Untitled Document

From the Connecticut Historical Collection BY John Warner Barbour Published 1836

Kent is characteristically mountainous; it is bounded N. by Sharon, E. by Warren, s. by New Milford, and w. by the state of New York. It is nearly 8 miles in length, and 6 in breadth from east to west. The manufacture of iron was formerly carried an to a considerable extent in this town; there are at present three furnaces in operation. There are 3 houses of worship in the town; 1 Episcopal, 1 Congregational, and 1 Methodist.

The above is a representation of the Episcopal church in Kent, 50 miles from Hartford, and the same distance from New Haven. The Housatonic river passes at the foot of the mountain seen in the back ground. About a mile and a half below this building, on the opposite side of the river, the Moravian church or mission house was standing 30 or 40 years since, near the house of Mr. Raymond, which is just discernible.in the distance on the extreme left. The Moravians left this place about half a century since. The Scatacook tribe, for whose benefit this mission was established, occupied the interval on the west side of the river for about three miles. The scenery in this place has a peculiar charm, being uncommonly beautiful and interesting. The river, calm and still, winds with grace and beauty through this fertile spot, while the mountain rises abruptly, high, rugged and precipitous, forming a back ground and finish to the picture. During the Revolutionary war this tribe furnished 100 warriors. It is said that they were able to communicate intelligence from the sea coast 10 Stockbridge, Mass. the distance of 100 miles, in two hours. This was effected by Indian yells, or whoops, from their men, who were stationed at proper places along the borders of the Housatonic, from its mouth up to Stockbridge. Dr. Dwight, who passed through this place in 1798, says that there were sixteen wigwams remaining.

Gideon Mauwehu, the king or sachem of the Scatacook tribe, was a Pequot Indian. The last place of his residence, previous to his coming to Kent, was in the town of Dover, N. Y. on Ten mile river, a few miles west of Scatacook. Mauwehu, in one of his hunting excursions, came to the summit of the mountain which rises almost precipitously west of Scatacook, and beholding the beautiful valley and river below, determined to make it the place of his future residence. It was indeed a lovely and desirable place; there were several hundred acres of excellent land, covered with grass like a prairie, with some few scattering trees interspersed. The river was well supplied with fish, and on the mountains, on both sides, was found an abundance of deer, and other wild game. At this place Mauwehu collected the Indians, and became their sachem, and here the Moravians had a flourishing mission.

A granddaughter of the sachem, Eunice Mauwehu, and two or three families, are all that now (1836) remain of the tribe at Scatacook. The place where Mauwehu resided was sold by the state for about 3,000 dollars, the interest of which is annually appropriated for their benefit. This farm has been recently sold by Mr. Raymond for 18,000 dollars. The tribe still possesses about 300 acres of land, lying south of this farm; the greater part of which, however, lies on the mountain west of the valley, and is valued from 1,500 to 2,000 dollars.

"There is in this town, (says Dr. Trumbull,) convincing evidence, that it was a grand seat of the native inhabitants of this country, before Indians, who more lately inhabited it, had any residence in it. There are arrow heads, stone pots, and a sort of knives, and various kinds of utensils, frequently found by the English, of such curious workmanship, as exceeds all the skill of any Indians since the English came into this country, and became acquainted with them. These were not only found when the town was first settled, but they are still found on the sides of Housatonic river. The history of the Indians in the town when the settlement of it commenced, is well known. Mowehue, a sachem, who a few years beforehad removed with his Indians from Newtown to New Milford, about the year 1728 built him a hunting house at Scatacook, in the northwest part of Kent, on the west bank of the Housatonic river. He invited the Indians at New Milford, from the Oblong, in the province of New York, and from various other places, to settle with him at Scatacook; and it appears that he was a man of so much art and popularity among the Indians, that in about ten or eleveh years, about the time when the town was settled, he could muster an hundred warriors. The whole number, probably, was about live or six hundred. These, like the other Indians in this state, and in most other states, have been greatly diminished.

Submitted by Fran Johnson

Flanders, an ancient settlement, which was the business center of the region until the modern village of Kent on the southward plains superseded it.

Flanders now represents little else besides farming interests, but once it contained a tavern, a meeting house, a grist mill, a wagon shop, a blacksmith's shop, a tailor's shop, tanning works, etc.; and there the important town clerk attended to his duties and the village parson lived in spiritual blessedness. It was about 1830 that Flanders began to lose its prestige in favor of the modern village, its being somewhat apart from the line of the railroad no doubt largely accounting to its decline.

Here is the Burritt Eaton's house, about 150 years old, which was formerly a tavern kept by Col. Philo Mills. In the lot back of the tavern the militia used to train. Next are the pleasant residences of George R. Bull, Kent Furnace's worthy and prosperous merchant, and Albert Roberts, which are situated at the head of the road leading to Kent Furnace.

Other noteworthy houses were those where Deacon Lewis Mills and John Slosson once kept stores. Within the limits of the road on a knoll where a flag pole now stands was the site of the old Congregational meeting house, long since departed. Rev. Joel Bordwell was its pastor for fifty years. Mr. Bissell now lives in what was the Congregational parsonage.

Here too is the well known Slosson homestead from which a number of eminent Slossons, lawyers, judges and the like, have emanted and made their ability and influence vigorously felt in places of size and enterprise.

"Uncle Nathan Slawson," a farmer of the family, was an able man who when he saw a good thing knew it. It is related of him that he once played a trick on a dude from the eastern country who sought to ingratiate himself into the good graces of a family of comely Hubbell girls who lived west of the Housatonic river. The dude, or dandy, as would be a more fit word to use for that time, assumed a patronizing air on one occasion and hired "Uncle Nathan," humble in aspect and commonly dressed, to carry him on his back across the river to visit the girls. When they were in the midst of the stream, "Uncle Nathan" said, "I shall have to, for twenty-five cents, set you down and rest," and thereupon shook off the dandy completely sousing him and his brave fine clothes.

The North Kent cemetery is a burial yard with a fine modern fence about it. This fence is perhaps the best one surrounding a cemetery in Litchfield county and cost $2,500, a large sum considering the small area inclosed. The posts, erected at frequent intervals, are solid bars of handsome stone, each seven feet long, four feet out of the ground and three feet in it, each set of a bed of stones and so firmly planted that they may stand for one thousand years. Between the posts are solid bars of galvanized iron.

Seventeen members of the Eaton family are buried here and a handsom monument to their memory was erected a few years ago.

Across Western Brook which perpetuates the memory of a minister named Western, on a little rise of ground, is the saw mill of enterprising George B. Page.

Near by is the Berry family homestead. Of one of its occupants, Nathaniel Berry, the following anecdote is told. Before the days of carriages with springs Berry owned a big lumber wagon somewhat like those now used for carting purposes only. The people went to meeting on horseback and in ox carts, and on the advent of the lumber wagons placed in them as seats double chairs called "wagon chairs." One of these chairs would hold two persons and several were usually placed in one wagon, thus accommodating six or eight individuals.

Deacon Bates lived on one of the hills east of the main road, and was praying one morning when Nathaniel's lumber wagon rattled by, just as the deacon fervently ejaculated, "Lord, come in thy chariot of fire and take me to thyself." The next moment the deacon, jumping up as the ominous noise fell upon his startled ears, exclaimed, "Oh, Lord! I never said anything in jest but what you took me in blood 'arnest;" and, quaking, the worthy but not quite prepared man of God hid himself under a bed.

We went by the old farm formerly owned by James Stuart deceased. At the old Eaton place where my companion was born we turned eastward into the "Forge Road." At this point the valley northward with its green meadows, intersected by the winding river, is fair to look upon.

On the Forge Road further on the far famed Kent Falls. The stream flows a few rods from the road down a long rambling ledge descending westward in the midst of a thick growth of trees and bushes. From the most precipitous part of the ledge the main falls come from a height of fifty feet or more. These falls are divided into two parts, the upper falls descending into a good-sized middle basin, and thence the water leaps into a second and broader basin hollowed in solid rock. In summer, the falls come down in slender but beautiful columns, not more than one hundredth the size of the rushing foaming torrents which in the spring leap, casting clouds of spray and fascinating the eye with their marvelous beauty. There is a spot in the middle basin which is said to be thrity or forty feet deep. In the lower basin is a circular hollow, rounded by madly circling waters so as exactly to resemble the interior of a hugh cauldron. In the rocks about the falls is a big hole or cave called the "Meeting House."

Among the various basins below the falls is one which was once called the "Pork Barrel," by a man named Mills who claimed the ownership or control of it. Mills was a great fisherman and reserved the choice Pork Barrel where big trout lay ensconced, for his own exlusive use. Mills was a kindhearted man and, whenever a neighbor was sick and in need of something to tempt the appetite would go to the Pork Barrel and catch a fine trout for him. But Mills was jealous of his rights, and once when a man named Studley attempted to fish in the pool, he picked up stones and from a vantage point among the bushes threw the missiles so effectively at the intruder that he was glad to beat a hasty retreat.

Mills and Ezra Eaton once had an amusing experience. Eaton had been fishing in the Housatonic river and his boat lay on the shore. Mills came along a picking up the catch of fish made off with it and kept it temporarily in a spirit of fun. The fish had forked tails, and Mills assumed that all forked-tailed fish belonged to him and all square-tailed fish to Isaac Nogar. Eaton went fishing another time and Mills was on hand at the boat again, but Eaton has cunningly "squared" the tails of the fish with his knife so that Mills was obliged to say, "I can make no claim to these fish; they belong to Nogar."

The lower fall are pleasing, but are not so high or picturesque as the upper ones. The railroad is not far distant, and in the winter when the trees are free of leaves, the water of both falls can be easily seen from where the cars pass.

It seemed strange to be told that this now secluded and thickly wooded place was, in old times, the site of mills and other industries requiring strong water power; but such was the case and it afforded another illustration, such as the remnants of dams an forges afford in the Bulls Bridge and Macedonia regions, how the small but flourishing industries that once enlivened the banks and streams in Connecticut, and also in other New England states, have departed, in favor of modern enterprises which concentrate business in large establishments at tide water and utilize the steam engine.

An attempt was made to open a marble quarry near the falls, but the scheme was a "fake" one, and the innocent victims of the speculators lost much money.

The Kent Falls are a favorite resort for picnickers who on the southern bank shaded by pine trees, do their cooking in a fireplace made of stones.

Submitted by Fran Johnson

That part of Kent known as Bulls Bridge is two and one-half miles from South Kent and one and one-half miles at its nearest point to the railroad. The road at Bulls Bridge intersects the highway from South Kent to South Dover, N.Y. The road leading from the depot at Merwinsville is a pleasant drive, being much of the way near the wooded banks of the Housatonic river. The first object of striking interest to notice is a commanding hill, Owl Town Mountain, with Picketts Rocks standing out from surrounding trees on the summit as if it were a natural fort. This elevation rises east of the road.

The mail is carried between Bulls Bridge and Gaylordsville for the munificent sum of thirty-nine cents a day.

A little south of Bulls Bridge in a lot west of the road is the cemetery of the place, showing numerous grave stones within a small area. If industrial growth constitutes what is most desirable in a place, it was unfortunate for Bulls Bridge that the railroad did not run through it, as at one time was planned. But, on the other hand, the lover of the beautiful can see something fortunate in the circumstances which protected Bulls Bridge from the roar of the great world and left it sequestered and almost as picturesque as in its pristine days before the white man came and made his wide clearings.

The center of Bulls Bridge is where the roads from Gaylordsville to Kent and from South

over cross at right angles. The hamlet comprises a few houses, a country store and a "tabernacle." Two of these houses are good sized and attractive white structures set in ample yards. The stand on opposite sides of the South Kent road. The house on the north is the home of Mott Judd, father of Jerome Judd. Mott Judd is a pleasant gentleman, a fitting representative of the better class of New England farmers. Alonzo Mallory, formerly a railroad man, now a farmer, occupies the house on the south.

Mott Judd's sister, Mrs. Flora Millspaugh, keeps house for him. Her husband was a man of ability. He built the house where Mr. Mallory now lives and laid out an extensive flower garden in which at one time sixty-nine different kinds of flowers grew. He invented a kerosene tester and was the author of a useful book entitled, "Kerosene Accidents and How to Prevent Them"

On Mott Judd's farm is a tenant house occupied by Patrick McGarry. West of Mr. Judd's home is an ancient house where the aged but active Elisha Potter resides. On the south side of the road nearly opposite Mr. Potter's house and within a few rods of the covered bridge that crosses the Housatonic river are the store, and four houses. Of the three houses on the bank of the river one is vacant and the other two are occupied by the families of Minot Stevens and Joseph Wilcox. The fourth house, quite a large one, at the rear of the store, is owned by Charles Stone. Charles Stone is the business genius of the place. His restless and planning mind is fully alive to the great future which awaits Bulls Bridge, it being a spot, where, except at Falls Village, by far the best unutilized water power of the Housatonic river is located. The ruins of an iron furnace stand on the river bank a short distance from Mr. Stone's house.

North of Elisha Potter's house is the noted 'Tabernacle.' once a saloon but redeemed for God's work by the Free Methodists. Now union services are held in it and fervent flows of religious feeling are are frequent. The so-called "parsonage' beside the 'tabernacle' is the home of Frank Ashmond and family. Rev. E. B. Hawley is the sponsor for this good work in changing a saloon into a gospel shop.

At the furnace a brick kiln rises amid a massive ruin of rocks that once stood solidly around it. Just west of the ruins a large wall stands intact. Its base is washed by the rapidly flowing waters of the river. Much money was expended in the construction of the furnace and it was once the nucleus of a large business, which flourished long before the railroad was built. Probably 200 men were employed at the furnace and in the carting work connected with it. The ore was brought from Clove, Dutchess county, N.Y., a distance of fifteen miles, and twenty-one teams employed in the work could frequently be counted in line on the arrival at Bulls Bridge. Elisha Potter was one of the teamsters.

The iron of finished product was carted to Poughkeepsie, N.Y., the cost for taking a tone there being $5. Iton then sold for $60 a ton, now the price is about $20 a ton. Scotch pig iron was then the kind which had the biggest reputation for good quality, and the iron made at Bulls Bridge was fully equal to it. The ore beds in the south and west were at that time not at all or little utilized, and untammeled by formidable competition, the iron industry flourished in the Housatonic valley. In those good and prosperous days more people lived at and about Bulls Bridge than at the present. It is said that sixty children attended school, whereas now the number is but twelve.

The furnace was built in 1826, and at the time of the civil war was known as the Monitor Iron Works because iron made there was used in the construction of ironclad vessels.

Frederick J. Fenn, one of the owners of the blast furnace, removed to Salisbury. He was the victim of a sad misfortune. A keg of powder was exploded in a seam amid the rocks at the furnace. Mr. Fenn stood too near, and was struck in the eyes by particles of the stone, which rendered him totally blind.

Tim Lannigan, an employe at the furnace, fell into the river near it and was drowned. While men were searching for the body some odd suggestions were made. One was that a candle be placed in a bundle of straw which, it was asserted, would float to that part of the water under which the body lay. A wag claimed, inasmuch as the deceased was an Irishman, that a potato should be attached to a string for the purpose of "skiddering' for Tim.

The corpse was finally recovered without recourse to the extaordinary expedients. There was a big wake over the remains and at the funeral the widow frquently and lustily cried: "Oh Tim, why did ye come to America to be drowned!"

Beside the furnace is a beautiful grove where the Sunday school children from Kent frequently hold picnics. Just east of the grove are the ancient remains of the Bulls Bridge cemetery. A few badly broken stones lie askew beneath a canopy of regardless sumacs.

The chief attraction at Bulls Bridge is the falls. They begin a few rods above the bridge, tumbling many feet down a ledge that extends from bank to bank. Boiling and dangerous are the torrents and swifter in their course than is the arrow's flight. From the first falls the river gradually descends for many rods over a slanting surface of rock, at places jutting upwards sufficiently to cause other and lesser falls. The shores in the vicinity of the falls are wooded, picturesque and winding, appropriately bounding the dashing waters. The place is named after Jacob Bull, who over a hundred and twenty-five years ago was given permission to erect a grist mill and iron works at this point. Mr. Bull came from Dover, N.Y.

It used to be said that Bulls Bridge was noted for three things, "lamper eels, bull beef and handsome women." The reference to bull beef was a hit on John Chamberlain, a butcher called "Leather Wheels." He was an original character, and devised singular nicknames for his associates, which are well remembered to this day. Some of these names were: "Hardack," "Swing Clear," "Major," "Enoch," "Broad Horns," "Old Hail Cut," "Forlorn Dove," "John Harmless," and "Nogar."

A short distance from the home of Henry Spooner, on the west side of the river from Bulls Bridge, one soon comes to the house of Martin B. Lane, once a conductor on the Housatonic railroad. Mr. Lane is now a farmer and also the agent who manages the property of the descendants of the Scatacook Indians. He submits an account of his stewardship annually to the Court of Common Pleas in this county.

Between Scatacook mountain and the river there is but a narrow strip of valley land. The mountain rises precipitously to a great height and must be at least two miles long. It is densely wooded and in summer time it presents a grand bank of luxuriant foliage, which can be best seen by the traveler on the east side of the river. The road beneath the mountain, with the winding stream on the right hand is full of attractions. It is not unfitting that in so romantic a region, at the south end of Scatacook mountain, the few last families of the Indians who were once the sole masters of the country should have their dwelling place.

South Kent
Submitted by Fran Johnson

The village of South Kent is a small place, only four houses in the center and two houses in the suburbs, so to speak. But it represents a lot of enterprise; for it is here that Fred H. Chase has demonstrated the large possibilities of the country store when it is situated in a favorable spot and run at a minimum of expense.

Mr. Chase is now South Kent's leading business man, and he is well entitled to the honor. One dozen years ago he bought of William Geer the small and ancient grocery store of this place. Geer had run the store a year only. His predecessor was Edwards Dakins, who made a snug sum of money from the business, after he bought it of a man named Segar. It was an old stand, but it remained for Chase to make it a noteworthy establishment.

He had $600 in cash and $2,100 borrowed money when he took possession of the small grocery, and to-day he is a well-to-do citizen, even a rich one for a small country place. Close to the railroad station stands his store and dwelling house, a good sized and good looking structure. South is a feed store, it being the remodeled building formerly occupied by the small grocery, and north of the main store is Mr. Chase's latest building, a structure 100 feet long, 30 feet wide and 22 feet high.

It is fitted up in modern style with tanks of cool water for the reception of the milk cans, and a churn run by steam power. The second floor contains a room for cheese making and a large space for storage and grinding of grain, the mill for grinding being run by the steam engine on the first floor. At the east end of the building is an apartment for the ice needed in the creamery, capacity for storage being 600 tons, ice being obtained from Hatch's pond a short distance from the station.

