunteers in Mexican War, and Colonel of Volunteers in War of the Rebellion. Child : Thadeus Kosciusko. VI. Harriet, d. January 24, 1821, aged one year. VII. Julia Ann, d. December 3, 1821, a^ed one year. VIII. Henry Hiram, b. September 24, 1822; m. (1st), October 24, 1848, Marietta T. Coe. She d. August 14, 1851, Child: Marietta, b. Aug. 12, 1851 ; (2d), October 12, 1852, Amanda M. Coe. Child : Henrietta, b. December 14, 1853. IX. Sylvia, b. May — , 1824 ; m. August 5, 1844, John B. Bishop. X. Edward (twin), b. May — , 1826; m. Laura Andrews; m. (2d), Mary Wheeler. XL Edwin (twin), b. May — , 1826; m. Charlotte Wilbraham. XII. Charlotte, d. January 31, 1830. Isaac Johnson from Rhode Island, lived in an old barrack house at the north corner of North Main and Hinsdale streets. He died Novem- ber 6, 1829, aged 50, leaving sons and daughters — among them — Isaac, now of Barkhamsted. The wife of Jonas Le Roy of W. Lodoisica, wife of — Scovill of Litchfield. 400 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Selden Mitchell, son of Joseph, is on the list of this year. He built, and occupied until after 1820, the house on the south side of Main street, now (1872) owned by Sheldon Kinney, Sen., and had a wagon maker's shop in the rear basement. He moved to Colebrook River about 1821. No record of his family is found. William Murray, son of David, an early settler, lived in Win- chester from this year to about 1840. He married Ann Hewitt, sister of Joshua, was by trade a shoemaker, and afterwards a carpenter. No record is found of his family. John Rohrabacher, an iron refiner, came from Ancram, N. Y., this year, and lived on the north side of Lake street, immediately above the Connecticut Western Railroad bridge, until his removal to Cortland Co., N. Y., about 1820. CHILDREN. I. Electa, m. Andrew Brusie of Virgil, N. Y. II. Betsey, d. August 10, 1817, aged 13. III. Isaac, and others. John Storer, a joiner, married, January 7, 1808, Eunice, daughter of John Church, and had by her, CHILDREN. I. Simeon, b. September 30, 1808, now an inhabitant of this town. II. David, b. December 3, 1810. III. Eliza, b. November 4, 1812 ; m. July 3, 1834, Samuel D. Sheldon. About 1820 Mr. Storer joined the Shaker community, at Tyringliam, Mass. Riley Whiting, son of Christopher, an early settler of the town, this or the preceding year became a resident of Winsted. He is noticed and his family record given in connection with his father, under date of 1799. 1801 to 1821. We compile a summary of buildings erected, roads opened, and institu- tions established within the limits of the borough of Winsted from 1800 to 1811, as follows : — 1800. The original store of Bissell Hinsdale, on the site of Camp's brick block, enlarged about 1812, and removed about 1848. It now constitutes two tenant houses on the west side of Main street, next south of Monroe street bridge. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 401 1802. The dwelling house of Deacon Alpha Rockwell was built on the site of the Beardsley house, and was taken down and re-erected on the east corner of High and Union streets, in 1849, by John Westlake. The scythe estab- ■ lishment of James Boyd, near the corner of Lake and Meadow streets, was erected in 1802, rebuilt about 1833, and in 1853 was converted by Louis R. Boyd into a manufactory of planters' hoesr 1803. The dwelling house on Main street, now owned and occupied by John T. Rockwell, was erected by James Boyd, and occupied by him and his widow until 1853. The "Woodford homestead, at. the corner of Main and Coe streets, was erected by John Sweet. The Hosea Hinsdale homestead, at the corner of Main and Spencer streets, erected by James Shepard. The original tavern building, on the site of Hicks' Hotel, east corner of Main and North Main streets, erected by Benjamin Jenkins. Merritt Bull erected a scythe establishment on the pond stream adjoining Meadow street bridge, which was rebuilt by Rockwell and Hinsdale about 1832, and has recently been purchased by the Winsted Hoe Company for plating of hoes and forging chisels. Hosea Hinsdale and James Shepard erected a tannery on the site of the fish pond recently excavated by John T. Rockwell, near the parting of Main and Spencer streets. The original building ceased to be used as a tannery about 1851, and was torn down about 1870. The gambrel-roofed store on Main street, occupied by T. Baird, near the corner of North Main street, was erected by Philemon Kirkum in 1804. 1805. Joseph Mitchell built a one-story house on or near the site of Joseph H. Norton's dwelling, on the north side of Main street, which was torn down by Henry B. Crowe about 1851. In the same year, the two-story house on the west side of North Main street, nearly opposite the west wing of the clock factory dam, was built by Samuel Hoadley. 1806. The house on the north side of Main sti ^et, now owned and occupied by Ezra Baldwin, was built by Joseph 1. Cummings and Benjamin Jenkins. 51 402 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, 1807. Philemon Kirkum built a small house on tlie east side of Main street, which was torn down by Dr. James Welch to make room for his present residence. • The late homestead of Reuben Cook, on North Main street, was built by Benjamin Hoadley. The original west village district school was burned down at the close of 1806, and a new one was erected this year on the same ground, and with slight improvement on its predecessor. It continued in use as a school liouse until about 1840, when it was removed to make room for the long and unsightly building erected in its place, which has recently been superseded by the new graded school edifice on Hinsdale street. James Boyd and Horace Higley erected a saw mill on the site of the New England Pin Company's Works, near the Naugatuck Depot, and also the bridge communicating therewith from Main street ; and in 1808 they erected an iron forge on Main street, directly opposite the Clarke house. It was kept up as long as the manufacture of refined bar iron continued remunerative, and was sold in 1845 to parties who erected the Pin Company's building. 1808. The first Methodist meeting house was built on the east side of Spen- cer street, immediately north of the school house, and, within a few years, has been converted into- a double tenement house. Prior to the building of this house, the Methodists had worshiped in the adjoining school-house. Their number, though limited, included a highly respect- able class of our inhabitants. In those days, the Methodist and Congregational religionists had little more sympathy or intercourse with each other than the old Jews and Samaritans. The circuit-rider came on his rounds and declaimed against steeple meeting houses, pitch-pipe singing, and the doctrine of Election. The membership kneeled on the floor in prayer, and gave vent to their de- votional feelings by the loud " Aniens," or the Gloria Patri. The women eschewed ribbons, curled hair, and gay dresses. Tlie old men — and some of the young ones — wore straight-bodied coats ; — and both sexes wore a vinegar aspect. The "Presbyterians," — as they were termed, — on the other hand looked on the Methodists as interlopers and fanatics, who had come in to disturb the peace of the Standing Order as by Saybrook platform estab- lished. The Methodists were all Democrats ; the Standing Order were mainly high-toned Federalists of Pharisaical tendencies. The two had apparently no mutual sympathies, and never inter-communed with each other. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 403 Time and circumstances have worn away the prejudices and softened the asperities of the two denominations. Intermarriages have led to mutual forbearance. The temperance movement brought the best men and women of the two orders into co-operation ; and the an ti- slavery movement, fearlessly advocated by the living Christianity of both churches, was the death blow to sectarianism. 1809. Joseph Miller, Esq., erected his dwelling-house on the northerly side of Main street, now owned and occupied by Mrs. Parke ; and Solomon Rockwell and Brothers erected an iron store on the lot next north of the Beardsley House, which was torn down about 1860. The Rockwell Brothers erected an iron forge on the site of the table cutlery works on the lake stream, immediately below Hulbert's iron works. It was discontinued as a forge about 1850, and converted into a cutlery establishment by the Eagle Cutlery Company. 1811. Reuben Cook, of Winsted, Russell Bunn & Co., and Charles Seymour, of Hartford, erected an iron forge on Still River, below the Winsted Manufacturing Company's Scvthe Works, which subsequently became the sole property of Mr. Cook, and was carried on until the organization of the Cook Axle Company about 1850, where the present brick factory on the premises was erected. After the burning down of the west village district school-house in 1807, there was a general desire to erect a new building of sufficient capacity for a graded school, to meet the growing wants of the community. Plans were proposed and debated ; — jealousies arose, and the project fell through. The house erected was contracted and shabby. The new vil- lagers, with limited outside aid, set about providing better facilities for the education of their growing families, and this year erected the building on Main street, next north of Forbes' furniture establishment, for a gram- mar school. It was arranged with an upper room for the advanced scholars and a lower room for the younger class ; and was opened by Doctor Lyman Strong as principal, and his sister-in-law, Miss Eliza Morse, as assistant teacher. The enterprise was a decided success. The teachers not only attracted the scholars of the village but numbers from adjoining towns. Doctor Strong removed to Guilford in 1810, and was succeeded by Curtis Warner, a graduate of Yale, who continued his faith- ful and acceptable labors until his sickness, which terminated in death in 1813. He was succeeded by our late fellow citizen, Nathaniel B. Gay- lord, who taught one or two seasons with eminent success. Other teachers followed, of varied qualifications, until the children of most of the projectors of the school had completed their academic edu- 404 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, cation, and several of them had entered college. From 1817 to 1835 the sessions of the school became irregular, and the attendance so limited, that the school was abandoned and the building appropriated to other uses. Great as were the benefits of this school to those who attended it r the cause of general education would have been far more effectually promoted by combining the energies of the whole community in the organization and support of such a graded school as had been projected and defeated. The failure of that project at so early a day is not to be wondered at when it is considered that, with the clearer light thrown on the subject by modern educators, and the universal attention directed to it, repeated efforts at reform have, during the past fifteen years, been frustrated ; and that effective measures of improvement have only been initiated during the last five years. In 1808 the homestead of the late James H. Alvord, deceased, on the west side of the East village park, was erected, and was finished the fol- lowing year. Elizur Hinsdale erected the original house on the north side of Main street, now owned by Philo G. Sheldon, which he afterwards enlarged to its present dimensions, and occupied until ahout 1820. 1809. In 1809, Selden Mitchell built the house on the south side of Main street,' now owned and occupied by Sheldon Kinney, senior, and during the same or following year, Jesse Byington built, on the west side of North Main street, the house subsequently owned by Evart Bevins and Edward G. Whiting, and now the homestead of George B. Owen. In 1810, Asahel Miller built the house now owned by Thomas F. Davis, on the east side of Main street, above George Dudley's tannery ; and Riley Whiting built, on the east side of Still River, the house recently owned and occupied by Rollin L. Beecher. The Pratt street road was laid out and opened in 1810. As laid out, it crossed Mad River immediately east of the Foundry and Machine Company's Works, and extended about one mile southward to its present termination, but when made it was found best to cross the river by the depot bridge, then recently erected by Mr. Boyd for the convenience of his iron works, and to run by an easier grade to where the surveyed line crossed Prospect street. Nearly cotemporaneous with the opening of Pratt street road, the ancient road along the line of Hinsdale street was discontinued, it being considered no longer of public convenience- and necessity after the opening of the Green Woods turnpike, and the diversion of travel from the Old Country road over Wallen's Hill. The wisdom of this measure AND FAMILY RECORDS. 405 proved short-sighted, for about 1835 it was relaid and opened at a heavy expense to the town. The assessment list of 1810 comprises the following items: 103 Polls between 21 and 70, 11 18 " », 119 Oxen, - - 388 Neat Cattle, 102 " - 78 Horses, 5 " - 2 " 298 Acres Land, - 1046 it (t 51 " - 2226 " " 2123 " " . 1782 " 2 Chaises, . 6 a 13 Silver Watches, - 2. Brass Clocks, 36 Wooden " - 4 Fire-places, 18 a - 64 it 69 " - 2 Stores, Money at interest, Assessments on trade: at $60.00 30.00 10.00 7.00 3.34 10.00 7.00 3.34 1.67 1.34 .84 .34 .17 .09 30.00 20.00 10.00 20.00 7.00 5.00 3.75 2.50 1.25 275.00 1417.00 Net amount after deducting abatements, 13,474.03 Net amount of Old Society, - - 17,398.32 Total amount of whole town, - - $30,872.35 Highway tax, 3 per cent, in labor, Town tax, 5 " " cash, $ 906.17 1544.72 CHAPTER XXVII. NEW COMERS.— FAMILY RECORDS.— WAR OF 1812; ITS EFFECT ON BUSINESS, &c. 1811 to 1821. We note among the new comers of the year 1811 as follows: Andrew Brusie, an iron refiner from Ancram, N. Y., first appears on the tax li-st of this year. He resided in the West Village until his removal to Virgil, Cortland Co., N. Y., about 1830, where he erected and carried on an iron forge for several years, and is believed to be still living. He married Electa, daughter of John Roherbacher, and had children. Russell Page, a tailor from Che-hire, this year bought the. house that stood on the site of James T. Norton's present residence where he lived and worked at his trade until 1814. He had a wife but no children. Charles C. Caul, an iron refiner, this year came from Ancram, N. Y., and worked mainly for the Rockwell Brothers until his death, about 1830. He had a wife, and children — Aaron, Hiram, Amelia, Andrew, and Nelson. Aaron became a physician and formerly practised in Cort- land Co., N. Y. Amelia married a Schermerhorn. Eleazer Hawley, from Norfolk, a clock maker, is first on the list of this year. He lived and raised a family in a now-abandoned house at the top of the hill, above the Woodruff tannery, near the crossing of the Old Country and North Main Street roads. He died April 1, 1839, aged 47, leaving, among other children, Romulus and George, none of whom re- main in the town. John Maltbie came into the society a single man, and married, in 1812, Deborah, daughter of Reuben Scovill, and had children whose names are not ascertained. He bought, in 1814, the place, as is believed, now owned bj' Jonathan Gilbert, on South Street, where he died Aug. 17, 1827, aged 42. Darius Turrell, a clock maker, lived in the Stephen Rowley house on North Main street until about 1 840. He had daughters, Betsey A. and. Ann, and may have had other children. His first wife died in March, 1828, aged 30. FAMILY RECORDS. 407 Samuel Williams, a forge man from Ancram, N. Y., lived in Win- steel, near Hulbert's forge, from 1811 until about 1840, and raised a fam- ily of children, among them two son?, Samuel and John. He served in the war of 1812. 1812. Daxiicl Albko learned the tanner's trade in Winsted, and came of age this year. He lived in the town until about 1836. He married in February, 1811, Nancy Westlake, and liad several children — among them, Edward and Henry. He was living at Windsor Locks in 1871. Nathan Champion came from Middlesex County this year, and began casting clock bells, to which he afterwards added other castings, and was the only iron founder in the town until after 1833. He owned and occupied during his later life, the dwelling on North Main street, next north of the new graded school building. He died at a good old age, early in 1868, after a blameless and exemplary life. His wife, Mary, died August 28, 1843, aged 60. They had a son, Henry S., now living in Bridgeport; and daughters, Sarah C, who married September 24, 1840, William R. Richardson of Bristol; Julia, who died October 18, 1826; Lucy A., who married, January 20, 1836, Lucius Skinner, and Lucinda, recently married. William Green from Salisbury, a forgeman, came to Winsted this year, and worked during most of his after life in Cook's Iron Works, in the east village. He raised a family, some of whom now reside here, and died in the town. Christopher Lyon, a joiner, became a resident this year. He built and occupied until his death, the house on North Main street now occupied by Roswell Pond. He married Clarissa, daughter of Theodore Hoskin. He died August 5, 1844, aged 56, and she died February 22, 1867, aged 77. They had a daughter, Roxana, married, October 19, 1824, Aaron W. Crane, and another daughter, Eunice, married October 2, 1839, Benjamin Johnson. George Sage, a mason, this year became an inhabitant of the Society, and lived, until his removal to the. west about 1828, on the east side of South street, now Torrington line. No record of his family is found. 1813. " William Caul, an iron refiner, from Ancram, N. Y., came to Winsted this year, and worked in the different forges most of the intervening time, until his death, at the Insane Retreat, Hartford, in June, 1828. 408 • ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, He married — Culver, and had children : James M., William, Ann E., who married, June 2, 1847, Frederick Murray, and another daughter, who married Ilervey V. Blake. David Marble, from Sutton, Mass., a mason, came here this year. In 1816 he built the Wm. S. Holabird house, at the north end of the east village park, and there resided some five years, when he deserted his wife, and went to Louisiana, and probably died there. He married, December 15, 1814, Pamela Wheeler, who is now (1872) living. They raised no children. Joseph W. Hurlbut, son of Martin of Winchester, appears on this year's list. He inherited the farm of his father, on the east side of Long Lake, on which he still resides; has been an honored deacon of the Congregational Church since 1836. He married, April 25, 1817, Sarah, daughter of Stephen Merrill of Barkhamsted. She died Oct., 1864. CHILDREN. I. James Martin, b. January 5, 1818; d. August 14, 1847, unra. II. Joseph Merrill, b. September 28, 1824; m. June 2, 1869, Anna Augusta Field. III. Warren Phineas, b. January 4, 1827; resident of Winsted. IV. William Flowers, b. January 27, 1835; a member of the Litchfield County bar, and now resident in Winsted. Doctor Henry Noble from Vermont, a physician, came here this or the preceding year, as a practitioner. He married the same year, Susan, daughter of Benjamin Jenkins, who died January 14, 1815, aged 22, when he left the state. By his wife he had one son, James Dwight, baptized November 6, 1814; supposed to be still living. George Roberts from Torringford, became a resident this year. He lived during his later years on the east side of the Still River, in the first house, north of Green Woods turnpike bridge, where he died in 1867 or 1868, when past seventy years of age. He married — Judd, who died before him. They had a son, Edward J., and two or three daughters. Horace Reynolds, a blacksmith, came here this year, and resided, with his family, mainly in the east village, until his removal to Illinois about 1835. He was for some years a partner with Thomas R. Bull in the old Jenkins Scythe Works, on the site of the Winsted Manufacturing Co.'s Works, and then owned and occupied the Byington house on North Main street. He had a wife and children, of whom we find no record. 1814. Samuel Bartlett, a native of Cohassett, Mass., came from Malone, AND FAMILY RECORDS. 409 N. Y., to Winsted, and built and occupied until his removal from the town, the Widow Marble house, on the east side of the east village park. He removed, with his family, to Wayne County, Pennsylvania. His wife was .sister to Benjamin Jenkins. His children, resident with him here, were his son, Arah, and his daughters, Rhoda, Amanda, and others whose names are not remembered. James C. Cleveland, son of Rufus of Barkhamsted, first appears on this year's list. He was for many years a clockmaker in the employ of Riley Whiting. In 1816 he built the house on the east side of the east village park, which he has continued to occupy to the present time (1872). He married (1st), Belinda Miller, by whom he had a son, Charles, who died unmarried ; (2d), Sally Taylor, who died childless, December 27, 1819, aged 28; (3d), Lucy Northrup, still living (1872), by whom he had Jane, born July 21, 1821, who married, May 11, 1842, Charles H. Blake. Lewis McDonald from Waterbury, a shoemaker, lived in Winsted from 1813 to 1818, when he moved westward, and in 1871 was living in Illinois. He married, about 1817, Betsey, daughter of Asher Rowley. Joel Miller, son of Asahel of Winchester, an ingenious mechanic, and an exemplary and earnest Christian, lived in Winsted until his death, about 1820. He married a daughter of Grove Pinney, Esq., of Colebrook ; had no children. Dr- Luman Wakefield, born in Colebrook, August 29, 1787, studied medicine with Dr. Aaron Moore, and this or the preceding year commenced practice with his teacher in Winsted. Dr. Moore dying in 1813, he suc- ceeded to an extensive practice, which he retained and enlarged until he became disabled for active professional duties by a slow palsy which ter- minated his life, March 20, 1850, at the age of 63. He owned and lived in a house on the site of Charles B. Hallett's present residence, on the east side of the east village park, which was burned down shortly after his decease. He was a man of equable temperament, and a thorough knowledge of human nature, which gave him a controlling influence in the community, and secured to him the strong attachment of many friends. As a successful practitioner, he was aided by sound judgment and close observation, more than by high scientific attainments. He was a supporter of good order, a decided friend and advocate of the temperance reform, and in later life became a consistent member of the Congregational church. He was born at Colebrook, Aug. 29, 1787 ; m. Betsy, daughter of Elijah Rockwell, Esq., of Colebrook, born Feb. 18, 1789. She died Oct. 23, 1831. 52 410 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, CHILDREN. I. Julia W., b. Oct. 1, 1815 ; m., May 23, 1839, Eli T. Wilder, Esq. II. Elizabeth A., b. m., Oct. 1, 1831, Normand Adams. III. Lucy O, b. March 24, 1820; m., May 28, 1840, Win. H. Phelps. IV. John Luman, b. May 25, 1823 ; grad. M. D. Yale College, 1847. V. James Beach, b. March 21, 1825 ; grad. A. B. Trinity College, Hartford. A judge of supreme court in Minnesota. VI. Mary II., b. Sept. 7, 1827; m., Sept. 21, 1852, Richard H. Yale; d. at New Orleans, La., Sept. 22, 1858. He married (2d), March 12, 1840, Ann (Tolbert), widow of Ambrose Fyler; she d. Sept. 24, 1867, aged 75. Lucius Clarke, son of Captain Lemuel, came with his father from Whately, Mass., in 1807, and appears on this year's tax list. In 1813 or 1814, he formed a partnership with Nathaniel B. Gaylord in mercan- tile business, which was continued until his removal to Monroe Co., N. Y., about 1818, where he went into trade, flast at Carthage, at the foot of the Genesee Falls, and then in the village of Rochester. He returned to Winsted in 1824, and in company with Samuel Boyd, opened anew store on the site of Woodford's Block in the West Village. In 1827, he bought the Hinsdale store, on the site of Camp's Block, in which he traded until his removal to Massachusetts, in 1834; whence he returned in 1841, and purchased of the widow of Riley Whiting the clock factory in the East Village with which he was connected in business until 1845, when he purchased real estate on the flat, between the East and West Villages, and thereafter contributed more largely than any other person to the building up of that section of the now consolidated borough. He was the prime mover and one of the most efficient promoters of the measures which se- cured the extension of the Naugatuck Railroad from Waterbury to Win- sted. He was an upright and correct man of business, energetic and hard- working, but versatile to a degree that impeded the complete success of some of his enterprises. As a citizen, he was right minded, public spirited, and deservedly popular. He served as state senator in 1846, and died Dec. 29, 1863, aged 73. His family record is given in connection with that of his father, Capt. Lemuel Clarke. Alpha Rowley, son of Ebenezer of Winchester, appears on the list of this year. He became the owner of his father's farm on South street in 1835, and there" resided until his removal to western New York in 1838. He studied law for a time, but was never called to the bar except as a defendant. He died in September, 1872, while an inmate of the Utica Insane Hospital. ^s^ice^4/ ^^l^^ AND FAMILY RECORDS. 411 1815. Halsey Bailey, a blacksmith from Barkhamsted, lived in Winsted from 1814 to 1829, when he moved to central New York. He married, , , Mira, daughter of Ebenezer Rowley. Silas Burton, son of John of Winchester, first appears on the list of this year. He married Lucia, daughter of Asahel Miller, and lived here until 1818, when he removed to Erie, Pa. Ourin Cleveland, son of Rufus of Barkhamsted, a school-master, lived in the town, mainly in Winsted, from 1815 to about 1830. He had a wife and family of children, one of whom became the second wife of the late Grant Thorburn. Shubael Crowe, from New Hartford, this year built, in company with Horatio G. Hale, of Burlington, a carriage maker's shop on the site of John T. Rockwell's tannery, which they carried on about two years, when he left the town. Reuben Hall, a shoemaker from New Haven, came to Winsted this year. In company with David Edwards, he built, and for several years occupied the house nearly opposite the old Methodist meeting-house building. He removed to Fayetteville, N. C,, about 1825, returning in 1831, and continued his resideuce here until his removal to Ohio in 1835. If living he now resides in Illinois. He was a man of kindly nature, a pillar and class leader of the Methodist Church, a neighbor of the Good Samaritan order. No record of his family is found. His wife was a Ward from Cornwall. They had a son, Truman B., who married; May 21, 1836, Fanny M. Wood; and one or more daughters. David Munson, from Colebrook, removed to the farm bordering on Colebrook line, lately owned by George A. Marvin, deceased, and occu- pied it until his removal to the West, about 1830. Ansel Shattuck, about this time, built a small house on the west side of South street, in which he lived until 1829. No record of his family is found. 1816. Sheldon Kinney, from Washington, Conn., this year, or earlier, came to Winsted, and carried on the tailoring trade for ten or fifteen years. He built and occupied, until 1825, the house next north of the East Village meeting-house, after which he removed to Colebrook for a few years ; and on his return bought the house on the south side of Main street in which he now (1872) resides. He has sons, Francis, Sheldon, Jr., of Windsor, 412 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER and George W., who married, Dec. 4, 1849, Betsey C. Brown; and a daughter, Charlotte M., who married, May 19, 1856, Charles H. Knapp. Capt. Stephen Fyler, son of Stephen of Torrington, this year bought the farm on South street recently owned in part by his son, Albro Fyler, on which he lived until his death on the 21st of April, 1853, at the age of seventy -three. He was descended, in the sixth generation, from Lieut. Walter Fyler, who came from England to Dorchester on the ship Mary and John, in 1630, through his son Zerubabel, 2 born Windsor, Dec. 23, 1644, and his son Zerubabel, 3 born Windsor, Dec. 25, 1674, and his son Silas, 4 born Windsor, , 1710, and his son Stephen, 5 born May 27, 1755. He (Stephen, Jr.) was born Torrington, March 6, 1780; married, October, 1803, Armira Wilson, of Torrington ; he died April 21, 1853 ; she died Dec. 27, 1866, aged 87. CHILDREN. I. Hilemon, b. Aug. 8, 1804; m., April 23, 1850, Charlotte Hamilton. II. Sophronia, b. Oct. 9, 1806; m., July, 1832, William San ford, who died Nov. 7, 1838. Child : Jane, m., Oct. 15, 1860, George M. Wentworth. Children: 1. George S., b. Feb. 20, 1864; 2. Frank L., b. Sept. 20, 1866; 3. Minnie, b. Aug. 12, 1868, d. Sept. 2, 1868; 4. Arthur M., b. Sept. 22, 1869, d. Aug. 9, 1870; 5. Alice M.,b. Jan. 29, 1871. III. Albro, b. m., June 23, 1850, Jane E. Kinney. IV. Mason Wilson, b. Oct. 7, 1810; m., Munson. Harry Bishop, Leveritt Bishop, and Seth Bishop, brothers, from Litchfield, came to Winsted this season. Harry owned a place on Wal- len's Hill, in which he lived until about 1830, and afterwards moved to Colebrook. Leveritt died here August 1, 1852, aged 67. He had two sons, Edward and William, formerly residing here, and perhaps other children. Seth Bishop married, , , Minerva, daughter of Nathan Wheeler, by whom he had a son, Seth, Jr., now (1872) living at Collins- ville, and a daughter, Minicrva W., who married, April 22, 1841, Wil- liam S. Bunnel, now residing in Winsted. Minerva, wife of Seth, Sen., died July 1, 1826, aged 35. He now (1872) resides in Barkhamsted. Jehial Coe, son of Jonathan, 3 came of age this year and first lived on Spencer Hill for a few years, and has since lived on his father's farm on Coe street to the present time (1872). His family record is already given in connection with that of his forefathers. Willard Holmes, son of Joseph, is on the list of this year. He re- sided with his father (on Spencer street) until his death, and continued to occupy the paternal homestead until the morning of Feb. 22, 1857, when he was burned up with his house while attempting to save his papers from the flames. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 413 He was a man of superior culture, of strong mind and sincere piety. He formed his opinions deliberately and independently, and carried tliem out with unswerving rectitude. Modest and retiring in his disposition, he would hardly have been known beyond the circle of his immediate neigh- bors, but for his early advocacy of the cause of the slave, and his fearless persistency amid reproach and contumely, in asserting the radical princi- ples of liberty and duty. His family record is given in connection with that of his father. Henry B. Crowe, from New Hartford, succeeded his brother Shubael in the part ownership of the carriage shop in the West Village, and after some years became owner of the Joseph Mitchell place in the East Village, where he died after 1856. He married, , , Nancy, daughter of Amasa Mallory, Sr., and had a highly respected family of children, of whom we have no record except the baptism of Henrt, Luther, Jane, and James on the 4th of July, 1828. 1817. Chester Soper, from Windsor, a clothier, this year came to Winsted and bought the clothier's works in the East Village, erected by Ansel Wilson, and the house that then stood on the site of James T. Norton's present residence. He converted the clothier's works into a Woolen Mill, which he carried on until about 1838: soon after which he removed to Windsor, and has since died. His wife was a Welles from Wethersfield. They had no children. 1818. Wheelock Thayer came from Vermont this year and commenced work as a scythe maker in the West Village. In 1820, he became con- nected with James Boyd in the scythe business, under the firm name of Boyd & Thayer, which was continued until 1832, when he built the scythe works on Mad river now owned by his daughter, Mrs. Julia A. Bachellor, which he continued to operate until a few years before his death. He bought the " Deacon Rockwell house," then on the site of the Beardsley house in 1830, in which he resided until his purchase of the house now owned by his daughter, Mrs. Julia A. Bachellor, in which he resided until his death. He was a man of sanguine temperament and indomi- table energy. By industry, frugality, and judicious investments, he rap- idly accumulated a large estate. Democratic in politics and a univer- salist in doctrine, he advocated the faith that was in him with untiring zeal, and exerted a powerful influence in the community : an influence that favored the temperance reform and recognized the colored man as a human being endowed with the rights of "Ufe, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 414 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER With failing health he retired from active business in 1854, and died Sept. 23, 1857, aged 67. He was born in Norlhbridge, Mass., May 10, 1790, and married, Nov. 28, 1816, Clarissa Fuller, born at Brookfield, Mass., May 9, 1795, who died Feb. 16, 1829. CHILDREN. I. Julia Ann, b. at Weston, Mass., Aug. 17, 1817 ; m. Aug. 3, 1835, William G. Bachellor, who d. Dec. 15, 1844, aged 33. Children: 1. Wheelock Thayer; 2. William G. II. Charlotte, b. July 22, 1819; d. July 28, 1821. III. Harriet, b. July 22, 1822 ; m. Sept. 10, 1840, Seth L. Wilder ; d. childless Sept. 10, 1840. He died June 23, 1857. He married 2d, Nancy Joslin, who died childless, February 26, 1855, aged 71. Daniel G. Tuttle, from Torringford, this year built the house on South street, bordering on Torrington line, lately owned by his son-in- law, Lucius J. Woodford, — which he occupied until his death, March 4, 1844, at the age of 58. He married, Clarissa, daughter of Daniel C. Hudson of Torrington. children. I. Fanny M., m. Dec. 31, 1835, Charles Seldon. II. Catharine, m. Lucius J. Woodford; d. Jan. 5, 1872. III. George H. IV. Lamphier B., m. Sept. 14, 1841, Charlotte, daughter of Jehicl Coe. V. James H., m. May 26, 1841, Cordelia, daughter of Erastus Woodford. VI. Ruth O., d. Nov. 4, 1859, aged 36. Jesse Williams, from Colebrook, resided here some three years of his minority, and appears on the list of this year. He purchased the Eben Coe house, on Spencer street, in which he now resides. It may safely be said that no man in the town has exceeded him in hard and diffi- cult labor. If there was an ugly job to be done, he was the man to do it effectually, with a calculating head and a giant's strength. Labor seemed never to weary him, nor age to impair his physical powers, until partial blindness within the past three years has compelled him to hold up and look back on a life well spent, in the enjoyment of health, and a compe- tency of worldly goods. As a Constable and Sheriff's Deputy he was pre- pared for every emergency. For some forty years he has been, and con- tinues to be, the honored Tyler of St. Andrew's Lodge. He married (1st), Sept. 14, 1825, Roxana Hurlbut, who died Sept. 9, 1832, aged 37. He married (2d), May 4, 1833, Mabel Wright, of Cornwall. CHILDREN BT FIRST WIFE. I. Henry, b. Dec. 25,1826. II. Sylvia, b. Jan. 28, 1829; m. Rev. Wm. B. Osborn. III. Annie R., b. Jan. — , 1831 ; m. Lyman J. Parsons. e/^r^. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 415 CHILD BT SECOND WIFE. IV. Jane, b. April — , 1835; m. Henry Case. 1818. Nisus Kinney, a native of Colebrook, was brought up in the family of Grinnell Spencer. He appears on the list of this year and still re- sides in the town. He built the house on the west side of Spencer street, a little north of Amos Pierce, from which he moved after a few years to the old Elihu Rockwell house, still further north, where he resided until about 1860. He lived in Torrington from 1864 to 1868, and has since resided here. He married Sally, daughter of Adin Wakefield, of Colebrook, who died Sept. 28, 1856, aged 57. They had a son, Andrew ; and daughters, Sarah J., who died July 22, 1848, aged 17. Jane E., who married, June 23, 1850, Albro Fyler ; Harriet, who married, Jan. 14, 1851, Lucius L. Culver; and Susan W., married, Dec. 25, 1861, Luther G. Hinsdale; and they may have had other children. 1819. Silas Hoskin, son of Theodore, appears on the list of this year. He owned and occupied, from 1824 to his death, Sept. 9, 1870, at the age of 72, the Benjamin Whiting place on Coe street. He married, Oct. 13, 1823, Priscilla, daughter of Ransfoid Bailey, of Groton, Conn. CHILDREN. I. Ransford Bailey, b. June 24, 1825; d. Oct. 17, 1828. II. Truman Silas, b. March 23, 1827. III. Theodore Bailey, b. April 26, 1829. IV. Thomas Coe, b. March 15, 1831. V. Erastus, b. April 9, 1833. VI. Chas. Sherman, b. Feb. 4, 1835. VII. George, b. " 5, 1837. Elias Rowley, son of Asher, is on the list of this year. He first occupied his father's homestead on South street, and about 1845 erected his present residence on the Wolcottville road, south of the buryino- ground. (See his family record in connection with that of his father.) Nelson Wilson, son of Abijah, Jr., appears on the list of this year, After marriage he lived until 1830 on Spencer street, and thereafter, while he remained in the State, on Coe street, adjoining the Cole- brook line. After 1845 he removed to Saratoga County, N. Y., where 416 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER he died Nov. 21, 1851. He married, Wealthy, daughter of Jonathan Coe, Esq., by whom he had CHILDKEN. I. George C, m. Caroline Miles; d. March 8, 1854, aged 33. II. Charles C, d. May 20, 1847. III. Harriet E., m. Alexander C. Thompson ; d. Jan. 7, 1855, aged 23, childless. IV. Henry W., d. Oct 19, 1836. Norman Spencer, from New Hartford, served his apprenticeship as a tanner with Col. Hosea Hinsdale, and thereafter owned and carried on the tannery built by Horace Ranney, near the Cook Forge, on North Main street, until 1834, when he removed to Michigan, and died there. He married, about 1820, Nancy Hinsdale, sister of Col. Hosea, by whom he had several children, — among them Richard, Avho returned to Winsted after his father's removal, and resided here until about 1855. During this decade our second war with England occurred. The dominant sentiment of our people was opposed to the war, though it had many and ardent supporters among us. Party spirit raged with a bitterness never exceeded in subsequent periods. Singularly enough, the Federalists were the states'-rights party of that period. They loved the English and hated the French. They found unconstitutional encroach- ments in almost every measure of the national administration. They discouraged enlistments into the army, and insisted on the entire control of the drafted militia by state officers, and in order to sustain this asserted right, the governor of this state went to New London when the militia were called to the defence of that place in order to out-rank, as captain- general, the United States officer then and there in command. The state flag was then the supreme object of Federal worship. Liberty poles, bearing aloft the stars and stripes, were repeatedly cut down by unknown parties. On a training day in 1814, on the east village green, the national flag was unexpectedly hoisted on a newly- erected liberty pole during the parade of a company of recently-organ- ized state troops, and an infantry and a cavalry company of militia. The captains of the three companies ordered the flag to be taken down. The sturdy Democrats rallied around it, with the revived and concen- trated spirit of '76. The three companies were formed in line, and marched up to the pole to disperse its defenders. A melee was brought on by one of the defenders, Eli Marshall by name, seizing with the grip of a bull dog the throat of the axman who was about to cut down the pole. It took some minutes to detach the democratic fingers from the federal throat, and at this crisis, the fence passing near the foot of the AND FAMILY RECORDS. 417 pole, and loaded with lookers-on, came down with a crash that induced a momentary panic of the contending parties, and a partial breaking of the military ranks. Though no one was hurt by this catastrophe, the white feather became manifest, and the military force becoming essentially disor- ganized, was marched off without the honors of war, and the star- spangled banner continued to wave until sunset. A review of the dissensions of that period, and the results growing out of them, is highly instructive. The war, though perhaps unwisely declared, and feebly carried on, until the latest campaigns, was successfully closed. Our navy acquired immortal honor, and our army, long mismanaged and badly officered, finally retrieved its credit. The final disaster fell on the party which, though perhaps rightly opposed to the declaration of war, not only failed to stand by the government in carrying it on, but arrayed itself against all its measures, and almost paralyzed its energies. It bore a load of popular odium that in a few years so utterly broke it down that no "departure" could retrieve it. The lesson is an instructive one to modern politicians. The number of soldiers recruited in this town for the regular army was very limited. Most of them entered a regiment that served, without a battle or skirmish, at New London through the whole war. The only two officers commissioned from this town, Colonel Samuel Hoadley and Captain Riley Sweet, belonged to this regiment.* A few Winsted soldiers were enlisted into the 25th U. S. Regiment, that was cut to pieces on the Niagara frontier, and but few, if any of them, ever returned. Detachments of militia were from time to time drafted to serve at New London, and Captain Luther Hoadly was called out to command one of the detached companies, and died in the service. One of the ten companies of state troops, as they were called, organized by the state legislature, and composed of about equal numbers of Winchester, Bark- hamsted, and New Hartford men, was also called out for service at New London. Prior to the war, our manufacturing interests were in a healthy and prosperous conditiou, and the growth of our two villages, though slow, was healthy. The war stimulated manufacturing to a high degree of activity by its high tariff of duties, and the almost entire exclusion of British manufactured goods. Old establishments were enlarged, and pushed to their utmost capacity, and many new manufacturing enter- * The late General Edmund Kirby of the U. S. Army received his Ensign's com- mission while a clerk in Winsted, and served on the Canada frontier with distin- guished honor. He belonged in Litchfield. 53 418 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER prises were started and pushed forward without experience or economy. Prices of farm products and manufactured articles were enormously inflated by the suspension of specie payments, and the enormous issues of bank bills. Our community shared largely in the apparent prosperity induced by these causes, and suffered proportionally by the collapse induced by the return of peace, attended as it was by the contraction of bank issues preparatory to a return to specie payments, the paying off of improvident indebtedness, and the flooding of the country with British fabrics, at prices below the cost of the raw materials used by our own infant establishments. The results, though less ruinous to Winsted than to many other manu- facturing communities, were seriously felt for many succeeding years. The wire factory in the east village, employing a large number of hands, was at once and forever abandoned. Two establishments for making hand and machine cards soon followed. The cut-nail factory of Mr. Byington, then employing more men than any other establishment in town, soon after went down. The woollen factory of the Rockwell Brothers continued to run, though at a heavy loss, through long years of depression. Only two of the scythe establishments moved forward. The iron works, then the heaviest interest in the place, were saved from utter prostration by a limited sale to the government of iron for gun- making at the Springfield Armory. Cheese, the staple farm product, went down from ten to five cents per pound, and other articles in the same proportion. One " breathing hole of hell," in the form of a whisky distillery, of fungous growth, had just begun its polluting career on the slope of Wallen's Hill, above the clock factory, which, by the mercy of God, was so utterly prostrated that not a trace of its existence is left. "The cold summer" of 1816 added to the gloom of this period. The spring was cold and backward, and the summer cold and dry. Frosts prevailed in every month of the year. The mowing lands yielded less than half an average crop. Scarcely an ear of corn in the town came to maturity. Potatoes were few and small, and dairy products were as scant in quantity as low in price. Much apprehension prevailed of a famine winter, which was measurably averted by a provident planting of turnips, when it was perceived that other crops were to fail. This crop was large, and thereby the lack of hay was partly made good in winter- ing such stock as was not killed or sold off in the pi-eceding fall. This cause, combined with the prostration of our manufacturing interest, drove large numbers of farmers and artisans to seek means of support in the new settlements of the west. Not until 1820 did business begin to assume a lively aspect, and prosperou j growth become manifest. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 419 The dwellings and other buildings erected within the borough limits during this decade were as follows : — 1811. The iron forge of Reuben Cook - & Co., on the site of the present works of Charles and John R. Cook, together with two or three forge- men's houses. The scythe shop built by Mr. Jenkins on the site of the Strong Manufacturing Co.'s Works, east village. A clothier's shop on the site of the Winsted Carriage Company's buildings, recently burned down. The Wakefield homestead (burned down), on the site of C. B. Hallett's present residence. 1812. The Luther Hoadley dwelling, north of the R. L. Beeeher house, and nearly opposite the clock factory. The Jesse Williams homestead, on Spencer street, built hy Eben Coe. 1813. The Bissell Hinsdale house, built on the site of the Second Congrega- tional Church, and about 1855 moved by Dr. James Welch to the adjoining lot on the north. The Rockwell grist mill and woollen factory buildings on Lake street, burned up in 1835, and not rebuilt. The grammar schoolhouse on' Main street, next north of Forbes' furniture store. A wire factory was erected by Samuel and Luther Hoadley and James Boyd, on the west wing of the clock factory dam, one of the first in the United States wherein the wire was broken down from the rod, and reduced to the finest fibre. While the war with England continued it prospered, but it had to be abandoned when peace was restored, and foreign wire began to be again imported. 1814. The Solomon Rockwell house, corner of Lake and Prospect streets. The widow Marble house, on east side of east village park, built by Samuel Bartlett. The Hulsey Burr scythe shop, on the site of works on North Main street, now owned by Frederick Woodruff. The Oliver Loomis house on Main street, built by Romanta Woodford. The oil mill on Mad River, near the south wing of Clifton mill dam, torn down about 1830. 420 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, 1815. The James C. Cleveland house, on east side of east village park, built by Mr. Cleveland and Arah Bartlett. A carriage works, on the site of John T. Rockwell's tannery, built by Shubael Crowe, and converted into a store by Coe & Hubbell, about 18J0, and since removed. The Widow David Coe house, ou Spencer street, nearly opposite the old Methodist meeting-house, built by Reuben Hall. The James Boyd & Son iron store, on Main street, now remodeled as a furniture store, occupied by S. B. Forbes & Co. A whisky distillery, on Wallen's Hill road, some eighty rods east of the clock factory. 1816. The " Holabird House," opposite the Episcopal Church, now owned by Henry Bills, was built by David Marble. The house of A. L. Weirs, next north of the east village Congrega- tional meeting-house, was built by Sheldon Kinney, sen. By the return of peace, the reduction of tariff duties, and the renewed importation of foreign fabrics, almost every branch of domestic manufac- ture was prostrated ; and as a consequence, building operations in a great measure ceased during the remainder of this decade. The only building erected in the interval seems to have been a tannery erected by Horace Ranney at the south corner of North Main and Cook streets, which was abandoned as a tannery before 1860, since which the main building has been converted into a double tenement house. The system of taxation having been radically changed in 1819, we com- pile for comparison abstracts of the Assessment Lists of 1810 and 1818, as follows : 1810. 1820. ITEMS. No. Amount. No. Amount. Polls between 21 and 70, at $60.00 " " 18 " 21 " • . . 30.00 Oxen, "... 10.00 Neat cattle, " . . 7.00 " " "... 3.34 Horses, "... 10.00 "... 7.00 Acres of land, " . . . 1.67 " " " "... 1.34 " " " " . . ' . 84 " " " "... 34 " " " "... 17 " " " "... 09 103 11 119 388 102 78 2 298 1,046 51 2,226 2,123 1,782 83 10 88 349 38 66 2 388 1,164 63 2,716 2,016 1,718 AND FAMILY RECORDS. 421 Chaises, Silver watches, Brass clocks, Wooden clocks, Fire places, or smokes, Stores, u Money at interest, Assessments of trades, Bank stock, at Net amount after deducting abatements, Net Amount of Old Society, Highway tax (in labor), 3 per cent., Town tax (current expenses), 5 percent., 30.00 20.00 10.00 20.00 7.00 5.00 3.75 2.50 1.25 20.00 10.00 275.00 1,417.00 13,474.03 17,398.32 $30,272.35 926.17 1,543.62 ,469.79 2 6 2 1 67 6 33 81 151 3 1 250 250.00 1,860.00 2,500.00 16,292.68 18,057.64 $34,350.28 1,030.51 1,717.51 $2,748.02 CHAPTER XVIII. NEW COMERS— FAMILY RECORDS— GRAMMAR SCHOOL. 1821 TO 1831. The year 1821 opened with renewed activity, indicating a decided ren- ovation of prosperous business. Debts had been liquidated ; the banks had resumed specie payments, and expanded their issues ; and such branches of manufacturing as could be made remunerative, in competition with foreign fabrics, were resumed and actively prosecuted. From this time forward our increasing population was largely made up of individuals and families holding only temporary residences among us, while the ranks of leading business men were largely filled by the de- scendants of our pioneers. To enumerate all the new men coming on the stage will no longer be attempted ; and our notices will be confined to those who became permanent or long continued residents. Stephen Rowley, farmer and land surveyor, a native of Torrington, this year came to Winsted from Colebrook, and owned the Abijah Wil- son, Jr., farm, on the old North road, until 1842, when he bought and occupied until his death, in 1856, a house on the east side of North Main street, next south of Lucius Griswold's. He died, childless, leaving a widow, Roxy (Whiting), now (1872) living. Horace W. House, from Windsor, came to Winsted in 1821, and engaged in trade and manufacturing with N. B. Gaylord. He built the brick house on Main street, now owned by Normand Adams, in 1823, which he occupied until his removal back to Windsor in 1828, where he died, childless, about 1870. 1822. Elisha A. Morgan, from New London County, bought in 1822, the William E. Cowles farm, on Colebrook line, which he exchanged for FAMILY RECORDS. 423 the Higley Tavern in the West village, in 1827, and lived there until his removal out of the St^te in 1829. He had a wife, hut no children. Riley Smith, son of Theodore and Rhoda, this year bought his home- stead on the old north road, above the Woodruff tannery, on which he resided until his death, June 5, 1865, aged 70. He married, Nov. 9, 1826, Emily Cadwell, of W., by whom he had two sons, James R., and Hiram C, now (1872) resident in Riverton. She died Sept. 15, 1855, aged 54, and he married (2d), Dec. 25, 1865, Sarah Loomis, of Windsor, who died childless, Dec. 25, 1865. He died June 14, 1865, aged 68. 1823. Samuel Boyd, son of James and Mary, of Winchester, in 1823 erected the original store on the site of Woodford's brick block, and en- tered into trade in company with his brother-in-law, Lucius Clarke, under the firm name of Clark & Boyd. In 1824 he built the E. S. Woodford homestead. Tn 1827, Mr. Cl.irke withdrew, and soon after Samuel W. Coe was associated with him for two or three years, after which E. W. Bronson came into the concern, which turned its attention to the manufacture of hoes, shovels, and other tools. The busiuess was wound up in 1833, and Mr. Boyd removed to New Orleans, where he resided until 1850 ; soon after which he went into the hardware business in New York, and subse- quently became an Appraiser in the Custom-House, which office he still holds. His family record is given in connection with that of his father. 1824. Asaph Pease, originally from Sandisfield, came to Winsted from Colebrook in 1824, and owned and occupied until 1848 the old Doolittle house, on the east side of North Main street, opposite the clock factory dam, and which was subsequently taken down and re-erected on a new street turning westerly from North Main street. In the latter year he moved to New Britain, where he died Dec. 12, 1856, aged 80, his wife surviving him. He married, Feb. 4, 1805, Clotilda Hoyt, born June 1, 1777. CHILDREN. I. Leumas, b. Colebrook, May 9, 1806 ; d. aged 2 years. II. Mary Clotilda, b. " Nov. 15, 1808. III. Leumas Hoyt, b. " Jan. 20, 1811 ; graduate of Williams Col- lege, 1835; minister of the gospel, now (1872) located at New Orleans as Chaplain of Seamen's Friend Society; unmarried. 424 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, IV. Julius Walter, b. Colebrook, May 19, 1814; m. April 1, 1849, Mary Hotchkiss. Has CHILDREN. 1. Lctimas Hoyt, b. Jan. 20, 1845. 2. Martha Francis, b. Nov. 28, 1845. 3. Julius Hotchkiss, b. July 7, 1849; d. Sept. 13, 1847. 4. Julius Hotchkiss, b. Nov. 22, 1848. 5. William Walter, b. Nov. 3, 1850. 6. Mary Emily, b. Dec. 24, 1854; d. Aug. 28, 1855. 7. Clarence, b. Feb. 24, 1857 ; d. Jan. 6, 1858. 8. Charles Wiard, b. June 18, 1859 ; d. Sept. 28, 1859. V. Lucy Jemima, b. April 10, 1817. VI. Laura Peksis, b. April 22, 1824; m. Everett C. Holmes. Hon. William S. Holabird, a native of Canaan, Conn., studied law with Hon. W. M. Burrall, attended the law lectures of Judge Gould at Litchfield, was admitted to the bar about 1820, and soon after com- menced practice at Colebrook, Conn., — whence he moved to Winsted in 1824, and soon after secured a large practice and high standing at the bar. He held the appointment of District Attorney for four years under President Jackson, and was Lieutenant Governor of the State in 1842 and 1844; besides which he held the offices of Postmaster and Assignee in Bankruptcy. He was a man of commanding person and pleasing address ; as a law- yer he was adroit rather than learned — thorough in preparing his cases, quick to discern the weak points of his adversary, and energetic beyond most men in carrying forward his cases to a final issue. The same quali- ties were prominent in his political career, but his success as a lawyer was more decided than as politician. About 1850 he withdrew from legal practice and devoted himself to financiering with decided success. He died May 22, 1855, at the age of 61. He married, in 182G, Adaline, daughter of Abijah Catlin, of Harwinton, who died Nov. 10, 1859, aged 59. They had CHILDREN. I. John Catlin, who graduated at Wesleyan University, Middletown, and d. in California unmd., May 28, 185.3, aged 24 years 4 months. II. Adaline, m. Henry B. Horton; d, April 3, 1856, aged 24 years 3 months, leaving one child, William Holabird. III. Edward, m., Dec. 16, 1860, Sarah A. M. Howe; d. May 26, 1862, aged 28. IV. Anne, d. July 27, 1859, single, aged 22. V. Louise, d. July 8, 1842, aged 2 years and 9 mouths. VI. William Swift, m. May 6, 1863, Mary I. Bell. He d. Oct. 23, 1866, aged 24. She d. May 5, 1871, aged 28. Child. William Swift. VII. Louise, m. Oct. 14, 1868, aged 23, Henry C. Wicker, of Chicago. William O. Talcott, M. D., from Killingworth, came here as a med- ical practitioner in 1825, and resided in the widow Marble house, on the s-t^ AND FAMILY RECORDS. 425 east side of the East Village park until his death, Oct. 2f>, 1831, at the age of 37. He was a skillful and faithful physician of pleasing manners, social nature and high-toned character. His death, hy hemorrhage of the lungs, was sudden, and deeply lamented. He married Elizabeth M. , by whom he had a daughter, Elizabeth Olmsted, baptized Nov. 0, 1831. Oliver Loomis, from Torrington, purchased, in 1827, the farm between the two lakes, on which he lived until 1844, when he removed to his re- cent homestead on Main street, above Dudley's tannery, where he died childless, Feb. 7, 1872, aged 85 years, leaving a property of nearly ten thousand dollars to the use of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was a zealous and exemplary member. Alanson Loomis, son of Abiel, 1 of Winchester, in 1827 bought the tannery and house adjoining it on the west, which had been previously owned by his father, which he occupied until his sale of the same to George Dudley in 1832, when he moved to Sandisfield, Mass., for a few years, and then returned to Winsted and bought and occupied the Ebene- zer Rowley farm in 1S45, soon after which he removed to Fulton, Oswego Co., N. Y., where he now (1872) resides. His family record is given in connection with that of his father, Abiel Loomis, Sen. Henry L. Gaylord, originally from Torrington, came here in 1828, and was first associated in trading and hardware manufacturing with his brother, Nathaniel B. Gaylord, and afterwards with Chester Soper in woollen manufacturing. He owned and occupied the brick house on Main street, East Village, now owned by Normand Adams. He removed to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1837, where he died not far from 1850, leaving a widow and one son, now living. He was a man of high-toned character and sterling worth. Luman Hubbell, son of Silliman, of Winchester, a dyer by trade, and for several years a resident of Massachusetts, purchased in 18.8, the tavern property between Camp's block and the Woodford block, and be- came a permanent resident. He first engaged in the manufacture of dye- stuffs ; ajid in 1831, in company with Samuel W. Coe, he went into the country store and produce business in a building then standing on a part of the site of J. T. Rockwell's tannery on Main street. Here they pros- ecuted a large business until, in 1 845, they erected the building known as the Coe store, on Main street, opposite the Beardsley house. The build- ing was nearly completed when Mr. Hubbell was suddenly taken sick and died within a week, on the day that had been fixed for removing their goods and opening their bu^ness therein. Mr. Hubbell was a man of great promptitude and activity, a kind 54 426 ANNALS OF WINCHESTEK, neighbor and sympathizing friend, who visited the sick and bereaved, and aided the destitute and unfortunate. In all measures of public improve- ment, he was among the foremost. His family record is given, in con- nection with that of his father. The following dwellings and other buildings were erected in Winsted during the decade from 1821 to 1831. 1821. The Frederick Woodruff tannery on North Main street was erected by Horace Ranney, and was successively owned from 1824 to 1831 by Caleb Lewis, and then by Eli Foster, Ichabod Wood, Miles C. Burt and James Arault, who, in 1841, sold it to Mr. Woodruff, who, in 1869, sold it to George Dudley & Son, the present owners. A forging and drafting shop was erected by James and James M. Boyd, in 1822, on Lake street, at the joining of the Lake stream and Mad river, which was taken down, and the present brick machine shop was erected on its site by John Boyd in 1853. 1822. The Norinand Adams house was built by Horace W. House. 1823. A bark mill and tannery was built by Hosea Hinsdale on the site of John T. Rockwell's tannery. 1824. The brick house on North Main street recently owned by the widow and legatees of Stephen Rowley, deceased, was erected by Joseph B. Lewis, and was occupied by him until he left the town in 1834. The brick basement wooden house next south of the above was built the same or the following year by Darius Turrill and occupied by him until his removal from the town about 1840. 1825. The E. S. Woodford house at the corner of Main and High streets was built by Samuel Boyd and occupied by him until his removal to New York in 1834. Wheelock Thayer built the small brick tenement next south of the Woodford place now occupied by Martin Bradford. The small brick tenement in front of J. T. Rockwell's tannery on Main AND FAMILY RECORDS. 427 street was built by Hosea Hinsdale and Ichabod Loomis, and was occupied in part by Col. Hinsdale as a leatber store, and in part by Mr. Loomis as a liquor grocery, the first of these establishments in the town. It was burned out in 1827, leaving the walls so little injured, notwithstanding the explosion of a keg of powder, that it was rebuilt without taking down the walls. The house near the outlet of the lake, recently owned by Benjamin F. Perry, was built by William Dexter, who occupied it until his removal to Illinois in 1836. 1827. The '• Upper Forge," on the site of the Winsted Manufacturing Com- pany's Lake street grinding works, after running thirty-three years, was re built in 1827 by James Boyd & Son, and operated until about 1855, when the manufacture of bar iron ceased to be remunerative in the old way of working. The original house on the site of Edward R. Beardsley's residence on Main street, was built for a tenant house, and now stands within the same enclosure, it having been removed by the late Seth L. Wilder to its present site. 1828. Samuel Boyd erected the tenant house on Main street, between the residences of Mrs. Parke and Mrs. Eleazer Andrews. 1829. Horace Higley built the house on the north side of Main street, now owned by Albert N. Beach, which he occupied until his removal to Painesville, Ohio, in 1837. This was the second dwelling erected on the section known as the " Flat" which then intervened between the east and west villages, and is now occupied by nearly a hundred stores and dwell- ings. . 1830. A wooden dwelling and brick blacksmith shop on the south side of Main street, nearly opposite Walnut street, were erected by Martin Dens- low. The blacksmith shop has since been converted into a dwelling; and next east of the wooden dwelling a brick dwelling was erected the same year by Horace Skinner. The dwelling house on the north side of Main street, and now owned by George Taylor, was erected in 1830 by William Benham ; and the next dwelling on the west, was erected the same year by Daniel D. Lamb. The Samuel Smith house, on the north side of Main street, was also 428 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, erected in 1830 by Orentus Bronson, who, in succeeding years, although a cripple, creeled about twenty dwellings in various parts of the village, almost unaided by any assistant help. The Congregational Church in the East village was remodeled in 1828 by removing the high tub-like pulpit and its pendulous sounding-board, and substituting modern slips for the ancient square, pen-like pews, with high paneled sides. The new pulpit was placed at the east end of the audience room, and the floor had an ascending grade from the east to the west end. The building retained its original position on the green until 184S, when it was removed to its present site, and so remodeled, without and within, as not to retain a single feature of its original construction. In 1828 the brick store on the corner of Main and North Main streets, now occupied by L. R. Norton & Company, was erected by an association of some fifteen individuals for an Academic School, which was first opened therein by Rev. Sardis B. Morley, a graduate of Williams College, as- sisted by Miss Treat, of Hartford, who afterwards became his wife. The school was continued as a public academy, under a succession of teachers, until 1830, when the building was purchased by Mr. Henry E. Rockwell, who continued the school as a private enterprise until 1817, when he erected a new and more commodious building on Seminary Hill, north of High street, now occupied as a double dwelling, and recently owned by W. K. Peck, Esq. Mr. Rockwell discontinued his school in 1S50, and soon after removed to Massachusetts, and subsequently engaged in phonetic reporting and various educational pursuits. He is gratefully remembered by a hrge portion of our middle aged business men as a faithful and earnest teacher, and by the whole com- munity as a quiet, public spirited citizen. His George Washington head was as cordially greeted as that of any other of the returning pilgrims to our late Centennial Commemoration. In connection with Mr. Rockwell it is fitting to notice his cotemporary, Elder Miles Grant, who for some four or five years taught the west village district school, with an ability and success never excelled in our annals. To the sincere regret of parents and scholars, and of the whole community, a sense of duty constrained him to leave a calling for which he was eminently fitted, and to devote him-elf to the Master's service in another sphere of labor. Highly esteemed and loved as a minister of the Gospel, he has no more cordial friends than his Winsted pupils, now in the active stage of life, who owe (o him a training far beyond what is ordinarily secured in a district school. In 1830, George Taylor took a lease from James Boyd of the land and water power on which the Elizur Hinsdale Axe Factory had stood, and erected a small machine shop, now constituting a part of the AND FAMILY RECORDS. 