The four houses in the immediate vicinity of the station are those of Walter Page, VanNess Case, Miss Emiline Fanton and John Burkhardt. All are farmers and Mr. Page runs a distillery and cider mill. Miss Fanton although eighty-two years old, is alert and businesslike, a fine specimen of the old fashioned American housewife. Her farm is managed by a competent man, but she has general oversight.

Another thing worthy of mention is the railroad station, about the size of an umbrella, which is ably managed by Store-keeper Chase, who waves a red flag for trains to stop, but has no tickets to sell. Then there is a little ancient history of particular interest. There have been six hotels in the place, usually one at a time, which were frequented in days before the railroad when cattle drovers were thick on the roads.

The former name of the village was Pigtail Corners or Hopson Corners, the name Pigtail, according to tradition, being adopted because one neighbor got angry at another neighbor and cut off the tail of his enemy's pig.

Following the Bulls Bridge road westward, one passes the John Straight farm now owned by Mr. John Judd. It is one of the largest and best farms in the town of Kent. Adjoining this farm are the premises of Miss Helen Straight, a most competent woman farmer.

Ascending Turkey Hill, one comes to the house of Robert Boyd. Mr. Boyd is a good farmer, his buildings and well cultivated acres showing the care and enterprise of the thorough manager. From the summit of Turkey Hill, so called because wild turkeys in old times used to alight on it in great numbers during their expeditions, a fine view can be had of the valley through which flows the Housatonic river and of the noble Scatacook range beyond. At the foot of the hill is the fine home of William Newton, a well-to-do farmer. After turning north into the road leading over Spooner Hill one passes the home of Nathaniel Dwy, also those of Charles L. Spooner and Simeon Griffin. At this point one can look down into a shelving valley, where enclosed on three sides by picturesque hills lies the beautiful little Leonard Pond. East of the pond is Leonard Mountain, north of it Cobble Mountain and west of it an elevation of Spooner Hill.

Where the road turns eastward to join the main road from South Kent to Kent, is the old John Spooner place. John Spooner was a noted cattle dealer in his day. A little south of the junction of the roads is the farm of Mott Darling, a thrifty tiller of the soil, and a little north of the junction is the house of another farmer, Jerome Leonard.

Up the main road from South Kent a short distance is the house of John Orton, nearly opposite Leonard Pond. On returning to South Kent via the main road one passes the houses of Seth Monroe and Leonard Unson, who lives on the borders of Hatch Pond. A little south of Mr. Unson's house is the abode and shop of Ephraim Merrit, blacksmith and general repairer of the region.

Near by is the school house, a small red structure, humble enough but celebrated now as the place where a rising young business man obtained all his book education. The young man referred to is young John Burkhardt of South Kent village. Mr. Burkhardt is now traveling salesman for a large New York firm and his employers consider him the best drummer in the New England states.

About ten years ago there was a curious landslide from the hill east of Hatch Pond. Tons of earth suddenly left a high bed and made a double quick run over a stretch of meadow, across the railroad track into the lake. The thundering noise came in the midst of the night and aroused the inhabitants, terrifying them mightily. Hatch Pond is about a mile long and is celebrated resort of fishermen from New Milford, Danbury and other places.

Copied from "History of Kent, Connecticut" by Francis Atwater 1897

Submitted by Fran Johnson

The scenery along the route from Bulls bridge to Kent is pleasing. A fine view can be obtained of Scatacook mountain, rising a short distance west of the stream.

Along this route are the homes of John Newton, a well-to-do farmer, Edward Gregory and Charles Lee. Mr. Gregory is a bold companion of Geo. Coggswell, the noted snake hunter, whose home stands opposite Mr. Gregory's on the west side of the river. The two men have often visited Rattlesnake Den and together have fearlessly slaughtered many of the venomous reptiles.

Charles Lee is a jovial farmer, a Democrat in politics, who represented Kent in the House of Representatives in 1893. It is said that the late Charles Edwards, once delivered a lecture in schoolhouses in Kent and vicinity, asking a small price for admission and using the funds thus obtained for the benefit of a needy neighbor. The lecture was full of local hits and abounded in humor. In it full explanation was given to the nicknames, "Leather Wheels" "Old Hail Cut," etc., to which reference has been made in a previous article.

The lecture gained such celebrity that is was finally decided to print it in pamphlet form. It is thought that a few copies of this pamphlet are still extant.

The long main street of Kent center is one of those attractive thoroughfares that can be found in the old settled towns of New England. It is shaded the greater part of the way on each side by a row of flourishing trees, mostly maples, and both they and the few elms among them are free from beetles and other destroying insects, a fact upon which the people of Kent should greatly congratulate themselves at a time when pestiferous bugs are sapping the life of hundreds of arboreal monarchs in many parts of the state. A number of large, fine residences, set amid ample, beautifully shaded grounds, line the Main street, among these residences being those of Mrs. M. L. Stuart, John and George Hopson, Luther Eaton, Mrs. Haxtun, Mrs. Ingersoll, Mrs. Catherine Fuller and C. H. Gaylord. And there are a score of other homes in the vicinity which, if not so imposing, are models of comfort and attractiveness.

The street is provided with a private sewer for the use of residents who contributed liberally toward its support, and this sewer, throughout its length, can be easily and thoroughly flushed by water from the reservoir of the Kent Water Company. The sewer has an outlet in the Housatonic river. The sewer is an improvement not often found in a village no larger than Kent. The public water is furnished to the residents of the entire village and it, as well as the sewer, demonstrates Kent's claim to a progressiveness not common in a place of its size.

To drive to the reservoir the road around the Cobble eastward is taken, the latter being a long wooded elevation that stretches east of the village and continues a considerable distance northward.

On this road is located Luther Eaton's farm and tobacco warehouse, which for many years was used extensively in raising and packing tobacco, and further on is the old Swift place. The present house upon it is only about fifteen years old, but it is the successor of one of Kent's oldest and best known houses, the age of the departed structure being about 150 years.

The pipe from the reservoir to the village extends under one side of this road, and is fed by a pipe from Page's Spring. This spring is on a wood height forty feet above the level of the reservoir, and during the greater part of the year furnishes the village with sufficient water of the purest quality without recourse to the larger source of supply.

A mile and one half from the village, on the east side of the Cobble, is the well constructed reservoir, which was built under the superintendence of Frank Leonard of South Norwalk in 1881, at a cost of $16,000. The capitol stock of the company represents $15,000, and, although moderate, even insufficient dividends are earned, principally because there are not enough water takers in the village to furnish a good revenue at such rents as can be feasibly asked and paid, the public spirit which prompted the undertaking has been amply justified. Besides the diminution of labor and the great convenience to householders afforded by the public water, it has been the means of saving the village from a serious destruction of property. The company furnishes a hose cart and lengths of hose free of charge and hydrants for the attachment of hose, and the value of these appliances has three times been effectually demonstrated. A few years ago a barn at the upper end of the village caught fire and the flames would have burned an adjacent costly house and perhaps other dwellings, had not the use of the fire apparatus conquered the danger. The safeguards were equally useful in overcoming two other fires, one in a small cigar shop and another in the railroad station. At least $25,000 worth of property has thus been saved from destruction.

The reservoir covers two acres and has a capacity of 3,000,000 gallons. Its altitude above the village is 168 feet. A substantial dam holds the water back and suitable stone work, where needed, makes firm the remaining sides of the receptacle. The reservoir is fed by water from unfailing springs within in and by water brought to it through a six inch pipe from Mill brook. There is a suitable outlet for the overflow of water, which runs into a riverlet below the reservoir. So particular have the oficers of the company been to prevent contamination that a neighboring farmer, the drainage from whose barnyard threatened to percolate through the ground toward the reservoir, was paid a proper sum of money to erect a wall or embankment which caused the drainage to flow in the opposite direction.

Through the narrow valley which extends far northward of the reservoir between ranges of wooded hills, and abounds in picturesque scenery, lies what is known as Flanders, an ancient settlement.

Submitted by Fran Johnson

Birdsey G. Pratt was born in Macedonia and lived on a farm a good part of his life and is well acquainted with Macedonia and all the surrounding country. The traveler, not acquainted with the past, who journeys through this region, now quiet and unambitious in appearance, the abiding place of farmers, little dreams that it was once a busy manufacturing center. Mr. Pratt, who can remember when Macedonia was an important place, feels sad when he thinks of the glory that is no more.

Macedonia lies west and northwest of the village of Kent and is separated from it by a long elevation called Pismire Hill, followed toward the northern part of the valley by Pond mountain, leading west from which is a third hill, known as Stone's Ledges. The valley is a beautiful spot, like that described by Whittier in his poem of Barbara Feietchie:

The Macedonia Brook, a stream of considerable size and force, runs through the center of the valley.

The old Gilbert place, once the home of the brothers, John, Allen and Henry Gilbert, all of whom are dead, is now the home of F.H. Gilbert, a son of Allen. The brothers were shoemakers and conducted a large tanney which stood a little north of their house near the present residence of John Duncan. On the opposite side of the road was a cemetery. At present it is a plowed field, all efforts to preserve its graves and to maintain its sacred character having been abandoned.

Near by is the house once the home of Dwight Chamberlain, a relative of President Dwight of Yale college. Here is the Macedonia wagon shop, established in 1847, where a thriving business was conducted by the brothers, Norman, Allen and Linus Winegar.

The water of a stream flowing north of the shop turned the bi overshot wheel, the power moving a saw, and felloes and other wood pieces needed in the construction of carriages were sawed out. The father of the brothers was Beecher Winegar, who had a little wagon shop where a pump stands in the yard of the house just north of the old wagon shop. A short distance from here is the commodious and pleasant residence of Deacon L. W. Stone and near by is the school house, from which a remarkably fine view of the southern portion of the valley can be obtained, showing a long stretch of beautiful meadows and Cobble and Algo mountains beyond them.

Near where the old road turns northward from an easterly course, is the only dam left on the Macedonia Brook. Here was the site of the large puddling works, which were run by the Kent Iron Company. Probably twenty-five men were employed in the puddling operations alone, not to speak of the many teamsters and other workmen connected with them. All kinds of wrought iron work, such as crow-bars, wagon tires, etc., were made and sent in great quantities to Poughkeepsie, New Haven and Bridgeport.

The overseer of the work was Eber S. Peters, who also conducted near by the saw mill which is now successfully managed by his son, J. H. Peters. He lives in a handsome stone house nearly opposite his mill. In the third building he keeps a store.

The Kent Iron company established the Macedonia store in a large old fashioned building. Later the proprietors were Charles Edwards and Squire Rufus Fuller. In the manufacturing days this building, where now a private family dwells in seclusion, was a lively place and did a big business, being a center where the people from miles around gathered. In front of the store were scales and a platform for weighing big loads of coal, iron and other things. Teams were constantly arriving and departing and there was a great bustle.

In the neighboring stream is an old dam still in good condition. Here a cider mill stood. The owner was Zachariah Winegar, who lived in a large brick house which stands opposite the site of a defunct grist mill, the latter being a little north of the cider mill. Edward Schermerhorn conducted the grist mill. The brick house is two stories high, and was considered the finest house in the region at the time it was built. After Zachariah, his son, Anson Winegar owned the house, and it is at present the homes of Mrs. Frances Barnum, a daughter of Anson.

The next place of interest is Forge Hill, where what was called the "second forge" stood. At the foot of this hill on the east is the entrance to a road which crosses a bridge and leads to Fuller mountains. At the second forge were stamping works where shot iron was stamped out of the cinder, from the furnace.

At the blast furnace were made thousands of tons of pig iron and hundreds of bushels of charcoal were burned to make the tion. The ore was hauled from South Kent, Amenia and Salisbury; all told, hundreds of people were employed to keep the furnace running. The charcoal was made on the mountains near by. Limestone used in the furnace was all hauled from the east side of the Housatonic river, as there was none on the west side of Kent. Near the furnace were large coal houses and a blacksmith shop. Trees and shrubs cover the ground, and the traveler sees scarcely anything to remind him that he is passing a place where an extensive business was done forty years ago. The chief reminder of the iron industry is the dark color of the highway, noticeable all the way between the first and second forges. The ground is still speke with the cinders that emanted from the forges.

From The Connecticut Quarterly
SECOUND QUARTER April, May and June 1895. Vil 1. No. 2.

While the Berkshire Hills have long been a favorite resort for city folk, the Litchfield Hills, their continuation in Connecticut, have had until recent years comparatively little reputation. Litchfield, however, on its hill-top, long looked up to as one of the most beautiful towns in New England, has in its turn looked down on the world at large from its vantage ground of antiquity and culture. Excepting this town, the lovely rolling hills of Litchfield county have been greeted by no large number of visitors. But now, year by year, these hills are becoming more widely known, and increasing numbers of guests are enjoying the lovely scenery and invigorating air.

Lakeville has of late been on the lips of those interested in education, as the site of the splendidly endowed Hotchkiss School, preparatory to Yale and other universities. Also among these hills lies Washington, loved and admired as the site of the famed old “Gunnery” school, as well as for its picturesque aspect. Many other spots have been the pleasant summer haunts of the few.

In recent years, visitors in increasing numbers have been attracted to Norfolk, whose altitude, about foqrteen hundred feet above tide, ensures pure air and tempers the heat with mountain breezes. It is but a few miles from the Massachusetts line. The engine which puffs arduously up to Norfolk, reaches there the highest railway station in Connecticut. This little town upon its hills, looking off on the blue Berkshires, and made glad by many streams, had doubtless still been dreaming out its sylvan life, were it not so fortunate as to be the residence of two closely connected families long noted for culture and Beneficence.

A beautiful library, planned by George Keller of Hartford, has been built, perfect in every appointment, possessing even a conversation-room — for doubtless the donor of the building saw, as did the architect, the importance of a retreat for at least some of our sisters, where silvern speech might take the place of golden silence. Books may be drawn free of charge by villagers and guests. Nothing could look more charmingly cozy of a cool September or October day than the glow and flame in the open fire-place of the artistic hail; and indeed the entire furnishing of the building is a delight to the aesthetic sense. This may be said also of the fine gymnasium, from designs by H. R. Marshall, built by another member of the same family connection. There are tennis-courts on the grounds and a bowling-alley, as well as the gymnasium proper, equipped perfectly for every possible requirement. Here again, no charge is made for the many advantages. In the parlor of the building there is music, norning and evening during the summer and the dancing in the gymnasium hall several evenings a week, to which all are welcomed. In the winter, a teacher of athletics is provided to make strong the Norfolk touth.

Still another gift is a village fountain, which stands at the end of the village-green. This fountain, an exquisite piece of workmanship in granite and bronze, was designed by Stanford White, the bronze being by St. Gaudens. Facing the same green as the beautiful memorial chapel. of the Congregational church, built by Mrs. Urania Humphrey, in memory of her father and mother. This build designed by Cady, is of granite and consits of a speacious lecture room and an adjoining parlor, which may be thrown together. The west end of the chapel is beautified by a Tiffany window.

Close by stands the old church, a wooden structure of the New England meeting-house type, with a Wren steeple. The first house of worship was taken down and this one erected in 1813. Since then, the interior has been renovated and a fine large organ presented to the church. From the belfry, a chime of bells tells the quarter-hours, ringing out its full tune before the stroke of each hour. The latest gift is a field for athletic sports, for the young men of Norfolk.

There are numerous lakes within a few miles of Norfolk. The region abounds in springs and is noted for the purity of its water; but to insure a bountiful supply, an aqueduct, bringing water from Lake Wangum, has recently been opened. "The Hillhurst," a home-like hotel, commands a fine prospect. At this house, President Porter of Yale was wont to pass the last summers of his life. Many fine building sites are being occupied, yet the rural simplicity of the place has not been spoiled by showy ornamentation.

Of the old residents of the village, the Battell and Eldridge families are notable, and to them Norfolk owes its adornments. The Rev. Dr. Joseph Eldridge was for forty-two years the beloved and honored pastor of the Norfolk church. Norfolk was indeed favored in keeping all its own a man of such marked ability and wide repute. The doors of his home were opened with large sympathy, and his hearth was sought by many, even from afar, who always found there rest and intellectual stimulus. Among his European visitors was Pere Hyacinthe, who came to this quiet nook, far away from the whirlwind of popular feeling which his sudden departure from the Church of the Madeleine had raised.

The first settled pastor of Norfolk was the Rev. Ammi Ruhamah Robbins, grand-father of Mrs. Eldridge. Mr. Robbins came directly from the theological seminary to Norfolk, where his pastorate of fifty-two years ended only with his death. He came to a very different Norfolk from that of to-day, for the

spot was so wild — the old forests standing closely about the church —that on entering the village from the south, the building could not be seen when only a short distance away. Mr. Robbins during his long pastorate in Norfolk, is said to have prepared more students for college than any other man pf his time in the state. In memory of his educational work, two of his descendants — the Hon. Robbins Battell, whose recent death is so widely lamented, and his sister, the late Miss Anna Battell—established an academy, known as The Robbins School, a picturesque building on a wide lawn, through which a brook makes it's way, singing on through school-hours and through play, is such a picture, with the hills to frame it, as one will recall with pleasure from afar. Here beauty and knowledge have locked hands. A reunion of the school, on the completion of its tenth anniversary, was recently held, when the old birds and the fledglings met together to bless the day when this "Robbins" nest was hung high up among these hills.

One of the most picturesque roads. in Norfolk is the "Willows." On one side a hill rises abruptly, while on the other the venerable trees, from which the road is named, cast a dense shade, their huge trunks and twisted limbs bending devotedly over the gorge where flows their patron stream, the Blackberry river. Just above, the stream has had a fall, and with an angry turbulence is hurrying on, to serve several mills. Attracted to this lovely spot by the water advantages, these workshops stand in the midst of all this greenery, reminding us that the iron hand of civilization grasps every advantage and gives no quarter to primitive nature. The Buttermilk Falls, a series of connected tumbles, is an outflow from the Mill Pond, near by, into the Blackberry River. Here are fascinating bits for the artist. To return to the "Willows," where trees, stream, hill, and road, keep such close company — I well remember a fair September Sunday, with the Sabbath stillness over• all save the restless stream, and the voices of those who like ourselves were on their way to the West Norfolk Sunday-school service, a mile and a half from Norfolk village. These services were started and are conducted during the summer, on Sunday afternoons, by one of the city visitors; On the road thither still stands the old and disused toll-gate, a curious and interesting relic of bygone days.

The westering-sun is sinking fast when we turn our faces homeward, after the service is over, and soon has dropped behind a hill, and we are in shadow. But across the road, on the opposite height, glints of sunlight linger as if loth to depart, and flickering higher and still higher, call forth here and there an answering glow of early autumnal color. Truly a farewell to summer are these lengthening shadows and waning September lights!

Another charming walk is the "Lover's Lane." What place would be complete without one?—and the road so called in Norfolk is well named, if a winding woodland way, with ferns on either side nod approval, and trees to whisper gently to one another, and only an occasional squirrel for t h i r d company, is what a lover's lane should be. We are reminded here of Gilder's wood1and thought —

"I care not if the skies are white,
Nor if the fields are gold;
I care not whether 'tis black or bright,
Or winds blow soft or cold;
But 0 the dark, dark wood,
For thee, and me, and love."

Here too, chestnuts are ripening, and late October brings no dreamers, but bright-eyed school-children who vie with the squirrels in laying in their stores.

The many drives among these hills are of great beauty and variety. Within easy driving distance are Lake Wangum, Doolittle Lake, and Campbell's Falls. Lake Wangum, about four miles from Norfolk village, is a beautiful sheet of water, high on Canaan mountain. Here an attractive little lodge has been built, open during the season, for guests who may procure meals there while passing the day in boating and fishing, and where a small party may be accommodated over night. A drive of about six miles from Norfolk, in the opposite direction, brings us to Doolittle Lake. This lake is much larger than Lake Wangum, and nestled among the hills, its indented shores are thickly wooded. At first glance one feels that here the wilderness obtains, but on closer observation one or two camps and a boat-house dispel the illusion. The fishing is said to be excellent, and a variety of the finny tribe make their uncertain home here. A surprisingly beautiful approach to this lake lies through an ancient pine forest. Surmising that this wood-way from the main road around the lake would bring us to its brink, we turned our horse's head thither, into a gloom of almost theatrical effect. The creaking of the horse's trappings emphasized the impressive stillness; voices, sounding hollow, seemed almost to desecrate the perfect quiet, and flecks of sunlight dappled the denser shade, over the soft deep carpeting, until silver glimmerings through the trees told that the lake was near - surely a startlingly charming contrast from dark to light.

The Campbell's Falls, about nine miles from Norfolk, are near the Massachusetts line. A variety of scenery is to be had on this trip by taking the road over Ball Mountain, and returning by way of Canaan valley. Leaving the wagon on the roadside, a steep and wooded path winds down into a ravine, not rugged, but lined with verdure and crested with trees. From the height, at one end of the ravine, the falls, in wonderful curves of beauty, bound from rock to rock, sparkling in emerald lights over mossy rocks, in the more quite nooks that flank its way, until at length they flow into a bubbling brook soon lost to sight among the trees. Nature loves this spot, and has made it glad with her best gifts of fern and moss.

One should not leave Norfolk without visiting the look-out on Haystack Mountain, which stands close guard over the village and invites all to an extended and lovely view. Far to the north, against the horizon, is Greylock, the mountain which presides with such impressiveness over Williamstown, while westward is seen the Taconic range. At our feet is Norfolk, rising and falling on its hills like a billowy sea, the midmost wave crested by the old church, the spire visible from afar. opposite, and nearer the village is Crissy Hill, which affords a somewhat more detailed outlook on the village. The soil is sandy, and malaria loves not Norfolk. So rocky is the region that many years ago when Norfolk lands were first put up at auction in Hartford, scarcely a bid was to be had for the then unhappy spot. To-day the bidders crowd one another.

One of the attractions of Norfolk is that, like Lenox and Stockbridge, it keeps its guests late into the autumn, and those who have seen these New England woodlands in their gorgeous autumnal tints, when a Persian mantle of color has been flung over hill and dale, will not wonder at the charm which holds the city folk long in this garden of nature. But to lovers of the hills each season brings its peculiar charm, and the restful beauty of this region in midsummer verdure led to the writing of the following lines on "Norfolk Hills" *

Green are the hills that are rolling to meet me,
Blue in the distance their stern brethren stand;
Flecked o'er with shadow and sunlight, they greet
me —

Far, far away from the soot of the city,
Into the open, where skies arch serene;
Valley's rejoice at the brooks' tinkling ditty
Of forested hill-tops all fluffy with green.

Away, far away from the heart's weary beating,
Far, far away from ambition's fierce throb,
From cares that corrode, and pleasures too fleeting,
Away from the jostling and self-seeking mob.

Here be my rest and my home for a season,
These be my friends, and kind nature my cheer;
Peace fill the heart and sweet dreams still the
reason —
Dreams that are child-like, and joy without fear.

*Originally published in the Hartford Times. .
.

WARREN

WARREN was formerly a part of Kent. it was incorporated as a town in 1786. It is bounded N. by Cornwall, E. by Litchfield, s. by Washington, and w. by Kent. Its average length from north to south is five miles, and its average breadth about four miles and a half. The township is hilly and mountainous, and its rocks and soil are of a granitic character. The agricultural productions are grass and some grain. Butter and cheese are made, and beef and pork raised by the inhabitants. The town is watered by the Shepaug, a branch of the Housatonic. Raumaug pond, a considerable body of water, is situated partly in this town, and partly in Washington.

The population of the town in 1810 was 1,096; in 1830 it was reduced to 986. The central part of the town is 8 miles west from Litchfield, 38 from Hartford, and 45 from New Haven.

KENT ORIGINALLY BELONGED TO THE TERRITORY CONVEYED TO THE TOWNS OF HARTFORD
AND WINDSOR IN l686-'7.—THE COST DID NOT EXCEED A PENNY AND THREE
FARTHINGS PER ACRE.—PRIMITIVE WILDERNESS AT THE TIME.
The period of the settlement of Kent was that of Connecticut's first attack
of the western fever, and this is how it was brought on. As has been
said, but little value was attached to the teritory of Litchfield county, before
the beginning of the last century. There was land enough nearer the center
of the colony, and the population was still too limited for the peopling of new
towns. But after the reinstatement of the colonial charter in 1694, and
the consequent restored security of the colony, enterprise, which had languished
during the reign of James, revived, the population of the colony increased,
and inquiry began tO' be made for territory for new settlements. The
earliest response to this demand, in this section of the state, was the exploration
and sale of the territory of the town of Litchfield. This territory
was included in the "Western Lands" conveyed by the colony to the towns
of Hartford and Windsor in 1686-7, and the sale of it was the lirst disposal
of that territory which the towns had made. In the spring of 1715, a committee
of these towns, of whom John Marsh, the ancestor of the Marshes of
Litchfield, was one, and the seeming chief, visited the region, "viewed" it,
and secured deeds of it from the Indians; their bills for service, against the
towns, giving intimation of the primitive wildness of the region, as by the
following items from the Hartford records:—
"The town of Hartford Dr.
To John Marsh, May 1715.

division was completed in 1731, the whole was laid out
into towns; the eastern half, into Colebrook, Hartland, Winchester, Barkhamsted,
Torrington, New Hartford, and Harwinton; and the western half
into Kent (including Warren) Sharon, Cornwall, Goshen, Norfolk, Canaan,
(including North Canaan), and Salisbury. The owners on each side were
eager to get their land into the market at the earliest day, and so between
sellers and buyers, a genuine land speculation arose, and a western excitement
spread throughout the colony. The colony enacted that its lands
should be sold at public auction, "to inhabitants of Connecticut only," at the
different county seats, and they were ro sold: Goshen at New Haven, in December,
1737; Canaan at New London, in January, 1738; Cornwall at Fairiield,
in February of the same year; Kent at Windham, in March; Norfolk at
Hartford, in April; Salisbury at Hartford, in May; and Sharon at New Haven,
in October.Meanwhile, in 1732, Hartford and Windsor had effected a
division between themselves of their naif of the Western territory, Hartford
taking three townships, viz.: New Hartford, Hartland and Winchester, with
a half of Harwinton; and Windsor taking three townships, viz.: Barkhamsted,
Torrington and Colebi'ook, with the other half of Harwinton; this
latter town taking its name from this joint ownership of Hartford and
Windsor; viz., "Har-win-ton." The land's of those seven townships were
divided among the inhabitants of Hartford and Windsor respectively, and
were of course, at once for sale. So that for the time, "western land" was
no scarcity in the Connecticut real estate market, fourteen townships at once
being a very fair supply. Speculators bought to sell again; young men
"went west to grow up with the country;" and all north and east of Kent
was alive, as was itself, with the interest of new settlement. Harwinton was
the earliest settled; it being incorporated as a town in 1737, the General Assembly,
in its act of incorporation, mixing matters spiritual and temporal in
this fashion:—"Resolved, that said Inhabitants have liberty to Imbody themselves into
church estate and Settle an Orthodox minister of the Gospel in said Town,
with the advice and consent of the neighboring churches; and it is further
by this Assembly resolved that the Letter A shall be the Brand for horses in
the Town of Harwinton."
From this date till 1738, the date of the organization of Kent, the inhabitants
of Harwinton were engaged in a controversy among themselves as to
the location of the meeting house, petition after petition, and remonstrance
after remonstrance, in anything but amiable mood, following one another to
the General Assembly, which had in those aays determination of things
ecclesiastical as well as civil—a controversy which had at least this good result,
that there is preserved in the state archives in Hartford, a map of
Harwinton at the time, with all the roads down on it, and the location of
every house marked, with the dweller's name attached. Torrington, at the
same time, was in process of settlement and organization, the inhabitants
making their first petition to be organized into an ecclesiastical society at
the same session of the General Assemoiy at which Northbury was incorporated,
October 1739; there being at that time nine families in the town; and a
year later, October 1740, the town was incorporated, and so became an ecclesiastical
society. But not to go over the several towns in detail,a table
of dates of the organization of the several settlements, will show how "all at once," to use a familiar phrase, the country sprang into life at the period of
the settlement of Kent: Northbury church, organized 1740; Westbury, 1740;
Bethlehem, 1740; Washington, 1742; Kent, 174^; Goshen, 1740; Cornwall,
1741; Canaan, 1741; Torrington, 1741; Harwinton, 1737; New Hartford, 1738.
So that Kent was by no means born alone. Its settlement was but one manifestation
of a movement that pervaded the colony, the first great set of Connecticut's
westward tide; the tide that, with its successive flowings, has peopled
the continent with its best inhabitants and noblest life.
While the new life of Kent society was crystalizing into form, the same
process of the beginnings of religious and civil organization was going on in
the communities around it. As the primeval forest still covered this parish,
unbroken save by the settler's clearings, so over Litchfield county the primitive
wilderness stretched unbroken, save where here and there the centres
were being established of the several towns. It is the period from which
the life of Litchfield county takes its date.
Westbury, now Watertown, was constituted an ecclesiastical society in
1738, the same year as Kent.
In Bethlehem, the first settlers are petitioning the General Assembly to
be constituted a distinct society, which petition was granted at the October
session, 1739, and the church was organized the following spring, March 27,
1740.
In Washington, too, the first settlement is under way, the pioneer settler,
Joseph Hurlburt, locating there in 1736, and the community petitioning
in 1741, to be organized into an ecclesiastical society, which was done by the
General Assembly at the October session of that year, the society being
named "Judea," likely from the hill country of Palestine, which of old bore
that name. Immediately on the organization of the society, the building of
the meeting-house was proceeded with, the inhabitants stating, in a petition
to the General Assembly in May 1742,that they had "Unanymously and Lovingly
Agreed upon a place for to set a Meeting House; ' the only instance of
the kind in the early history of the county. The house was built during the
same year; the cnurch being organized Sept. 1st., 1742; Rev. Reuben Judd,
the first pastor being ordained the same day; the ceremonies taking place in
a grove—the other society in the town, that of New Preston, was organized
October, 1752.
Into the "Wilderness" the first invasion was the settlement of Litchfield,
and this introduces us to one of the most curious and interesting chapters of
Connecticut history, as well as to a matter which early engaged the attention
of Northbury; it being the subject of a controversy which the new society
waged with the mother town, from the time of its organization as a society
until after it became a town itself—the famous affair of the"Western Lands."
In the records of Waterbury, 1741, there is the following entry with reference
to the matter:—
"There having been considerable discourse about the money for which
the western lands were sold and granted for the use of the school, and not
agreeing in what method it should be disposed of, (the town) did by vote
agree that they would refer it to some indifferent gentlemen, to be decided
by them where the said money shall be disposed, whether it belongs to the
first parish (of Waterbury) or should be divided among the several parishes
(including Westbury and Northbury)." What were these "western lands?" The original title to the territory of
New ^ngland was the grant, in 1620, by James I. to the Plymouth Company,
of England of
"All that part of America lying and being in breadth from the fortieth
degree of north latitude, from the equinoctial line, to the forty-eighth degree
of said northerly latitude inclusively, and in length of and^^ with all the
breadth aforesaid, throughout the main land from sea to sea."
In 1630 the Plymouth company conveyed to its president, Robert, Earl of
Warwick, the territory of Connecticut; and he conveyed the same to Viscount
Say and Seal, Lord Brooke and others by a patent bearing date of 1631, under
authority of which in 1639, taking its name from its principal proprietors.
In this patent the limits of the grant are thus defined:—
"All that part of New England in Americah which lyes and extends it
selfe from a Riuer there caked Narrogancett Riuer, the space of forty leagues
upon a straight lyne neere the sea shore towards the South west, west and
by south or west, as the coast lyeth, towards Virginia, accounting Three
English Miles to the leagiie, and allso all and Singular the lands and hereditaments
what Soeuer lyeing and being with in the lands afoarsayd. North
and South in Lattitude and bredth, and in Length and i^ongitude of and with
in all the bredth afoarsayd, through out the Maine lands there, from the
westerne oscian to the South sea; and allso all Islands lying in Americah
afoarsayd, in the said seas or either of them, on the western or eastern
coasts or parts of sayd Tracts of lands."
These limits were repeated in substance in the charter of the Connecticut
colony given by Charles II in 1662—the charter that was hid in the
Charter Oak, and which now hangs in the office of the Secretary of State in
the capitol at Hartford—in the following form:—
"All that parte of our Dominions in Newe England in America, bounded
on the East by Norrogancett River, commonly called Norrogancett Bay,
Where the said River falleth into the Sea, and in longitude as the lyne of the
Massachusetts Colony, running from East to west; that is to say, from the
said Norrogancett Bay on the East to the South Sea on the West parte, with
the islands thereunto adioyneinge."
By this title, Connecticut owned a strip seventy miles wide, extending
across the continent, or nearly one-eighth of the circumference of the globe.
By the "Sowth Sea" was meant the Pacific ocean, wherever that might be
—
how far across to it—which those who gave the titles did not clearly know.
Beyond the limits of the settlements, the country was at that time a terra
incognita, an unknown land; as much so as Central Africa has been in our
time. At any rate the early settlers had no idea of ever occupying it, of ever
being able, on account of numbers, to occupy it, and so they were careless
as to the disposition of it. Thus, in giving deeds of land abutting on the
"wilderness," owners used to describe the western limits, indefinitely, as
"running west as far as the good land goeth." But time and the increase
of numbers wrought a change in this estimate. As is well known, from this
claim of Connecticut to lands west of its present boundaries, came the
school fund of the state. But those far western claims had not yet entered
into the thoughts of the colonists. The "Western lands" which engaged the attention of our fathers lay nearer home, being none other than the territory
of what is now Litchfield county; and these in that day seemed as far
away, and the settlement of them as bold an undertaking as that of the
Rocky mountain region in our time. When the pioneers left their home on
the Connecticut river or the Sound to brave these perils of the wilderness,
prayers were offered up for them in the churches, as for those who might
never see the faces of friends on earth again.
The earliest school moneys of the state, aside from the income of the lot
which, in the laying out of the towns, was uniformly reserved for the support
of the school in the town, were derived from the sale of these western
lands; and this is how they came into the market.
Upon the death, in 1685, of Charles II, who gave the Connecticut colony
its charter, he was succeeded by his brother, James II, a man of arbitrary
and despotic spirit, wiho, impatient of the freedom enjoyed by the colonies
under their charters, resolved to revoke these, and consolidate the several
colonies into one province, under a governor appointed directly by the
Crown; and Sir Edmund Andros was sent over to consummate this scheme.
He arrived in Boston in December 1686. Massachusetts was deprived of Tts
charter; and, the f6llowing October, Andros appeared in Hartford to demand
that of Connecticut. Meanwhile, the colony in anticipation of his coming
and demand, and in the expectation that its charter would have to be surrendered,
had taken care that Andros should get as little with it as might
be. A special session of the General Court was held in January, at which
the colony put out of its possession all its public lands, in order that, though
the charter under which these were held might go, the ownership of the
lands should remain in the colony. Accordingly the General Assembly at
this session passed the following vote:—
"This court grants the plantations (or towns) of Hartford and Windsor
those lands on the north of Woodbury, and Mattatock (Waterbury), and on
the west of Farmington and Simsbury to the Massachusetts line north, and
to run west to Housatunick or Stratford river, to make a plantation or village
thereon."
This was an absolute grant, and vested the title to this territory unconditionally
in the aforesaid towns.
Andros came and demanded the charter; with what result is familiar
to all who are acquainted with the history of the time. He did not get it.
Though surrendered in form, it was retained, in fact, concealed in the recess
of the historic oak; and on the accession of William to the throne was reinstated,
and the government of the colony under it restored. Then the
colony, as was natural, wanted its western lands back again, and demanded
them of Hartford and Windsor. But these towns did not acknowledge the
demand. The lands, they said, had been given to them and were theirs,
and they proposed to keep them. The case was as though a man, expecting
to die, should dispose of his property, and then, unexpectedly recovering,
should wish it back again. The colony evidently expected to die as such.
It expected to lose its charter, and with it whatsoever it held under the
charter—as one of the Massachusetts lawyers quaintly expressed it, "When
the cow died, the calf died in the cow's belly." The records of the colony
were closed with the minutes of the session of the General Court at which
the charter was in form surrendered—as the merchants would say, "sold but not delivered"—and the clerk wrote at the end, in large letters, "Finis." But
the succession of William to the throne changed all, and the colony found
its'elf in the condition of Mother Hubbard's dog.
Come thus unexpectedly to life again, as has been said, the colony wished
to recover its surrendered estate, and thence arose a controversy between the
colony and those towns which was waged for years, and was finally settled
by a division of the lands in question, one half to remain with Hartford
and Windsor, and the other half to revert to the colony; the towns taking
the eastern half and the colony the western. And this is how it came about
that the "western lands" were settled almost simultaneously.
PASTORAL SCENE
THE PIONEERS.
THEY WERE REQUIRED TO liUILD HOUSES AT LEAST EIGHTEEN FEET S(JUARE, AND CLEAR
SIX ACRES OF GROUND, HEFORE THE TITLE OF THE DEEDS FROM THE CJOVERNOR's
COMMITTEE WOULD BE PERFECT.
In the western part of the state sequestered in the valley of the Housatonic
with mountains to the west and high overhanging hills to the east is
situated the town of Kent. It covers an area of about eight by six square
miles and has four railroad stations and six post offices. It is bounded on
the north by Sharon, on the east by Warren, south by New Milford and
west by the state of New York. The territory is characteristically mountainous,
and has produced more or less iron and copper ore.
The first move to put it into a township was in October, 1710, when the
General Assembly appointed a committee to lay it out including what is now
Kent and Warren. The committee reported in October the following year,
having done its work promptly. The matter was dropped from this time until
October, 1737, when the legislature ordered the township to be sold at
auction to the highest bidder at the court house in Windham in December,
1737. There were other townships contiguous to be vended in the same way,
and the money was to be allotted to the several counties separately. There
were fifty shares in each section of this township besides three shares that
were to be set apart, one for the first minister that should settle there, to be
conveyed to him in fee, one to be sequestered for the use of the present established
ministry forever, and one for the use of the school or schools in the
town forever. The purchaser before his title could be made perfect must
bulla and finish a house eighteen feet square at least seven foot stud, and
fence and clear six acres of ground within two years. In May, 1738, the
assembly named the township Kent and annexed it to Hartford county. The
first deed was given to Humphrey Avery, and is as follows:
Whereas, by an act of the Assembly holden at New Haven October 13, yr.
1737, entitled: An act for the ordering and directing the sale and settlement
of all the townships in the western land. Among other things it is
enacted that the southern town in said lands bounding Westerly on
Housatonic River shall be vendued and sold at the court house in Windham
to the highest bidders, being inhabitants of this colony, on the first
Tuesday of March next at one of the clock in the afternoon and continued
by adjournment till the whole be sold by Timothy Pierce, Ebenezer
West and Jonathan Huntington, Esquires. They or any two of them to
be a committee in the name of the governor and company to set the
rights, take bonds and give deeds with references, etc. Therefore to all
people to whom these presents shall come greeting: Know ye that we, Timothy Pierce, Ebenezer West and Jonathan Huntington
by virtue of the power and authority to us granted in said act for
and in consideration of the sum of one hundred eighty-flve pounds, sixteen
shillings, to us in hand paid before the ensealing hereof by Humphrey
Avery of Groton in the county of New London, in the colony of
Connecticut, the receipt whereof we do hereby acknowledge and thereupon
in the name of the Governor and Company of the colony aforesaid
do give, grant, bargain, sell, convey and confer unto the said Humphrey
Avery, his heirs and assigns forever, one right, part, share or allotment
in the township aforesaid, the same being divided into fifty-three
equal shares or allotments exclusive of the lands granted to the college
and all former grants of the General Assembly that are surveyed
and recorded in the public records of the colony and are lying in said
town with the privileges and appurtenances thereof, thereunto belonging
to have and to hold the said granted and bargained premises with all
and singler the appurtenances thereof unto the said Humphrey Avery,
his heirs and assigns for ever to his and their sole and proper use, benefil
and behoof. And we, the said Timothy Pierce, Ebenezer West, Jonathan
Huntington, do covenant to and with the said Humphrey Avery, his
heirs and assigns in manner and form following: That is to say that at
and until the ensealing of these presents we by virtue of the power and
authority to us granted have good right to sell and dispose of the said
granted premises in manner as aforesaid and that the same is free from
all encumbrances whatsoever. Always provided and these presents arc
upon this consideration that if the said Humphrey Avery shall by himself
or his agent within the space of two full years next after the date
hereof enter upon the said granted premises build and finish an house
thereon not less than eighteen feet square and seven feet stud, subdue,
clear and fence six acres of said land and continue thereon for the space
of three successive years commencing two years aforesaid unless prevented
by death or inevitable Providence, and do and perform all orders
and duties, pay all taxes that shall be granted then the aforesaid deed
Shall remain in full force and virtue, but in default or neglect in either
or all of the articles, the same shall be void and of none effect. An witness
whereof we have hereunto set our hands and seals this 7 day of
March Anno Do-mini 1737-8.
TIMOTHY PIERCE.
EBENEZER WEST.
JONATHAN HUNTINGTON.
Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of
HEZEKIAH HUNTINGTON,
MOSES GOVE.
Timothy Pierce, Esq., Ebenezer West, Esq., and Jonathan Huntington Esq.,
all personally appeared and acknowledged the above written instrument
to be their act and deed before me,
JOSEPH ADAMS,
Justice of the Peace.
The town was subsequently divided into ten divisions the holders either
drawing or "pitching" for choice. The list is as follows:
HISTORY OF KENT. 17
FIRST DIVISION, MAY 1738.
Humphrey Avery,
John Beebe,
Nathaniel Berry,
Josiah Barn,
Abel Barniim,
Ebenezer Barnum,
Nathaniel Barnum,
Thomas Barman,
Thomas Capson,
Philip Caverly,
Daniel Comstock,
Samuel Canfield,
Daniel Comstock,
Johnathan Dunham,
Francis Fanton,
Joseph Hatch,
Ephraim Hubbel,
Peter Hubbel,
Richard Hubbel,
Johnathan Hubbel,
Philip Judd,
SECOND
Humphrey Avery,
Benjamin Brownson,
Ebenezer Barnum,
Abel Barnum,
Nathaniel Berry,
Josiah Barre,
John Beebe,
Thomas Beeman,
Thomas Carson,
Philip Caverly,
Daniel Comstock, Sr.,
Samuel Canfield,
Daniel Comstock, Jr.,
Johnathan Dunham,
Frances Fenton,
Ephraim Hubbel,
Jonathan Hubbel,
Joseph Hatch,
Richard Hubbel,
Peter Hubbel,
Philip Judd,
John Knapp and Noah Rockwell,
Samuel Lewis,
John Mitchell,
John Mills,
Jonathan Morgan, Sr.,
Jonathan Morgan, Jr.,
Mitchel Knell (or Knell Mitchell),
Samuel Miner,
Thomas Newcomb,
John Porter,
John Smith,
Thomas Skeels,
Nathaniel Slosson,
Zephania Swift,
John Seely (or Seely John).
Josiah Starr,
Thomas Tozer,
Abel Wright,
Blisha Williams,
Jacob Warner.
DIVISION, SEPTEMBER 1738.
John Knapp and Noah Rockwell,
Samuel Lewis,
John Mills,
Jonathan Morgan,
John Mitchel,
Samuel Miner,
Knell Mitchell, -
Thomas Newcomb,
John Porter,
Noah RocKwell and John Knapp,
zjephariah Swift,
John Seely,
Thomas Skeels,
Josiah Starr,
Natuaniel Slosson,
John Smith,
Thomas Tozer,
Abel Wright,
Elisha Williams,
Abraham Warner.
Humphrey Avery,
Benjamin Brownson,
Nathaniel Berry,
John Beebe,
Josiah Barre,
THIRD DIVISION, MAY 1739.
Abel Barnum,