429 present Foundry & Machine Company's building. Mr. Tajlor has been connected with the establishment in all its changes, up to the present time. Under the firm of Taylor & Whiting, woollen machinery of superior quality, and in large quantities, was manufactured. The foundry was erected about 1850. We compile abstracts of the polls and taxable property of the Society on the lists of 1820 and 1830, showing the increase or decrease in the respective items during the decade as follows : — 1820. 1830. No. Amount. No. Amount. Houses and two-acre lots, . . . . 105 54,524 118 48,204 Acres of land, ...... 81 »3 149,739 7090 108,200 Manufactories, ...... 10 5,(125 18 15,000 Grist mills and saw mills, . . . . 5 3,475 4 1.050 Stores, 4 2,400 7 2,750 Clocks and watches, . . . . . 70 3G1 142 578 Horses, J . . . . . . G4 2,095 118 4,395 Neat cattle, ....... 048 8,825 802 10,319 Riding carriages, ...... 13 470 5 210 Bunk stocks, ....... 2,800 300 Turn jiikc stock, ...... 424 424 Money at interest, ...... 3,040 8,034 Slieep, ........ 803 1,120 Polls taxable, ...... 10S 192 These abstracts are rendered nearly useless for comparison by the arbitrary changes in the valuation of houses, lands, neat stock, &c, from .year to year, according to the wisdom or caprice of the assessors. In the item of dwelling houses, while the number is increased by the erection of some twenty new buildings, the total amount of assessment is reduced $6,2G0; whereas, if the standard of valuation had been uniform, the totals would have shown an increase of $G,751. So also in the valu- ation of lands, if the standard had been kept up, and the same number of acres assessed at the beginning and end of the decade, the ajnrrecrate would have been the same in the first and last years, instead of showing a diminution of $41,473. So also in the valuation of neat stock, the reduction of the value of cows from $13 to $11, and of other cattle in the same proportion made an aggregate reduction of $1,578. With these equalizations of the two lists, we shall find an increase of the taxable property of the society of $15,925, while the increased num- ber of polls, when brought up to the valuation of 1820, would have added to the list of 1830 an increase of $27,'J32, thus making the whole increase of the decade $43,897, or an increase of $4,31)0 per year. CHAPTER XXIX. GROWTH OF VILLAGES.— BOROUGH OF CLIFTON.— POST-OFFICES.— NEW BUILDINGS AND FACTORIES. 1831 to 1841. We have thus far traced the early growth of Winsted with a minuteness of detail, the further prosecution of which would be equally tiresome to compiler and reader ; and have reached a period when the public records cease to furnish family statistics in an available form for compiling, owing to the neglect of the old, and the imperfection of the new system of reg- istration. We propose, therefore, in the further prosecution of our Annals, to allude only to the origin and growth of public institutions and private enterprises of special public interest. Up to 1 832, the Green Woods turnpike along Mad river, the road along the west side of Still river, and the road along the Lake stream, now re- spectively known as Main street, North Main street, and Lake street, fur- nished nearly all the building ground as yet required, and would have supplied the demand for another decade, had the land owners been dis- posed to meet the requirements of the increasing population. The first movement for expanding our borders was made by an associ- ation of young men, who, in 1832, purchased a line of fifteen building lots and the land for a highway in front of them, from Lake street to Pratt street, which they named Prospect street. After making and open- ing the road at their own expense, they applied to the town authorities to accept it as a public highway. It was an unprecedented case. Conserv- atism became alarmed. It required some finessing to induce the town to accept the gift ; and when accepted, the enterprise had so much fogyism to encounter, that it proved a poor investment. At the end of three years, only three houses had been erected on the street, and it was ten years before the unoccupied lots could be sold at first cost. During the same year Wheelock Thayer erected the scythe works on Mad river now owned by his daughter, Mrs. Bacheller, and operated by the Thayer Scythe Company; and Samuel Boyd erected the Clifton Mill works, now owned by the Winsted Hoe Company, in which he manufac- tured shovels, hoes, and carpenters' tools for two or three 3 ears, and was AND FAMILY RECORDS. 431 succeeded by the Clifton Mill Company, who converted the original build- ing into a flouring mill and erected lhe three-story building for the manu- facture of bolts and nuls. The establishment was sold in 1870 to the Winsted Hoe Company, and is now used for making planters' hoes and carpenters' tools. In 1833, on application of inhabitants of the West Village, the General Assembly granted a borough charter to comprehend the part of the bor- ough of Winsted lying west of the second tier line. Conservatism again took the alarm, and at the first meeting for choice of officers, a ticket was elected not favorable to the objects contemplated by the charter. A small tax was laid for purchasing a fire engine and organizing a fire company. Payment of the tax was refused by. some of the tax payers, and there was not found sufficient vitality in the corporate body to enforce the pay- ment. The bantling had a paralyzed existence of two or three years, and then expired. Its primary object was, to secure an efficient fire organiza- tion ; but, behind this there was a plan for securing a second post-office in place of the original office, which had been recently transferred to the East Village, the two villages being then distinct communities separated from each other by a wide space of land not then obtainable for building purposes. In this connection a sketch of post-office changes and the almost per- petual dissensions growing out of them, which have given to our commu- nity an evil fame, seems appropriate as an element of our history. In- deed, to ignore them would be like performing the play of Hamlet with Hamlet himself left out. There was a time, strange as it may seem to the present generation, when the post-office department was conducted without reference to party politics; when the post-master general was not a cabinet officer; when the ruling question in the appointment of a deputy post-master was — is he honest, capable, and acceptable to the community ; when the best in- terests of the public and of the department were the sole considerations applied to questions of location of offices. These principles were recog- nized and acted on not only in the days of "Washington and Jefferson, but onward through the administrations of Monroe and the second Adams. About 180G, the only post-office in Winchester was held by a zealous Democrat in the Widow Hall house, on the turnpike beyond the eastern border of the present borough of Winsted. The West Village had then become a business centre, and also more central to the whole town than any other point on the mail route. On a representation of these and other considerations to Post-master General Granger, a removal of the office to the West Village was ordered, and a high-toned Federalist was appointed to the place of his democratic predecessor. 432 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, It is a rule with scarcely an exception, that when rival villages exist in close vicinity to each other, a feeling of jealous rivalry grows with their growth; and if they are both within the same post-office delivery, this feeling is liable to become highly intensified. To this rule Winsted has been no exception. Prior to and during the War of 1812, the Federal element predominated in the West Village, and the democratic in the East. Efforts were made from time to time to change the politics of the post- master and the location of the office, without avail, until the resignation of the Federal incumbent in 1830, when, on an ex-parte hearing of an application from the East Village, an unexpected appointment was made, and the location of the office transferred to that section. A second-class earthquake could scarcely have produced a greater sensation. The West Village at once sent a deputation to Washington, accompanied by a Hart- ford Times editor, and on a second ex-parte hearing, the department ordered the office to be re opened in the West Village ; but it couldn't be made to stay there. Within six months, on another ex-parte hearing, the department ordered it back to the East Village. Remonstrances flowed in so thickly, that in about a year an oily-tongued official, rejoicing in the name of Barnabas Bates, was sent to investigate the case. Nearly three days were devoted by him to a public hearing of the contending parties. He reported to the department, in substance, that both parties ought to have it; but as they couldn't, it had better be located at an intermediate point, half a mile distant from each village centre, where next to nobody then wanted it, and, as a consequence, it rested in the East Village until after the Harrison campaign, when, under a new po-t-master, it again re- turned to the We4 Village, leaving a branch office for receiving and de- livering letters in the East. Two years after, under Capt. Tyler's accidental re'gn, the office went back to the East Village, and the branch office to the West, and so continued through the administration of President Polk. By this time the nomination of postmasters within a congressional dis- trict had, by usage, become the unquestioned prerogative — not to say-per- qui-ite — of the sitting members. Our member acted honestly and wisely by obtaining the establishment of a new office in the West Village, and leaving the old office where it then happened to be, and appointing two new postmasters. With this arrangement the land had rest for some years ; but, in the mean time, each village had encroached on the inter- mediate vacant space. The Naugatuck Railroad was opened in 1849, and the two villages became one. But this one village had three sections in- stead of two — the East, the West, and the Flat. The Flat, being the central point and the railroad terminus, naturally looked to a speedy pre- ponderance over the other sections. A consolidated post office seemed easy of attainment. Senator Dixon, like Barkis, " was willing " and ready to help by " ways that are dark and tricks that are vain, " and represen- AND FAMILY RECORDS. 433 tative Hubbard was befogged ; and like a thunder clap in a clear sky the announcement came that the West office was defunct, and the East office was transferred to the Flat ! Fearful was the indignation of the outlying East and West enders. Their reciprocal heart burnings, the growth of a half century, dissolved into thin air. The whilom combatants became loving friends and turned their combined batteries upon the new victor. The Department, finding itself in a quandary, sent another political seer, named Nehemiah D. Sperry, to look into the matter, and see what was expedient to be done in the premises. Nehemiah heard the parties pub- licly and privately, by daylight and with a dark lantern. He too got into a quandary, and betook himself to secret negotiations and quack nostrums. The result was, a restoration of the two offices, a very imperfect healing of the new sore, and a general impression that Nehemiah was a wonderful negotiator. The two offices remained as they were until a new muddle grew out of the manipulations of a defeated candidate for congress in the fourth district, who got the Republican nomination, but could not get votes enough to elect him. His successful Republican colleagues, sorrowing for his defeat, conceded to him the bestowment of the post-offices in the dist- rict. Our people were not suited with his nominations for the twin post- offices, and some twenty-five or thirty of them went to Washington, and had a boisterous hearing before the gentlemanly P. M. G. Cresswell, who appointed two meritorious soldiers to the places, which they now hold. It would be a wrong conclusion to draw from this detail of sectional squabbles, that our community is wholly given up to them, or that the feel- ings engendered are very deep or bitter. The question at issue once set- tled, general good feeling is soon restored, and the combatants return to their business,,and with accustomed energy and cordiality unite in pro- moting unsectional measures of improvement or benevolence. In 1833 the old Jenkins & Boyd scythe shop was torn down, and a new establishment was erected by parties, soon after incorporated as the Win- sted Manufacturing Company. This concern, under the able and efficient agency of the late John Camp, Esq., until his death in 1862, has prose- cuted the business of scythe-making to the present time with uninter- rupted success, making large dividends and sustaining a high reputation for good workmanship and upright dealing. Mr. Camp died of a hemor- rhage of the lungs, August 19, 1862, aged sixty-one years, leaving a name honored for integrity, public spirit, and private benevolence. George Dudley, a native of Bloomfield, after a residence of several years in the east part of Winsted, purchased the Loomis tannery on Main street in 1832, and soon after went into tanning skivers or split sheep skins, imported from England, and prepared for book-binding and other pur- poses, a branch of the business which has proved highly remunerative to 55 434 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, those prosecuting it with skill and energy. Mr. Dudley, after various enlargements of his works, erected his present main building about 1856. having, two or three years earlier, put up his two large dryiug houses on Meadow street. The present Methodist Episcopal church on Main street was erected in 1833, under the supervision of nine trustees, of better capacity for man- aging dairy farms than for contracting and supervising the building of a church edifice. Many repairs and improvements of the building have, from time to time, been made, the last of which was the taking clown of the insignificant spire, and replacing it with one of symmetrical propor- tions, creditable to the society, to the village, and to Rev. Mr. Simonson, who supervised the work. During the latter part of this decade, from 1837 to 1840, one of our periodic business revulsions occurred, which, in a great measure, checked the growth of the place for the time being. The accession of inhabitants and of new dwellings had been rapid during the five preceding years. Among the more permanent inhabitants of the society not already named, who came in during this decade, were Orentus Bronson, James Birdsall, Elliot Beardsley, George Taylor, Doctor James Welch, James Humphrey, Asa Parke, Alvin Gilbert, Ambrose Whiting, Horatio L. Wet- more, Anson Foskett, David N. Beardsley, Elisha Kilborn, William G. Batcheller, Caleb J. Camp, Seth L. Wilder, Normand Adams, Willard S. Wetmore, John G. Wetmore, and Chester Went worth. The assessment list of 1840 comprises the following items: 176 Houses, ...... $79,850 Land, ------ 127,026 19 Factories, - - - - - - 24,500 4 Grist and Saw Mills, - 3,425 7 Stoves, --.... 3 ; 600 Clocks and Watches, - - - - 1,134 104 Horses, ------ 4 ; g69 838 Neat Cattle, ----- 11,392 4 Carriages, - , - - - - 325 Bank Stock, ----- 2,500 Money at interest, ----- 14,053 152 Taxable Polls, ----- 3,040 Total, .... 275,714 CHAPTER XXX. new streets and factories— winsted bank— hurlbut bank— naugatuck rail- road—episcopal church— new burying-ground. 1841 to 1851. In the year 1840 the meadow land between the two villages, north of Mad River, and the upland around the Naugatuck Railroad station and eastward, came into the hands of a new owner, and was opened to sale for building purposes. On the meadow between the west line of the Clarke house property and the tier line near Clifton Mill Bridge, and extending northward so as to embrace Elm street, High street, Wheeler street, most of the Green Woods Agricultural Park, the whole of Center street, and the part of Main street between the points first indicated, was used solely for farming purposes, with only one dwelling on the whole area. On the south side of the river, a road, since named Willow street, turned easterly, along the rear of the Clifton Mill property, and joined the Burrville road, on which but three houses had, as yet, been erected. Opposite the Clarke house, between the road and river, stood an ancient forge with its large coal houses, and a small forgeman's house, and across the river, a dilapi- dated saw-mill and three forgemen's houses on and near the site of the New England Pin Company's factory. The lots on the north side of Main street were laid out and mainly taken up in 1841 and soon after built upon by new comers, who here found eligible openings, not before obtainable, at moderate prices. A new life and energy became apparent. New enterprises were projected and prosecuted, and old ones were stimulated to new vigor. Old indebted- nesses were paid off, and the system of doing business with accommoda- tion paper discounted at the Hartford banks and renewed at maturity, which had long prevailed, was gradually abandoned. About 1845 the Methodist parsonage and the house now owned by Rufus E. Holmes were erected by Charles B. Weed, on the north line of High street. The line of the street had been agreed on by the proprietors 436 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, of the lands through which it ran, but no action was had by the town until August 22, 1846, when, on report of the Selectmen, a survey of the pro- posed road along the line of High street to Elm street, and thence south- erly to Main street at the Clarke House, was accepted and approved by the town; but on the 26th of October following the town voted to dis- continue it, and a resort to the County Court became necessary to estab- lish it. The lots were speedily taken up, and it has proved a favorite section of the borough. In 1815 the new burying-grouud, south of the east village, was pur- chased and opened. It had been laid out in lots some years earlier. The grave of a daughter of Harmon Munson, who died June 28, 1831, was the first that was opened in it. It was enlarged to its present dimensions in 1871. In 1846 " the Home Company," a joint stock concern, now extinct, erected the factory building now owned by the New England Pin Com- pany and went into the manufacture of doeskin cloths. The company had no previous experience in this line of manufacture ; their successive foremen proved incompetent, and the enterprise shared the fate of all previous attempts at woolen manufacture in Wiusted. The property was subsequently purchased by Anson G. Phelps, who, in 1855, sold it to the New England Pin Company, its present owners. The Winsted Bank, with a capital of $100,000, was chartered in 1848. The bill for its charter was in the first instance rejected by the Assembly at the instance of the Hartford bankers ; but it was at once discovered that the rejection was operating a change of views of Litchfield County members on the Air Line Bridge question, then before the Ass.sembly ; the Hartford members obtained a reconsideration of the adverse vote ; and in six hours after its rejection the charter had passed both houses. The location and control of this institution was a matter of deep inter- est to the two outside sections of Winsted. Plotting and counter-plotting were resorted to. The commissioners distributed the stock in the interest of the east section, which secured five of the directors and allowed to the west section only two. Then came the presidential question. Unfortu- nately, the dominant party were not agreed as to which of their directors should control the institution. One of them controlled directly or indi- rectly six hundred out of the one thousand shares of the stock, yet he failed of an election by reason of two eastern votes being cast for a west- ern candidate. This result was followed in a few days by the transfer of six hundred shares of stock to western parties, and soon afterwards by other transfers, which vacated the seats of two of the eastern directors, whose places were tilled by directors in the western interest. Soon after this, the banking, office was opened in a room of the Beards- ley House, with George Dudley as President, and E. S. Hamilton as Cashier. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 437 The banking house, now the property of the Winsted Savings Bank, was erected in 1851. The profits of the first six months' business were swallowed up by the failure of one customer residing out of the State. By experience and caution, the bank thereafter in a great measure escaped similar losses, and did a prosperous business until Nov. 9, 1861, when its vault was broken open by burglars, who earned off cash assets to the amount of $60,100, only about $18,000 of which were finally re- covered, at a cost of over $2,000. This calamity, by impairing its capi- tal, prevented its reception as a National Bank ; in consequence of which, and the heavy tax on circulation of State banks, its business was there- after prosecuted at great disadvantage, and it was closed and the charter surrendered Sept. 1, 1867. Notwithstanding this loss, and disadvantage, the institution had been so carefully and judiciously managed that the stock-holders received on the final liquidation $113 on each $100 of their stock.* The Huilbut Bank was organized in June, 1857, under the provisions of the General Banking Law of 1852, and under the presidency of Wil- liam H. Phelps, Esq., its organizer, who controlled its operations until his death on the 25th day of August, 1864, at the age of about 46. The directors of the bank, by vote on record, Resolved " that we are fully sensible of the loss to this institution of an able financier, whose faithfulness and diligence in managing the affairs of the bank are fully ap- parent in its success, and the character it has sustained at home and abroad for its soundness and prosperity. We also feel deeply his loss in common with this community, as an honest and capable adviser, a genial companion, and highly esteemed citizen." The bank was organized with a capital of $130,000, which was in- creased in 1854 to $200,000 ; to which has since been added a subscrip- tion of stock to the amount of $5,000 by the American Deaf and Dumb Asylum. It was reorganized as a National Bank immediately after the passage by Congress of the National Banking Law ; and since the death of Mr. Phelps has been successfully and profitably managed by officers trained by him. The Naugatuck Railroad, from Derby to Plymouth, was chartered in 1845. In 1847 the company was allowed an extension of one year for commencing its road and expending thereon the sum of fifty thousand dollars ; and were authorized to extend its line to Winsted. Prior to the awarding of the contracts and extending the line to Winsted, it had been transferred to Alfred Bishop, of Bridgeport, and his associates, who in * It should have been noted that the capital stock of the bank was enlarged in 1854 to $300,000. 438 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, consideration of a bonus of thirty thousand dollars and payment of the land damages along its line to Waterbury, by the citizens interested in its completion, contracted to build the road and open it to that point in 1849. Soon after the extension to Winsted was authorized, Mr. Bishop pro- posed to so extend it, on being secured another cash bonus of $30,000, and a right of way from Waterbury northward. The proposition was unlooked for, but was promptly responded to. A meeting of citizens in- terested along the line was immediately called, and a division of responsi- bility was agreed upon, by which the citizens of Winsted assumed half the bonus and the securing the whole right of way and depot grounds within the town of Winchester; and the citizens of Wolcottville and Plymouth agreed to assume the other half of the bonus and the whole ex- pense of the remaining land tiile. A spirit of liberality, before unprecedented, prevailed. Men gave their thousands who had never before given a hundred for any public ob- ject. The subscription was speedily filled up, — when the chronic sec- tional disease of our community broke out on the question of locating the terminus , — whether it should be on the East village green, on the Flat, or in the West village. There wa^ a backing down of a portion of sub- scriptions, which rendered a new subscription necessary on the basis of locating the terminus on the Flat where the depot now stands. A re- assessment of the adhering subscribers was jjroposed and speedily adopted. About five thousand dollars was assumed by adhering sub- scribers to make good the withdrawn subscriptions, and the contract with Mr. Bishop was thereupon perfected. The iron horse paid his first visit to the Winsted depot, Sept. 21, 1S49. The first passenger train came up on Saturday the 22d, and returned on the following Monday. The population of the whole town at that period was less than 2,100. In 1860 it was 3,550. As the population of the Old Society remained stationary, or decreased during the intervening period, we may safely estimate the increase of W T insted population during the eleven years after the opening of the railroad at 1450, — or Go per cent. The number of taxable polls in the town in 1849 Avas, - - 438 In 1860, it had increased to - - - - - 853 Showing a gain in eleven years of 94| per cent. This increased value of property is not to be wholly assigned to Win- sted Society, as it results partly from the greatly increased valuation of wood lands throughout the whole town. Mr. Bishop, the projector and builder of the road, died before its com- pletion. He was a man of far seeing and comprehensive views, — of quiet energy, and liberal spirit. He looked to ultimate results rather AND FAMILY RECORDS. 439 than to immediate gains, and believed in a policy of promoting the growth of manufacturing and commercial business along the whole line of the road, to be affected by low freights on raw materials going from tide- water to the interior, and thereby increasing the relurn freights of manu- factured articles. His successors entertained more conservative views. They looked to immediate results, not by fostering the interests of the business sections remote from tide-water, but by imposing high fares and indiscriminating tariffs of freights, — so high as to discourage new manu- facturing enterprises. This policy was peculiarly unfavorable to Winsted by reason of her manufactures being mainly of heavy iron hardware, requiring iron, steel, coal, grind-stones, etc., to be brought from tide- water. The result was, for several years, a most unsatisfactory income to the company from the northern section of the road. The main cause of this did not so impress itself upon the comprehension of the directors of the road as to induce any change of policy. Nevertheless, our business, though sadly retarded, could not but be benefited by a small reduction of freights and fares below the cost of transportation by teams to and from Hartford on the east, and the Housatonic Railroad on the west. The unprofitableness of the road until a recent period, grew in part out of its cheap original construction. A large portion of the stone masonry and bridges have required rebuilding not only once, but in not a few cases, oftener. The track has had to be raised or changed in many places, and no inconsiderable damages have been paid for accidents grow- ing out of imperfect construction and repairs. To the stockholders, it has eventually become a profitable pecuniary investment; — whether more or less so by reason of its enormous freight charges and penurious manage- ment, is a question on which there may be a diversity of opinion. The first stated worship of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Win- sted was begun in 1817, by Rev. II. Frisbie, and some funds were then raised for a church edifice. During the following year arrangements were made for building a church and a location was agreed on. The present Episcopal Church was soon after contracted for and was completed in October, 1848; and on the 27th day of that month the parish of St. James was legally organized by choice of Rev. Jonathan Coe, Jr., Rector, James R. Coe and Uriel Spencer, Jr., Wardens ; and Dr. John L. Wake- field, Hon. Wm. S. Holabird, and Alexander Durgin, Vestrymen. The church was consecrated, the same autumn. Rev. Jonathan Coe, Jr., was succeeded in 1854 by Rev. James W. Coe, who officiated for one year. In 1856 Rev. James R. Coe, brother of the first Rector, was chosen Rec- tor, and officiated as such until 1860, when he was succeeded by Rev. David H. Short, who remained about two years, after which the parish 440 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, was for some time supplied by Rev. J. D. Berry, D.D., of Litchfield. In 1866 Rev. Wm. H. Williams was chosen Rector, and served two years ; and was succeeded by Rev. Wm. H. Lewis, Jr., who remained until May, 1870, when Rev. D. P. Sanford, the present Rector, took charge of the parish. The location of the church, influenced by the liberal subscrip- tions of individuals in its immediate vicinity, has been deemed ill-judged, and is supposed to have essentially retarded its growth. Endeavors have been made to obtain its removal to a more central point, intermediate be- tween the east and west sections, but as yet without success. Meadow street was laid out in the fall of 1849 by Col. Hosea Hinsdale and Samuel Boyd, who owned the adjoining lands and laid them out in building lots of five rods front and eight rods depth. The northern por- tion of the land had been the home meadow of Col. Hinsdale, and the southern, the home meadow of James Boyd, then recently deceased. Buildings began at once to be erected on these lots, and they were nearly all taken up and improved within five years. Monroe street was also laid out and opened by Mr. Boyd the same year. We note, among our prominent citizens who died during this decade, the following : Capt. Zebina Smith, February 4, 1842, aged 82. Capt. Grinnell Spencer, March 5, 1843, aged 74. Theodore Hinsdale, Esq., Nov. 27, 1841, aged 40. Rev. Daniel Coe, Jan. 12, 1847, aged 64. James Boyd, Feb. 28, 1849, aged 78. Rev. James Beach, June 10, 1850, aged 70. Jonathan Coe, May 31, 1849, aged 79. Luman Hubbell, Oct. 1846. Gideon Hall, Sr., Feb. 23, 1850, aged 75. Dr. Luman Wakefield, March 20, 1850, aged 63. Nath. B. Gaylord, 1849. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 441 "We compile abstracts of the Assessment Lists of 1840 and 1850, show- ing the increased quantity and amount of property during the decade as follows : List of 1840. List of 1850. Increase. Dwelling houses, .... 176 $79,850 an $161,880; 135 82,030 Acres of land, ..... 8,168 127,026 8,477 184,103 309 57,077 Mills, factories, and stores, 30 31,525 39 65,605 9 34,080 Horses, 104 4,869 177 9,135; 73 4,266 Neat cattle, 838 11,392 1,201 15,397 363 4,005 Investments in trade and manufactures, 8,225 76,790 68,565 Bank stocks, ..... • 2,500 71,430! 68,930 Bailroad bonds, .... 5,400; 5,400 Money at interest, .... 14,053 74,294 ! 60,241 Taxable polls, .... 152 383 231 Total amount of taxable property on the two assessment lists, . 459,649 669,999 209,350 Population of town, 1,667 2,179 512 It will be seen by the foregoing abstracts that the dwellings had nearly doubled, in number, and more than doubled in value during the ten years ; — that the value of factories, stores, etc., had more than doubled ; that the bank stocks had increased more than twenty-fold, and money at interest more than five-fold. The population of the Old Society remained stationary or decreased during the decade, so that the srain was altogether in Winsted. 56 CHAPTER XXXI. 1841 to 1851. mechanics and laborers.— roman catholic church.— sayings and building association.