FIRST DIVISION, MAY 1738.
Humphrey Avery,
John Beebe,
Nathaniel Berry,
Josiah Barn,
Abel Barniim,
Ebenezer Barnum,
Nathaniel Barnum,
Thomas Barman,
Thomas Capson,
Philip Caverly,
Daniel Comstock,
Samuel Canfield,
Daniel Comstock,
Johnathan Dunham,
Francis Fanton,
Joseph Hatch,
Ephraim Hubbel,
Peter Hubbel,
Richard Hubbel,
Johnathan Hubbel,
Philip Judd,
SECOND
Humphrey Avery,
Benjamin Brownson,
Ebenezer Barnum,
Abel Barnum,
Nathaniel Berry,
Josiah Barre,
John Beebe,
Thomas Beeman,
Thomas Carson,
Philip Caverly,
Daniel Comstock, Sr.,
Samuel Canfield,
Daniel Comstock, Jr.,
Johnathan Dunham,
Frances Fenton,
Ephraim Hubbel,
Jonathan Hubbel,
Joseph Hatch,
Richard Hubbel,
Peter Hubbel,
Philip Judd,
John Knapp and Noah Rockwell,
Samuel Lewis,
John Mitchell,
John Mills,
Jonathan Morgan, Sr.,
Jonathan Morgan, Jr.,
Mitchel Knell (or Knell Mitchell),
Samuel Miner,
Thomas Newcomb,
John Porter,
John Smith,
Thomas Skeels,
Nathaniel Slosson,
Zephania Swift,
John Seely (or Seely John).
Josiah Starr,
Thomas Tozer,
Abel Wright,
Blisha Williams,
Jacob Warner.
DIVISION, SEPTEMBER 1738.
John Knapp and Noah Rockwell,
Samuel Lewis,
John Mills,
Jonathan Morgan,
John Mitchel,
Samuel Miner,
Knell Mitchell, -
Thomas Newcomb,
John Porter,
Noah RocKwell and John Knapp,
zjephariah Swift,
John Seely,
Thomas Skeels,
Josiah Starr,
Natuaniel Slosson,
John Smith,
Thomas Tozer,
Abel Wright,
Elisha Williams,
Abraham Warner.
Humphrey Avery,
Benjamin Brownson,
Nathaniel Berry,
John Beebe,
Josiah Barre,
THIRD DIVISION, MAY 1739.
Abel Barnum,
Ebenezer Barnum,
Nathaniel Barnum,
Ebenezer Barnum,
Thomas Beeman,Thomas Carson,
Daniel Comstock, Jr.,
Philip Caveiiy,
Daniel Comstock, St.,
Samuel Canfield,
Jonathan Dunham,
Frances Fenton,
Josepn Hatch,
Peter Hubbel,
Jonathan Hubbel,
Ephraim Hubbel,
Richard Hubbel,
Philip Judd,
John Knapp and Noah Rockwell
Samuel Lewis,
Knell Mitchell,
John Mills,
FOURTH
John Mitchell,
Jonathan Morgan,
Samuel Miner,
Thomas Newcomb,
John Porter,
Noah Rockwell and John Knapp,
John Smit-,
John Seely,
Zephaniah Swift,
Josiah Starr,
Thomas Skeeles,
Nathaniel Closson,
Thomas Tozer,
Abraham Warner,
Abel Wright,
Elisha Williams.
DIVISION, MAY 1740.
Humphrey Avery,
Joshua Barnum,
Ebenezer Barnum,
Gideon Barnum,
Ebenezer Barnum and
Thomas Beeman,
Benjamin Brownson,
Nathaniel Berry,
John Beebe,
William Buriaham,
Samuel Batts,
Nathaniel Bostwick,
Thomas Carson,
Daniel Comstock,
Philip Caverly,
Samuel Canfield and
Daniel Comstock,
Joseph Fuller,
Richard Hubbel,
Barnabas Hatch,
Timothy Hatch,
Ephraim Hubbel,
Philip Judd,
Samuel Lewis,
Ebenezer Lyman and others,
John Mills,
Jonathan Morgan,
Jehiel Barnum, Knell Mitchell,
Ebenezer Marsh,
Thomas Newcomb,
Azariah Pratt,
Joseph Peck,
John Porter,
John Roberts,
John Ranson, •
Judah Swift,
Thomas Skeels,
John Smith,
others, Zephaniah Swift,
Thomas Skeels,
Nathaniel Sanford,
Nathaniel Slosson,
Abel Wright,
Abel Wright, Samuel Canfieid and Ebenezer
Lyman.
FIFTH DIVISION, MAY 1748.
Thomas Beeman,
Benjamin Brownson,
Jehiel Barnum and — Swift,
William Burnham,
Nathaniel Berry and Josiah Starr,
Nathaniel Bostwick,
Nathaniel Berry and Philip Judd,
John Clemmons,
Philip Caverly,
Daniel Comstock,
Nathaniel Cushman,
Philip Caverly,
Joseph and John Cary,
Daniel Comstock Sr. and Jr.
Charles Duncumb,
Ebenezer Devotion.John Davis and Neamiah Mead,
John Davis and Josiah Starr,
John Fitch,
John French and Joseph Themberry,
Joseph Fuller and James Laid,
John Fitch and Henry Silsby,
John Henderson,
Barnabas Hatch,
Sylvanius and Timothy Hatch,
Ephraim Hiibbel,
Richard Hubbel,
Philip Judd and Nathaniel Berry,
Nathaniel Kingsley,
Joseph Kingsley and John French,
James Lazel and Joseph Fuller, '
Blisha Lilly,
Joshua Lazel,
Cyrais Marsh, John Roberts,
Nehemiah Mead and John Davis,
Knell Mitchell,
Jonathan Morgan,
John Miiis,
Bbenezer Marsh,
Daniel Pratt,
Josiah Starr and Nathaniel Berry,
John Roberts and Josiah Tho-mas,
Jonathan Rudd,
David Ripley,
Jabez and Moses Swift,
Henry Sibley and John Fitch,
Nathaniel Sanford and Henry Silsby,
John Smith, Jabez Swift,
Nathaniel Slosson,
David Smith and Josiah Thomas,
Jehiel Barnum and — Swift,
SIXTH DIVISION, 1750.
Nathaniel Bostwick,
Jehiel Barnum,
Thomas Beeman,
Benjamin Brownson,
Nathaniel Berry,
Heirs of William Barnum,
Nathaniel Cushman,
Philip Caverly,
Daniel Comstock, Sr. and Jr.,
John and Joseph Gary,
John Cogswell,
John Davis,
John Davis and Nehemiah Mead,
Ebenezer Devotion,
Charles Duncomb,
John French and Joseph Kingsberry;
Josiah Griswold,
Silas G-eer,
Richard Hubbel,
Ephraim Hubbel,
Timothy Hatch,
Philip Judd and David Ripley,
Nathaniel Kingsley,
Joseph Kingsberry and John French,
Joshua Lazel,
Elisha Lilley,
Ebenezer Marsh,
Nehemiah Mead and John Davis,
John Mills,
Jonathan Morgan,
Knell Mitchell,
Cyrus Marsh,
David Ripley,
Jonathan Rudd,
David Ripley and Philip Judd,
Jonathan Rudd and Joseph Skiff,
Jonathan Rudd,
Jc'hn Smith,
Jabez and Mo«es Swift,
Joseph Skiff,
Joseph Skiff and Jonathan Rudd,
Nathaniel Sanford and Joshua Lazel,
Jabez Swift,
David Smith,
Josiah Thomas,
John Walden.
SEVENTH DIVISION, 1752.
Benjamin Brownson,
Heirs of William Burnham,
Nathaniel Berry and Jabez Swift,
Jehiel Barnum,
Nathaniel Bostwick,
David Barnum,
Heirs of Thomas Beeman,
Philip Caverly,
Daniel Comstock, Sr. and Jr.,
Nathaniel Cushman,
John Davis,
Ebenezer Devotion,Charles Duncumb,
John French and Joseph Kingsberry,
Nathaniel Fuller and John Mills,
Silas Geere,
Josiah Griswold,
Ephraim Hubbel,
Timothy Hatch,
Richard Hubbel,
Barnabas Hatch,
Philip Judd and David Ripley,
Joseph Kingsberry and John French,
Nathaniel Kingsberry,
Elisha Lilley.
Knell Mitchell,
Jehiel Murray,
Pelatiah Marsh.
Nehemiah Mead and John Davis,
Ebenezer Marsh,
Daniel Pratt,
David Ripley,
David Ripley and Philip Judd,
Jonathan Rudd,
Jonathan Rudd and Joseph Skiff,
Jabez Swift and Nathaniel Berry,
David Smith,
John Smith,
Jabez and Moses Swift,
Jabez Swift,
Joseph Skiff,
Josiah Thomas,
John Welden.
EIGHTH DIVISION, 1755.
Joseph Beeman,
Peleg Bruster and Nathaniel Smith,
Heirs of Williams Burnham,
Heirs of Nathaniel Bostwick,
Samuel Carter and Wm. Swetland,
Josepu Cary,
John Caverly,
Nathaniel Cushman,
Jehoshaphat Eldrid and Jabez Swift,
Charles Duncumb,
Ebenezer Devotion,
David Ferriss and Paul Welch,
John Finney,
Frances Fenton,
Josiah Griswold,
Samuel Hotchkiss,
Barnabas Hatch,
Ephraim Hubbel,
Timothy Hatch,
Philip Judd and David Ripley,
Samuel William Johnson,
Nehemiah Mead and Samuel William
Johnson,
Nathaniel Kingsley,
Joseph Kingsberry,
Joshua Lazel,
Heirs of Knell Mitchell,
Thomas Morriss,
John Mills,
Ebenezer Marsh,
Pelatiah Marsh,
Jonathan Rudd,
Jonathan Rudd and Joseph Skiff,
David Ripley and Philip Judd,
Thomas Rowley and Paul Welch,
William Swetland and Samuel Carter,
Juban Strong,
Samuel Silsby,
Nathaniel Smith and Peleg Bruster.
Jabez Swift and Jeaoshaphat Eldrid,
Samuel Silsby,
Joseph Skiff and Jonathan Rudd,
Juban Strong,
Jabez Swift,
Heirs of David Smith,
John Waldein,
Samuel Waller,
Paul Welch and Thomas Rowlee.
NINTH DIVISION, 1761.
Humphrey Avery and Philip Caverly,
Abel Barnum,
John Beebe,
Ebenezer Barnum,
Benjamin Brownson,
Thomas Buman,
Nathaniel Berry,
Nathaniel Barnum,
Thomas Carson,
Daniel Comstock,
Samuel Canfield,
Jonathan Dunham,
David Ferriss,
David Ferriss and Paul Welch,

Frances Penton,
Ephraim Hubbel,
Jediah Hubbel,
Joseph Hatch (supposed to be),
Peter Hubbel,
Richard Hubbel,
Jonathan Hubbel,
Thomas Newcomb,
Jonathan Morgan,
John Mills,
John Mitchel,
Knell Mitchell,
John Knapp and Noah Rockwell,
Philip Judd,
Noah Rockwell,
Jabez Swift,
John Smith,
Thomas Skeels,
Nathaniel Slosson,
Zephania Swift,
John Seely,
Josiah Starr,
Thomas Skeels,
Thomas Lozer,
Abell Wright,
Elisha Williams,
Paul Welch and David Ferriss,
Abraham Wanser.
John Porter,
TENTH DIVISION, VOTED 1771 AND LAID OUT 1773.
Friend Beeman,
Moses Billings,
Sherman Boardman,
Heirs of William Burnham,
Timothy Beeman,
Rev. Joel Bordwell and his wife Jane,
John Beeman and Gideon Morgan,
Ebenezer Beeman,
Nathaniel Brown and Nathaniel Bosworth,
Daniel Comstock Jr., Abel Comstock
Oersham Comstock,
Heirs of Joseph Gary,
Samuel Garter and William Sweetland,
Ebenezer Curtis Jr.,
Roger Cogswell,
Isaac Camp and John Keeny,
Julius Caswell and Joseph Parker,
Julius Caswell, Joseph Parker,
Eleazer Thomson,
Jehoshaphat Eldrid and Jabez Swift,
John French and Joseph Kingsberry
Amaziah and Joel Ferriss,
Simeon Fuller,
John Foot,
John Finney Jr.,
Jedediah Hubbel and William Samuel
Johnson esq.,
Ephraim Hubbel,
Jethro Sylvanus and Timothy Hatch,
Jedidiah Hubbel esq.,
Philip Judd and Rev. Nathaniel Taylor,
Samuel W. Johnson esq.,
Joseph Kingsberry and John French,
John Keeney and Isaac Camp,
Amaziah Lyon and James Newcomb,
Heirs of Colonel Ebenezer Marsh,
Jerusha Miner,
William Marsh,
Gideon Morgan and John Beeman,
James Newcomb and Amaziah Lyon,
Joseph Parks and Julius Caswell,
Joseph Parks, Julius Caswell and
Eleazer Thomson,
Joseph Pratt Jr.,
Daniel Pratt,
Peter Pratt,
Lester Road, Silas Tracy and Joseph
Whittlesey,
William Swetland,
Heirs of Jabez Swift and Jehoshaphat
Eldrid,
Eibenezer Strong,
Philip Strong,
Paul Welch esq.
Barnabas Hatch,
N. B. The whole of the foregoing in their alphabet respect only.
The Ten original divisions without any regard to after conveyances, highway,
etc.
[The above notice is written as it is in the records in regard to capitalization,
etc.]
We quote from the quaint way of the surveyors the following language:
"We, the subscribers, being appointed a committee to view and lay out the
plot in the township of E, accordingly repaired to said township viewed and
laid out the town plot in manner following, viz: Beginning at the southernmost
part of a large intervale called the Great Plains where a small
spring or run of water empties itself into the Ousatonic river, there we laid
a heap of stones. Thence we run east thirty-three degrees; south and westerly
two rods. Thence we pitched a stake and laid stones to it. Thence we
run north forty-five degrees, east four miles and a half and have laid a
highway so far twelve rods wide and from the foresaid stakes and stones.
We have continued the highway twelve rods wide running south twentyfive
degrees, west down to Fairweather's land and have laid out the land
on both sides of the said highway beginning at the aforesaid stakes and
stones and have divided the Great Plains into thirty-nine lots all numbered
by the highway, which thirty-nine lots have a lot numbered with the same
number belonging to them either on the eastward or westward side of the
said highway, except the twelfth lot on the plain."
The first meeting of the new owners was held in Windham according to
the records "March ye 8th 1738," and is described as "ye proprietors of a
certain township in the colony of Connecticut, sold at public vendue (persuing
to a vote of the assembly) at the court house at Windham the 7th
inst." This however does not agree with the colonial records, which says the
public vendue took place the preceding December. Humphrey Avery of
Groton was moderator and also proprietors' clerk. At this meeting Lieutenant
John Mitchell of Woodbury, Lieutenant Thomas Newcomb of Lebanon,
Captain Johnathan Dunham of Colchester, Humphrej^ Avery of Groton
and Captain Ebenezer Hubbell of Newtown were appointed a committee
fully empowered to lay out such, parts of the new town as they should
think for the best interests of all. They were also to lay out to each proprietor
an equal part for quality and quantity and give a survey of the same
under the hands of a major portion of the committee, including the highways.
The lots were not to be less than fifty acres, were to be laid out in
one or two parcels for each proprietor as the committee should think fit
and to be drawn by number. Their pay was to be at the rate of ten shillings
per day.
In May of that same year, before leaving for their new homes in the wilderness,
Humphrey Avery was appointed agent to prepare a memorial to the
general assembly for the abatement of the price of the land in whole or in
part. His application could not have been successful because about five
years later some of the land owners applied to the assembly for relief as they
were unable to meet their maturing obligations, the land having been
bought with a bond for a deed. They were given more time and it is supposed
eventually paid up.
The next vote was to give Yale College 300 acres of land "near what is
called the Tamerish swamp," now in the township of Warren. The boundaries
must surely have perished ere this. They are described as "white oak
stakes, with pile of stones, marked Y. C, rock marked Y. C. and a red oak
tree." The farm is one of the college's not over valuable assets now, and is
generally rented.
One of the first things needed in a new town is a saw mill, and Ebenezer
Barnum of Danbury was given the forty-ninth lot in the first division pro
vided he would erect one by the last of the following December and a grist
mill in two years, the lot to be retained if not built on. Six years later he
was given liberty to lay out six acres of undivided lands for the making of a
dam for his iron works, which leads the writer to believe that he was an
ancestor of the late Wm. H. Barnum who made a fortune in the iron business
in the nearby town of Salisbury. Next he was given four more acres,
and in 1757 was given all the proprietor's land that his dam would cause
water to flow over.
Apparently the woodland had been so well cleared up by April. 1748,
that some alarm was felt that the supply would not more than equal the demand
for Nathaniel Slosson and Samuel Canfield were appointed a committee
"to take care of the woods on the common and see it is not destroyed
by anybody cutting it off."
We have already noted that at this time the wheels of industry had been
started and that the town voted substantial encouragement. The next man
to receive public favor was John Henderson, who was voted a pitch of land
toward his fifth division, a little below the grist mill that stands on Apetuk
brook in the commons, containing twenty acres or any number under that, to
set up a fulling mill.
In December, 1738, John ^Morgan was given ten acres of land on both sides
of the brook known as Mill brook provided he had a good saw mill fit for use
by the first of June, 1739, and kept said mill in good repair for twelve years.
Elisha Perry was given sixty-four acres, including the "gi'eat falls" above
the ten acres for a grist mill. Evidently in those days one or both of these
men wanted to monopolize the business, for a few months later it was i'oted
that neither should combine the two kinds of mills at their respective places.
After this when encouragement enough had been given in this line the saw
mill place in lots 35 and 36 was offered at public auction.
In 1750 Daniel Comstock must have become the village shoe maker for
he was given the privilege of building a "shew" maker's shop in the highway
right against his house.
Jacob Bull of Dover, Duchess County, N. Y., was the next to apply for
the privilege of building a saw mill or iron works on the grant known as the
Fairweather. This was in 1756, and he paid thirty pounds to the town.
When his mill was finished he was given liberty to build a house in the
highway.
James Stuart was given the right to turn the water of the Housatonic into
Mill brook if he built a good gi'ist mill, and about the same time Thomas
Skeel was privileged to build another grist mill at the most convenient
place near south "Spectial" pond, provided he had it done within a twelve
months and a day.
The first years evidently were prosperous, as the grand list of that year
shows:
£
Isaac Benton, --------- 28
Nathaniel Berry, -------- 115
Richard Barnum, -------- is
Benjamin Bronson, ------- 62
Samuel Bates, --------- 29
Ebenezer Barnum, ------- 23
Thomas Beman, -------- 66
s
24 HISTORY OF KENT.
£
24 Amos Barnum. ------
21
Daniel Beman, ------- oo
Gideon Barnum, - - -
99
John Bentley, --
91
E. Beman, -------
Jehial Barnum, - - " " ^^
no
David Comstock, --------
1 ^
Abel Comstock, --------
Daniel Comstock, ------- 75
Samuel Comstock, -------- 89
Daniel Cross, -------- 2o
Nathan Delano, -------- 36
J. Fuller, -.:------ 83
Barnabas Hatch, -------- 55
Timothy Hatch,
E. Hubbell,
J. Hassell,
Thomas Morris,
76
Jethro Hatch, --------- 21
Benjamin Hamilton, ------- 43
96
Philip Judd, -------- 41
Samuel Lattean, -------- 24
68
John Mills, --------- 99
J. Morgan, --------- 47
33
Benjamin Newcomb, ------- 59
Stephen Nolles, -------- 62
Jonathan Nolles, -------- 28
Jesse Pratt, --------- 53
Azariah Pratt, - -- 52
Abram Raymond, -------- 40
John Ransom, -------- 40
Jean Stewart, --------- 87
N. Slosison, ----- --- 55
Samuel Skeal, --------- 18
Reuben Swift, -------- 31
Daniel Thomson, -------- 37
J. Thomas, --------- 57
E. Washborn, --------- 88
J. Wallig, --------- 18
M. Lathrop, --------- 23
Nathaniel Roberts, ------- 29
Moses Rowley, --------- 39
Jacob Galusha, -------- 2:3
Ebenezer Park, -------- 22
Wm. Spooner, -------- 19
Stephen Paris, --------- 25
John Beebe,--------- 77
Nathaniel Swift, -------- 33
Jehial Benton, -------- 42
I. Swift, - - - 8
s
HISTORY OF KENT. 25
£ s d
Alexander Keney, ------- 21 00
John Massay, --------- 25 00
Jesse Small,--------- 28 00
JEHIAL BARNUM,
SAMUEL HUBBELL, Listers.In December, 1749, Capt. Nathaniel Berry was sent to the G-eneral Assembly
to pray for a county to be established for this part of the government,
and at the same time it was voted to confer with the towns of New Milford,
Newtown and Woodbury. The memorialists were successful two
years later when the county of Litchfield was named and Kent became a part
of it.
Evidently wild cats were a terror to the community for in 1752 it was
voted to give £2 for every wild cat's head produced, and another vote was a
sixpence for every black bird killed and threepence for each young one
killed in the middle of May.
\Rams and swine were a source of more or less trouble at each town
meeting. In 1743 it was voted "to fine fifteen shillings for every ram taken
up on the common, the fine to be paid to those who chose to take up the ram,"
but swine were to have the privilege of running free.
Other votes were in 1743 "to ask the assembly to annex the inhabitants
of the west side of the Hoaisatonic to us;" in 1747 to build a road to Litchfield;
in 1748 to pay fifteen shillings for a day's work and a sixpence for
each yoke of oxen; in 1749 to sell the town stock of powder.
In 1742 Kent was allotted to the Litchfield Probate court. ^
In 1748 the society of East Greenwich was authorized as the inhabitants
found it difficult to attend public worship ai the first society. In 1767 upon
the petition of Nathan Tibbals, Stephen Starkweather, Wm. Wedge, Jedediah
Durkee, Wm. Guthrie, and Ephraim Guthrie, the society was annexed
to New Preston, the bounds "beginning at a bridge over the Shepaug river
in the road from New Milford to Litchfield, thence a straight line to the
southeast coirner of Philip Strong's lot he now lives on, thence to straight line to the southeast corner of the lot of Joseph Beamond now lives, thence
to the West Pond so called." Wm. Spooner, Peleg and Perez Sturdevant
and Ebenezer Peck were others that were set off to the new society.
The old deeds refer frequently to the Fairweather purchase, but as there
is no deed on record in Kent of this property a search was made through
the old colonial records where it was found that in 1707 there was a large
tract of land granted to Hon. Nathaniel Gold, Peter Burr and several others
of Fairfield for a township in what is now the southern portion of Kent and
the northern portion of New Milford, and that they in turn sold a part or
all of it to Robert Silliman, Richard Hubbell and Benjamin Fairweather, the
latter being described as the "cornet of the troop in Fairfield." The latter's
purchase contained some 3,800 acres and was six miles in length from east to
west and three hundred rods wide. When the owner died the large tract was
divided between his heirs.
Our forefathers did not take the serious view of the present day in regard
to lotteries. It is recorded in 1783 "that this town accept the bill in form
from the last general assembly for a lottery to build a bridge over the Housatonic
river." Capt. Joseph Pratt, Capt. Abraham Fuller and Capt. Joseph
Carter were appointed a committee to lay out the money or so much of it as
was needed to complete the bridge. Some hitch occurred for at the next
meeting the managers were required to call in the tickets that were out for
sale. The next year however they were directed to begin the draw on the
second Monday in October. In December they were instructed to complete
the lottery.
The bridges over the Housatonic were always more or less a subject of
contention at town meetings, and numerous controversies are recorded.
Joseph Pratt, jr., Abraham Fuller and Lewis Mills were appointed a committee
in 1772 to bridge the river at Bonny's place. The timber had all
been drawn and the structure nearly completed when the town revoked the
conti'act, but the contractors appealed to the general assembly, who ordered
them to complete the work and collect of the selectmen. At another time
the town meeting refused to bridge the river at another place, and the genteral
assembly appointed a committee to "view" the place, but the town decided
to build before the viewing took place.
In 1771 Moses Rowley was accused by the general assembly of deceiving
it in representing that a grant of land which the state had given him was
small when it was large, the gift being made on account of his having
bought of Robert Watson a section of land belonging to the Scatacook Indians.
In 1777 it was voted: "That we will allow of inoculation of smallpox under
proper restrictions that shall hereafter be agreed by this meeting.
That it shall be restricted to the 15th of April next."
In 1776 a memorial was sent to the General Assembly with the following
result:
Upon the memorial of the town of Kent in the county of Litchfield, praying
for liberty that for the future the inhabitants of said town make, mend
and maintain their highways by a town rate, and that it be passed into a law
the better to enable said town to maintain their own highways as said town
shall agree, and that the inhabitants of said town be excused from working
at highways in the usual method; as per memorial on file.Resolved by this Assembly That the said town of Kent have liberty, and
authority is hei-eby granted to the inhabitants of said town, to tax the poles
and rateable estate of said inhabitants to raise such sums of money as said
town shall from time to time judge necessary and sufficient to repair all public
highways in said town, which tax shall be collected by the several surveyors
of the several districts for repairing highways in said town and be by
such surveyors laid out and improved for the repairing highways in each
district in said town; and said town is hereby impowered, by the selectmen or
a committee chosen annually or from time to time as occasion shall require,
to divide the highways in said towns into districts and to assign to each surveyor
a certain proportion of highways to be repaired and maintained, and to
divide out and proportion to the several surveyors of the several districts
the money so raised by said town according to the quantity or proportion of
roads set out to them as aforesaid within their respective districts, in the
same manner and form as other town surveyors or any of them after such
surveyor shall render a true account of such money by him so collected to
DEPOT AT KENT.
the selectmen of said town in a reasonable time when thereto required after
the same becomes payable to said collectors; and all surplus of such money
as shall remain in the hands of such taxes are collected; and every such
highways are sufficiently repaired shall be paid into the hands of the treasurer
of said town for the time being, and by him and his successors in said
office paid out to the next succeeding surveyors of the several districts respectively
in the same proportion as the money raised by said town for the
purpose of repairing highways for the then current year shall by said selectmen
or committee be ordered to be divided.
And it is further resolved, That this liberty and authority shall be and
remain to said town of Kent during the pleasure of this Assembly.
During the revolution or rather for the year 1776 the tax rate was to
be two pence per pound, and the price of each day's work for that year was
to equal the price of a bushel of wheat.
The town's first experience with bad money was in 1786 when "the selectmen
were authorized to settle with Col. Andrew Adams and grant such relief
as they think fit for the counterfeit bills he has taken for the state rates," Nathan Slosson was appointed tax collector to make all persons outside
of the colony pay a license to sell goods in Kent.
In 1790 Electrons Hoit was given liberty to build a hatter's shop.
At a meeting of the town held April 9, 1804, it is recorded that the inhabitants
came through and over snow drifts in many places four or five feet
deep.
Up to November 18, 1825, town meetings were held at Flanders, in the
northern part of the town. The town then voted to accept the old Episcopal
church on Kent plains if it was "moved onto the ground a few rods northward
where it now stands, with the ground it may there stand on, free of
expense to the town for a town house for said town." The first meeting
was held in the new quarters March 10, 1826.
About this time there was considerable agitation to have a canal from
Stockbridge, Mass., to tide water at Derby. This is the language of the resolution
the town meeting passed: "That we claim it is the interest and duty
of every individual situated near the proposed route to aid and assist in the
completion of this object oy endeavoring to promote and otherwise concert
in measures calculated to effect it by lending funds as circumstances may enable
and the vastness of the undertaking may require. That no other route
to tide water heretofore suggested is by us regarded as equally important or
can equally well accommodate this town or that portion of the public subjected
to land carriage which lies between the Connecticut and Hudson rivers."
J. !•. r.lKV.S PKOl'KKTV, USKl) AS TOWN IIAI.MILITARY SPIRIT.
THE TRAINBAND BECAME ONE OK THE IMPORTANT FEATURES OK KENT IN ITS EARLY
DAYS, AND KROM THAT TIME UNTIL THE CIVIL WAR THE TOWN's LOYALTY AND ENTHUSIASM
FOR ITS country's KLAG WAS BOUNDLESS.
In the organization of the early towns of Connecticut, provision was
made for a public ground, known as the parade ground or green, on which the
meeting house shall stand and which should be used for the training and
display of the military company which every town was expected to maintain,
and the organization and maintenance of which was regarded as a concern
second in interest and importance only to that of the church. As in the settlement
of other towns these two interests the "benefit of christian duties,"
and "defence against enemies" were always combined. The inhabitants not
only "trusted in God," "but kept their powder dry," and the care and use of
the powder was closely associated with the worship of God. It was so of necessity;
for in those early, perilous days, their only earthly security oftentimes
was in the fire-arms which they carried with them to meeting, and
which it stood them in hand to know how to use. Upon the prayer or the
psalm, might burst at any moment the war-whoop of the savage. Unlike the
apostle, they had to contend with "fiesh and blood" in the red skins of Indians,
as well as with the "principalities and powers" of the spiritual world;
and accordingly they armed themselves against both. This gave a distinctly
military, as well as spiritual character to the life of the early New England
communities. Military office held rank with religious, the "captain"
being counted second in position and impoirtance only to the minister.
Next in public regard to the worship of the Sabbath, was the parade of
"training day." Those who could remember olden times never forgot the
pomp and circumstance of that supreme occasion, when all work was laid
aside, even the washing had to wait, unless it was done the Sunday night
before, for
"The first Monday in May, was training day:"—
when all the boys got "stents," a week beforehand, and worked like beavers
to finish them so as to have that day free; and all the people turned out, old
and young, male and female; and the green was thronged; and all the
fences round were lined with horses, for wheeled vehicles were few; and
in the centre, the "train-band," brilliant with their uniforms, and their
captain at their head with port sublime, went through those wonderful evolutions,
those marchings and count ermarchings, those right wheels and
left wheels, and finally that "whipping the snake," which seemed to the
lookers on to surpass all human powers, not only of execution, but even of
comprehension; while the drums rolled, and the fifes screamed, and the
3© HISTORY OF KENT.
plumes waved in the wind, and the excited crowd scarcely knew whether it
was peace or war, whether they were on the field of battle or the village
green; and the wives were proud of their husbands as they saw them in the
ranks, and the sweethearts of their lovers, and the boys devoured the
squares of shining molasses gingerbread which they had knocked over with
stones, set up at so many paces for a cent a throw; and their sisters and
mothers gorged themselves with "training cake," and all went home at night
happy, and some of them drunk.
The first need of a new community was a public ground, and this was
supplied in that part of the town known as Flanders in a lot back of the
tavern kept by Col. Philo Mills, known :n later years as the Burritt Baton
place. The first train band in Kent must have beien formed as soon as there
were enough settlers to make a quorum, as the general assembly in May,