— new streets. The elements of the steady and prosperous growth of Winsted have been, first of all, business men not only of energy, but of sound moral and religious principle ; second, the manufacture of such articles of prime necessity as require skillful and hard-working artizans ; third, a variety of moderately-sized establishments, conducted by actual resident owners; fourth, a mutual sympathy of employers and employed, combined with a desire on all hands for the moral improvement of the community. The original iron workers — forgemen, as they were termed — came from Ancram, N. Y., and from the Jerseys. They were mainly of Low Dutch descent, working hard at irregular hours, blowing up their fires at from two to four o'clock in the morning, completing their day's work soon after noon, and spending the rest of the day in fishing and drinking. This was the general characteristic, but there were some of them who broke loose from these habits, and became thrifty men and good citizens. The iron masters discovered the evils of rum selling and rum drinking years before the general temperance movement began, and applied the remedy in part, abandoning the sale of liquors, and getting rid of their most intemperate workmen. The early scythe makers were mainly Down Easters, of industrious, thrifty habits, and good morals. Their successors have maintained their characteristics, and constitute a large class of our most respectable citizens and property owners. The same qualities characterize our tanners, clockmakers, hoemakers, machinists, and other handicraftsmen. In no other manufacturing place in the state are as large a portion of the mechanics owners of comfortable homesteads, to say nothing of savings bank deposits and ten per cent, bonds, as in Winsted. We are most fortunately exempt from overshadowing cotton mills, print works, paper mills, and other establishments mainly sustained by the bone and muscle of poor children, imported — with their degraded parents — in box cars from the cities, and uncared for by their absentee employer, FAMILY RECORDS. 443 save in securing from them the largest amount of labor, at the lowest cost. The diversity of our manufactures is a special source of prosperity. The depression of one or two branches does not paralyze the community nor crowd the poor house. Prior to the opening of the Naugatuck Railroad, the number of resi- dents of foreign birth was very limited. Some of the railroad laborers remained after the road was finished, and their friends and relations joined them. Others followed them by the new channel of access to this before secluded region. All of them found ready employment in a sober and temperate community, as yet uncontaminated by a vicious class. It is a prevailing habit to carp about the faults and vices of our foreign laborers and domestics. The first question is, what could we have done without them in our rapidly enlarging community, in which every native born robust man coidd have found better employment than precarious day labor, and every healthy intelligent girl could go into a school or factory, where higher wages could be earned, and better dresses worn than at domestic service. Better, it doubtless might have been, that the good old time had continued, when a trade required from five to seven years apprenticeship, instead of six months as at present ; when the young farmer's son worked out by the month to earn his first investment in land, and the smart farmer's daughter, besides doing the household drudgery, spun her two runs of yarn each day, and went to conference or singing school at night, on a stipend of four-and-sixpence a week ; but those times had been played out long before the advent of Patrick and Bridget. It was Patrick, with his unreasoning muscle, who brought the railroad to our doors, and then cheerfully, though unskillfully, took up and carried forward the lost art of hard drudgery, which the discontented and fretful employer, not owning a gang of fat healthy negroes, could obtain from no other earthly quarter. It was Bridget who became the angel of the kitchen — an imperfect angel to be sure — but considerably more charming than the slatternly home-raised hired help; the remnant of her race, who, in later times, shirked the hardest drudgery of the kitchen on her careworn mistress, and combed out her carroty locks in the parlor in presence of the mistress's guests. There is a prevailing tendency to berate the Irish beyond reason. Glaring faults they have, as a result of grinding oppression and cruelty to which they and their fathers have been subjected for centuries. They have also virtues, which are to be developed only by patience and con- siderate kindness. They are ignorant, and must be enlightened by education and moral culture. They are among us and of us, and they bid fair to outnumber us in hall a century, unless the Yankee race 444 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, becomes more prolific in the future than in the present era of barrenness among native women. Roman Catholic worship was first instituted in Winsted in 1851, by Rev. James Lynch, from Birmingham, in the sclioolhouse of the west district, which was attended by about forty Catholics. Land for a church lot was secured the same year, and in 1852 Rev. Thomas Quinn entered on his pastoral duties, and commenced the erection of St. Joseph's Catholic Church. Until its completion mass was celebrated on the sabbath in Camp's Hall. Rev. Philip Gilleck succeeded Father Quinn in 1853, and supervised the completion of the church so far as to render it suitable for divine worship. The Rev. Thomas Henricken, now Bishop of the Diocese of Rhode Island, succeeded Father Gilleck in 1854, and in 1855 was transferred to Waterbury, when Rev. Richard O'Gorman succeeded him in the pastorate. He was succeeded in 1856 by Rev. Lawrence Mangan, and he in 1860 by Rev. Daniel Mullen, who was soon after transferred to the chaplaincy of the 9th Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers. He was succeeded in 1861 by Rev. Philip Sheriden, who remained in the pastorate until 1864, when Rev. Father Leo da Saracena, of the Order of St. Francis d'Assissi, who had succeeded Father Mullen in the chaplaincy of the 9th Connecticut Volunteers, was appointed to the pastorate by Bishop McFarland of Hartford. Under his energetic supervision, the parish was thoroughly organized, and ;idditional lands were purchased, with buildings thereon for a parish school, and a residence for the sisters of the third order of St. Francis, by whom the school was organized, and has been successfully conducted, the number of children in attendance being from fifty to sixty. In 1866 he secured the purchase of other adjoining lands for the institutions of his order, on which he proceeded to erect the brick monastery standing immediately west of the church, the church itself having been donated to the order by Bishop McFarland in November, 1866. In January, 1867, other land and buildings were purchased and fitted up for the Academy of St. Margaret of Cortonia, an institution for educating young ladies in the higher branches. A fine grove in the rear of the church and monastery has also been purchased, in which it is designed to erect a future residence of the sisters of the order. The buildings stand on a hill sloping down to Main street on the south, so elevated as to command a splendid view of the surrounding village and valley. The institution was incorporated in 1866, under the name of " The St. Francis Literary and Theological Seminary," and is now (1872) conducted by the following officials : — AND FAMILY RECORDS. 445 st. Joseph's r. o. church. Pastor — Rev. Fra. Leo da Saracena, O.S.F. ST. FRANCIS' R. C. LITERARY AND THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. President — Rev. Fra. Leo da Saracena, O.S.F. Vice-President — Rev. Fra. Isaiah da Scanno, O.S.F. Secretary — Rev. Fra. Diomedes, O.S.F. st. maeoaret's r. c. academy for young ladies. Instructors — Sisters of St. Francis. ST. FRANCIS R. C. PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. Instructors — Sisters of St. Francis. SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS' CONVENT. Rev. Mother Josephine Todd.* John D. Howe and Willard S. "Wetmore having, in 1850, purchased from the heirs of Luman Wakefield, deceased, two adjoining tracts of land on the west border of the east village, proceeded to lay out four streets thereon, and to divide the adjoining lands into quarter-acre lots. The streets laid out were — Grove street, running westerly from the east village park, Walnut street, Oak street, and Chestnut street, running parallel with each other, northerly from Main to Grove streets. They were accepted as highways by the town in 1851. An epidemic building fever set in about this time, which expedited the rapid sale of these and other newly-opened lots. The source of this epidemic is traceable to an association of homeless men in New Haven, who sought to aid each other in providing homesteads by combining their limited resources, and loaning the same, as they accrued, to the members of the association offering the highest bonus, in addition to six per cent, interest therefor, and applying the loaned money to buildings to be erected on lots mortgaged to the association as security for the loans. Each associate on joining the institution took up a;iy number of shares at his option, and contracted to pay in monthly installments of five per cent, until the stock taken was fully paid up. The amo.uit monthly paid in was at once loaned to the stockholder who offered the highest bonus in addition to legal monthly interest, and the money borrowed, less the * The foregoing details are gathei'ed and condensed from materials furnished by Rev. Father Leo da Saracena. 446 ANNALS OF WINCHESTEE, bonus, was to be applied to building a house on a lot owned by the bor- rower, and mortgaged to the association for security of his loan. The theory was that each stockholder of a series was eventually to become a borrower of a sum equal to the amount of his stock. When- this point was reached, or before, the whole capital of the series would be filled up, and the principal of each borrower's note be paid by a surrender of his fully paid stock, leaving the balance of profit, if any, to be divided to each of the series pro rata. One series of stockholders being thus paid off and discharged, the same process of paying in and loaning out in due course of time discharged and paid off the next series, the third, and so on, as long as accessions of stockholders and borrowers could be secured. The whole thing looked rose-colored on paper. There were wise financiers who could mathema- tically demonstrate that however large the bonuses paid on loans, both the borrower and lender would be equally benefited. On the promulgation of this financial discovery the General Assembly of 1850 gave it their blessing and sanction by authorizing the establish- ment of savings and building associations without limit of number or cap- ital, and with a perfect abandon of prudential restraints and prohibitions. The principle of requiring each stockholder to become a borrower was discarded. The associations were allowed to receive deposits from out- siders, either on interest or without, and to make temporary or permanent loans of the same to outsiders or members, on personal or mortgage se- curities, and at any rate of premium added to interest they could extort from needy borrowers. Institutions under this law were speedily organized all over the state. Our community, by reason of its chronic local jealousies, could not work together in one company, and so formed two : " The Winsted Saving and Building Association" in the East Village, and " The West Winsted Sav- ings Bank and Building Association " in the West Village, which went into operation in May and July, 1852. The rich and the poor went into money making and homestead building with a rush. The rival com- panies stimulated each other. Our moneyed men, who had before loaned their funds on legal interest, found, in the workings of these institutions, a mine of legal extortion, of which they speedily availed themselves. They collected in their six per cent, loans, and made these institutions the dis- pensers of their funds. The banks had ceased to discount accommo- dation paper, and scrimped their business customers, in order to make western loans on protected circulation. The school fund had very limited incoming funds, and could loan them in New York state and elsewhere at 7 per cent. Honest, unsophisticated savings banks were mainly confined to the cities. The poor man and the man loaded with debt had no other resource but these disguised shaving mills. Their monthly loanings were AND FAMILY RECORDS . 447 competed for with blind desperation, and were taken at premiums of from 20 to 33 per cent, over and beyond legal interest, the premium being de- ducted from the principal in advance, and the interest made a monthly charge. The stockholder was bound to pay in on the first of each month a five dollar installment on each thousand dollars of his stock. If a borrower, he bound himself to pay five dollars more on the thousand of the principal of his loan, and five more as interest thereon. He was told by those who ought to have known better — if they did not — that there was a talismanic working of the financial scheme, which would come out all right in the end, and make him the easy owner of a homestead. This system of grind- ing had some features of plausibility about it by which improvident men were encouraged to embark in the scheme, and induced to assume monthly liabilities which they could not discharge out of their monthly earnings without starving their families or running in debt for food and clothing. But their charters permitted them to run another grinding mill without restraint' or limitation. They could receive funds deposited at a legal rate of interest, and loan them out on short paper, secured by endorsers or collaterals, to the highest bidder, without limit of premium. The pre- miums discounted generally ranged from one to two per cent, a month, and in some cases higher, owing to the necessities of borrowing stock- holders to meet their monthly dues. The machines, at the outset, worked smoothly. There was a phrenzy of money making sentiment in their favor which silenced criticism, and put down all opposition. Series after series of stock were taken up. First series shares soon rose, not in value, but in estimation, based on apparent profits, to double the investments paid in. Men more far-seeing than avaricious began to sell their shares to their more sanguine associates ; but still, little of friction was manifest. Borrowers still contrived, by hook or by crook, to pay up their monthly dues. This went on for two or three years before serious discontent became manifest. Some of the bor- rowers, to be sure, had already been driven to a forfeiture of their stock and a loss of what they had paid in, but their associates were slow to per- ceive that the same fate awaited their own ventures. At length discontent and alarm became general. Large numbers of borrowers ceased to pay their monthly dues, and defied the companies to collect them. Fore- closures were resorted to by the companies, and on trial of these the de- fendants raised questions as to the legality of the loans. The courts, im- pressed with the magnitude of the interests, and the nicety of the legal questions involved, were slow to decide, but finally sustained the legality of the loans ; and the legislature passed an act affirming past illegal con- tracts, and limiting the extent of usurious robbery thereafter to an equiva- lent of twelve per cent. 448 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, By this time, the associates, much reduced in numbers, were ranged in two well-defined antagonistic classes, the rich speculators, who had retained their original stock, and bought in the stock of many of the smaller non- borrowing associates, and the rebellious borrowers who had not yet been ground to powder. There was, moreover, a small class of borrowers who heroically continued to pay their monthly dues. One after another of the borrowers made the best terms they could with the speculators and got rid of the concern, rather than waste their money in law suits. The persis- tent rebels were foreclosed. The surrendered and foreclosed homesteads were sold by auction, not to the public at large, but within the ring of surviving associates. The prices realized in these sales were uniformly below the cost of the buildings, and many of them did not pay half the pledged indebtedness ; but they were mainly bid off by parties who could hold and rent them until, on a change of times, they could sell them at a large advance on the cost. The legislature, in the meantime, had set about amending the organic law by enacting such provisions as should, at the outset, have pi*otected the borrowers from the cruel extortions to which they were subjected. One of these provided that, in the future, no association should be formed unless all the stock should be owned and held by borrowers to an amount equal to their stock when fully paid in. Another act, in 1868, subjected the association to the scrutiny and supervision of the bank commissioners, and utterly abolished the system of bonuses on loans, and provided for an equitable liquidation of claims, and a winding up of such associations as were played out, and prohibited the formation of new ones under the law of 1850. Some of the associations had a tenacity of life and sharp practice which defied extinguishment by previous enactments. These, by a law of that year, were required to pay into the state treasury one-fourth of one per cent, annually on their stocks and deposits; and by a law of 18G0 they were prohibited from receiving deposits after 1861. Whatever may have been the operations and results of these associa- tions elsewhere — in Winsted they w r ere oppressive and disastrous. The rich were made richer and the poor were made poorer. More than a hundred ill-contrived and poorly built dwellings were erected, in whole or in part, by means of funds from these associations, very few of which re- main in the hands of the builders. Our two associations, so rich in promise, and so baleful in performance, breathed their last contempora- neously about 1860. The following new streets, in addition to those already referred to, were laid out and accepted at the dates specified : — Meadow street, from Lake to Main street, was laid out in 1850, and accepted by the town in 1851. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 449 The west part of Willow street, which originally ran over the site of the Naugatuck passenger depot, was moved to its present line in 1849, and the three houses then standing on its south side were moved to the bank of the river. Bridge street was laid out aud accepted in 1856, and Elm street was extended northerly along the west border of the agricultural park the same year. Center street and Case avenue were accepted in June, 1853. Spring street, from Prospect street west to the residence of Mrs. Ellen A. Phillips, and the part of Rockwell street running thence south east to Pratt street, were accepted in October, 1853, but the latter had been graded and built on some two years earlier. The northerly section of Rockwell street, extending to Lake street, was graded and accepted in 1856. Each of these three highways, and the working of them, was granted to the town without claim for compensation. Union street was opened and accepted as a highway in July, 1854. The part of the new road from Winsted to Riverton, starting from near the east abutment of the Daniel B. Wilson bridge over Still River, and running northeasterly to Barkhamsted line, was laid out and accepted in August, 1858. North Main street originally ran north and south through the center of the public green or parade ground in the east village. Preparatory to enclosing this ground as a park, the two streets now bordering the enclosure on the east and west sides were laid out and accepted by the town in 1858, and at the same time the central highway was discon- tinued. The area was enclosed and graded, and the trees and ever- greens set out soon afterwards by voluntary subscriptions of citizens residing in the vicin:+y. 57 450 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. We compile from the assessment list of 1840 the items and amount of taxable property, and amount thereof in the Society of Winsted, as follows : — No. Real Estate. Valuation. 176 Dwelling houses, $79,850 At 3 per cent. 8,168 Acres land, 127,026 19 Factories, .... 24,500 7 Stores, .... 3,600 4 Mills, Personal Estate. 3,425 $238,401 At 6 per cent. $ 752.03 838 Neat cattle, 11,392 104 Horses, ..... 4,869 509 Sheep, . • . . 509 4 Carriages, .... 325 199 Clocks and watches, . Silver plate, .... Money at interest, Bank stock, ... 1,137 50 14,053 2,500 Turnpike stock, . 400 $35,235 2,514.10 Assessments of business, 247.00 152 Polls, 3,040.00 $12,553.13 Deduct for indebtedness, . 407.67 $12,145.46 CHAPTER XXXII. From 1851 to 1861. 1851. Prior to 1851 only three churches existed in Winsted : the First Con- gregational, the Methodist, and the Episcopal. The Congregational house was located in the East Village, and was attended by members from all sections of the society. The Methodist house was located in the West Village, and was mainly attended by residents in the West section. On the 14th of May, 1853, a meeting was called to consult in reference to the organization of a second Congregational church and society to be located in the West Village, and a committee was appointed to investigate the subject, and report to an adjourned meeting on the 21st. The com- mittee reported on the 27th that the large increase of population, and the prospect of a more rapid accession in the future, rendered an increase of religious privileges and accommodations indispensable to the well-being of the community ; and recommended an early organization of an Ecclesias- tical society, and the location and building of a house of worship ; and thereupon a society was duly organized under the corporate name of " The Second Congregational Society of Winsted." The original corporators were : James Humphrey, Timothy Hulbert, Phelps H. Parsons, James Cone, John Cone, Elizur B. Parsons, William S. Phillips, and Joel G. Griswold, not belonging to the first society, to whom were added, by cer- tificate of withdrawal from the first society, John Boyd, John Hinsdale, Moses Camp, Wm. F. Hatch, Sherman T. Cooke, Geo. Dudley, Caleb J. Camp, James R. Alvord, John AV. Bid well, John T. Rockwell, Abram G. Kellogg, James Welch, Elliot Beardsley, James C. Smith, Charles C. Spencer, Joel J. Wilcox, Lyman Baldwin, Jenison J. Whiting, and James Birdsall. The church with which the society was connected was made up mainly of members of the First Congregational Church regularly dismissed, and was organized with the advice of a council of neighboring churches. The 452 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, first religious services were held in Camp's hall late in November, 1853, and conducted by Rev. C. H. A. Bulckley, of New York, who continued to supply the pulpit through the months of December and January follow- ing. On the 8th of February, 1854, a unanimous call of the church and society was extended to him to become the pastor, on a salary of one thousand dollars a year, which was accepted on the second of April follow- ing, and he was soon afterwards installed by an advisory council of neigh- boring churches. The religious exercises of the church continued to be held in Camp's hall until 1857. In the meantime, the building of a church edifice was delayed by the difficulty of obtaining an eligible lot on which to erect it, until March, 1856, when the site of the present house was purchased, on which the house was built during the year following, and was dedicated September 16th, 1857. Mr. Bulckley continued his pastorate of the church until May 7, 1859, when his resignation was accepted. During the same year the chapel immediately north of the church edifice was raised and covered in. Early in February, 1860, the steeple of the church was blown down, and nearly half of the roof was crushed in by its fall. It was rebuilt and the chapel finished the following season at a cost of five thousand dollars, which, when added to the previous cost of the buildings and ground, made up the sum of about twenty thousand dollars. As a token of the kindly feeling subsisting between the Congregational and Methodist churches, it is woi'thy of note that immediately after the disaster above mentioned the Methodist church cordially invited its unfortunate sister church to occupy their pul- pit with its minister, either one-half of each Sabbath, or the whole of each alternate Sabbath, until its repairs should be completed. The First Con- gregational church in the East Village extended a similar invitation. These invitations were gratefully acknowledged, but declined in order that the Sabbath-school of the church might be kept up by meeting for wor- ship in the old quarters at Camp's Hall. In August, 1860, the church and society extended a call to Rev. Arthur T. Pierson to become their pastor, which was declined. On the 7th of September following an unanimous call of the church and society was ex- tended to Rev. Hiram Eddy, which was accepted by him on Nov. 6, I860? and he was soon afterwards installed. The repairs of the church were completed so as to re-open the services there early in January, 1861. Rev. Mr. Eddy having received from Governor Buckingham the appoint- ment of Chaplain of the Second Regiment Connecticut Infantry, applied on June 16, 1861, for leave of absence for two months, which was granted, and provision made for the supply of his pulpit. He was taken prisoner by the rebels on the retreat from Bull Run, and went the round of rebel prisons, from Richmond to Columbia, S. C, thence to Charleston AND FAMILY RECORDS. 453 and back to Salisbury. N. C., where he was exchanged, after an imprison- ment and the crudest treatment for fourteen months, when he returned and resumed his parochial duties. In 1864 the organ now in use was purchased by individual subscriptions at a cost of two thousand dollars. On the 16th of October, 1865, Mr. Eddy's resignation was presented to the church and society and accepted. On the 16th of May, 1866, Rev. Charles Wetherby, of North Cornwall, was called to the pastorate on a salary of $1500, and a free parsonage, which he accepted, and was in- stalled soon afterward. He continued his pastorate until October 9, 1871, when he was dismissed at his own request. On the organization of the Second Congregational church in 1853, Rev. Ira Pettibone, who had succeeded the Rev. James Beach in the pas- torate of the First Congregational church, tendered his resignation, which was accepted, and the Rev. II. A. Russell, a licentiate from the Yale Theo- logical Seminary, was called to fill his place, Feb. 11, 1854, and was soon afterwards ordained. He was dismissed Aug. 28, 1858, and was suc- ceeded by Rev. James B. Pierson, who was called Dec. 30, 1859, and dismissed March 11, 1862, after which Rev. M. McG. Dana, a licentiate of Union Theological Seminary, supplied the pulpit about two years, until his call to the pastorate of the First Congregational church in Norwich, Connecticut, in December, 1864. The pulpit was supplied for several months by Rev. L. M. Dorman, afterwards settled at Manchester, then by Rev. Mr. Page from Durham, for about one year. Rev. J. B. R. Walker, then recently from Holyoke, Mass., supplied the pulpit from March, 1867, to April, 1869, and was succeeded, as a supply, by Rev. H. E. Cooky, from April, 1869, to April, 1870. Rev. Thomas M. Miles, the present pastor, on a unanimous call of the church and society, was in- stalled on the 10th of November, 1870. The two sections of Winsted having become united in one continuous village of as compact form as the conformation of the land would admit, many questions of police arose which could not be satisfactorily set- tled by the town authorities. Street lines needed regulating and a system of sidewalks to be established. Fire regulations were indispensable, and connected with them, a water supply and fire companies. Municipal reg- ulations not required for town governments were needed. An application for a borough charter was made to the Assembly in 1858, which was granted in June of that year, by which the defunct bor- ough charter of Clifton, covering only the West section of the village, was repealed, and more enlarged powers conferred on the new body, which was organized by an election of the. following officers on the second day of August of the same year : 454 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, WILLIAM H. PHELPS, Warden. Rollin L. Beecher, Edward Camp, John T. Rockwell, Charles Cook, Charles B. Weed, John G. Wetmore, )■ Burgesses. John Hinsdale, Treasurer. Caleb P. Newman, Bailiff'. The attention of the Warden and Burgesses was first directed to the improvement of streets, and the laying out and construction of sidewalks. A careful survey and plan of all the streets within the borough, as they then existed, was made, and sidewalks were ordered to be graded where immediately required. One of the earliest improvements ordered by the borough authorities was the closing of the road through the centre of the East Village Green and opening parallel streets on the east and west sides thereof, as already described. The intervening area was graded, enclosed with a stone and iron railing, and planted with maples, elms, and evergreens by private subscriptions at an expense of about two thousand dollars, receiving the corporate name of " Park Place." The first sidewalk surveyed was along the north and east side of Main street, from the corner of Main and North Main streets westerly and northerly to corner of Main and Spencer streets, a distance of one mile and twenty rods, which was ordered to be graded and rounded to a width of fiye feet. The portion of this walk east of Chestnut street was origi- nally planked, and the remaining portion was flagged with North River stone. The portion originally planked was, at a later period, flagged with concrete. A plank walk was early ordered on the east side of North Main street, which, after a few years, was replaced by a concrete walk extending northward to the borough line. Another plank walk was laid on Main street from the corner of Spencer street to Dudley's tannery, of which the portions on the east side have been replaced by concrete. The flagged and concrete walks of the borough are believed to exceed a length of three miles, and are mainly from five to six feet wide, and in excellent condition. The organization of a fire department was delayed by reason of a general desire to obtain a supply of water for its use, by means of an aqueduct from the lake, distributing water to all parts of the borough. On the 30th of August, 1858, the warden and burgesses were instructed AND FAMILY RECORDS. 