1739, passed a resolution that "the military companies in the towns of Kent,
Woodbury, New Milford, Litchfield, Cornwall, Goshen, Canaan, Norfolk, Salisbury,
Sharon, and New Fairfield shall be one entire regiment to be distinguished
by the name of the Thirteenth regiment." The officers were
Joseph Minor, colonel; Wm. Preston, lieutenant colonel; John Bostwick,
major. At the May session in 1740, Timothy Hatch was appointed and confirmed
as captain of the company or trainband; John Mills, lieutenant; and
Nathaniel Berry, ensign. Each company was required to have sixty-four
members, and the town was obliged to have on hand at least fifty pounds of
powder, 200 pounds of bullets, and 300 flints for every sixty men enlisted.
Nathaniel Berry in October, 1745, was promoted to a lieutenancy and in
1750 to be captain
This early training had kindled a military fire in the hearts of the inhabitants
of Kent, and when the blow for independence was to be struck
the town was quick to respond as the records of the severa] town meetings
at this period show. The first indication of a spirit of unrest is manifested
by the following in 1770: "Voted, That we are opposed to having European
goods imported under the present condition of things." The indignation
which may have moldered for some time, could not be kept down, for three
years later the following votes are spread on the records:
"At a town meeting lawfully warned and held by the inhabitants of the
town of Kent at the old meeting house in the first society in Kent on the
26th day of October, 1774, voted and made choice of Capt. Nathaniel Swift,
moderator. Voted, that this meeting having taken into consideration the
alarming situation of the American colonies now burdened with the yoke of
ministerial oppression by those unconstitutional and oppressive acts of Parliament,
The Boston Port Bill and the ever to be detested Quebec Bill, engrosses
our greatest attention and esteeming the General Congress now sitting
at Philadelphia and committees of correspondenoe in each town through
the colonies the most likely method to preserve our invaluable privilege
both of a civil as well as religious nature from the stroke of impending
ruin, and hand them down inviolable to the latest posterity we do heartily
acquiesce in the wise and glorious effort for the preservation of liberty and
taking into consideration the distressing circumstances of the poor in Boston
have appointed Capt. Jedidiah Hubbel, Capt. Joseph Pratt, Mr. Peter
Pratt, Mr. Eleazer Curtis, jr., Capt. Joseph Carter, Nathan Eliot, esq., and
Mr. Joseph Guthrie as a committee of oorrespondenee to receive the generous
donations of the inhabitants of the town of Kent who are hereby appointed
HISTORY OF KENT. 3
1
to receive the same as soon as may be and to transmit the same to the
committee of correspondence or selectmen of the town of Boston for the
relief of the poor in Boston and to keep a free correspond and consult all
matters relative to American affairs w^ith other committees in the neighboring
tovi^ns and colonies appointed for the above laudable purpose. Voted,
that the town clerk transmit a copy of the votes of this meeting to the
printers at New Haven to be inserted in the public paper."
"At a town meeting legally warned and held on the 29th day of No^
vember, 1774, at one o'clock in the afternoon by the inhabitants of the town
of Kent at the old meeting house in the first society in Kent. Voted, and
made choice of Nathaniel Berry, moderator. Voted, that the resolves contained
in the late Continental congress and recommended by the House of
Representatives ought to be strictly and faithfully adhered to and observed."
Shortly afterwards we find that instead of town meeting protests the
inhabitants are shouldering the musket as the most practical way to solve
the problem of independence.
The first call upon the State militia for active service in the Revolutionary
War was made in the summer of 1776, when Washington was in
need of a large force to meet the enemy's threatened attack upon New
York. Connecticut already had eight Continental and nine State regiments
in the field, but she responded at once to an urgent request from the Commander-
in-Chief to send down a portion of her militia. Two requisitions
were issued. The first called out fourteen of the regiments lying west of
the Connecticut River to serve from August until "the exigency should be
over." Brig.-Gen. Oliver Wolcott was specially appointed to their command.
The second was a call for nine of the regiments lying east of the
River to serve from September with Brig.-Gen. Gurdon Saltonstall in
command. As these troops were hastily summoned, poorly armed and provided
for, and generally undisciplined, effective service could not be expected
of them. A few of the regiments were exposed to the first attack of
the enemy on New York, Sept. 15, '76, and contributed to what is sometimes
described as the "panic" at Kips' Bay. Better troops would have
found it difficult to withstand the shock. The experience proved a valuable
one to the militiamen who were to be called out again more than once
during the war.
Later in the season when the enemy sent their ships up the Hudson to
interrupt the American communications, Washington again requested Gov.
Trumbull to send troops to the North River. The Governor thereupon issued
a proclamation calling upon the militia and all able bodied within
the State to equip themselves without loss of time and be ready to march
upon the shortest notice as exigencies might require.
In the early part of August, 1776, the two trainbands in this town and
Captain Olmsted's company made up largely of the inhabitants of Kent and
contiguous territory to the east and south were in New York. The two Kent
companies were in the Thirteenth regiment. They had returned by the first
of October following. The officers of the regiment and members of the
three companies were:
Colonel Benjamin Hinman, Woodbury, appointed before the war Colonel
Continental army, succeeded in October '76 by
Colonel Increase Mosely, Jr., Woodbury, profnoted October '76.
32 HISTORY OF KENT.
Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Canfield, New Milford, promoted Lieutenant
Colonel October '76.
Major Jethro Hatch, Kent, promoted Major October 76.
Major William Cogswell, New Preston, Captain, promoted Major vice Hatch,
May '81.
CAPTAIN CARTER'S COMPANY.
Captain .Joseph Carter,
Lieutenant Eleazer Carter,
Ensign Jna. Taylor,
Clerk Joseph Pack,
Sergeant Gershom Holmes,
Sergeant Ephin Tanner,
Sergeant Eleazer Finney,
Sergeant Benoni Carter,
Corporal Judah Hopkins,
Corporal Philip Judd,
Corporal Judah Eldridg,
Corporal Asahel Wedge,
Drummer Jos. Andrews,
Fifer Alexander Sackett,
Private Reuben Taylor,
Private Israel Lee,
Private Truman Gilbert,
Private Philip Strong,
Private Levi Swan,
Private Thomas Beeman,
Private Herman Brown,
Private David Taylor,
Private Benjamin Sprague,
Private Benjamin Andrews,
Private Eleazer Curtis,
Private Chauncey Smith,
Private Job Taylor,
Private Isaac Wedge.
CAPTAIN ABRAHAM FULLER'S COMPANY.
Captain Abraham Fuller, •
Lieutenant Lewis Mills,
Clerk Philip Judd,
Sergeant Abijah Hubbell,
Sergeant Stephen Skiff,
Sergeant Peleg Chamberlain,
Sergeant Eleazer Chamberlain,
Corporal Thomas Stevens,
Corporal Joseph Bates,
Drummer Thomas Avery.
Fifer Ashbel Fuller,
Private Isaac Darish,
Private Ephrim Fuller, •
Private John Bull,
Private Daniel Dye,
CAPTAIN
Captain David Olmsted,
First Lieutenant Lewis Mills,
Second Lieutenant Edward Coll
Ensign Silas Hubbel,
Sergeant Edward Tyler,
Sergeant Thomas Avery,
Sergeant Abijah Bennerdict,
Sergeant Samuel Hawley,
Sergeant Alexander Sackett,
Sergeant Seth Crawfut,
Corporal Crag Celley,
Corporal J(Jhn Berrey,
Corporal Benjamin Brownson,
Private Nathan Skiff,
Private Ebenezer Halt,
Private Levi Fairchild,
Private Elijah Crane,
Private Benjamin Merry,
Private Wells Beardsley,
Private William Trap,
Private Silas Stuart,
Private Silas Brownson,
Private Samuel Andrews,
Private Barnabas Hatch,
Private David Lyon,
Private Nathaniel Geer,
Private Daniel Hall,
Private Jonathan Maim.
OLMSTED'S COMPANY.
Corporal Ebenezer Judson,
Drummer Josiah Edwards,
ins, Fifer Bartlet Chamberlen,
Private James Lyn,
Private Daniel Beebe,
Private James Lincoln,
Private Cyrus Berrey,
Private Ebenezer Lyon,
Private Barabas Berrey,
Private David Morris,
Private John Bennet,
Private Uriah Marvin,
Private Edward Blackman,
-v
HISTORY OF KENT. 33
Samuel Nichols,
Samuel Botsford,
Jonathan Nash,
Stephen Peck,
Abel Peck,
Oliver Parish,
Benjamin Porter,
William Rockwell,
Silas Rockwell,
Levy Rust,
Joshua Raymond,
Newcornb Raymond,
Enoch Simons,
Curtis Stoddard,
Azarigh Smith,
Deliverance Slawson,
Peres Sturdivant,
Benjamin Sacket,
Nathaniel Spooner,
Ely Smith,
Hiram Summers,
William Tanner,
Reubin Taylor,
David Walker,
Solomon Warner,
Lican Der Ourtis.
In October, 1776, the near approach of the enemy to Kent, as well as
the critical situation of the Continental army and the danger of the enemy
cutting off all communication between the country and the army, the utmost
speed was put forth to oppose the further inroad of the enemy. All able
bodied men in the west part of the state were called out, including the
Tenth, Thirteenth and Sixteenth regiments, those going from Kent of
course chiefly belonging to the Thirteenth regiment which was under the
command of Major G-eneral Wooster.
In October, 1778, the state records say, "Upon the memorial of Nathan
Sloper, of Kent, in the county of Litchfield, shewing to this Assembly that
he, the said Sloper, was a soldier in Capt. Sacket's company in Colonel
Hooker's regiment at the Peekskill in the year, 1777, and by reason of illness
was furlowed to the 13th of October, 1777, and then enabled to return
to said regiment, and that he received no wages from that time to the
discharge of the regiment, as p-er memorial on file.
Resolved by this Assembly, that the Committee of Pay-Table are directed
to pay to the memorialist the whole of his wages and bounty from said
13th day of October till the discharge of said regiment, and draw on treasurer
of this state in his favour accordingly."
In April, 1780, the Assembly appointed Stephen Barnes "to be a purchaser
to procure fresh and salted beef, pork and flour and such other articles as
shall be directed, agreeable to act of Assembly of this State passed this
sessions, within the limits of New Fairfield, New Milford, Washington, and Kent exclusive of the parish of Greenwich, in said county of Litchfield."
Capt. Moses Seymour was appointed purchaser for the same purpose for
the towns of Litchfield, Goshen, Torrington, Harwinton and the parish of
Greenwich, in Kent, in said County of Litchfield.
In October, 1778, Jacob Bull of Kent presented a memorial to the General
Assembly which stated "that he is now confinjed in Litchfield county
goal on a prosecution in favor of this state for aiding traitors to said state,
and that he has been anxious for tryal to evince his innocence; praying that
he might be liberated from his said confinement upon his procuring bonds
for his appearing before the superior courts for tryal."
It was resolved by the Assembly "that the memoralist be freed and liberated
from his said confinement upon his acknowledging a recognizance in
the sum of 300 pounds, lawful money, with one spomsible surety, before legal
authority for his, the said memoirialist's personal appearance before the
superior court to be holden at Litchfield in and for Litchfield county upon
the last Tuesday save two of February next, to answer to the complaint on
which he is now imprisoned, and that he shall be of peaceable and good
behaviour in the meantime."
When the British descended upon Danbury April 25-28, 1777, it is supposed
the two Kent companies both went to the defense of its neighboring
town. The records are not explicit about Captain Abraham Fuller's company,
but it is known that he himself drew pay for his services from the
state and that Lewis Mills was recompensed for his time lost in the hospital,
both claiming to have been at Danbury at this time. The evidence that Captain
Carter's company took part is furnished by the following memorial and
resolution of the General AsBembly at the May session, 1778:
"Upon the memorial of John Wedge, of Kent, in the county of Litchfield
and state of Connecticut, showing to this Assembly that on or about the 27th
of April last the memorialist belonging to Captain Joseph Carter's company
was required by said Captain Carter to march with the rest of said company
in the utmost haste on horseback for the relief of the town of Danbury, when
invaded by the British troops: the memoralist and several others left their
horses with a guard, pursued the enemy on foot and the memorialist's horse
was unfortunately lost, and, notwithstanding the utmost pains and cost reasonable,
can never hear anything of said horse since; praying this Assembly
to give an order upon the treasurer of the state to draw so much money out
of the treasury as this Assembly shall think may be a reasonable recompense,
or some other way relieve the memorialist. Resolved by this Assembly
that the sum of £9—15— be allowed to the memoiralist out of the
treasury of this state."
Six months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence we find
that one of the first persons to enlist from Kent was John Brown, who
may by his example have stimulated his namesake in years long afterward
to strike the first blow for freedom in another cause. He enlisted for three
years January 14, 1777, in Colonel Beardsley's regiment and joined in
August that same year what was known as the Georgia battery. He was
followed on the 26th of the same month by John Warren, who joined Colonel
Chapman. Other enlistments took place rapidly and the town was well represented
throughout the revolutionary war. Three soldiers, Isaac Pennell,
David Ivoff and Seth Rowley were with Colonel Seth Warner's regiment at
Fort George, New York, when nearly all were killed or taken prisoners.
V
HISTORY OF KENT. 35
The town appointed in 1777 Nathaniel Berry, Reuben Murray, Eliphalet
Comstock, Josiah Camp, Jehosaphat Eldrid and Reuben Sackett a committee
to provide for soldiers' families, and another committee was appointed
to provide them with clothing.
In 1778 Moses Knapp was released by a vote of the town from paying
one-half of £120 for not going out in a draft.
In 1780 it was voted "That this town will secure the wages of all the
soldiers that shall hereafter enlist into the services of this or the United
States or that shall be draughted or detached, at the cost of this town into
the services and see the same paid at 40 shillings per month equivalent to
wheat at 4 shillings per bushel for each month they shall continue in said
service including the pay wages of the state and also a premium of 10 shillings
like money per month provided they will equip themselves according
to law with arms, blankets, etc., provided the same shall not be paid by
this state or the United States.
"That those lately drafted for six and three months services respectively
shall be included in the above vote."
The next vote was to select a committee tO' obtain recruits to fill up the
line in the Continental army agreeable to a late act of the general assembly.
To encourage the enlistment of soldiers the town voted "That there
shall be paid out of the treasury of the town of Kent unto Capt. Peter
Mills, Capt. Abraham Fuller, Peleg Sturtevant and Capt. Joseph Carter,
provided they shall procure five able-bodied, effective men, or any number
under five to enlist into either of the Connecticut battalions in the Continental
army for three years or during the war, such sum or sums of
money as shall be necessary to make good each soldier's wages with the
continental wages equal to forty shillings per month estimated at the price
of wheat at four shillings per bushel to be paid the first day of July annually.
Also that the committee have liberty to agree and pay to the
above mentioned soldiers twenty-six shillings per month in addition to
the continental wages to be paid by this town in lieu of the above provided
they shall choose it."
In 1781 a committee was appointed to class the town to fill up the state's
regiment agreeable to a late vote of the assembly, and Ephriam Fuller,
Gertham Holmes and Peter Waller were appointed a committee to procure
clothing for the soldiers serving in the army.
Benjamin Ackley, Major Jethro Hatch, Nathaniel Hatch, John Ransom,
jr., Nathaniel Berry, Joseph Carter, and John Brownson were appointed a
committtee to divide the town into two classes and to hire a recruit for
each class into the Connecticut line in the Continental army and make a
rate on the inhabitants to defray the charge and collect the same.
Major Eleazer Curtis was to procure the proper evidence for the claim
the town had to three men usually credited to the town but at that time
excluded by the assembly.
The next action was to suspend the vote in July respectlag the raising
of soldiers' wages.
The last record relating to the revolutionary war was February 20,
1782, when it was voted "That we will raise six men for this state according
to the requisition of the general assembly. That the men be raised by classing
the inhabitants."
36 HISTORY OF KENT.
Ic will be seen that from the commenoement until the finish of the war
Kent was loyal and steadfast, never wavering, but bearing its share of the
burden with its neighboring towns. The roster of its soldiers is as follows:
Stephen Barnum enlisted in Col. Beardsley's company April 21, 1777;
reduced July 20, 1780; promoted sergeant Aug., 1780; discharged April 5,
1781.
Daniel Avery enlisted with Col. Woodridge, March 3, 1777 for three
years; discharged March 15, 1780.
John Brown enlisted with Col. Beardsley January 14, 1777, for three
years; joined Georgia battery, August, 1777.
Samuel Bates enlisted with Col. Beardsley March 15, 1777, during war,
corp. (
.
) reduced.
Lemuel Bemont enlisted with Col. Chapman February 19, 1777. during
war, disabled June 1779. rejoined regiment January, 1781.
Matthias Beman enlisted with Col. Chapman January 31, 1777, during
war, promoted corporal May 9, 1780.
John Barlow enlisted with Colonel Chapman August 12, 1777, during
war.
Samuel Chamberlain enlisted with Col. Chapman March 22, 1777, during
war.
John Cobb joined from Putnam's regiment August 6, 1778, promoted corporal
August, 1780.
Elijah Chapman enlisted with Col. Beardsley March 11. 1777, during
war.
David Danes, enlisted with Col. Warner April 2, 1777, three years, discharged
May 31, 1780.
Joseph Dickinson enlisted with Col. Beardsley March 15, 1777, during
war; appointed corporal September 1, 1777; transferred to quartermastergeneral
department July 1, 1781.
Prentice Fitch enlisted with Col. Beardsley February 22, 1777, during
war, appointed corporal August, 1780.
Samuel Fairchild enlisted with Beardsley March 15, 1777, three years,
discharged March 14, i780.
Cuff Freeman enlisted with Beardsley September 4, 1777, during war.
Call Freeman enlisted with Beardsley September 4, 1777, during war.
Benjamin Lampkin enlisted with Hills April 29, 1778, three years, discharged
April 22, 1780.
Asa Sprague enlisted with Hills February 10, 1778, during war.
John Warren enlisted with Chapman January 26, 1777 during war, disabled
April 6, 1779; rejoined and discharged December 19, 1780.
Elihu Waters enlisted with Col. Samuel B. Webb June 13, 1778, paid to
1780.
Isaac Pennell enlisted with Col. Seth Warner December 5, 1779, taken
prisoner October 11, 1780; exchanged before January, 1783.
David Loff enlisted with Col. Seth Warner Janiiary 22, 1780.
Seth Rowley enlisted with Seth Warner January 1, 1777; dead or discharged
December 31, 1879.
David Thayer enlisted with Col. Moses Hazen January 1, 1777; discharged
January 1, 1781.
Capt. Ebenezer Hill (Greenwich or Kent) enlisted 7th regiment April 14,
1780: discharged April 23, 1783.
HISTORY HISTORY OF KENT. 37
Ebenezer Hill jr., enlisted 7th regiment November 1, 1777, three years.
Ebenezer Porgues enlisted January 18, 1783, three years'.
Nathan Wheeler enlisted January 27, 1781, three years.
Samuel Ingraham enlisted 2d regiment, Connecticut line, December 19,
1780, during war.
Calvin Buckley enlisted 2d regiment, Connecticut line, November 28,
1783, during war.
Stephen Morey enlisted 2d regiment. Connecticut line. December, 1779,
during war.
Sergt. Amos Barnum enlisted 2d regiment, Connecticut line, November
15, 1777, during war.
Reander Chamberlain enlisted 2d regiment, Connecticut line, April 21,
1782, three years.
Heman Carter, enlisted 2d regiment, Connecticut line, February 2, 1781.
Swift Chamberlain enlisted 2d regiment, Connecticut line, February 2,
1781.
Rogers Lake enlisted 2d regiment, Connecticut line, February 3, 1781.
Newoomb Raymont enlisted 2d regiment, Connecticut line, June 29, 1780,
three years.
Philetus Swift enlisted 2d regiment, Connecticut line, February 2, 1781,
three years.
Elijah Gray, Reuben Peck and Ezra Fairchild were in Col. Canfield's
militia regiment.
In Captain Smith's company, March 22, 1781, these members were from
Kent: Peter Drew, John Oakland, Daniel Succamux, James Sprague, Clark
Beement, Comfort Thomson.
Lieut. Stephen Dodge belonged to the provisional regiment in 1781.
This regiment was raised to go to Washington's aid should he call for it.
Captain Jeriah Swift was a member of Colonel Burrall's regiment, and
was reported dead in September, 1776.
Lieut. Ebenezer Tanner was a member of the Connecticut Cincinnati society.
In 1840 there were living in Kent these pensioners: Michael Bailey,
aged 96; Naomi Burton, 92; Silas Leonard, 83; Joseph Seger, 82; Elias Taylor,
87; David Whitehead, 75; Tracy Beeman, 78; Daniel Stone. 81
Judd, 92.
There is a cave among the rocks in a continuation of Bull's mountain in
South Kent. It is on the side or rather foot of the mountain and it is said
furnished an admirable hiding place in revolutionary times. The cave is
a room about 15x20 feet and six feet high, all of solid rock. It shows traces
of fire, and the rock has been heated until it has scaled off in places. A
number of relics have been found there from time to time.
It is said that a company of continental troops were encamped about
half a mile from this cave, and a lady (Mrs. Charles Northrup of New Milford)
says that her great grandfather, Johnathan Bull, entertained a number
of British officers one winter who, it is said, were sent there with a squad of
British soldiers to protect Stephen Stuart, at that time in hiding, and that
a skirmish actually took place between them and the Americans.
The war of 1812 seems mainly to have called forth expression at a town
meeting as only one soldier can be found enlisting from Kent. The records
38 HISTORY OF KENT.
State "a town meeting was called to advise together relative to the alarming
situation of our country in general and of this state in particular and see
whether it is not expedient to request a convention of the general court.
Lewis Mills, Hopson Pratt, El-^astus Chamberlain, Nathaniel P. Perry, Henry
Standard, and John Raymond were appointed to draft resolutions which were
forwarded to the government." The one name credited to Kent is that of
Solomon Chamberlain who enlisted May 13, 1813, in the Seventh Infantry, the
date of his discharge not being known.
In the Mexican war the only name found is that of Samuel D. Canfield,
who joined Companies A and I of the Ninth Infantry, April 7, 1847, and was
wounded August 20, 1847, at Churubusco, Mexico, when he was discharged.
The firing on Fort Sumter awoke in the hearts of the people of Kent
the slumbering military fire that had descended from the forefathers of 1770.
It was the talk of the town, and a public meeting was called April 29, 1861,
for the purpose of taking into consideration the propriety of voting supplies
OFFICERS SF.COND CONNECTICUT HEAVY ARTILLERY, FOR WHICH
KENT RECRUITED FORTY-FIVE MEN.
to all who would volunteer into the service of the United States and go to
the seat of war, to vote ample supplies to support the families of such volunteers,
and to equip a respectable volunteer force. The matter was discussed
but no action taken at this time. The summer came and before it had
passed enlistments were the order of the day. Enthusiasm ran wild and
between the 9th of August and the 21st of September a goodly number had
joined Company D, Tenth regiment, under Captain Lewis Judd of Roxbury.
The Tenth left Hartford in October, 1861, and after reaching Annapolis, Md.,
was assigned to Burnside's command. It was in the battle of Roanoke
Island, N. C, February, 1862 where Col. Charles L. Russell was killed
while gallantly leading the regiment in a charge; and Leman S. Lane was
wounded from which he died in April, 1862. At the battle of Newbern, a few
weeks later the Tenth lost twenty-three killed and wounded. December 14 it
lost 106 offic/ers and men in the battle at Kinston, N. C. ; and two days later it
was in the skirmish at Whitehall. March 28, 1863, the regiment was in the
HISTORY OF KENT. 39
battle of Seabrook Island, S. C, and remained in the neighborhood of Charleston
until late in the fall. Having removed to Florida, the Tenth, in December,
met with severe losses in the fight at St. Augustine. In the spring of
1864 the regiment was ordered to Virginia, and at once took active part in
the closing campaign of the war. It was in the engagement of Walthall
Junction, Drury's Bluff, Bermuda Hundred, Strawberry Plains, Deep Bottom,
Deep Run, Petersburg, Laurel-Hill Church, New Market Road, ^nd at Hatcher's
Run, and at Appomattox Court-House in 1865. It was mustered out
August 25, 1865. Henry L. V. Mairel was killed at Fort Gregg, Va., April 2,
1865.
No sooner was Company D of the Tenth off than enlistments were made
in Company C of the Thirteenth regiment under Captain C. D. Blinn of New
Milford. This company was known as the Lyon Guards and was composed
of thirty-six men from Kent, seventeen from Sharon and eight from Goshen
and others from Salisbury, Canaan, and New Milford. The Thirteenth was
the last regiment raised under the call for 500,000 men. It was organized in
THE BATTLE OF WINCHESTER.
the fall of 1861 and remained in barracks at New Haven during the following
winter. Henry W. Birge of Norwich was its first colonel. The regiment left
Connecticut in March, 1862, and joined the expedition in command of General
Butleir. After entering New Orleans in May it was selected to do provost
duty. In the fall it was again in active service under Butler and Banks,
and took part in the fight at Irish Bend .n-pril 14, 1863, where Ira Marshall
was wounded and at Port Hudson, La., June i4, where Frank E. Waldron received
mortal injuries from which he died on the 19th. In the fall of 1864
the regiment was sent to join the forces of Sheridan in the Shenandoah. It
was in the battles of Opequan, Winchester and Fisher's Hill. At Winchester
Willis Barnes, Homer M. Welch and Wm. H. Murphy were captured by the
rebels, Barnes and Welch dying at Salisbury, N. C, while Oliver Potter was
killed in the battle; Sergeant Joseph H. Pratt was wounded and died the following
April. Colonel Birge was promoted to be brigadier general in 1863 and
Captain C. D. Blinn of New Milford was appointed colonel. In January, 1864,
O'Ut of 406 men present on duty, 400 were ready to re-enlist. The regiment
was reduoed to five companies and called "The Veteran Battalion, Thirteenth
40 HISTORY OF KENT.
C. v.," and Lieutenant-Colonel Homer B. Sprague was put in command. It
was mustered out April 25, 1866.
The Nineteenth was a Litchfield county regiment, afterwards changed
to the Second regiment, C. V. H. A. It was recruited in the summer of 1862.
Kent furnished twenty-four men for Company B, Capt. James Hubbard of
Salisbury and twenty-one for Company H, Captain George S. Williams of New
Milford. It left Litchfield in September for Washinigton, and was stationed
at Alexandria. During 1863 it was engaged in garrison duty in forts on the
south of the Potomac, near Washington. The regiment was brought to a
high state of efficiency under the command of Colonel Elisha S. Kellogg of
Derby; and in May, 1864, it joined the Sixth Army Corps in Virginia. In
the sad slaughter at Cold Harbor June 1 Colonel Kellogg was killed and the
total loss of the regiment 285 killed, wounded and missing. Among the
number was Jerome Johnson, who was wounded June 1 and died June 16;
Henry C. Straight, killed: Edwin Harrington, wounded; Uriah F. Snedeker,
iKK.AUK A 1 l;lA)Oll\ A.\(,1.K
wounded; George Chamberlain, wounded; Solomon Hinckley, wounded; Daniel
O. Page, captured; George A. Skiff, killed; William Barton, killed. Following
the fortunes of the gallant Sixth coi-ps, the regiment was in the
battles of Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, Va. In February,
1865, it was in the engagement of Hatcher's Run, and, in March and April,
near Petersburg and at Sailor's Creek. The casualties which it suffered tell the
story of its noble service. It was mustered out at Washington. D. C, August
18, 1865.
As the roster will show Kent men were to be found in many other regiments,
and it is probable that no other town in the state, population considered,
suffered such a large percentage of its soldiers killed oir wounded.
The town was liberal in offering bounties, and on August 7, 1862, voted
$100 to each volunteer, not to exceed thirty in number, and on the 16th it
was voted to not have any limit. July 27, 1863, $300 was voted to each man
drafted. August 10, 1864, under the call for 500,000 troops it was voted to offer $500 tO' each volunteer or to any one who furnished a substitute. At
this time the grand list was $643,539. There was expended for bounties,
and support of families $20,000, and it is estimated tnat $3,750 was paid out
by private individuals for volunteers and sul)stitutes. The following is the
roster of soldiers:
COMPANY A, FIRST REGIMENT, C. V. H. A.
David Donnelly, enlisted Dec. 3, 1864; deserted July 29, 1865.
COMPANY B, FIRST REGIMENT, C. V. H. A.
Eugene Erb, enlisted Aug. 13, 1864; mustered out Sept. 25, 1865.
COMPANY F, FIRST REGIMENT, C. V. H. A.
Felix Dupont, enlisted Dec. 6, 1864; deserted July 28, 1865.
COMPANY A, SECOND REGIMENT, C. V. H. A.
William Barton, enlisted Dec. 21, 1863; killed June 1, 1864, Cold Harbor, Va.
Robert Elill, enlisted Dec. 21, 1863; mustered out Aug. 18, 1865.
.SUKl'KISK AT CEOAK CREEK
COMPANY B, SECOND REGIMENT, C. V. H. A.
Dwight Hallock, enlisted Aug. 8, 1862; dischavged July 7, 1865.
Charles B. Benedict, enlisted Aug. 5, 1862; discharged May 18, 1865.
Curtis Hall, enlisted Aug. 7, 1862; promoted Sergeant Feb. 13, 1864; wounded
Oct. 19, 1864, Cedar Creek, Va. Discharged July 7, 1865.
Myron R. Sterry, enlisted Aug. 8, 1862; killed June 1, 1865, Cold Harbor, Va.
James S. Thayer, enlisted Aug. 14, 1862; discharged disabled Jan. 24, 1863.
George L. Sterry, enlisted Aug. 7, 1862; discharged July 7, 1865.
John W. Ward, enlisted Aug. 14, 1862; discharged July 7, 1865.
Walston W. Peck, enlisted Aug. 7, 1862; discharged July 7, 1865.
Robert W. Ames, enlisted Jan. 4, 1864; wounded Oct. 19, 1864, Cedar Creek,
Va. Died Nov. 5, 1864.
Martin A. Besler, enlisted July 7, 1862; discharged Aug. 18, 1865.
James Burnes, enlisted Aug. 19, 1862; discharged June 13, 1865.
Lewis Burton, enlisted Aug. 20, 1862; discharged July 7, 1865.
42 HISTORY OF KENT.
Almeron Burton, enlisted Jan. 4. 1864; died Oct. 1. 1864.
Silas Burton, enlisted Jan. 4, 1864; mustered out Aug. 31, 1865.
Joseph E. Dewey, enlisted Aug. 14, 1862; discharged July 12, 1865.
Luther Hall, enlisted Aug. 8, 1862; discharged July 7, 1865.
Solomon Hinckley, enlisted Aug. 15, 1862; wounded June 1, 1864, Cold Harbor,
Va. Discharged July 7, 1865.
William H. Ingraham, enlisted Aug. 15, 1862; discharged disabled Feb. 12,
1863.
Henry M. Marshall, enlisted Aug. 8, 1862; discharged disabled Feb. 12, 1863.
Lewis Mory, enlisted Aug. 9, 1862; wounded Sept. 19, 1864, Winchester, Va.
Discharged disabled June 9, 1865.
Daniel 0. Page, enlisted Aug. 8, 1862; captured June 1, 1864, Cold Harbor,
Va. Paroled Nov. 20, 1864. Discharged May 18, 1865.
Charles H. Segur, enlisted Aug. 9, 1862; ki'led June 1, 1864, Cold Harbor, Va.
George R. Skiff, enlisted Jan. 4, 1864; killed June 1, 1864, Cold Harbor, Va.
Henry Sterry, enlisted Aug. 19, 1862; discharged disabled Apr. 3, 1863.
Horace N. Thorp, enlisted Sept. 12, 1864; mustered out Aug. 18, 1865.
5if--**r4-'"
-ainnWUh. •«. . J-i A^4lf<^iti^J:-\
riif'Z
KXI'I.OSION OK THE MINE AT l'ETEKSI;UKi;
John White, enlisted Aug. 12, 1864; sentenced by G. C. M. Nov. 2, 1864, to
one year confinement for absence without leave.
COMPANY E, SECOND REGIMENT, C. V. H. A.
Harmon Clark, enlisted Dec. 21, 1863; mustered out Aug. 18, 1865.
Edwin D. Beman, enlisted Aug. 11, 1862; promoted First Sergeant, March 1,
1865; discharged July 7, 1865.
Geo. H. McBirney, enlisted Aug. 9, 1862; promoted Sergeant Feb. 13,1864; killed
June 1, 1864, Cold Harbor, Va.
Edgar J. Stuart, enlisted Aug. 11, 1862; wounded June 1, 1864, Cold Harbor,
Va. Discharged June 9, 1865.
John Birch, enlisted Jan. 4, 1864; died July 31, 1864.
Hiram L. Bronson, enlisted Aug. 8, 1862; discharged July 7, 1865.
Henry Murphy, enlisted Aug. 15, 1862; discharged disabled Nov. 3, 1862.
Allen Sawyer, enlisted Aug. 13, 1862; discharged July 17, 1865.
Alonzo Stuart, enlisted Aug. 11, 1862; discharged disabled June 29, 1863.
Ira Warner, enlisted Aug. 20, 1862;; deserted Apr. 13, 1863.
HISTORY OF KKNT. 43
COMPANY G. SECOND RKC.IMKNT, C. V.
Harvey Clark, enlisted Aug. 8, 18t>2; died Jan. IS, ISCa.
COMPANY H, SI'X'ONl) RECIMENT, C. V. H. A.
Myron M. Jennings, enlisted June 13, 1864; nuisK red out .'\ug. 18, ISOn.
Jerome Johnson, enlisted Aug. 7, 18(52; wounded June 1. 18(jl. Cold Harbor,
Va. Died June 16, 1864.
Jarin W. Monroe, enlisted Aug. 11, 1862; discharged disabled Fcij. 16, 1863.
Henry Murphy, 2nd, enlisted Dec. 21, 1863; discharged disabled Apr. IS,
1864.
Hiram Murphy, enlisted Dec. 21, 1863; discharged June 15, 1865.
Alanson Peet, enlisted Aug. 7, 1862; discharged July 7, 1865.
Lauren Peet, enlisted Aug. 14, 1862; discharged July 7, 1865.
John Rodgers. enlisted Dec. 21, 1863; discharged Aug. 1, 1865.
Orville R. Sawyer, enlisted Aug. 13, 1862; discharged July 7, 1865.
Daniel T. Somers, enlisted Aug. 11, 1862; wounded Oct. 19. 1864, Cedar Creek.
Va. Discharged June 22, 1865.
Lewis St. John, enlisted Aug. 9, 1862; discharged Mar. 12, 1863.
TllK IwVTTI.K 0|- TlIK (KATKK.
Henry C. Straight, enlisted Aug. 11, 1862: killed Juno 1. IStll. Cold Harbor,
Va.
Henry J. Thompson, enlisted June 4, 1864; mustered out Aug. 18, 1865.
George Wedge, enlisted Sept. 16, 1863; mustered out Aug. 18, 1865.
Allen G. Winegar, enlisted Nov. 18, 1863; deserted July 31. 1865.
Lewis S. Young, enlisted Aug. 5, 1862; discharged July 7. 1865.
Edwin Harrington, enlisted Sept. 16, 1863; wounded June 1. 1864, Cold
Harbor: mustered out Aug. 18, 1865.
Daniel G. Marshall, enlisted Aug. 7, 1862; discharged July 7, 1865.
Anson R. Nichols, enlisted Aug. 7, 1862; discharged July 7, 1865.
Stephen Snedeker, enlisted Aug. 8, 1862; discharged May 31, 186.").
Uriah F. Snedeker, enlisted Aug. 7, 1862; woundetl June 1, Cold Harbor.
Va., discharged disabled July 7, 1865.
William H. Thompson, enlisted August 7, 1862; discharged July 7, 1865.
Harmon T. Edwards, enlisted Aug. 9. 1862; discharged July 7. 1865.
44 HISTORY OF KENT
Hiram Cable, enlisted Aug. 7, 1862; wounded Sept. 19, 1864, Wincehster, Va.;
discharged disabled May 8, 1865.
George Chamberlain, enlisted Aug. 8, 1862; wounded June 1, 1864, Cold
Harbor; discharged disabled, June 3, 1865.
Henry Fry, enlisted Aug. 7, 1862; discharged July 7, 1865.
Cyrus Howland, enlisted Aug. 11, 1862; discharged June 1, 1865.
Elroy S. Jennings, enlisted Aug. 7, 1862; discharged July 7, 1865.
COMPANY M, SECOND REGIMENT.
Myron Odell, enlisted Aug. 17, 1864; deserted July 2, 1865.
COMPANi G, FIFTH REGIMENT, C. V.
John Lee. enlisted Aug. 14, i863; deserted Oct. 2, 1863.
James McCabe, enlisted Aug. 14, 1863; discharged July 14, 1865.
COMPANY I, SEVENTH REGIMENT INFANTRY.
Arthur Seymour, enlisted Nov. 29, 1864; mustered out July 20, 1865.
James Griffin, enlisted November 29, 1864; mustered out July 20, 1865.
COMPANY C, EIGHTH REGIMENT, C. V. H. A.
William Brown, enlisted Nov. 19, 1864; discharged Nov. 11, 1865.
COMPANY G, EIGHTH REGIMENT, C. V.
John S. Lane, enlisted Sept. 14, 1861; promoted Second Lieutenant Sept. 29,
1863; discharged Oct. 14, 1864.
COMPANY I, EIGHTH REGIMENT.
Frederick Stevenson, enlisted Sept. 21,1861; discharged disabled Jan. 9, 1863.
Ebenezer Thayer, enlisted Sept. 21, 1861; discharged Sept. 20, 1864.
COMPANY B, TENTH REGIMENT, C. V.
Frederick McArdle, enlisted Dec. 9, 1864; mustered out Aug. 25, 1865.
COMPANY D, TENTH REGIMENT, C. V.
Ausitin L. Frink, corporal, enlisted Sept. 21, 1861; discharged disabled Feb.
12, 1863.
Luman Hoag, corporal, enlisted Sept. 5, 1861; discharged Sept. 30, 1864.
Lewis Murphy, corporal, enlisted Aug. 20, 1861; deserted March 23, 1864.
Louis Pouslett, corporal, enlisted Oct. 1, 1861; mustered out Aug. 25, 1865.
Simeon M. Walling, musician, enlisted Aug. 24, 1861; mustered out Aug. 25,
1865.
George C. Austin, enlisted Sept. 9, 1861; died May 8, 1862.
Frank Friar, enlisted Aug. 21, 1861; discharged disabled July 7, 1865.
Oliver Friar, enlisted Aug. 21, 1861; discharged Oct. 1, 1864.
Elmore F. Jenks, enlisted Sept. 9, 1861; discharged Oct. 7, 1864.
Henry F. Johnson, enlisted Aug. 21, 1861; mustered out Aug. 25, 1865.
Leman G. Lane, enlisted Aug. 21, 1861; wounded Feb. 1862, Roanoke Island,
N. C. Died Apr. 1, 1862.
Henry L. V. Mairel, enlisted Sept. 10, 1861; killed Apr. 2, 1865, Fort Gregg,
Virginia.
Alfred Murphy, enlisted Sept. 12, 1861; discharged Aug. 5, 1865.
George Odell, enlisted Aug. 21, 1861; discharged Sept. 30, 1864.
Harvey Sterry, enlisted Sept. 18, 1861; discharged disabled July 11, 1862.
^y>
HISTORY OF KENT. 45
COMPANY E, TENTH REGIMENT, C. V.
Michael McNab, enlisted Nov. 23, 1864 deserted June 10, 1865.
COMPANY G, TENTH REGIMENT, C. V.
Stephen Wood, enlisted Dec. 22, 1864; transferred to Provost Marshal, R. C,
May 5, 1865.
COMPANY H, TENTH REGIMENT.
Franz Peter, enlisted Nov. 26, 1864; deserted June 11, 1865.
COMPANY G, ELEVENTH REGIMENT, C. V.
Michael Mullins, enlisted Nov. 28, 1864; deserted July 14, 1865.
COMPANY K, ELEVENTH REGIMENT.
Michael O'Conor, enlisted Nov. 26, 1864; deserted Feb. 15, 1865.
William Stanley, enlisted Nov. 25, 1864; mustered out Dec. 21, 1865.
?'%:^^«^
fp^a^t^^
^"lo&m
KF-IinUT;T II, NKAR FORT ALEXANDRIA, VA.
COMPANY C. THIRTEENTH REGIMENT, C. V.
Andrew J. Austin, enlisted Nov. 4, 1861; deserted Aug. 26, 1864.
Willis Barnes, enlisted Jan. 8, 1862; captured Sept. 19, 1864, Winchester, Va.
Died Dec. 8, 1864, Salisbury, N. C.
Hobby Brown, enlisted Dec. 23, 1861; mustered out Apr. 25, 1862.
John Carpenter, enlisted Nov. 19, 1861; discharged disabled May 31, 1862.
John Clark, enlisted Dec. 16, 1861; died Aug. 6, 1862.
Reuben H. Douglas, enlisted Nov. 7, 1861; died Sept. 4, 1862.
Homer Hall, enlisted Nov. 11, 1861; discharged disabled March 9. 1864.
Seneca Hammond, enlisted Nov. 25, 1861; mustered out Apr. 25, 1866.
John B. Hutchins, enlisted Nov. 20, 1861; discharged disabled May 29, 1863.
Ezra S. Marshall enlisted Nov. 7, 1861; discharged disabled June 30, 1862.
Ira Marshall, enlisted Nov. 6, 1861; wounded Apr. 14, 1863, Irish Bend, Va.
Discharged Jan. 6, 1865.
Charles Mitchell, enlisted Dec. 20, 1861; died Oct. 11, 1864.
Oliver Potter, enlisted Oct. 30, 1861; killed Sept. 19, 1864, Winchester, Va.
Francis Quain, enlisted Nov. 20, 1861; discharged disabled May 31, 1862.
William H. Reynolds, enlisted Nov. 11, 1861; died May 14, 1862.
John Roach, enlisted Nov. 26, 1861; died Aug. 18, 1862.
iij
46 HISTORY OF KENT.
Everett E. Dunbar, enlisted Nov. 16. 1801; promoted Second Lieutenant Jan.
8. 18G5.
Elias P. Scott, enlisted Nov. 14, 1861; killed June 1, 1864, Cold Harbor, Va.
John N. Duncan, enlisted Oct. 30, 1861; (First Sergeant) discharged disabled
May 13, 1863.
Joseph H. Pratt, enlisted Nov. 11, 1861; (First Sergeant) promoted Corporal
Sept. 24, 1863; wounded Sept. 19, 1864, Winchester, Va. Died Apr. 13, 1866.
Homer M. Welch, enlisted Oct. 28, 1861; (Sergeant) promoted Sept. 24, 1863;
captured Sept. 19, 1864, Winchester, Va. Died Dec. 31, 1864, Salisbury,
N. C.
Edwin Evetts, enlisted Dec. 23, 1861; (Corporal) promoted Mar. 16, 1864; deserted
Aug. 26, 1864.
William H. Murphy, enlisted Oct. 30, 1861; (Corporal) promoted Mar. 4, 1864;
captured Sept. 19, 1864, Winchester, Va. Paroled Feb. 27, 1865. Discharged
Dec. 22, 1865.
I. F. Nettleton, enlisted Oct. 21, 1861; died Sept. 27, 1862.
William H. Odell, enlisted Oct. 30, 1861; (Corporal) promoted Sept. 24, 1863;
discharged Aug. 26, 1864.
UNION BREASTWORKS AT COI.l) HARBOR.
Frederick W. Pender, enlisted Nov. 7, 1861; (Corporal) promoted Sept. 24,
1863; discharged Aug. 26, 1864.
Simon Potter, enlisted Oct. 28, 1861; (Corporal) discharged disabled Sept. 7,
1862.
Orange Smith, enlisted Nov. 20, 1861; (Corporal) promoted Nov. 30, 1864;
discharged Jan. 6, 1865.
Albert G. Williams, enlisted Nov. 20, 1801; (Corporal) died Nov. 11, 1862.
Benjamin Walker, enlisted Feb. 6„ 1862; (Corporal) discharged disabled May
31, 1862.
Mortimer H. Scott, enlisted Nov. 23, 1861; deserted Aug. 26, 1864. Enlisted
Aug. 30, 1864 under name of Henry Simpson in Company K, Seventh regiment,
N. Y. Heavy Art.; discharged June 17, 1865.
Vivant Stowe, enlisted Jan. 8, 1862; killed May 9, 1864.
Frederick Stuart, enlisted Nov. 30, 1861; discharged disabled April 16, 1864.
Herman Stuart, enlisted Dec. 16, 1861; mustered out April 25, 1866.
William H. Teneyck, enlisted Dec. 23, 1861; discharged disabled May 13, 1863.
Daniel Thompson, enlisted Nov. 13, 1861; mustered out Apr. 25, 1866.
Frederick E. Waldron, enlisted Nov. 18, 1861; wounded June 14, 1863, Port
Hudson, La. Died June 19, 1863.
H. Stowe, enlisted Feb. 13, 1864; died Dec. 8, 1864.
HISTORY OF KENT. 47
Such a roll of honor any town might be proud of. To perpetuate the memory
of these noble heroes there was unveiled June 11, 1886, a monument at
the intersection of the roads in front of the Episcopal church. It is Quincy
granite and cost $4,000. The chairman of the occasion was Rev. E. S. Porter.
On the cap of the monument is inscribed the coat of arms of the state of Connecticut
with the motto "Qui transtulit sustinet." On the die are cut these
words: "A tribute of honor and gratitude to her citizens who fought for liberty
1861-65." Chiseled on the base are these words: "Erected by the people
of Kent, 1885."
The speakers of the day were Hon. B. G. Northrop, Rev. E. P. Payson of
Ansonia, Rev. W. W. Andrews of Wethersfield, Rev. T. J. Lee of New Milford,
and Hon. Charles B. Andrews of Litchfield. In his address Mr. Andrews
asked the "people of Kent to go back to the summer of 1861 and recall
the wave of patriotism that swept over the country. Nevertheless enlistments
were at first few. It was not until after the battle of Bull Run
that the patriotic heart was touched to the bottom. The first time that men
were enlisted from Kent was when a man from Roxbury enlisted men for the
Tenth regiment.
"What a sensation of strangeness was felt by us who watched those who
marched up amd down our streets. In the autumn of 1861 it was proposed
to raise a company or part of a company. Isaac F. Nettleton, a popular
man, whose genial and kindly voice will be remembered, did the recruiting.
The speaker administered the preliminary oath then as a magistrate. On
the night before the Thirteenth regiment enlisted—it was early in November
of that year—Rev. Mr. Scudder delivered an address. You remember with
what pathos Mr. Scudder bid you farewell, how he repeated the stanzas of
Dr. Holmes' battle poem. The speaker recalled among them Homer Welsh,
noblest of the noble, who fell in the Shenandoah valley on the day when
there was a morning of disaster and a night of victory, and 'Sheridan was
twenty miles away.' There was another man, Reuben Douglas (laughter
by many of the audience) a man of rollicking, indifferent disposition, who
went into war in the lightest-hearted way, which had been his for forty
years. It is doubtful if he ever had a serious thought. When he was before
a justice of the peace and was asked by a cross-examining lawyer whether he
ever drank he replied that he always did when he could get snow to eat.
He never returned from the war.
"In the summer of 1862 recruiting took a definite form and an entire
regiment was raised in Litchfield county. It was the Nineteenth regiment,
afterwards the Second Connecticut Heavy Artillery. Captain Frank Berry
and Ezra M. Merwin, each energetic and capable, raised fifty-four men in this
vicinity. All through that summer the sound of the fife and drum was heard
all through this valley, and the air is still tremulous with the memories of
those who went to war. Over 1,000 were recruited for the Second Artillery.
"The first baptism of fire was at Cold Harbor, when over 400 men of the
sons and brothers of Litchfield county were killed or wounded. There was
one dead in every household. Still the regiment went on and did their duty,
not only at Cold Harbor, but at Winchester and entirely through the war
until the surrender at Appomattox. We are indebted to the 54,000 sons of
Connecticut who braved battle and the prison pen and each succeeding year
makes the debt of gratitude greater."
CONGRliGATlO.NAl. CHL'KCII, KENT.