455 "to ascertain whether the borough has a right to draw water from Long Lake ; whether the amount taken through a six-inch pipe would be prejudicial to the manufacturing interests of the borough, and if it proba- bly would be so prejudicial, whether a reservoir of sufficient capacity to meet the wants of the borough might not be constantly filled by the waste water of the lake." On the 19th of August, 1859, on report of a committee of the warden and burgesses, a petition was brought to the assembly of 1860 for power to draw water from the lake on such terms and under such limitations as should be prescribed. The Assembly, at its May Session in 1860, granted power to the warden and burgesses to take water from Long Lake or the Little Pond for fireand other purposes, and to raise the surface of the water in said lake or pond not exceeding four feet above the then existing high water mark, by suitable embankments where necessary, and such water to distribute by aqueducts, &c., throughout the borough for all purposes, with a proviso that the water should be so taken and distributed for fire purposes only, until the lake embankment should be made sufficiently high to raise the water of the lake at least three feet above the then existing waste-weir near the outlet of the lake, nor until the water shall have risen two feet above said waste-weir, and that the person controlling the outflow of water for manufacturing purposes shall not permit the water to be wasted thereafter in greater quantity than theretofore. Pro- vision was also made for the appointment of water commissioners, with requisite powers to secure the right of flowage along the shores of the lake ; to construct the necessary embankments, to lay and construct all necessary pipes and aqueducts, to regulate the distribution and use of the water, and establish and collect water rents therefor. The borough was authorized to raise by permanent loan a sum not exceeding $25,000, at six per cent, interest, to be applied to the cost and expenses of construc- tion of the said water works, and for no other purpose whatever. The powers granted as above by the assembly were accepted in a borough' meeting, on the 1st of August, I860, by a vote of 217 for, and 68 against the acceptance, and three water commissioners were appointed, who at once proceeded to carry out the necessary measures contemplated in their appointment. An imperfect embankment at the outlet of the lake was so far completed during the season, that on the 13th of March, 1861, a rise of water to twenty-four and a half inches above the previous high-water mark was duly certified. During the following three months the rise attained a level of fully four feet above the old high water mark, and so overflowed the frail embankment as imminently to threaten its destruction, and the consequent deluge of a large portion of the village. During; the summer and fall the embankment was remodeled and 456 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, thoroughly perfected, so that no danger of a crevasse has since been apprehended. The height of reserve water on the lake, when full, is about ten feet above the bottom of the gates through which it is drawn for manufacturing purposes. During the making of the original embankment in 1860, a main pipe of sheet iron, lined within and without with water cement, having an interior diameter of nine inches, was carried from the lake, under Lake street, and thence under Main street ; from the corner of Spencer street in a six-inch pijDe of same materials, to the corner of North Main street* and thence in a four inch pipe under North Main street to the corner of Wallen street, and from Lake street through Meadow street. In 1864 pipes were laid under Prospect street, and extensions made in other directions. Branches have been since laid from year to year, until nearly every street in the borough, sufficiently below the level of the lake, is now (1872) supplied with water for fire and family purposes, the whole length of pipe of all sizes amounting to about six and a half miles. The surface elevation of the lake is about 150 feet above the corner of Lake and Main streets, and over 200 feet above the terminus of pipe under North Main street. Experience has proved that with the free — not to say wasteful — use of the water thus far permitted, the size of the main pipe has become insufficient for fire purposes in the remote parts of the borough, and that the sheet iron and cement pipes are insufficient to sustain the pressui'e. This has become so apparent that measures have already been adopted, and partially carried out, for substituting a twelve- inch cast iron pipe from the Lake to Main street, with the expectation of being obliged, at no distant period, to substitute enlarged pipes of cast iron throughout the borough. In November, 1862, the Fire Department was organized by dividing the borough into four fire districts, to be under the control of a fire warden, and an assistant fire warden, in each district, each district to be furnished with a hose cart, supplied with not less than 300 feet of hose, and other necessary apparatus, to be worked by a volunteer fire company of ten or more members. For the streets of the borough not supplied with avail- able water, which could be thrown upon its buildings directly from the hydrants, only one fire engine has been provided, and this is rarely used. In 1864 the assembly authorized the establishment of a police court, with power to determine all cases for violation of the by-laws or ordinances of the borough, and also to have the same powers and privileges within the borough as are exercised by justices of the peace within the town, and during the same or following year, a borough building, with a lockup in the basement, and accommodations for borough meetings and police courts, was erected near the corner of Main and Bridge streets. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 457 The Winsted Gas Company, a private enterprise, was organized in 1861, with a capital inadequate to its successful operation and extension. Its operations are confined to the portion of Main street west of Chestnut street. The company greatly needs an increase of capital, and an entire renovation. Its entire extinction, and the organization of a new com- pany, with greatly enlarged means and energetic direction, is exceedingly desirable. The following manufacturing enterprises were organized or enlarged during this decade : — James S. and John T. Rockwell erected the tannery on Main street, now owned by John T. Rockwell, in 1852. The Eagle Works, a joint-stock company, for manufacturing table cutlery, erected a brick factory on the lake stream in 1852, and con- tinued its operations until 1856, when the establishment was sold to Rice, Lathrop & Clary, and was thereafter operated by the successive firms of Rice & Lathrop, and Lathrop & Barton. The original building was burned down in 1860, and two wooden factory buildings were afterwards erected, which are now standing. The brick factory on Mad River, adjoining Lake street bridge, was erected for a machine shop by John Boyd, in 1853. The Winsted Auger Co., a joint-stock corporation, erected a factory in 1853, near the corner of Main and Coe streets, in which they manufac- tured augers until 1860, when it was sold to Rice & Lathrop, soon after which it was burned down and rebuilt. It is now operated as a table cutlery establishment by Wm. P. Lathrop. In 1852, the Cook Axle Company erected a brick factory building on the site of the old Reuben Cook forge in the east village, which was operated by them until about 1864, after which it went into the hands of R. Cook & Sons, by whom it has since been carried on. Benjamin and Edward Woodall erected, about 1853, a factory for making steel fire irons, on the site of Halsey Burr's abandoned scythe works on North Main street, which, in 1854, became the property of " The Winsted Shovel and Tongs Company," a short-lived joint-stock association, which ceased operations about 1857. In 1854 The Clifton Lumber Company erected the factory building nearly opposite the Naugatuck Railroad depot on Willow street, now occupied by the Winsted Printing Company, which was operated as a planing mill and sash and blind factory, and propelled by the first steam engine employed in the borough. The business not proving satisfactory, the building was used for a brief period by the American Percussion Cap Company, and in 1863 was purchased by The Borden Condensed Milk Company, which used it in their manufacturing business until 1866. 58 458 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, In 1859 the Green Wood Agricultural Park Association was formed, and during the next year purchased the land for its park, graded the trolling course, and erected a building for agricultural exhibitions. Trotting courses were then at the spring tide of popularity, and country agricultural exhibitions had not been played out. More than one hun- dred subscribers from wilhin and without the borough took stock in the concern, "many of them believing it was to turn out a profitable invest- ment. It has as yet made no dividends, and none are looked for. The Empire Knife Company grew out of a small pocket cutlery concern, established by Thompson & Gascoigne, about 1853, and soon afterwards transferred to Beardsley & Alvord, who, in 1856, erected the factory buildings at the lake outlet, enlarged the business, and placed it 'on a permanent basis. Before the middle of this decade the prosperity of Winsted was seri- ously retarded by one of the periodical revulsions of business which follows excessive stimulation. The banks, alarmed by their over-issues, checked the high speed of enterprise by a sudden application of the brakes, which prostrated some establishments and crippled many others, the severest calamities falling on the improvident borrowers from the savings and building associations, who were largely mechanics, dependent on daily and constant wages for meeting their monthly payments. Build- ing of new houses entirely ceased, and large numbers of those already built came on a market destitute of buyers at any price. Many of our worthy mechanics sought in other places and in other pursuits to support their families and retrieve their losses. This state of things could not- long continue in a community blessed with the recuperative power which has sign-dly characterized our business interests. The lowest point of depression had been reached, and signs of returning prosperity had become apparent in 1860. Notwithstanding the depression referred to, the proportional increase of population, buildings, manufactures, banking capital and moneyed investments was far greater than in any preceding decade. The opening of the Naugatuck Railroad made an outlet for our heavy manufactured articles never before enjoyed, and brought in a large number of new business men. The trading business of adjoining towns was largely attracted to this as the common center. Very little capital was brought in from abroad. Its rapid accumulation grew out of the profits of home business, stimulated by improved facilities. The succeeding decade, though showing a substantial and healthy growth, will not exhibit as large a proportionate increase, owing to exorbitant freight charges, and the consequent superior facilities for the manufacture of hea\ y goods nearer to tide water. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 459 We compile abstracts of taxable property and polls in Winsted on the lis'.s of 1850 and I860, as follows: — 1850. ■ 860. Items. No. Amount. No. Amount. Dwelling houses, 311 $161,180 494 $504,330 Acres of land, 2,278 180,103 8,864 188,880 Mills, stores, and factories, 48 66,320 2 196,505 Horses, .... 177 9,143 192 18,477 Neat cattle, .... 1,201 15,397 826 18,519 Sheep, swine, &c, . — 294 Coaches and carriages, 5,389 8,320 Farming utensils, . 2,957 25 Clocks and watches, . 899 5,350 Pianos and Melodeons, . 1,141 5,927 Household furniture, . 57,810 4.225 Bank and insurance stocks, . 79,07. J 211,130 Turnpike stocks, — 225 Railroad bonds, 5,400 19,250 Investments in trade, . 24,450 79,650 " in manufactures, . 41,545 142,545 " in vessels, 520 200 Money at interest,. . 76,074 107,192 " on hand, .... — 2,897 Taxable property, . 18,555 825 Taxable polls, .... 383 743 The population of the town had increased during this decade from 2,179 to 3,550, and Winchester Society having continued stationary, at about 500, the increase in Winsted was 1,371. It thus appears that in taxable property and population Winsted Society had more than doubled. CHAPTER XXXIII. WAR OF THE REBELLION.— VOLUNTEERS IN THE SERVICE.— CONTRIBUTIONS OF MONEY AND SUPPLIES. 1861 to 1871. "Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants. thereof" was the prophetic inscription on the bell which, on the fourth of July, 1776, announced the birth of our nation. Its tones were freighted with the solemn declaration "that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." On this fundamental principle our forefathers, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of their intentions, severed their connection with Britain, and fought to a triumphant end the Revolutionary War. On the return of peace, a more perfect union of the states, in order to secure unity, justice, domestic tranquility, and the blessings of liberty, was found needful, and the convention of 1787 was assembled. A con- stitution was framed, nearly perfect in its distribution of political powers, but marred by compromising the first principle of the declaration of independence — the principle of universal liberty. The bitter fruits of this compromise could not then be foreseen. Slave labor was then unprofitable in most of the states, and scarcely remunera- tive in any of them. The delusion that slavery, let alone, would die a natural death, was dotingly cherished as an opiate to tender consciences, made restive by this first desecration of the " Higher Law " of God and humanity. The mill of the gods ground slow, and was unheeded. The cotton gin was invented. The foundations of slavery were strengthened and enlarged. When it demanded an extension of its domain over the virgin soil of Missouri, before consecrated to freedom by a solemn ordi- nance, conscience was aroused, and resistance was made. The nation was convulsed as never before. The struggle was fearful, and was quieted by another unholy compromise, making the parallel of 36° 30/ the dividing line between the law of God and the enactments of man. Again all was peace and concord. The eloquent statesman of Kentucky was baptized " The Great Compromiser," and gloried in the FAMILY RECORDS. 461 title. One senator of freedom-loving Massachusetts pronounced the Declaration of Independence " a string of glittering generalities," and another — the very Jupiter Tonans of the North, the expounder par excellence of the constitution — eloquently adjured his constituents to conquer their prejudices and sustain the Fugitive Slave Law. The mill of the gods, though the sound of its grinding had grown nearly inaudible, still ground on. As early as 1830 voices crying here and there in the wilderness began to be heard protesting against the abominations of slavery aud the sub- serviency in the North to the behests of slave owners. Such utterances were denounced by the pulpit, the press, and the pot-house ; yet they found a lodgment in many thoughtful minds and tender consciences. The press began to teem with anti-slavery publications, and petitions for the abolition of slavery in the district of Columbia flowed into Congress. Joshua R. Giddings dared to advocate them in the Hall of Representatives, and old John Quincy Adams bravely sustained him. The South impe- riously demanded that free speech and a free press should be put down, and the right of petition withheld. The northern pulpit uttered an uncertain sound. Orviile Dewey, President Lord, and the Princeton Divines upheld the institution as not only patriarchal but divine. Castle Garden, backed by the mercantile community of New York, proscribed every trader who refused to sell his principles with his goods. Garrison was dragged through the streets of Baltimore and Boston with a halter around his neck. Lovejoy was shot down while defending his free press in Illinois ; Sumner was brutally knocked down in the senate chamber, and old John Brown was hung in Virginia. The mill of the gods ground on with accelerating motion and fearful power. Lincoln was elected, and Sumpter bombarded. Our last decade opens with this consummated crisis. It is our pur- pose not to dwell on the grand national results achieved, but to detail the humble though creditable contribution of moral force, men and means, made by this town to the common cause, and to commemorate the ser- vices of our noble boys who responded to their country's call and fought her battles. Anti-slavery sentiment had become more pervasive and incisive in our town than in any other in Western Connecticut before the outbreak of the rebellion. At the organization of the Free Soil Party it commanded a decided plurality of all the votes in the town, but the unwise nomina- tion of Van Buren for President paralyzed its power as a political organization. Large numbers, thoroughly imbued with anti-slavery sentiments, would not fight under such a vulpine leader. They fell back, mainly into the Whig party, and infused into it all the vitality that sur- 462 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, vived its dead issues. The party died, and its free soil element formed the germ -of the Republican organization. There was also an infusion of free soil sentiment in the Democratic party, surviving the Van Buren fiasco, which fused with the Republican element, and consolidated the party that carried us safely through the mightiest civil convulsion recorded in history. The bombardment of Sumpter flew over the telegraph wires on Saturday, April 4, 1861, and electrified the country to a degree not exceeded by the news of Bunker Hill. A nation educated for more than half a century to peace secured by successive compromises of moral principle, and so pro- ficient in this teaching tha ; the announcement of a Higher Law than the Constitution by a New York senator was denounced as traitorous by many of his compeers ; a nation which' had long worshipped inoney-bafjs as its gods, and served cotton as its king — was suddenly called to face the alter- native of relentless slave domination for all future time or a war without parallel in the world's annals. On Sunday the 5th, while yet the smoke of battle hung over Charleston Harbor, humble prayer was ascending to the God of Battles from a thousand sanctuaries throughout the Northern and Eastern states. Divine guidance was implored and granted. Patriotism, long dormant and seem- ingly dead, was revived and brought into vigorous power, as if by inspi- ration. The news was communicated to Rev. Mr. Eddy while finishing his sermon for the day. A new text was selected and a new sermon blocked out under the inspiration of the event, which electrified his hearers, and raised them to the plane of his own patriot ardor. The same spirit pervaded the other ministers and congregations. The key note was struck and the community marched to the inspiring music. A citi- zens' meeting was notified from the pulpits of three of our churches for that evening. The meeting was held in our largest hall, which was crowded to its utmost capacity. Party prejudices were dissipated; treas- onable utterances were silenced ; factious pretences were scattered to the winds. The fog of disloyalty rose with the smoke over Charleston Har- bor, disclosing as clear a sky and as pure an atmosphere as was breathed by our Revolutionary fathers. The following address to Governor Buck- ingham was drafted, and immediately signed by nearly two hundred citizens. " To His Excellency, Wm. A. Buckingham, Governor of the State of Connecticut : Sir : Inasmuch as a spirit of unbridled license and treasonable disloy- alty at the South, under a governmental policy too mild and passive, has now ripened into open rebellion threatening the dismemberment of the republic, and immediate and utter failure of the great American experi- AND FAMILY RECORDS. 463 ment of a people ruling itself — and inasmuch as events now transpiring in Charleston Harbor render it evident that the general government has entered upon a contest requiring the spontaneous and cordial co-operation of all loyal states and citizens, — Therefore, we, the undersigned, feeling that Connecticut is called upon, now and at once, to proffer its aid to the General Government in defence of the Union, the Constitution and Laws, respectfully request Governor Buckingham to adopt such measures as shall afford this state an opportu- nity to place her resources at the disposal of the General Government." The call of Lincoln for volunteers speedily followed, and was promptly responded to.* Enlistment papers were prepared and presented at a pub- lic meeting. Samuel B. Home, an unassuming boy of scarce eighteen years, and in reduced circumstances, was the first to come forward and enroll his name. He served out his three months' term, and in October of the same year enlisted as a private in company E, Eleventh Infantry Volunteers; was chosen a sergeant, and rose by promotion to fir.-t lieu- tenant and captain; was in twenty-five battles and skirmishes — was three times wounded ; and at the end of his three years term served as Provost Marshal of the Eighteenth Army Corps to the end of the war. On re- tiring from the service, he studied law, was admitted to the bar of Litch- field county and is now a practising lawyer at Grand Rapids, Michigan. The following other Winchester recruits enrolled themselves in the squad that formed the nucleus of Infantry Coinp.my B, first organized in this town : — Abram G. Kellogg, Caleb P. Newman, Francis T. Brown, Mason Atkins, Daniel Bellows, George Bellows, Jr., Henry Bradley, Frederick W. Daniels, Edward E. Day, Charles O. Dennen, Robert Dempsey, Fernando Gale, Westley Gale, Dennis Glynn, Charles Harris, Samuel B. Home, George L. Leonard, James McCauley, Charles C. Potter, Charles Presber, Henry Roberts, William H. Strong, Joel G. Thorpe, Charles Vogel, Hubert A. Warner, and Henry Williams. Two other squads of recruits having been now enrolled in New Hart- ford and Canton, together with six individuals from Norfolk, two from Barkhamsted, and one each from Colebrook, Salisbury, Woodbury, and Harwinton ; they were all united with the Winchester squad, as company B of the Second Infantry, under Abram G. Kellogg, of Winchester, as Captain, and Charles W. Morse and Charles Warren, of Ne.v Hartford and Canton, as lieutenants. We copy from the Winsied Herald of April 26, 1861, the following account of the departure of this company. "On Sabbath (April 20, 1861) the company attended Mr. Eddy's church, where a powerful discourse was preached from 1st Samuel iv. 9. Orders were received on Sunday evening, instructing the company to pro- 4(34 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, ceed to the state rendezvous at New Haven the next day. We must be short with the proceedings of Monday — the suspension of business, the thronged streets, the banners and the martial strains, the procession of adventurous and patriotic youth through our streets to the depot — that prayer from the platform of the station, listened to as was never a prayer listened to before by this generation, the twice a thousand faces wet with tears which the manliest sought not to hide, the good-byes, short, but too long for choking voices fully to utter, the huzzas, and then as the train wound slowly around the hill, the oppressive stillness, broken by no rude word, but only sobs and low-toned syllables of consolation. There were whole chapters in these scenes, but we pass them. Every hamlet in the whole North, from Maine's wilderness to the Western Desert, is witness of the same. Northern blood is up, and history, faster than pen can write, is making." " The trip of this company to New Haven," adds the Herald, " was not calculated to dispirit them. Word of their coming had gone down by the morning train, and receptions the most enthusiastic and soul-stirring awaited them at every depot on the route. Bands of music were playing, salutes firing, banners spanning the track, wherever the train halted. Patriotic speeches were made and responded to at the principal depots, and the whole trip was attended by the heartiest manifestations of sym- pathetic patriotism. At Wolcottville the reception was specially pleasing, and a banner with the words " We will soon follow you," attested the fact that her young men will not allow the victory to be won without assisting to achieve it. The boys were quartered at New Haven in a spacious hall near the depot. We saw them safely to bed and tucked in, with each his mattress and blanket, at a good seasonable hour — saw the ranks num- bering ninety-seven lusty and hearty fellows at breakfast next morning, and afterwards on para'de in front of the state house. They are a plucky crew, and if ever they get into action we shall be willing to stake the rep- utation of our section upon their good behavior." The spirit of enlistment had hardly been aroused when Company B was transferred to New Haven. Simultaneous with its departure, the enrollment of another company was called for and opened, and was filled with the elite of our young men in a single week. The company was organized as Rifle Company E, 2d Connecticut Infantry, with the follow- ing rank and file: — From Winchester, Captain Sherman T. Cooke, 1st Lieutenant, Wheelock T. Batcheller ; 2d Lieutenant, Charles E. Palmer ; 1st Sergeant, Jeffrey Skinner; Sergeants, James N. Coe, Charles L. Hosford, Lucien B. Wheelock ; Corporals, George L. Andrews, Alanson D. Bunnell, Edward Didsbury, Jacob T. Brown ; musician, Hicks Seaman (?) ; privates, Antoine Albert, Hyppolite Bluet, Albert M. Beach, Edwin Beach, Ira C. Bailey, Decius C. Bancroft, Gustave AND FAMILY KECORDS. 465 Bernhardt, James M. Burton, Victor Claudet, Chauncey D. Cleveland, Daniel S. Coe, David W. Coe, William S. Cooper, Samuel A. Cooper, William Couch, Chauncey S. Crittenden, John M. Dennan, James Dennan, Edgar V. Doughty, Burton B. Evitts, Philip D. Fisk, Daniel Fitzpatrick, Salmon A. Granger, Leonard S. Harris, William F. Hatch, Junior, Nelson Hodges, William S. Holabird, Benjamin F. Hosford, George Hoskin, Orson Howard, James N. Latham, Frank B. Marsh, Lorenzo Martin, Alexander McGuire, Milton T. Moore, Augustus Nevins, Leander Packard, George W. Pendleton, Charles H. Pond, Frederick H. Presber, James Price, Hiram C. Roberts, William E. Snediker, Orlo S. Smith, Charles EL Stewart, Plainer S. Sweet, George M. Van Oustrom, Herbert L. Veber, Arthur Wadsworth, Joseph Watson, Thomas Welch, John P. Wilbur, Marcus J. Whitehead, John Wheeler, and James G. Woodruff. The following members of this company came from adjoining towns : — From Norfolk, Privates Samuel C. Barnum, Charles N. Decker, George J. Kermann, Samuel J. Mills, Calvin N. Sage, and John M. Walker. From Torrington, Privates Henry G. Colt and George M. Evans. From Mill River, Mass., Alonzo H. Conklin. Company B was sent into camp at New Haven without uniforms or equipments, and was the last company of the regiment uniformed and equipped before being mustered into the United States service. Our patriotic male and female citizens determined that Company E should be promptly provided for. Cloth and trimmings of best quality were pur- chased, and measures adopted for working them into uniforms. On the arrival of the materials the master tailors of the town volunteered their aid in cutting and superintending the making up of the garments, without compensation, and all the sempstresses who could sew a strong seam went to work with a will on the same terms. The sewing machines from far and near were gathered at Camp's Hall, and the work went bravely on. Sunday came, and they had so crowded on the cutters that the latter had to work through the Sabbath to get ahead of them. Monday and Tuesday, and all the days of the week, the work went on with unabated ardor ; those ladies who could not do the stronger work made up the shirts and other lighter garments. There were no idlers, and few inefficients. It was the women's battle week, and was bravely fought out on that line. Eighty-three uniform coats, pants, and vests made, and thoroughly made, were the product of that week's work, more than fifty of them made up by Winsted ladies, and the residue by ladies in adjoining towns. In addition to this contribution more than a hundred woollen shirts were made up prior to and during this battle week.* * The following complimentary notice appeared in the Winsted Herald of May 17, 1861 :— -"It is said, since our soldiers' uniforms are completed, that there are now, 59 466 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Every man in both companies was also supplied with a rosette oP white, red and blue, a " housewife " filled with thread, yarn, pins, needles, and buttons, and a pocket Testament. Innumerable other articles, including socks, wrappers, drawers, and medicines — more than the soldiers' knap- sacks could hold — were furnished by individuals. A revolver was given to each Winchester man in Company 13. Company B departed for New Haven before enthusiasm had been wrought up to its highest strain. On the departure of Company E, on the 2,0 h of April, its fullest intensi y was manifested. Thousands assembled. Patriotic >peeches were made by Rev. Messrs. Eddy, Loomis. and Pierson, of the Congregational and Methodist Churches ; by Rev. Father Mullen, of the Catholic Church, and by several laymen.* Company E, on its departure for New Haven on the 25th of April received an ovation in all respects similar to. but on a larger scale than that given to Company B on the 21st. It was emphatically a town com- pany, while Company B was a contribution of three towns. More than half of them were mechanics, about one-fourth were farmers, and the remainder, in ab*>ut equal proportion-, were clerks and laborers. Ger- many had six representatives, Ireland three, and England one. Both companies were thoroughly drilled, while at New Haven, by cadets from General Rus-ell's Military School. On the 27th of May they were mustered into the government service, and on the evening of that dav were embarked on the Reamer Bienville for Washington, by way of Fortress Monroe and the I'otomac River. On reaching their destination they weie encamped and drilled on the height north of Washington for sevetal weeks, after which they were marched to the neighborhood of Falls Chinch in Virginia, within some five miles of Fairfax Court House, which was occupied by a rebt-1 force. Here they remained, except during the interval of their march to, and retreat from, Bull Run, until near the expiration of their term of service, when th^y were mustered out at New Haven. Wi; lithe exception of Pi ivate James M. Button, who died of diphtheria at New Haven Hospital, on the day probably, not to exceed five girls in Winstcd who cannot cut, baste, stitch, and make up to order any article of men's apparel, from the finest dress coat to the commonest mustn't-mention ems, in a style, too, of unsurpassed neatness and excellence. Before the war there were probably not five girls within the same locality who could sew on a hatband or a suspender button without double the labor in showing required to do the work in the first instance. So here is another good comes from the war." * Among other ceremonies of this occasion, two Colts' revolvers were formally presented by Mrs. Julia Peck — one to Captain Co >k, and the other to Pi ivate Boyd, the latter as a compliment to the oldest enrolled member of the company. After the relu-al to muster in Mr. B. on account of bis age, he gave his revolver to Chaplain Eddy, with instructions to present it at the end of the term of service to the private AND FAMILY RECORDS. 467 after mustering in, not a death occurred in the company during its term of service. While stationed at the Falls Church encampment, Captain A. G. Kellogg, of Company B., when on picket duty, a mile or more from camp, was captured by the rebels and hurried off to Richmond, and thence taken to Sali-bury, N. C-, whence, after nearly a year's captivity, he was sent to Potomac Creek and exchanged. Rev. Hiram' Eddy, pastor of the Second Congregational Church of Winsted, was appointed by Governor Buckingham chaplain of the Second Regiment, and on leave of absence from his pastoral charge, that he might be with the boys he had, by his patriotic eloquence, cheered "on [towards] Richmond," joined the regiment at Falls Church. At the rout of Bull Run he got separated from his comrade-:, and after wander- ing in uncertain ways tor more than two days was captured by the rebels within a mile of the encampment at Falls Church, to which his regiment had retreated after the battle. His lofty stature and Daniel Wel>sterian visage and mien deeply impressed his captors and guards. He was at once conducted to Richmond, and admitted to the hospitalities of the Tobacco Warehou-e, after availing himself of which, to more than his heart's content, he was transferred to Columbia. S. C, and thence to Charleston, where he was treated to a course of yellow fever. The Hell of Andersonville had not yet been organized, else he would, doubtless, have been consigned to its torments. After grinding in these Philistine mills for more than a year he was exchanged, and welcomed back to his parochial charg with such an ovation as few niini-ters have enjoyed. During his captivity his clerical brethren of neighboring parishes, with the consent of their people, gratuitously supplied hi> pulpit, for the benefit of his family, for more than six months. Private Samuel A. Cooper, of company E. was attached as an Orderly to the staff of General Tyler during the battle of Bull Hun, and was captured by the rebels. He performed a tour of prison duty at nearly all the stations from Richmond to New Orleans, and thence back to North Carolina, where he was exchanged, and reached home a little be- fore Air. Eddy. who should have proved the most meritorious soldier of the company. The weapon was lost at Bull Run, and consequently no award was made, hut it was generally conceded that by right of merit it should have been aw rded to Private Alouzo 11. Conklin, of Mill River, Mass.', who, on the march to Bull Run, found his. feet so blistered by a pair of tight boots, that he threw them away near Centervilie, and made a pair of moccasins out of the leys of his pants, in which he se. ved through the day of battle and on the retreat without complaint or flinching. 468 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, A large portion of the officers and soldiers of these companies, from time to time, re-enlisted into other regiments, and were largely promoted to higher grades. Among them were the following : Geo. L. Andrews, Corp. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to Sergt. Co. F, 28th Conn. Infantry. Mason Adkins, Priv. Co. B, 2d Infantry, to 1st Sergt. Co. E, 2d Heavy Artillery. Antoine Albert, Priv. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to Priv. and Veteran Co. G, 12th Infantry. Wheelock T. Batchcller, 1st Lieut. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to Major 28th Infantry. Jacob T. Brown, Corp. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to Corp. Co. B, 12th Infantry; killed at Cedar Creek. Francis T. Brown, Sergt. Co. B, 2d Infantry, to Capt. Co. E, 11th Infantry. Daniel Bellows, Priv. Co. B, 2d Infantry, to Corp. and Vet. Co. E, 7th Infantry. Geo. Bellows, Jr., Priv. Co. B, 2d Infantry, to Priv. and Vet. Co. E, 7th Infantry ; mortally wounded at Hampton, Va. James N. Coe, Sergt. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to 1st Lieut. Co. I, and Capt. Co. H, 2d Heavy Artillery. Daniel S. Coe, Priv. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to 2d Lieut. Co. E, 7th Infantry. David W. Coe, Priv. Co. E, 2d Infantry, and detailed Clerk to Gen. Tyler and Major General Keys, U. S. A., enlisted on U. S. Frigate Sabine, and served as Executive Officers' Clerk. Wm. S. Cooper, Priv. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to Corp. Co. E, 2d Heavy Artillery. Frederick W. Daniels, Priv. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to Sergt. Co. E, 2d Heavy Artillery; killed at Cold Harbor, Va. Robert Dempsey, Priv. Co. B, 2d Infantry, to 1st Lieut. Co. E, 7th Infantry; killed at Olustee, Fla. Salmon A. Granger, Priv. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to 1st Lieut. Co. E, 2d Heavy Artillery. Charles E. Hosford, Sergt. Co. E., 2d Infantry, to Capt. Co. D, 11th Infantry. Benj. S. Hosford, Priv. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to Capt. Co. D, 2d Heavy Artillery; killed at Cedar Creek. GeQ. Hoskins, Priv. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to Priv. Co. F, 28th Infantry. Orson Howard, Priv. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to Capt. 9th N. Y. Heavy Artillery ; killed at Petersburg, Va. Samuel B. Home, Priv. Co. B, 2d Infantry, to Sergt., Lieut., and Capt. Co. F, I lth Infantry. Geo. L. Leonard, Priv. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to Priv. Co. E, 2d Heavy Artillery. Benj. F. Marsh, Priv. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to Corp. Co. F, 28th Infantry; lost an arm at Port Hudson. Milton T. Moore, Priv. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to Sergt. Co. F, 28th Infantry. Caleb P. Newman, 1st Sergt. Co. C, 2d Infantry, to 1st Lieut. Co. F, 28th Infantry. Fred. 0. Peck, Priv. Co. D, 2d Infantry, to Priv. 22d Mass. Infantry; twice wounded at Gaines' Mill, Va. Charles E. Palmer, 2d Lieut. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to Capt. Co. E, 7th Infantry ; died at Hilton Head, S. C. Leander Packard, Priv. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to Priv. Co. E, 11th Infantry. Hiram C. Roberts, Priv. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to Sergt. Co. E, 11th Infantry; killed at Sharpsburg, Md. Henry L. Roberts, Priv- Co. B, 2d Infantry, to Sergt. Co. F, 28th Infantry. Jeffrey Skinner, 1st Sergt. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to Capt. Co. E, 2d Heavy Artillery ; promoted to Major and Lieut. Col. same regiment. Orlo S. Smith, Priv. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to 1st Lieut. Co. I, 2d Heavy Artillery. Lucien B. Wheelock, Sergt. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to Capt. Co. F, 28th Infantry. In company A, Priva a a D, « a it E, « a- it F, « it u K, « a a M, « AND FAMILY RECOEDS. 469 Marcus J. Whitehead, Priv. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to Priv. Co. E, 2d Heavy Artillery. John Wheeler, Priv. Co. E, 2d Infantry, to Sergt. Co. F, 1st and 2d Lieut. Co. G, 2d Heavy Artillery. The first regimeut of cavalry was originally a battalion consisting of four companies, recruited in the fall of 1861, and about a year after was increased to a full regiment of twelve companies. The following Winchester men are found on its rolls : ites Frank Parkant and Geo. L. Leonard. Win. C. Wakefield. James G. Ferris and Nelson Proper. Michael Finn and John Gloster. Burton B. Beach. John Rose. Unassigned substitutes : Win. Clancey, Michael Calaban, James Flynn, James H. Gannon, Hugh Gray, Wm. Garson, Charles Hull, John Harris, Charles Earne, Richard Mooney, John Schmidt, Julius Thorne, Thomas Daley, Peter Dunn, James Taylor, and Augustus Weiss. Of these, Julius Thorne alone died in the service. The Fifth Regiment Infantry was organized in June, 1861, and went into service July 29 following; fought at Winchester, Cedar Mountain, and Chancellorsville, Va. ; Gettysburg, Pa. ; Reseca, Dallas, Marietta, Beach Tree Creek, and Atlanta, Ga. ; Chesterfield C. H, S. C. ; and Silver Run, N. C. ; and was mustered out with distinguished honor, July 19, 1865. On the rolls of this regiment, we find the following names of Winchester men : Harlan P. Rugg, Corporal in Co. I, wounded at Cedar Mountain, promoted to Captain, and mustered out July 19, 1865. Robert Arnold, killed at Cedar Mountain, August 9, 1862. Joseph Hermandy, mustered out July 19, 1865. William Murray, discharged Feb. 23, 1865. Robert St. Clair, mustered out July 19, 1865. We also find the names of eleven deserters credited to Winchester, probably none of them residents, but recruits purchased by agents of the town. During the month of September, 1861, a quota of sixteen Winchester men and about twenty men from other towns in the county of Litchfield were recruited under the auspices of Second Lieutenant Charles C. Palmer, late of company E, and on the 7th of September, 1861, were 470 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, mustered into company E, 7th Infantry, commanded successively by Colo- nel Alfred H. Terry and Colonel Joseph R. Hawley. Of this company Lieutenant Palmer was appointed captain, and Robert Dempsey, late private of Company 15, second lieutenant. The regiment (1,018 men) left for Washington, September, 1861. It was the first to land on the soil of South Carolina. It was in the batde of Fort Pulaski, under Colonel Terry, April 10th and 11th, 1862, and in the battles of James Island, June 14th, under Colonel Ilawley; was one of the first to enter the field, and the last to leave it. Under the same command it was in the battle of Pocataligo on the 22d of October, and was subsequently divided, five companies under Colonel Mavvley remain- ing at Hilton Head, and the remaining companies, of which Company E was one, were moved to Fernandina, Florida, under Lieutenant-Colonel Gardiner, and participated in the battle of Olustee, in which Lieutenant Robert Dempsey was killed. In May, 1864, the regiment was transferred to Bermuda Hundreds, Va., and participated in the battle of Chester Station, and repeated bat- tles near Bermuda Hundreds. In August it fought the battles of Deep Run and Deep Bottom, Va. After the promotion of Colonel Hawley to a brigadier in September, 1804, the regiment, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Rodman, was engaged in the battle of Chapin's Farm, Va., on the 29th of September; on the 1st of October in the battle near Richmond; on the 7th of New Market Road; on the 13th at Dirbytown Road, and on the 27th in the battle of Charles City Road, Va. Its battle record was el -ed at Fort Fisher, N. C, January 15th and 19th, I860, and it was mustered out of service on the 20th 01' July, 1865. Few regiments in the service were engaged in more active and arduous service than the Seventh. It had 90 men killed iu action, 44 died of wounds, and 179 of disease; total, 313. The Winchester men in this regiment were Captain Charles E. Palmer, 1st Lieutenant Robert Dempsey, 21 Lieutenant Daniel S. Coe, Corporals Daniel Bellows and John G. Rowley, Privates George E. Andrews'} John Biederman, Albert Burdick, George W. Daniels, Charles Gilbert Charles L. Hewitt, Sterling D. Ml iman. James A. Pease, Patrick Quigley, Henry H. Rowley, James Tencellent, all of Company E. Captain Palmer, an unassuming young man of delicate training, devel- oped in his first campaign the highest soldierly qualities by strict and cheerful performance of duty, and kind attention to the wants and com- forts of his men. But it was not until he came into command of Com- pany E that his endurance and bravery were fully tested. In the siege and capture of Fort Pulaski he commanded Battery Lincoln; and in the report of the bloody battle of Sccessionville he was highly complimented for bravery and coolness. Soon after this hard fought but unsuccessful AND FAMILY EECORDS. 471 battle he died from exposure and exhaustion. From Colonel Terry's let- ter to his parents, now bereaved of their last child, We quote as follows: "At the time of the action on James Island he was so ill that, under ordinary circumstances, he would not have been in command of his com- pany ; but prompted by ihe devotion to duty, which always distinguished him, he led his company to the field, and gave to it and the regiment a splendid example of courage and firmness under mo.-t trying circumstances. The noble purity and uprightness of his nature and his eminently sol- dierly qualities had endeared him to us all, and had led us to look forward to a brilliant futuie for him; and we mourn his loss, not only as ours and yours, but as a loss 10 the country which he served so faithfully." In answer to a lettt r to General Hawley from Palmer Post inviting him to the decoration ceremonies at Winsted, dated May 11th, 1872, he writes as follows: "The name of your post awakens my recollections of that noble soldier and man, Captain Palmer. Never shall I forget that it was his extreme fidelity to duty that cost him his lite. He ought to have gone to the hos- pital, but would not leave the field. Well I remember Ids countenance as I walked by the stretcher that carried him dying on board the steamer." Lieutenant Dempsey was wounded in the shoulder June 1st, 1862, re- turned home on furlough while di-abled, married Caroline W. Richard- son, rejoined his regiment in i he ft 11, and was killed at Olustee, Fla., Feb- ruary 24th, 1864. lie was of Irish birth, wed educated, and devotedly pattiotic in the cau-e of his adopted country. His letters from the camp and field, published in the Winsted Herald, were highly appreciated. Private Charles Gilbert, noted on th< j muster-rolls as from Canton, had his home residence in Winchester, where he was born and raised. Con- scientious as well as patriotic motives induce.! him to enlist. His broth- ers had families, and' he was singe, and he felt it his duty to represent them in the service. He was a most wo: thy man and a good soldier; was wounded in the head and leg at Secessionville, S. C, taken prisoner on the field, and carried to Charleston, where he died of his wounds in the hospital, July 9th, 1862, aged 29. He was a son of Samuel D. Gilbert, deceased, late of Winchester. Private George Bellows served in Company B, 2d Infantry, and after honorable discharge at the end of the term, enlisted in Company E, 7th Infantry, September 7th, 18G1, and re-enlisted a veteran, December 22d, 1864, and died of wounds received at Hampton, Va., October 28th, 1864. He was son of George Bellows, Sr., of Winchester, and died unmarried. 472 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Private Albert Burdick, Company E, died of fever at Beaufort, S. C, July 29th, 1862. Private John Biederman re-enlisted a veteran, December 22d, 1863, and was killed October 13th, 1864. All the other members of this company were honorably discharged or mustered out at the end of their terms. In the 8th Regiment, recruited at Camp Buckingham, Hartford, which fought at Newbern, N. C, Fort Macon, N. C, Antietam, Md., Fredericks- burg, Fort Huger, Walthall Junction, Fort Darling, Petersburg, and Fort Harrison, Va., we find the names of two Winchester men, Mathew Whiffler, private, Company A, and John C. Cooley, corporal, Company C, re-enlisted veteran, both mustered out at the end of their terms. In the 9th (Irish) Regiment we find the name of Chaplain Daniel Mullen, at the time of his appointment pastor of St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Winsted, a young man of literary culture and earnest patriotism, who served at Baton Rouge, and Chackaloo Station, La., and Deep Bottom, Va. He was compelled, by ill-health, to resign on the 26th of August, 1862. He was succeeded as chaplain by Father Leo da Saracena, O.S.F., the present pastor of St. Joseph's Church, and President of St. Francis' Literary and Theological Seminary. It is not to be inferred, from finding no other names of Winchester Irishmen on the rolls of this regiment, that our foreign citizens were wanting in patriotism, for the names of Winchester men in other regi- ments abundantly show that in proportion to our population Irishmen, Germans, and Englishmen are amply represented. On the roll of the 10th Regiment the only name of a Winchester man is that of Colonel Ira W. Pettibone, who was commissioned as Major, served in the battles of Roanoke Island and Newbern, N. C, and was successively promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel. The climate of North Carolina debilitated him to such a degree that he was compelled to resign, and he was honorably discharged in November, 1862. The 12th Regiment of Volunteer Infantry was recruited at Camp Lyon, Hartford, under command of Colonel Henry C. Deming; was attached to Butler's Division, and sailed from New York for Ship Island, Mississippi Sound, February 24, 1862. It followed the naval armament, under Farragut, up the Mississippi, and witnessed the bom- bardment of Forts Jackson and St. Philip ; followed the armament up to New Orleans, where it landed, and garrisoned the city on its forced surrender, Colonel Deming assuming the office of provisional mayor. It I AND FAMILY RECORDS. 473 was encamped for a time at Baton Rouge, and was afterwards engaged in active service in Louisiana. It bore a conspicuous part in the siege of Port Hudson, after which.it returned to New Orleans and in July, 18G4, embarked for Fortress Monroe, and in August following joined Sheridan's army in the Shenandoah Valley, and participated in the battles of Opequan, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek, after which, it having been reduced to a skeleton by losses in battle, and by disea e, and by expira- tion of the term of service of a large portion of its men, it was reorgan- ized under Lieutenant-Colonel Lewis, and continued to serve in Virginia until its muster out in August, 1865. Only six Winchester men belonged to this regiment, as follows : — Doctor John B. Welch, 2d assistant-surgeon, who died of scarlatina, on shipboard, at Ship Island, February 13, 1862. He was son of Dr. James and Mrs. Lavinia Welch of Winsted, born at W., September 14, 1838; studied in his father's office ; graduated M.I), at Yale College in 1860 ; mustered 2d Assistant-surgeon of 12th Regiment, December 11, 1861 ; sailed with the regiment for Ship Island, Mississippi Sound, February 24, 1862, and on reaching there was unable to land with the troops, but not considered dangerously ill. He died off the Island, two days after the landing of the troops, separate from his comrades, and almost alone. His remains were sent home, and buried in the cemetery of his family, at Norfolk. His amiable character, and the circumstances of his death at the outset of his career, deeply affected the community with sorrow for his loss, and sympathy with his family in their affliction. Dr. John R. Gumming, appointed 2d Assistant-surgeon in place of Assistant-surgeon Welch, was promoted to Surgeon, and was mustered out at Savannah, Ga., August 12, 1865. Private Solomon R. Hinsdale, Company A, appointed Quartermaster- Sergeant, promoted 2d Lieutenant ; resigned August 9, 1862, on his appointment as Assistant-paymaster in the Navy, after which he served on the Mississippi Flotilla above Vicksburg, until prostrated by fever, and compelled to resign by impaired health. Sergeant Jacob T. Brown, Company C, killed at Fisher's Hill, Va., September 19, 1864. While giving water from his canteen to a wounded lieutenant of an Iowa Regiment, on the battlefield, he was shot in the abdomen by a rebel sharpshooter, and died three hours after. He was a model of physical manhood ; a kind-hearted, unassuming man, and a con- sistent member of the Methodist Church, esteemed by his comrades as a conscientious Christian soldier. Private George W. Eggleston, Company C, enlisted March 2, 1864, and mustered out at Savannah, August 12, 1865. Private Wm. H. Pool, Company C, enlisted February 24, 1864; dis- charged at New Haven, April 29, 1865. 60 474 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Private John W. Vaughn, Company C, enlisted February 24, 186 4, mustered out at Savannah, Ga., August 12, 1865. Second Lieutenant John W. Hurlbut, of Company G, resigned June 6, 1862. A squad of ten Winchester men composed a part of the rank and file of Company D, 11th Regiment Infantry, consisting of Charles L. Hosford, 1st Lieutenant; Corporal Levi L. Dayton, Privates Frank S. Pease, Lewis Dayton, Edward S. Fleming, Charles Hull, George Kinney, Daniel Lotherington, William H. Slack, and Albert M. Tuttle ; and another squad of twelve men composed a part of Company E of the same regiment, consisting of First-sergeant Francis T. Brown, Sergeants Samuel B. Home, and Hiram C. Roberts ; Corporals William T. Page, Jr., and John K. Twiss ; Privates George Allen, William E. Cogswell, James Dudley, Erastus Eggleston and Rufus Eggleston (twins), Andrew M. Hurlbut, Leander Packard. These companies were mustered into service at Camp Lincoln, in Hartford, December 16, 1861. The regiment was assigned to Burn- side's Division, and fought its first battle at Newbern, N. C, March 14, 1862. In July, 1862, it was attached to the Army of the Potomac, and was in the battle of South Mountain, Md., September 14, 1862, and in the battle of Antietam, September 17th following. It was on the picket line at Fredericksburg, Va., during the battle of the 13th December, 1862, and was engaged in the defence of Suffolk, Va., during the siege from April 11 to May 3, 1863. In March, 1864, it returned from veteran furlough to Portsmouth, Va. ; marched to and encamped at Williams- burg, where it constituted the force nearest to Richmond. On the 9th of May it was in the battle of Swift's Creek ; it fought in the battle of Drury's Bluff, and on the 3d of June was engaged in the charge at Cold Harbor, Va. It was afterward in active service before Petersburg, from June 15 to August 27, aud continued to serve in Virginia until mustered out of service December 21, 1865. The following Winchester men of this regiment were killed or died in the service: — Private Lewis Dayton, Company D, killed at Sharpsburg (Antietam), Maryland. Private Wm. H. Slack, Company D, died of wounds (loss of an arm) received at Newbern, March 22, 1862. Private Albert M. Tuttle, Company D, killed at Cold Harbor, Va., June 5, 1864. Sergeant Hiram C. Roberts, killed at Antietam, September 17, 1862. Corporal William T. Page, Jr., wounded at Antietam, September 17, and discharged for disability, October 25, 1862. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 475 Corporal John K. Twiss, Company E, wounded and taken prisoner at Drury's Bluff; died of wounds at Richmond, May, 1864. Private Win. F. Cogswell, Company Pv, killed at Antietam, September 17, 1862. The promotions of Winchester men in this regiment were as follows : — Sergeant Francis T. Brown, Company E, promoted to captain. Sergeant Samuel B. Home, Company E, promoted to captain. Lieutenant Charles L. Ilosford, promoted to captain, and in command as senior officer of the regiment at the termination of the battle of Antietam. On the rolls of the Thirteenth Regiment, organized at New Haven, Nov. 25, 1861, which participated in the engagements of Georgia Land- ing, Irish Bend, Port Hudson, Cane River, and Mansara, in Louisiana, and Winchester, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek, in Virginia, the names of four Winchester men are found, viz : Second Assistant Surgeon Lucius W. Clark, Private George Losaw, of Co. D, who re-enlisted veteran, and was transferred to Co. B, from which he was mustered out April 25, 1866; Private Charles Daniels, of Co. F, who was promoted Second Lieutenant, and resigned Jan. 8, 1864 ; and Private Edward Skinner, of Co. G., who re-enlisted veteran, was transferred to Co. D, and mustered out April 25, 1866. On the rolls of the Sixteenth Regiment is the name of Elliot Fleni- ming, of Winchester, a private in Co. G, killed at Antietam, September 16, 1862. The Nineteenth Infantry Regiment, afterwards reorganized as Second Regiment Heavy Artillery, was raised and organized as one of the five county regiments under the call of Lincoln, on the first of July, 1862, for three hundred thousand men. Its organization was initiated by the call of a mass county meeting at Litchfield on the 22d July, 1862, which was largely attended, and rather adroitly managed. Without a moment's notice, a colonel was nominated on individual responsibility, the question taken without opportunity for debate, and the sheriff of the county de- clared unanimously nominated. An executive committee was also ap- pointed, consisting of four, three of them from Litchfield, who assumed the prerogative of nominating the other regimental officers. Not one of those was assigned to Winchester, the foremost town of the countynn patriotic and efficient support of the war. Company E of this regiment was recruited in Winchester and towns adjoining, under the auspices of Jeffrey Skinner, late First Sergeant of Co. E, Second Regiment, who was appointed Captain, and rose by pro- motion and desert to Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment. 476 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, The names of Winchester men in this company originally enlisted, amounting to sixty-two, are as follows; Capt. Jeffrey Skinner, 1st Lieut. Benj. F. Hosford, 2d Lieut. Chester D. Cleveland (of Winsted Society); Sergeants Orlow J. Smith, Salmon A. Granger, George White, Henry Skinner, Wm. S. Cooper, Stephen W. Sage, Mason Adkins, Frederick W. Daniels, Charles A. Reynolds ; Musicians Wilson B. White, Myron Ferris ; Wagoner Alfred G. Bliss ; Privates James R. Baldwin, Edward Beach, Patrick T. Birmingham, Almeron Bunnell, Edward F. Carring- ton, Philip D. Carroll, Frederick M. Cook, Alfred Comins, Robert A. Cutler, Henry A. Dayton, Adam I. N. Dilley, Edwin Downs, Lewis Downs, Bernard W. Doyle, BirdseyGibbs, George N. Gibbs, James A. Green, Manwaring Green, William Hall, Luther W. Hart, Timothy A. Hart, Willard Hart, Geo. W. Hurlbut, William S. Hurlbut, William R. Hubbard, Asa Humiston, Alonzo J. Hull, Henry C. Kent, Walter Martin, Herman P. Moore, Henry Overton, Joseph Pettit, Charles Henry Pine, Jerome Preston, Theodore Bobbins, Edmund B. Sage, William Seymour, Lucius S. Skinner, John Smith, Prosper W. Smith, Philip Stabell, Dar- win S. Starks, John M. Teeter, Hubert A. Warner, Marcus A. White- head, Warren M. Wood, Julius Woodford, Wallace M. Woodruff. To these were added, by subsequent enlistment, the following Winchester men, who died in the service, or were honorably discharged or mu-tered out: Ernest A. Basney, Robert J. Balcroft, Samuel U. Brew, Henry Clarke, Wells Clark, Benjamin G. Carman, David Durand, Jared P. Evarts, Mathew Fitzgerald, Patrick Keegan, Jacob Le Roy, Julius Rogers, Henry J. Reynolds, William H. Rowe, Edward Rugg, Edward E. Rowe, Philip Shelley, Henry Van Duesen, William Warner, Erastus Woodworth, Henry Wenzell. The regiment left Litchfield for Washington, Sept. 15, 1862, and was stationed at Alexandria, Va., until November 23, 1863, when it was changed from an infantry to an artillery organization, and was designated " The Second Connecticut Heavy Artillery." It was engaged in garrison and police duty in the defences of Washington, south of the Potomac, until May 21, 1864, and was there filled up to 1800 men, the maximum of an artillery regiment. On the 22d of May, 1864, it was assigned to the Sixth Army Corps, and Avas from that time continually on the march until June 1, 1864, when it received its first baptism by fire in tlie mur- derous charge at Cold Harbor, Va. It afterwards participated in battles at Hatcher's Run, Va., Feb. 6, 1865, near Petersburg. Va , March 25 and April 2, and at Sailor's Creek, Va., April 6, 1865 ; and was mustered out at Washington, D. C, August 18, 1865. The promotion? of Winchegter men in this regiment were: Capt. .leffrey Skinner to Lieut. Colonel. Lieut. Benjamin F. Hosford to Captain. 1 J?£2^?n^ Y^lc^r/ 1 V AND FAMILY RECORDS. 477 Sergt. Orlow J. Smith to Captain. Sergt. Salmon A. Granger to 2d Lieut. Sergt. Flenrj Skinner to Captain. Corp. Wm. S. Cooper to 2d Lieut. Corp. Fredei'ick W. Daniels to 2d Lieut. Corp. Charles A. Reynolds to 2d Lieut. Priv. Frederick M. Cook to 2d Lieut. The killed and mortally wounded were as follows : At Cold Harbor : Col. Elisfaa S. Kellogg, Sergt. Frederick W. Daniels, Musician Myron Ferris, Privates James R. Baldwin,* Alfred Comins, Lewis Downs, Birdsey Gibbs, James A. Green, Willard Hart, Alonzo J. Hull, Henry C. Kent,f Walter Martin, John M. Teeter, Jared P. Everts —14 of Co. E; to these add Albert M. Tuttle, Co. D, Eleventh Regi- ment — 15. At Cedar Creek, Capt. Benj. F. Hosford, whose remains were brought home for interment. The following members of the regiment were wounded, but not mor- tally, in the service : At Cold Harbor : Privates Edward Beach, Philip D. Carrol, William Seymour, Marcus A. Whitehead, Ernest Basney, Samuel N. Brew, Jacob Le Roy, Julius Woodford, Henry Wenzell : At Cedar Creek: Major Jeffrey Skinner, Corp. Wm. S. Cooper. The following named men (privates) died in the service : Manwaring Green, Oct. 17, 1864, by railroad accident. Gio. W. Hurlbut, at Fort Worth, Va., March 27, 1863. Wm. S. Hurlbut, at Reg. Hospital, Oct. 25, 1863. Wm. R. Hubbard, at Reg. Hospital, Aug. 4, 1864. Jerome Preston, at Reg. Hospital, Oct. 24, 1863. *Among the names on the foregoing list were James R. Baldwin and Henry C. Kent, who were in the assault at Cold Harbor, and were never seen afterwards. They were doubtless killed, and the remains buried during some of the following nights, by fatigue parties, who eould carry no lights without drawing the fire of the rebel bat- tery in close vicinity of the battle-field. Private Baldwin was son of Mr. Ezra Bald- win of Winsted ; youthful and cheery — tenderly reared and religiously educated — be- loved of bis parents and comrades. t Private Kent, son of an English cutler, at fifteen years old had never been to school, and was dcsti;ute of the first rudiments of education ; was the oldest of a large family of children, and was kept at constant work in aid of their support. In this condition, he sought instruction from a benevolent lady during his winter evenings, and at the Sabbath school ; made rapid progress, mastered thoroughly the ordinary branches of education, ami made a consistent profession of religion. At twenty, he bought his time of his father, at once enlisted, and died in his first battle a Christian soldier. 478 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Darwin S. Starks, at Reg. Hospital, Aug. 23, 1863. Mathew Fitzgerald, prisoner of war at Salisbury, N. C, Jan. 6, 1865. Julius Rogers, at Reg. Hospital, Sept. 21, 1864. Edward E. Rowe, at Warren Station, Va., March 27, 1865. Julius Woodford, at Reg. Hospital, Jan. 30, 1865. The heroic Colonel Elisha S. Kellogg, who commanded the regiment at Cold Harbor, and there fell at the head of his men, though a resident of Derby on entering the service, subsequently removed his family to the society of Winsted, and his remains lie buried in the south cemetery under an appropriate monument. The final contribution of Winchester men for the service was made to the 28th regiment of nine months infantry, consisting of the major of the regiment, a captain, two lieutenants, and fifty-nine enlisted men. The regiment encamped at New Haven until November 18th, 1862, when it embarked for Pensacola, Florida, and there remained inactive until or- dered to join General Banks' army, and, after harassing marches in Louis- iana, was actively engaged in the assault on Port Hudson, June 14th, 1863, sustaining a loss of fifty -nine killed, wounded, and missing. The regiment was mustered out of service at New Haven, Conn., August 28th, 1863. The names of the Winchester men in the regiment were Wheelock T. Batcheller (late 1st lieutenant Company E, 2d three months Infantry), major; Lucien B. Wheelock (late sergeant Company E, 2d three months Infantry), captain of Company F; Caleb P. Newman (late 1st sergeant Company B, 2d three months Infantry), 1st lieutenant; Jabez Alvord, 2d lieutenant; sergeants, George L. Andrews, Silas H. Mc Alpine, Milton T. Moore, and Henry L. Roberts; corporals, B. Frank Marsh, William A. Wadsworth, William Couch, Charles H. Moore, and Joseph H. C. Batch- elder; privates, Columbus C. Wright, Samuel C. Barber, George Bul- croft, Charles Baldwin. Edward Camsell, Henry P. Cook, Peter Coe, James Dngan, George N. Dewey, Henry Detert, Cornelius Dayton Charles Decker, Lucius Eggleston, George W. Elmore, Paul Forcier, Correll T. French, Edward Finn, Mat. M. Fitzgerald, Claudius W. S. Foster, John E. Garrett, Ward Grant, Samuel E. Griffin, William Hague, Charles N. Hollister, George Hoskin, Edward B. Kinney, Ralph Lina, Charles Maddra, Harvey Moore, George R. Moore, Silas Moore, Elbert Manchester, Thomas Morris, James E. Maddra, James McDermott, Wil- liam N. Pierce, George L. Pease, John Partridge, Elam E. Richardson, William H. Rowe, David R. Rankin, Stephen Scott, Frank S. Turner, Lyman Ten-ill, Cassius Watson, Howard S. Wheeler, William S. Wood- ford, Mark H. Wheeler, Henry C. White, and Michael Haggarty, of Com- pany H. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 479 The following deaths occurred in the service: Private Columbus C. Wright died at Brashear City, La., May 23d, 1863. Private Samuel C. Barber died on the Mississippi. Private Charles Maddra died at Great Barrington, Mass., August 23d 1863. Private Cassias Watson died at Brashear City, La., May 23d, 1863. Private Mark H. Wheeler, killed at Port Hudson, La., June 14th, 1863. Private Howard S. Wheeler died soon after reaching home, of disease contracted in the service. Private Michael Haggarty, of Company H, died of wounds received at Port Hudson, August 12th, 1863. The following Winchester men served as officers of the 1st Regiment Louisiana Colored Engineers: Willard S. Wetmore, 1st lieutenant and quartermaster. Edward Hewitt, 1st lieutenant. The following Winchester men served in the navy : Marcus Baird, ensign and acting sailing-master, Gulf Squadron. David W. Coe, executive officer's clerk, United States Frigate Sabine. Solomon R. Hinsdale, assistant pay-master on the Mississippi Flotilla, above Vicksburg. Henry Overton, transferred from 2d Heavy Artillery to the United States Navy. Ansel Rowley. We compile a connected list of soldiers of the town who died in the service, as follows : — Robert Arnold, Corporal Company I, 5th Infantry, killed Cedar Mountain, August 9, 1862. Jacob T. Brown, Sergeant, Company C, 12th Infantry, killed Fisher's Hill, September 19, 1864. James M. Burton, Private, Company E, 2d Infantry, died in hospital, New Haven, May 13, 1861. George Bellows, Jr., Private, Company E, 7th Infantry, mortally wounded Hamp- ton, Va., October 19, 1864. James R. Baldwin, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, killed Cold Harbor, June 1, 1864. Samuel C. Barber, Private, Company F, 28th Infantry, died of fever on Mississippi River. Albert Burdick, Private, Company E, 7th Infantry, died at Beaufort, S. C, July 29, 1862. John Biederman, Private, Company E, 7th Infantry, died October 13, 1864. Alfred Comins, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, killed Cold Harbor, June 1, 1864. Wolcott Cook, Private, Company K, 2d Heavy Artillery, died City Point, Va., June 16, 1865. 480 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Wm. F. Cogswell, Private, Company E, 11th Infantry, killed Sharpsburg, Md , September 17, 1862. Frederick W. Daniels, Sergeant, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, killed Cold Harbor, June 1, 1864. Robert Dempsey, Lieutenant, Company E, 7th Infantry, killed Olustee, Fla, February 20, 1865. Lewis Downs, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, killed Cold Harbor, June 1. 1864. George C. Downs, Private, Company C, 13th Infantry, died on the Mississippi September 13, 1863. Lewis Dayton, Private, Company D, llth Infantry, killed at Sharpsburg, Md., September 17, 1862. James Dolphin, Private, Company G, 14th 11. I. Colored Artillery, died at Plaque- mine, La., August 5, 1864. Lueius B. Eggleston, Private, Company F, 28th Infantry, died at Mempbis, Ten. Jared IVEvarts, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, killed at ('old Harbor, June 1, 1864. Myron Ferris, Musieian, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, killed at Cold Harhor, June 1, 1864. Elliott Fleming, Private, Company G, 16th Infantry, killed at Sharpsburg, Md , September 17, 1862. Mathew Fitzgerald, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, died a prisoner at Salisbury, N. C. Birdsey Gibbs, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, killed at Cold Harbor, June 1, 1864. James A. Green, Quartermaster-Sergeant, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, mor- tally wounded at Cold Harbor. Manwaring Green, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, killed by railroad accident, Oetober 17, 1864. Charles Gilbert, Private, Company E, 7th Infantry, died of wounds iu Charleston S. C, July 9, 1862. Benjamin F. Hosford, Captain, Company D, 2d Heavy Artillery, killed at Cedar Creek, Oetober 19, 1864. Willard Hart, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, killed at Cold Harbor, June 1, 1864. George W. Hurlbut, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, died at Alexandria, Va., March 27, 1863. William S. Hurlbut, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, died at Fort Worth, Va., Oetober 25, 1863. William 1\. Hubbard, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, died at Fort Worth, February 28, 1864. Asa Humiston, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, mortally wounded at Opequan, Va., September 19, 1864; died September 21, 1864. Alonzo J. Hull, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, killed at Cold Harbor, June 1, 1864. Lewis Hazzard, Private, Company G, 29th Colored Infantry, drowned at Plaquc- minc, La., October 5, 1865. Miehael Haggarty, Private, Company H, 28th Infantry, mortally wounded at Port Hudson, August 12, 1863. Davis Hart, Private, Company A, Massachusetts Infantry, killed at Fredericks- burg, Va. Henry C. Kent, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, killed at Cold Harbor, June 1, 1864. AND FAMILY RECORDS . 481 Walter Martin, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, killed at Cold Harbor, June 1, 1864. Charles E. Palmer, Captain, Company E, 7th Infantry, died at James' Island, S. C, July 7, 1862. Jerome Preston, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, died at Alexandria* Va., October 24, 1863. Hiram Roberts, Private, Company E, 1 1th Infantry, killed at Sharpsburg, Md., September 17, 1862. Edward E. Rowe, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, died at Petersburg, Va., March, 1865. Julius Rogers, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, died at Petersburg, Va., September 21, 1864. William H. Slack, Private, Company D, 11th Infantry, mortally wounded at Newberri, N. C, March 22, 1862. Darwin S. Starks, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, died at Alexandria, Va., August 23, 1863. John M. Teeter, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, killed at Cold Harbor, June 1, 1864. Albert [M. Tuttle, Private, Company D, llth Infantry, killed at Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864. John K. Twiss, Sergeant, Company E, llth Infantry, died at Richmond, Va., May 1, 1864. Julius Thorne, Private, Company M, 1st Regiment of Cavalry, died at New Haven, December 14, 1864. John B. Welch, Assistant-Surgeon, 12th Infantry, died at Ship Island, February 13, 1862. Howard S. Wheeler, Private, Company F, 28th Infantry, died of scurvy at home after muster out. Mark H. Wheeler, Private, Company F, 28th Infantry, killed at Port Hudson, La., June 14, 1863. Julius Woodford, Private, Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, died at Alexandria, Va., January 30, 1864. William S. Watson, Private, Company K, 2d Heavy Artillery, died at Alexandria, Va., August 28, 1863. Columbus C. Wright, Wagoner, Company F, 28th Infantry, died at Brashear City, La., May 23, 1863. Cassius Watson, Private, Company F, 28th Infantry, died at Brashear City, La., May 23, 1863. The enlistments by families is a notable feature of the volunteer force of this town. We find fourteen instances of two brothers in the service, nine instances of three members of the same family, two of four, and one of six connected in the relation of father, stepfather, sons and stepsons. We note the instances embracing three or more members of one family : — I. Sons of Caleb F. Daniels— 1. Frederick W., private Company D, 2d Infantry, and ser- geant Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, killed at Cold Harbor, Va. 2. George, private Company E, 7th Infantry. 61 482 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, 3. Charles, private Company G, 13th Infantry, promoted t 2d Lieutenant. II. Sons of Isaac Downs — 1. Edwin E., private Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery ; dis- charged for disability. 2. Lewis, private Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery ; killed at Cold Harbor, Va. 3. George C, private Company C, 13th Infantry; died of swamp fever. III. Sons of Rufus M. Eggleston— 1. Gustavus, private Company B, 1st squadron cavalry. 2. Erastus, } twins, privates Company E, 11th Infantry ; dis- 3. Rufus, J charged for disability. 4. Lucius, private Company H, 28th Infantry ; died of swamp fever on Mississippi. IV. Sons of Arad Hosford — 1. Charles L., sergeant Company E, 2d Infantry, captain Com- pany D, 11th Infantry. 2. Benjamin F., private Company E, captain 2d Heavy Artil- lery, killed at Cedar Creek. 3. William A., 1st lieutenant Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery. V. Sons of Sylvester Hurlbut — 1. George W., private Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, died at Alexandria, Va. 2. William S., private company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, died at Fort Worth, Va. 3. Andrew M., private Company E, 11th Infantry, re-enlisted a veteran. VI. Sons of Anthony Home — 1. Samuel B., private Company C, 2d Infantry, captain Com- pany F, 11th Infantry, provost-marshal 18th Army Corps. 2. Robert, drummer Company F, 11th Infantry, wounded at Petersburg, Va. 3. John J., private Company F, 15th N. Y. Heavy Artillery. VII. Sons of Newton Hart— 1. Davis, private Company A, 10th Massachusetts Infantry, killed at Spotsylvania, Va. 2. Geo. L., private Company A, 10th Massachusetts Infantry. 3. Timothy A., sergeant Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 483 VIII. Sons of Sylvanus Pease — 1. Byron W., assistant surgeon United States Colored Engin- eers, La. 2. Frank S., musician Company D, 11th Infantry. 3. Robert, musician Company I, 5th Infantry. 4. James A., private Company E, 7th Infantry. IX. William H. Rowe, (father,) musician 1st Heavy Artillery, private Company F, 28th Infantry. 1. Edward E., (son,) private Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, died in the service. 2. Charles H., (son,) private Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery. X. Sons of Elias Rowley — 1. Henry H, private Company E, 7th Infantry. 2. John G., private Company E, 7th Infantry. 3. Warren, private, Cavalry. 4. Ansel, private, Navy. XI. Sons of John Skinner — 1. Jeffrey, 1st sergeant Company E, 2d Infantry, captain, major, and lieutenant-colonel, 2d Heavy Artillery. 2. Henry, sergeant Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, lieutenant Companies E and G, captain Company B, same regiment. 3. Edward, corporal Company G, 13th Infantry. We note, in closing this list, a mixed family, all of them residents of this town, before, during, or immediately after the war. Francis H. Kin- ney was father of two sons, and Margaret, his second wife, was mother, by a former husband, (Miller,) of three sons, all of whom served in dif- ferent regiments, as follows: 1. Francis H. Kinney, (father,) private Company H, loth Infantry; discharged for disability. 2. Horace Kinney, (son,) private Company E, 11th Infantry, and veteran. 3. George Kinney, (son,) private Company D, 11th Infantry, trans ferred to 20th United States Cavalry. 4. David Miller, (step-son,) color-bearer, Company D, 1st Infantry, corporal Company E, 2d Heavy Artillery, wounded at Cold Harbor. 5. John B. Miller, (step-son,) private Company E., 11th Infantry; vet- eran; promoted to lieutenant; wounded at Cold Harbor, Va. 6. Frank Miller, (stepson,) private Company A, 8th Infantry; wounded at Cold Harbor. The three Millers belonged to three distinct regiments, all present at Cold Harbor; were all wounded successively on the 1st, 2d, and 3d days 484 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, of June, 1864, and were successively brought to the hospital at Alexan- dria on the 5th, 6th, and 7th days of the same month. Frank, the youngest of the three Millers, was fourteen years old when he enlisted. He was wounded at Cold Harbor by a rifle ball in the shoul- der. Chloroform was twice administered to him preparatory to amputa- tion of his arm at the shoulder joint, but it was deferred, through fear of a fatal result. He lived to become a strong, hearty man. From the foregoing data we gather, as the effective force of Winchester men, regularly mustered and engaged in the military and naval service, and honorably discharged therefrom, three hundred and fifty-two efficient men, thirty-four of whom re-enlisted for second terms of service, early in the war, and twelve or more re-enlisted as veterans, after three years of service. To these are to be added not less than seventy -five substitutes, pur- chased by the town authorities in the bounty -jumping shambles, who never resided in the town, and whose names it would be superfluous to give. Of this class full forty deserted — most of them immediately after receiv- ing their bounty; twenty were unassigned or not taken up on the rolls; and a small number were killed, or honorably discharged at the end of their terms of service, and are named among the effective men. SUMMARY. Whole number of effective men, - 352 Men enlisting and serving second terms, - - 46 Deserters, bounty-jumpers, and "dead beats," - 75 473 Probably no army in the world's history was made up of better mate- rial in the aggregate (Cromwell's Ironsides excepted) than the volunteer force of the United States in the War of the Rebellion ; better in physi- cal power, moral training, intelligence and social standing, but unused, at the outset, to discipline and subordination. There was enough of religious zeal and patriotic ardor to call into the field thoughtful and high-princi- pled men, rather than those of a debased order. East and West this ele- ment predominated. In the West the volunteers were mostly farmers ; in the East they were more largely intelligent mechanics, inferior in bone and sinew, but excelling in elasticity and endurance. Our men, to a large extent, were made up of the latter class, and of young men tenderly reared, and apparently unfitted to endure hardship and privation ; yet an examination of the foregoing statistics will show that far the largest pro- portion of discharges for disability and deaths by disease occurred among the agricultural class. Among the evil forebodings at the beginning of the conflict, none seemed AND FAMILY RECORDS. 485 better warranted than that a whole generation of young men would be demoralized by the debaucheries of army life. Experience of other wars had taught this lesson; but it signally failed in its application to the younger or older volunteers of this town. It is very doubtful whether, among our soldier boys, an instance can be found where a young man, entering the service with good moral and temperate habits, has returned to civil life with those habits essentially deteriorated. Almost without exception, they at once resumed their accustomed occupations in the factory, on the farm, and at the counter, or embarked in new fields of en- terprise suggested by their enlarged experience and observation. Another foreboding of the early days of the war took the form of as- surance that every branch of manufacturing and mercantile business was to be prostrated, that farms would be uncultivated, that the rich would become poor, and that the poor must fight or starve. An all-wise Provi- dence has averted these evils. Our citizens in nearly every branch of industry and business have been prospered during the ten years ending in 1871, as in no earlier decade; and this prosperity has resulted from no direct government patronage in the way of army contracts or war specu- lations. The pecuniary outlay of the town in bounties, expenses of filling quotas and aid of soldiers' families, as appears by the accounts of the selectmen, was as follows : 1861. Paid volunteers and their families, - - - $ 851.63 1862. " expenses of rilling quotas, - 492.59 " bounties on enlistments, ... 6,500.00 1863. " bounties and expenses of filling quotas, - - 16,110.00 1864. " " " " - 16,481.05 1865. " " " "... 14,233.45 1866. " " " " 300.00 1867. " " " "... 8.53 $54,977.25 The individual contributions, as far as ascertained, were as follows : Balance of cash raised in 1861 by citizens for purchase of ma- terials for soldiers' uniforms, and for support of their families, and not refunded by the state, - - - - - S 676.14 Cash paid by individuals for filling quota in 1864, - - 664.42 Bounties of $10 each to 100 men by Elliot Beardsley, - - 1,000.00 Bounties paid by other citizens (estimated), - - 2,000.00 $4,340.56 A large amount of hospital stores, clothing, bedding, provisions, and cash were furnished by female societies, only a portion of which can be ascertained, by reason of the imperfect records made of the same. We compile from such records and memoranda as have been preserved, the following items : 486 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, Making up 103 uniforms from materials paid for by the state, - $ 412.00 " 112 shirts (cloth furnished), - - - 84.00 200 linen havelocks, ------ 100.00 Sent to Christian Commission, 16 boxes and barrels of clothing, bedding and hospital stores, valued at - - - 688.18 . Cash, proceeds of tableaux exhibition, - 252.50 To Sanitary Commission, hospital articles and stores, - 476 39 To Mrs. Harris, Supt. of Hospitals, Phila., hospital articles and stores, -------- 370.71 To Freedmen's and Refugee Aid Societies, ... 1 550.50 To Soldiers' Aid Society, - - - ■ - - 31.70 To Soldiers in Connecticut Regiments, 96 barrels and 15 boxes vegetables, provisions, and stores, ... - 635.00 $4,600.98 The above articles, estimated below their value, and comprising an infinite variety of articles, were mainly furnished by one of our two female organizations. Of the number and value of articles supplied by the other society, we have obtained no statement, but may safely estimate them at $2,081.21 ; and so estimating them, we have the following sum- mary of town expense. Town expenses, _.--.-_ $48,977.25 Cash items by citizens of the town, ... 4,340.56 Clothing, bedding, hospital stores, provisions and cash from West Winsted Soldiers' Aid Society, - - - 4,600.98 Similar articles furnished by other societies and individuals (estimated), 2,081.21 Grand Total, - $60,000.00 The contributions furnished by the female society above named, are specified with great particularity and precision, and are largely made up of the most valuable and indispensable articles of clothing and bedding, the cost of materials worked up and paid for in cash, making a large part of their estimated value. One item of hospital stores, nowhere enumerated, was the product of ninety-five bushels of blackberries, which were gathered in one day, mostly by females, on a proposition of Gail Borden, Esq., that he would convert into jam all the blackberries so gathered in one day, at the condensed milk factory owned in part by him, the sugar and cans being paid for. Note. — The compiler has learned, since this chapter went to press, that our worthy neighbor, Caleb P: Newman, First Sergeant of Company B, 2d Infantry, and 1st Lieutenant of Company F, 28th Infantry, had signed an enlistment paper before the meeting at which Captain Home enrolled his name. CHAPTER XXXIV. BUSINESS OPERATIONS AS AFFECTED BY THE REBELLION— BUILDING OPERATIONS- INCREASE OF TAXABLE PROPERTY— CONNECTICUT WESTERN RAILROAD- TEMPERANCE REFORM AND DECADENCE— MASONIC SOCIETIES. 1861 TO 1872. Amid the enthusiasm and firm resolve of the loyal masses of the North, at the outbreak of the rebellion, there was among intelligent men a consciousness of a mighty struggle impending, and a belief that it would be attended with ruin to all our business interests. The merchant encouraged his clerks to volunteer, by assurances that their places should be kept open for their occupancy on their return from military service, and by pecuniary bounties. The manufacturers held out like- inducements to their operatives. The struggle was mightier and longer than was apprehended ; but business interests were only partially affected or deranged. In our com- munity the only business entirely suspended was the manufacture of planters' hoes for the southern market. The business employed a large number of men, who were represented in most of the battle fields of the Atlantic States.* Other manufacturing establishments for a time reduced their business, but soon found it enlarged in amount and profit. The evil day of collapse and ruin apprehended at the beginning of the war was not realized, but was foreboded at its end. At the end of seven years, after the return of peace — thanks to the wise management of the financial affairs of the nation — no business revulsion has occurred. Nearly four hundred millions of national debt — to say nothing of state and town debts approaching an equal amount — have been paid off, and the business affairs of the country were seldom more prosperous. Very few new dwellings or factories were erected during that period, but nearly all the dwellings previously built with funds borrowed from savings and building associations, and afterwards sold to speculating capitalists, found purchasers at largely advanced prices, and came into the hands of substantial resident owners. Population rapidly increased * We have, in the preceding chapter, noticed six members of one family who served in various regiments, all of whom — with perhaps one exception — had been employed in this branch of business. 488 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, from year to year, though the increase has hardly been noticeable by reason of the crowding to a large extent of two or more families in buildings previously occupied by only one. Owing to the great increase of taxation, falling more largely on real estate than on personal property on the one hand, and on the other hand the inducements held out to investors by ten per cent, mortgages? railroad bonds and stocks, but few tenant houses have been erected in the borough since 1860 by capitalist or manufacturer. During the twelve years since 1860, the following public buildings, factory buildings, and stores have been erected. The gx-aded school building in west district was built in 1867, at a cost of $19,400. Number of scholars on the roll November, 1872, - - 310 Number of teachers, ------- 5 Aggregate amount of salaries, ____"- $4,600 The graded school building in the east section was built in 1870, at a cost of $15,000. Number of scholars enrolled November, 1872, - - 160 Number of teachers, - 4 Aggregate amount of salaries, - $2,302 The monastery building of St. Francis' Literary and Theological Seminary was erected in 1867. Connected with the seminary is a parish school, with from fifty to seventy-five scholars, under charge of Sisters of the third Order of St. Francis ; and also the Academy of St. Margaret of Cortona, for tuition of young ladies in the higher branches. The borough building and lock-up was erected in 1861. The Woodford four-story brick block, containing a store, banking office, and masonic hall, was finished in 1861. Dudley's three- story brick block, containing four store tenements, was erected in 1861. Moore's south three-story wooden block, containing fish market, smith shop, and stove warehouse, was erected in 1866. Moore's north three story wooden block, containing clothing store and feed store, erected 1869. Phelps' three-story wooden block, containing millinery and drug stores, erected in 1868. Oilman & Hallett's three-story wooden block, containing two store tenements, erected in 1872. Hicks' three-story Hotel, corner of Main and Park streets, erected in 1.H70 on the site of the old Stevens' House. Gilbert Clock Company's brick factory on north side of Wallen street, built on site of factory burned in 1871, erected in 1871. Gilbert Clock Co.'s brick factory, south of Wallen street, erected in 1872. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 489 Strong Manufacturing Company's building erected in 1866. Gilman Carriage Company's building erected in 1866. The four story brick block, north of the Beardsley House, on Main street, containing two store tenements and a banking office, erected by the Beardsley family in 1872. The Music Hall building, erected in 1872 by a joint-stock company, a brick and iron structure,- fronting fifty-six feet on Main and 126 feet on Elm street, is three stories above the basement floor, and surmounted by a Mansard roof, contains a public hall 54 by 92 feet, and three store tenements on the first floor. Adjoining it on the east, and in the same style and material, is a block of 48 feet front, containing a banking office and a store tenement, erected by John G. Wetmore. The Connecticut Western Railroad Depot, on Lake street, was erected in 1872, in part by funds appropriated by the railroad company, and in part by contributions of George Dudley and other citizens. The dwelling houses erected by resident owners, though limited in number, have been of a superior order in style, architectural proportions, and conveniences. Among them we note the following, with their loca- tions and date of erection : — Dwelling of Thomas M. Clarke, on Elm street, in 1864. " John G. Wetmore, on Hinsdale street, in 1867. " James R. Alvord, on Meadow street, in 1867. " David Strong, on Walnut street, in 1869. " E. R. Beardsley (built by Seth L. Wilder, deceased), on Main street, in 1862. " George F. Barton, on Prospect street, in 1869. " Edward Clarke, on Hinsdale street, in 1870. " James G. Woodruff, on North Main street, in 1870. " William C. Phelps, on High street, in 1870. " T. M. V. Doughty, on Union street, in 1862. " William McAlpine, on Hinsdale street, in 1871. " James Cone, " " in 1872. « Wm. L. Camp, " " in 1872. " F. L. Pond, " " in 1872. " Wm. C. Welch, on Main street, in 1871. " Julius Gregory, Beach street, in 1870. " Patrick Reidy, Elm street, 1870. « Charles J, York, « 1871. " Jos. W. Parsons, Beach street, 1871. " Charles L. Norton, Elm street, 1871. 62 490 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, We compile from the lists of 1861 and 1871 abstracts of taxable prop- erty in Winsted, and also whole amount of assessments of the whole town : — 1861. 1871. Description of Property. No. Valuation. No. Valuation. Dwelling houses, - 502 $514,450 555 770,225 Acres of land, ... - 8,800 186,884 217,426 Factories, mills, and stores, 77 201,500 93 279,150 Horses, ----- 219 17,780 285 33,745 Neat catttle, 758 14,847 872 19,941 Sheep and swine, 259 289 Carriages, &c, - 9,201 23,150 Farming utensils, ... 125 Clocks and watches, ... 6,354 14,281 Musical instruments, - 6,020 13,875 Extra furniture, - 5,550 14,935 Bank stocks, - 204,344 186,556 State stocks, 2,100 Eailroad bonds, - - - - 21,188 328,585 Invested in merchandize, - 90,350 140,415 " manufacturing, - 113,900 191,200 " steamboats, - 9,500 Money at interest, - 79,443 216,767 Money on hand, .... 3,428 16,150 Taxable property, 270 8,075 $1,475,768 $2,486,490 We omit the taxable polls on account of changes in valuation from time to time, and the variation of numbers exempted for various reasons. The whole number of unexempt polls in 1861 was, - - 645 While in 1871 the number was reduced to - - - ■ - 451 In 1840 the taxable property of the whole town was, $ 477,865 In 1851 " " " 1,023,875 In 1861 " " " 1,750,921 In 1871 « " " 2,759,943 Polls not included. The population of the town, at the periods specified, was as follows: — By census of 1756, " " 1774, " " 1781, " " 1800, " " 1810, « " 1820, 24 339 688 1,368 1,466 1,601 AND FAMILY RECORDS. 491 By census of 1830, 1,766 " 1840, 1,667 « " 1850, 2,179 " " 1860, 3,550 " « 1870, - - . - - - - 4,102 After the opening of the Naugatuck Railroad in 1850, the necessity of a railroad communication eastward to the Connecticut River, and west- ward to the Hudson, hecaine more and more apparent, hut until recently seemed impracticable, by reason of the high grades and circuitous lines required in running roads easterly and westerly over the mountain ranges between the Hudson and Connecticut rivers. The steady growth of Collinsville, New Hartford, and Winsted, and the great enlargement of the iron interests of Salisbury and Canaan, stimulated the desire to overcome difficulties in the way of the enterprise, which had seemed to the communities interested to be insuperable. Public attention was first called to the practicability of the enterprise by E. T. Butler, Esq., of Norfolk, in 1865, and mainly through his instru- mentality, experimental surveys were made during that year; and in 1866 a charter was granted to "The Connecticut Western Railroad Company," with power to construct a road from Collinsville, Conn., to the Massachusetts state line on the border of North Canaan. Strenuous efforts were made by Mr. Butler and others to interest capitalists in the scheme. The Boston and Erie Railroad Company were vainly solicited to make the route a part of their line. Hartford and Springfield capital- ists were appealed to in vain. The Canal Railroad Company would have nothing to do with it. The Harlem, Housatonic, and Naugatuck Com- panies, with which it was to form connections, gave it a cold shoulder. At this nearly hopeless stage of the enterprise, the Dutchess and Columbia Railroad Company, under the auspices of George H. Brown, Esq.. of Washington Valley, N. Y., had completed their road from Fish- kill, on the Hudson, opposite Newburg, to near Pine Plains in Dutchess County, N. Y., and were seeking an eastern connection. The existence of the Connecticut Western Charter was made known to Mr. Brown, who, with characteristic energy, at once embarked with Mr. Butler and others in the enterprise. A new charter was obtained from the Legisla- ture of 1868, granting power to extend the road from the City of Hartford to Collinsville; thence to follow the line of the charter of 1866 through New Hartford, Winsted, and Norfolk ; and thence to diverge westerly through North Canaan and Salisbury, in the direction of Millerton, on the Harlem Railroad, so as to connect with the Dutchess and Columbia Railroad at the state line. The charter authorized towns along the line of the road, in their corporate capacity, to subscribe and 492 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, pay for stock in the road to an amount not exceeding five per cent, of their grand lists last made up, on being empowered so to do by a two- third vote of the inhabitants of such towns at meetings duly called and notified for that purpose. The town of Winchester, on the 22d of August, 1868, by a ballot of 366 to 66, voted a subscription of five per cent, on its list, amounting to $116,000, to the stock of the company, and individual citizens of the town made further subscriptions to the amount of $74,900. Winchester was the first town on the line to vote on this test question, the result of which was to determine whether the road should be carried through. Subscriptions of other towns along the line were soon afterwards voted as follows : — Salisbury, by town, $50,000 By citizens, $103,090* Canaan, " 34,000 " 16,000 Norfolk, " 41,500 « 10,800 Canton, " 40,000 " 0,000 Simsbury, " 50,000 " 20,100 Bloomfield, " 42,300 " 25,900 Hartford, « 750,000 " 64,000 Add Winchester, " 116,000 " 74,900 The surveys, estimates, and location of the road were completed in 1870, and the whole line was put under contract immediately afterward. The first passenger train passed over the road from Hartford to Miller- ton, N. Y., on the 21st December, 1871, and returned the same day, and since then the communication has been uninterrupted. Its connections with other roads along its line, and at its termini, will make it a trunk line of equal importance with the other east and west roads of New England. Its connections with roads already completed, are with three roads at Hartford, with the Canal Road at Simsbury, its branch at Collinsville, the Naugatuck at Winsted, the Housatonic at Canaan, the Pokeepsie and Eastern, and the Dutchess & Columbia at state line, and the Harlem at Millerton. Other connections are shortly to be completed with the Connecticut River and Boston & Albany roads at Springfield, the Collinsville & New Britain branch at Collinsville, the Farmington River Road from Lee to New Hartford, or Winsted, and the road from Rliinebeck on the Hudson to the slate line, the three latter now in process of construction. With these new avenues of intercourse with every portion of New England, and especially with direct access to the coal fields of Pennsyl- vania, and the wheat and lumber regions of the great West, a rapid * This amount of private subscriptions is supposed to include a subscription of $50,000 by Mr. Brown of the Dutchess and Columbia Railroad. AND FAMILY RECORDS. 498 growth in the population and wealth of Winsted is confidently anticipated. In the regular course of our annals, the great temperance movement, which has contributed largely to the prosperity and moral improvement of our community, and which has been largely promoted by our citizens, has found no place. As early as 1825 the Temperance Reform, by organized associations, began to be agitated in this vicinity. Able lecturers from time to time appeared among us, setting forth the evils of intemperate drinking, its almost universal prevalence, and the remedy to be found in total absti- nence from spirituous liquors, and associated action in enlightening the public mind, and aiding the intemperate in their endeavors to abandon their evil habits. It was then thought that abstinence from distilled liquors would remove the giant evil of the country, and the original societies were organized on a pledge thus limited. We have before us the records of the Winsted Temperance Society, organized August 16, 1829, as an auxiliary of the Litchfield County Society, and based on the following pledge : — " The members of this society, believing that the use of intoxicating liquors for persons in health is not only unnecessary but hurtful, and that the practice is the cause of forming intemperate appetites and habits, and that while it continues the evils of intemperance can never be prevented, do therefore agree that we will abstain from the use of distilled spirits, except as medicines in case of bodily hurt or sickness ; that we will not allow the use of it in our families, nor provide it for the entertainment of our fritnds or persons in our employ, and that in all suitable ways we will discountenance the use of it in the community." This and other societies at that period formed in nearly every town in the county and state, was organized for active work, and fulfilled its mission. The county society, composed of delegates from its auxiliaries, assembled monthly with some one of these, received reports of the state of the work in all the towns, consulted on measures promotive of the cause, and heard addresses from its ablest advocates. The subordinate societies were stimulated to activity by reports from their delegates, and guided in their course of action by the combined wisdom and experience of the parent society. For several years the county meetings were crowded by delegates and friends of the cause. The work went bravely on. The auxiliary socie- ties at every meeting called for signers of the pledge, and appointed frequent committees to go from house to house circulating temperance tracts, and soliciting new recruits. Lecturing agents were employed to address the children in the school districts, and enroll them in temperance bands. 494 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, The original members of the Winsted Society were: Rev. James Beach, Solomon Rockwell, Asaph Pease, Willard Holmes, Salmon Burr, Austin Crane, Norman Palmer, William S. Holabird, Anson Cook, James H. Alvord, Lyman Case, Sidney Munson, Horace E. Rockwell, Erastus Woodford, Josiah Smith, Leumas H. Pease, and Eleazer Andrews. Ac- cessions of members were rapidly made from month to month, until, in 1836, there were enrolled 297 males and 268 females. At the outset, it was a mooted question whether females had any temperance rights the lords of the creation were bound to recognize by admitting them to mem- bership in the society. The question was speedily decided affirmatively, and their efficient co-operation in the cause was secured. The active laborers in the temperance field at this day can but faintly realize the obstacles encountered, and the prejudices overcome by the pioneers of this movement. At the outset, the Methodist body, which eventually furnished many of the noblest and most persistent workers in the common cause, conceived that their churches were strict temperance bodies, competent to carry on the cause by enforcement of their discipline. This exclusiveness, however, was short-lived, and was followed by a hearty co-operation of the membership in the general work. There were also religionists of diverse persuasions who prated and canted about the sin of rejecting any good creature of God, and of covenanting with associates without the pale of the church. This class of opposers were in high favor with the drinking masses, who felt assured of their competency to take care of themselves, and who scorned to sign away their own liberty. Nevertheless, the doctrine of abstinence gained ground rapidly, and to short-sighted observers seemed to promise a speedy renovation of society. Distilling of spirits by Christian men was generally abandoned. Respect- able traders and taverners ceased to sell the villainous compounds. Farmers and manufacturers, to a large extent, ceased furnishing them to their work- men. But a radical defect in the pledge of abstinence soon became appa- rent. It embraced only distilled spirits in its prohibition ; and by impli- cation sanctioned the use of fermented drinks, as harmless. The conse- quence was, that habitual and intemperate drinkers, the classes to be ar- rested in their downward course, naturally and almost inevitably resorted to fermented drinks to satisfy and perpetuate their craving appetites. The poor inebriate substituted hard cider for cider brandy, and ale for whisky ; while the richer one found in highly-drugged wine a solace for abstinence from cogniac brandy. It was not pleasant nor edifying to hear half-boozy guzzlers of wine, ale, and cider, expatiating on the benefits of abstinence from rot-gut in a distilled form. It sometimes seemed better that they should speedily terminate their drunken career by use of the concentrated poisons than to dishonor a noble cause by their advocacy and example. Nevertheless, very many who signed the limited pledge, carried out the AND FAMILY EECORDS. 495 principles on which it was based by abstaining from every form of alcoholic drinks ; and thus the original organization was productive of incalculable good. The transition from the first to the second stage of temperance reform was gradual in the Winsted Society. Earnest and conscientious members, from time to time, affixed the letters T. T. A. to their names, subscribed to the original pledge, thereby binding themselves to total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks. A new life and activity became apparent as these cabalistic letters were appended to the names of members. By the close of 183H, every active member of the society had become a radical Tee Totaller, while many partially reformed members had fallen by the way side and many other once zealous members had become neutral or hostile to the cause. At or near this period the original society was re-organized ; or rather, it was left in the hands of the abstinents from ardent spirits only, and forthwith died of inanition ; and a new society was organized under the name of " The Winsted Total Abstinence Society." Every live member of the old organization who had super-added to his name the total, or " tee-total," abstinence initials, joined the new society. Its members were active and earnest, and accessions of new members were made at every monthly meeting. Nearly every business man, and every trader in the town became an active member of the society, or an outspoken advocate of its principles. Every store-keeper in town ceased to buy or sell intox- icating liquors. We had few, if any, saloons in those days, and no apoth- ecaries. Taverners, on applying for liquor licenses, were steadfastly re- fused by the civil authorities. Respectable farmers were ashamed to bring into the village their barrels of cider for sale to the topers. Not a few of them cut down their ungrafted apple trees, and many others fed their apples to their stock. The cider mills rotted down or were torn down, and the buildings were appropriated to better uses. We speak advisedly when we say that public opinion and public action had reached this stage in our community years before the advent of the great Washingtonian temperance movement. Our limits permit only a brief allusion to the first legislative acts giving to towns the right to prohibit the sale of liquors within their borders. Winchester first voted for prohibition ; a second meeting was called and voted for licensing the traffic ; a third meeting, and a fourth, voted as the first had done, and the contest was abandoned. In these meetings, the principles of Total Abstinence were thoroughly ventilated in the presence of men who had never attended a temperance meeting. Argu- ments long before worn trite and threadbare in temperance meetings, found a lodgment in the consciences of many who had never before, heard them. The law which had given occasion for these municipal debating so- 496 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, cieties was repealed by an adverse legislature, but the results were abiding. The moral suasion movement went onward. In 1840 or 1841, the Washingtonian movement was initiated by an association of intemperate mechanics in Baltimore, who banded together for mutual aid in freeing tbemselves from the slavery of intemperance, by a pledge of abstinence from all intoxicating liquors. Large numbers of intemperate men flocked to their standard. Their delegates went abroad and organized associate bands in many of the neighboring cities. John Hawkins, the ablest of the pioneers in this movement, came to Hartford during the legislative session in 1842. His public addresses made a pro- found impression on the members of tbe legislature and every class of citizens. A Washingtonian society, embracing a large portion of the intemperate men of Hartford, was at once formed. Every member was an apostle of faith and good works in advancing the cause. Delegates from this society came to Winsted in the summer of 1842, and were cordially received. They related their personal experiences, their emancijuation from the slavery of intemperate drinking, their im proved condition, the happiness and comfort of their families, and their own conscious manhood. They were listened to by crowded and thought- ful audiences ; but they departed without obtaining a signature to the new pledge. On the day after their departure, however, the fruits of their labor of love became manifest. Some twelve to fifteen men, most of them habitual drinkers, who had ever before kept aloof from the tem- perance movement, came in a body to the Secretary of the Total Absti- nence Society and enrolled their names on the pledge. Others speedily followed their example ; and in ten days nearly every habitual drinker in the place had signed the pledge. The new converts soon embodied themselves in a distinctive Washing- tonian Society, which was also joined largely by members of the old Total Abstinence Society, which thereafter became dormant, leaving the temperance work in the hands of the more popular and zealous organization. The principle of total abstinence, after an agitation of near fifteen years, had now become an article of faith and practice in this community. Its positions were unassailed and unassailable. The old west village tavern, the last stronghold of the rumselling interest, had finally suc- cumbed to the power of moral and legal suasion. Not a haunt, above or below ground, existed where liquors could be obtained in large or small quantities, without extreme privacy. We were in advance of any other town in the county. The new organization, formed in the midst of excitement, and con- trolled by recent, though earnest converts to the temperance cause, lacked the steadfastness of its predecessor. Its action was spasmodic rather AND FAMILY RECORDS. 497 than persistent. Some of its most zealous members fell away within the first year of its life ; others followed in the downward road ; the cause was dishonored, and the organization paralyzed. Yet, the vital principle had become deeply rooted and widely pervading. Without combined effort advancing progress ceased, though retrogression was hardly perceptible until the opening of the Naugatuck Railroad in 1849, and the consequent influx of new inhabitants not trained to temperance principles and habits. A more free intercourse with the outside world, and a rapid increase of population and wealth, tended to a relaxation of moral sentiment, and an acquiescence in fashionable customs and indulgences. Moral suasion had signally reformed our community up to the time of the Washing- tonian movement, but it lost its power over men recreant to their solemn pledges, and over both the fashionable and degraded classes of new comers. The advocacy of severe prohibitory laws indicated decadence rather than advance in the reformatory movement. Such laws became a neces- sity, growing out of a relaxation of persuasive efforts. In 1854 a legislature favorable to entire prohibition was chosen, and the Maine Law was enacted. Public sentiment was in accord with its stringent provtsions. It carried terror to the hearts of conscienceless rum sellers, and filled the prohibitionists with rejoicing. For a time it worked like a charm. The open traffic in liquors was in a great measure aban- doned. Drunken men were arrested and fined, and prosecutions were instituted against open and secret traffickers. It was easy to convict and fine the poor inebriates, but to bring to justice the shrewd and unscrupu- lous panderers to their vitiated appetites was a far more arduous under- taking. It was found, as a general and almost invariable rule, that vitiated customers refused to betray the sellers of intoxicating liquors, and the proof of guilt in most cases could not be substantiated without their testimony. With this hindrance in the way, if the prosecutor suc- ceeded in making out a case before a justice court, an appeal could be taken to the higher court, where a jury trial could be had, and juries are very uncertain dispensers of justice. In almost every jury impaneled more than one juror proves to be in sympathy with the rumseller, and his conviction is frustrated. As a consequence, the law, when applied to the arch promoters of intemperance and its kindred pollutions, became a dead letter. Yet the Maine Law has not proved an utter failure, else foul-breathed and red-nosed demagogues had ceased to rail against it. Its terrors have restrained in a great measure the tempting exhibition of liquor bottles, and the barefaced sale of their contents in open day. It has confiscated thousands of barrels of vile decoctions more dangerous to life and health than gunpowder or glycerine. Even the staggering graduates of the 63 498 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, pot-house have learned to avoid public exhibitions of their accomplish- ments. During the long years of its neglected enforcement it has retained a reserved force that could be, and often has been, applied to the effectual suppression of outrageous haunts of drunkenness. Much more good might have grown out of the Maine Law, had not the delusive idea prevailed among temperance men that legal enactments possess an inherent power to do the work of reform, which can be done only by stiff-backed, straight forward workers, by means of their instru- mentality. To this infatuation, as much as to inherent defects of the law, is the decadence of temperance principles and habits to be ascribed. Those of the surviving temperance men who labored in the field from 1830 to 1850 — who fought the early battles, and achieved the early victories — have retired from active life, and another generation of workers, now in the field, struggling manfully to stem the overflowing torrent of intemperance, have an arduous but not a hopeless work before them. They have not, as their predecessors had, to contend with pro- fessedly good and pious men in settling the first principles of total abstinence and prohibition. Doctors of divinity have ceased to denounce the movement as heretical. Political demagogues no longer exhaust their spread-eagle eloquence in asserting the inherent right of every American citizen to get drunk, and to make drunkards. The question of to-day is rather one of expediency than of moral or religious principle. A "tidal wave" broke over the Legislature of 1872, and swept away, for the time being we trust, the fundamental principle of the Maine Law, and again legalized the traffic under a license system. Stump orators now tell us of the amount of money that is to flow into our town treasu- ries for licensing, and thereby clothing our rumsellers with the robe of legal respectability. When the disciples of Mrs. Woodhull shall apply for a law to legalize adultery, and license prostitution, they will find the principle of expediency already established, and the argument of license money flowing into the treasury already promulgated and irrefutably established. It is bad enough in all conscience to allow every person who wills to sell liquors in violation of law, but it is infinitely worse to remedy the evil by giving the traffic a legal sanction. The talk of licensing only respectable and conscientious men to deal out the villainous decoctions, is the merest twaddle. Where is the board of selectmen who will recommend for license the palatial hotel proprietor and the aboveground saloon-keeper and apothecary, and dare to refuse the subterranean restaurant, be he Yankee, Paddy, or Dutchman ? The temperance reformers of this era must work with an indomitable will to achieve the lost ground, combining moral and legal suasion wisely and persistently. Many excellent provisions of the Maine Law continue AND FAMILY RECORDS. 499 unrepealed. The passage of the new license law was a blunder of legislation, not in accord with the views of the legislators who permitted it to be enacted, nor of their constituents. Let its crude provisions and evil tendencies be thoroughly ventilated ; let its repeal be made a test question to candidates for legislative honors, and it will sooner or later be repealed, and the traffic in intoxicating drinks again be outlawed. There are in all communities numbers of men of owl-like wisdom, who assert as an unquestionable fact that more tippling prevails, and that the yearly crop of drunkards is greater in these years, than in the years before concerted temperance movements began. Such Jeremiahs, in order to speak with authority, should have been on the stage more than forty years ago, when there was a cider mill and a cider-brandy still in every school district ; when there were two or three taverns to every one now existing, each of them sustained more by neighborhood tipplers than by traveling customers ; when every store-keeper bought and sold four- fold more rum and whisky than molasses ; when bleared eyes, rubicund noses, and pot bellies infested all public gatherings, and even put in their appearance around the communion table. Such men, if any there be, may rejoice at the prospect of our soon getting back to the " good old times " of free rum, improved by town treasuries overflowing with license money. The temperance bands now on the stage of action have arduous duties to perform, but not more arduous than those performed by the pioneers in the cause some forty years ago. They have in the last few years earnestly labored in stemming the flood of intemperance, amid reproach and discouragements. Let them continue steadfast and immovable ; let them " trust in the Lord, and keep their powder dry," and they will in the end become as invincible as Cromwell's Ironsides. St. Andrew's Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, No. 64, was char- tered in the Spring of 1823, and was installed in June or July following by a deputation from the Grand Lodge, consisting of Jeremy L. Cross, William H. Jones, and Laban Smith, of New Haven ; George Putnam, of Hartford, and others. The officers installed were : — Josiah Smith, W. M. Hosea Hinsdale, S. W. Wheelock Thayer, J. W. Elisha Smith, Treasurer. James M. Boyd, Secretary. The first lodge room was fitted up in the old academy building, now a tenant house, immediately north of Forbes' cabinet establishment, on Main street, west village. About 1829 the lodge was removed to the 500 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, hotel in the east village, and about 1830 was removed to the old Higley Tavern in the west village. The anti-masonic excitement growing out of the disappearance and probable death of Morgan, extended to this state in 1829, and paralyzed the masonic order for several years. St. Andrews, in common with most of the other lodges of the state, became dormant, and surrendered its charter to the Grand Lodge about 1835. In 1853, on application to the Grand Lodge of members of St. Andrew's Lodge, its charter was restored, new officers were appointed, and work was resumed in Woodford's original brick block, which was burned down, March 25, 1853, and the lodge was removed to the Clark and Wetmore store, then standing on the site of the Clarke House. This store was burned down in 1856, and the furniture, jewels, regalia, and all the records of the lodge were consumed. The lodge was reopened in Chamberlin's store, now owned by James A. Bushnell, and thence in. the same year was removed to Weed's brick block, and thence to Wood- ford's new block, in which a new and spacious hall for its occupancy has been fitted up under the new Mansard roof recently erected on the building. Meridian Chapter, No. 15, of Royal Arch Masons was early located at Canaan, and its charter was revoked by the Grand Chapter in 1839. It was reinstated at New Hartford in May, 1848, but not reorganized. It was transferred and reorganized at Winsted in May, 1857, occupying the same halls with St. Andrew's Lodge. In 1858 Tyrian Council of Royal Masters, No. 31, was chartered and installed, and has occupied the same hall with the preceding orders. Prior to the reorganization of St. Andrew's Lodge in 1853, Orion Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows was chartered, installed, and located in Clarke & Wetmore' s store. A dissension among its members resulted in the charter of Union Lodge of I. O. O. F., which was located in Woodford's block. On the burning of the Clarke & Wetmore store, Orion Lodge became dormant, and has never been revived. Union Lodge has also become extinct. Of the early and later public libraries in Winchester, only a meagre account can be given. In the " Old Society " a library of standard works was in existence early in the century, and continued until about 1845, when the books were sold or distributed among the shareholders. In the early reading days of the compiler, there was a library of un- known origin kept in the office of Solomon Rockwell & Brothers, between the east abutment of Lake Street bridge and Camp's brick block. What was the character of the more solid works we have no knowledge ; but AND FAMILY RECORDS. 501 from the lighter class we obtained our first reading of The Fool of Quality, Tom Jones, Pamelia, and Tristram Shandy. This library was broken up, and sold or distributed as early as 1810. As early as 1808, under the auspices of Joel Miller and other scholars of the West District School, a youth's library was organized and located at the house of Asahel Miller, then standing nearly opposite the house of David N. Beardsley, on Spencer Street road. Strange as it may seem, this location was then central to the largest portion of the scholars of the district. The collection consisted mainly of paper- covered volumes, then termed chap-books, which constituted a part of the stock in trade of the trunk peddlers of that period. Among the books were Robinson Crusoe, Baron Trenck, Stephen Burroughs, The Ring, Count de Lovin- ski, and other similar works, by the careful reading of which we were precociously trained to a love of sensational works of a higher order. This library was of short continuance, and would be unworthy of mention otherwise than as illustrative of the craving for literary food by the boys aud girls of that day, and of the kind of provender provided for them be- fore the age of model children who were too faultless to live in this sinful world. The next library was got up about 1810 by members of the Congrega- tional society, and was named " The Winsted Historical and Theological Library," and was kept in the study of the pastor. In the Theological department were, Edwards on the Will and on the Affections, Gilles' Church History, Witherspoon's Sermons, Griffin on the Atonement, and Kinney on the Prophecies. In history it contained Smollet's England, Marshall's Washington, and Trumbull's Connecticut. In its miscellaneous department were two strictly religious novels — Thornton Abbey, and Coelebs in Search of a Wife. The most readable, and most read book of all, was Silliman's Journal of Travels in England, Scotland, and Holland, then just published. This library, after some five to ten years, was pur- chased by the pastor, for whose use it was mainly instituted. About 1812, another library was organized in the West Village, and located at the house of Colonel Hosea Hinsdale. The books selected were such as the people wanted to read rather than such as a severe mor- alist would have said they ought to read. Russell's Modern Europe was the most ponderous, and Knickerbocker's New York the most popular work in the collection. Butler's Hudibras and Peter Pindar were highly appreciated. As a whole it was a well selected library, and well man- aged; but, like its predecessors, the society was dissolved, and the books were sold after five or six years. The next library was got up by a set of young men about 1820, and was located in the East Village. The books were suited to the taste of its founders. They consisted of poetry, novels, plays, and a modicum of 502 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER, history. The life of this institution was brief. The books were sold and scattered in four or five years. The last and longest-lived library was founded by parties in connection with the Methodist Episcopal Church. With a view to i(s permanency, provision was made in its articles of association for its being hidden by the Trustees of the Methodist Society in trust for the use of its share holders. Its books were to be religious and historical, and all fictitious works were to be excluded. No books were, under any circumstances, to be sold ; any attempt to break up the library, or otherwise to dispose of it- was to divest the trustees of their right to control it, and the trust was to be transferred to the town of Winchester. Though denominational in its character, it was not sectarian in an exclusive sense. The Life and Ser- mons of John Wesley, The Life of Adam Clarke and his Commentary, and divers other standard Methodist works constituted the nucleus of the collection, but beyond this the selection of books was suited to all classes of religionists and to every cultivated taste. A majority of the committee of selection were not Methodists in name or religious preferences. His- torical and biographical works were largely selected. Boswell's Johnson and Irving's Conquest of Grenada had a place on the shelves, although the latter was objected to as a fiction ; but on a suggestion that Fra de Savedra was not the author of the chronicles, but the warrior who effected the conquest, and that Irving was the historian of the campaign, the scruples of the objector were removed, and the book enjoyed a high de- gree of popularity. The funds for renovating the library by purchasing new books were raised by occasional taxes levied on the shareholders, and by competitive bids on drawing out books. This library furnished largely the reading of the community for nearly twenty years ; but as the first projectors, one after another, withdrew from its direction, a looseness of management prevailed. Books seldom called for were sold in violation of a funda- mental article of the association. The taxes laid were largely unpaid, and the shares forfeited. Competitive bidding ceased; drawings of books diminished from year to year ; valuable bouks disappeared ; and finally, about 1860, on investigating the affairs of the concern, it was found that only six shareholders remained who had not forfeited their shares by non- payment of taxes. It was found, also, that the library was reduced to a mere skeleton of such books as no one had considered worth appropriating to private use ; and in this predicament a once valuable and highly valued institution has become the shadow of a shade. And such is essentially the history of innumerable libraries throughout the state, organized without a liberal fund from the income of which new books, as they are required, may be provided. Most of the cases where valuable libraries have been preserved from one generation to another are AND FAMILY RECORDS. 503 those where some benevolent founder or founders have provided an en- dowment fund for a liberal supply of new works suited to the changing times and tastes of successive readers. The changed circumstances of modern times render the support of pub- lic libraries far more pr»: carious than it was when family libraries were limited for the most part to a Bible, Hymn book, Catechism, Pilgrim's Progress, a yearly almanac, and one or two devotional or biographical works — when the cost of miscellaneous works exceeded the means of in- dividual readers. In those times a public library was a blessing of price- less value to a community. In these times circumstances are changed. The press teems with thousands of new books every year ; the weekly newspaper, of four-fold the size of the old-time papers, is crowded with every variety of miscellaneous reading ; and the daily paper, once con- fined to the cities, now finds its way to the remotest sections of the country. Almost every family in comfortable circumstances takes a monthly magazine; and very few of them are so remote or obscure as to escape the visits of canvassers without number seeking subscribers for new and valuable works. Instead of permanent libraries, the tendency in these days is, to form book clubs of limited membership, each member contributing two, three, or five dollars, as the case may be, for the purchase of approved modern publications, which successively pass through the hands of each member with/ the privilege of a fortnight's use; each member, at the end of his fortnight, passing his successive books to the next reader on the list, so that each book makes a complete circuit and returns to the librarian. At the end of the year the books are sold to the highest bidding members of the club, and the avails are distributed equally among the members. This process being completed, the club is dissolved or reorganized for another year. There are now two or more such clubs in our community, the oldest of which has existed for ten or more years. The machinery is very simple, and easily adjusted, and if the directing committee are competent and faithful in their selection of authors, the influence of such associations cannot but be highly beneficial. Another invaluable substitute for the libraries of olden times, is the system of free Sunday-school libraries of the various religious denomina- tions. Renovated from year to year by careful selections of new vol- umes and by withdrawing those that are found to be unreadable, or of evil tendency, they furnish a supply of pure and instructive reading, not only for the scholars, but for the families to which they belong. Times are changed, and we are changed with them. Had we at this day a richly endowed library, .crowded with all the treasures of ancient theol- ogy, history, science, and poetry, and replenished with modern views of 504 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. doctrinal theology, newly broached emendations of history, rapid advances of science and art, and a poetry that appeals more to the heart than to the ear — we might well be proud of such an institution, but it is very doubtful whether the people, as a mass, would be benefited thereby to the same extent as they are by the unpretentious modern Sunday-school libraries. CHAPTER XXXV. RISE AND PROGRESS OF MANUFACTURES. The predominating element of growth in all interior New England towns is the introduction and enlargement of machinery in aid of handi- craft operations, inaptly termed manufacturing. The handicraftsman, comprehending the smith, carpenter, shoemaker, and tailor, comes into every new town as an indispensable accessory of the farmer. He com- bines his skilled labor with that of the soil tiller in sustaining the life of a civilized community. The minister, school-master, doctor, and tradesman follow as essential elements of its existence. These are mutual aids to each other. *They are all primarily dependent on the product of the soil ; and as this is naturally fertile or otherwise, well tilled, or exhausted by bad husbandry, the community grows or declines. The manufacturer who utilizes the water-fall by making it the motive power of ingenious machinery, brings in a new element of growth and prosperity, without which most of our sterile towns decline with the ex- haustion of their virgin soil, and with which they are sustained and en- riched. Winchester, without its factories, would have culminated in 1800 and have declined in productiveness and population every succeeding year ; and Winsted would have remained through all time a " Hard Scrabble " region. We propose very briefly to trace the rise and progress of manufacturing in the town, beginning with Wooden Ware. The saw-mill was, of course, the first utilization of water power in this, as in most other primitive communities. The location of the earliest of these has already been noted. Besides supplying the home demand for lumber, they early turned out a limited supply of white-wood boards and clap-boards, which were sledded over winter snows to Hartford and other distant towns. White-ash sweeps, oars, and materials for ship-blocks were also got out and carried to Hartford and Wethersfield for up and down river navigation of the Connecticut. 64 506 ANNALS OF WINCHESTER. Dish mills for making wooden bowls, trenchers, and moi'tars, followed as accessories to the saw mills. They used up the slabs from the saw- mill logs, by cutting them into disks which were centered and turned in coarse lathes to the convex surface of the outer dish. With a curved turning tool, the outer dish was separated from the disk, and then smaller ones were turned off successively until the disk was exhausted. The slabs from which these disks were made were wider and thicker than were taken from logs when lumber increased in value. The trenchers and mortars were turned by a similar proces-. The maker or peddler of these articles packed them into a strong bed tick, in which they were carried on the back of a horse, along the narrow bridle-paths to the earlier settled towns, where they were bartered for " store pay." At least four of these mills were located along the lake stream, and as many others in various parts of the town iu the last century, two of which — one at the Meadow Street crossing of the lake stream, and the other opposite the old ican-to mill house on Lake street, were in operation as late as 1805. Cheese Boxes, Scale Boards. Early in this century, John Me Alpine erected and carried