CHURCHES.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE TOWN IS PRINCIPALLY THAT OF THE CONGREGATIONAL
CHURCH, ONE OF THE FIRST ACTS ON RECORD BEING TO LAY A TAX OF 4D. PER
ACRE FOR THE SUPPORT OF THE MINISTRY.
The early history of the town is principally that of the Congregational
church, for at that time the town and church were inseparable. The act of
incorporation was passed in October, 1738, and a tax of 4d. an acre for four
years was laid on all divided lands for the support of the ministry. In October,
1743, it was ordered that a tax at 2d. an acre on all unimproved land,
except college, ministry, and school lands, be laid for the support of minister
and meeting house.
The church was organized by the neighboring churches of Sharon and
New Milford, on April 29, 174l. It consisted of eleven male members, including
Cyrus, Marsh, who became the first pastor. The others were Samuel
Lewis, Daniel Comstock, Azariah Pratt, Ebenezer Lyman, Samuel Bates,
Ebenezer Barnum, Abel Wright, Nathaniel Berry, Joseph Fuller^ Gideon Barnum..
Settlers came in so fast that before the close of the year fifty-three
were added to the church, chiefly by letter.
In an historical address Rev. B. M. Wright furnished the information
which follows, it being so complete, the author quotes it verbatim:
It is said the pioneers located on East Mountain, directly back of what
now is called Good Hill. If so, they soon moved down and occupied Good
Hill and Flanders. The "Great Plain" was thought to be swampy and
worthless; it was near the Indians, too, who hunted over it at will. There
is a tradition that Daniel Comstock, while out hunting, fell in with the Indian
chief and treated him to "fire-water." This was the beginning of a
friendship of great value to the whites. Comstock put up a building on the
site of the present Botsford Fuller house, which served as store, dwelling
house, and church. The store and dwelling apartments were on the first
floor, and overhead was the one large room which was used for a "meeting
house." The Indians came to trade their furs for rum, beads, and other articles
that took their fancy, and Comstock taught them the gospel. In the
upper room the Indians were gathered, and there the white man first worshiped.
There, it is supposed, Robert Silliman preached, Cyrus Marsh was
ordained, and the church was organized; and there they worshiped until 1743.
The old house stood till 1860, when it was pulled down. On the last
night of its existence it was honored with divine service. Mr. Scudder, the
pastor, made an address, and Lewis Spooner told many interesting facts regarding
the ancient structure, which he had learned from the old people,
whose memories ran far back toward the beginning.
50 HISTORY OF KENT.
The early settlers of Kent were of the true New England type. To
them religion was the most important thing, and almost the first thing they
did was to call a minister. The first town meeting was held Dec. 4, 1738, and
less than a month later, Jan. 2, 1739, a special meeting was held, at which it
was voted to give "Mr. Robert Silliman a call for to be ower minister, and
also voted to give the Jentelman one hundred pounds and twenty pounds salary;
and also voted that a comett be appointed to treat with Mr. Silliman
and to se upon what terms ye Jentelman will be ower minister." The committee
found the reverend Jentelman unwilling to treat, and so reported
to the meeting; whereupon the vote mentioned above was declared to be of
no force nor regard in the least, and it was voted to give Sur Silliman forty
shillings a week and his board for so long a time as ye Jentelman had
preacht to us all Readdey or shall continue to preach to us ocationaly. At
this same meeting it was further voted that wee will Build a Meeting hows,
and also that we will not begin to git the timber untill October next; this
is avoated by the whole of the people of the meeting. Then follows a series
of meetings and propositions to Mr. Silliman. He was of uncertain mind.
At one time the record says he accepts humbly and freely, and a short time
later declines the call on the ground of insufficient support. By great economy
he might be able to live himself, but the proposed salary would not
permit him to lay up anything for posterity. His final reply covers two
closely written pages of the Town Record.
As the time drew near for beginning the work of getting out the timber
for the meeting house, it seemed desirable to^ get a definite idea of what was
to be done. Accordingly a meeting was called for September 29th, which resulted
in the following vote: "We will Build a Meeting hovis for the publeck
worship of G'od in Kent, the dimensions of which is as follows, 50 foot in
length and 40 foot in breadth and 23 between joists." At a special meeting
held October 20th it was voted to ask Mr. Cyrus Marsh to preach for a
time on probation. December 8th he was invited to settle as the Gospel
minister. To this call Mr. Marsh replied in the negative, but an offer of better
support caused him to reconsider the matter; and this time the reply was
in the affirmative, and a council was therefore immediately called to meet
May 6th for the purpose of ordaining him.
The church was organized the preceding week, April 29, 1741, by the
neighboring churches of Sharon and New Milford, and consisted of eleven
membei's, all men. Before the end of the year, however, fifty were added,
making sixty-one in all. This great gain is significant as showing the rapidity
with which the town was settled. In the meantime work progressed
favorably on the frame of the meeting house. It continued triumphantly
to go forward, until at a lawful town meeting held April 19, 1742, it was so
far advanced that it became necessary to vote six gallons of rum to raise it.
Another year goes by and we find a vote to board up the sides and ends of
the meeting house, in order that it may be clapboarded. Whether it was
built of logs and clapboarded is uncertain. Tradition says it was built of
logs, and a poor affair anyway. Certain it is that it was not plastered; and
that it was poorly lighted, is evident from the occasional votes to permit
some individual to build a pew and cut out a window. Just before the new
church was built it was proposed to lath and plaster the interior and whitewash
the beams overhead.Where this second place nf worship stood is not altogether clear. We
should naturally expect it on a hill, in accordance with the prevailing custom,
and that it would be near the burying ground. Tradition says it was proposed
to build opposite the old burying gi'ound on Good Hill; but on account
of the steep hill up which the lumber must be drawn from the mill, that
plan was abandoned. The Town Recoi-ds state that an impartial committee
consisting of three men, one each from Sharon, Litchfield, and Danbury,
was chosen to fix the site.
It is probable that the house stood in what was then the highway in
Flanders, just south of the large rock to the north of Mr. Bissell's. There
still remain marked traces of an old foundation, and all the direct evidence
points to that slope as the site of the first meeting house.
It must have been finished some time during 1743; for at a town meeting
held October 5th of that year, it was voted to pay John Ransom fifteen shillings
for the care of the meeting house during the ensuing year.
The young church almost immediately had a case of discipline on its
hands and heart. A member was tried and found guilty of the sin of drunkenness,
and accordingly suspended until such time as he should make gospel
satisfaction. This he did in a short time, and was restored to full communion.
Another case of discipline attracts one's attention in reading the old
records, for it concerns one of the proprietors and first settlers of the town.
P^'our miembers are summoned to appear to answer for their conduct in attending
a disoirderly meeting. What that "disorderly meeting" was is not
stated, and one reads on and on, till at last, from the confession of one of
the women, he learns that it was a Quaker meeting.
There was not perfect harmony between Mr. Marsh and his people, and
in 1756 the pastoral relation was dissolved. Mr. Marsh became a lawyer, and
after an interregnum of two years, Joel Bordwell was called and settled. He
was a graduate of Yale College, and eminent for learning and piety. Under
his long pastorate of fifty-four years the church flourished in spite of
the terribly trying character of the time.
The War of the Revolution impoverished where it did not devastate. For
many years there was practically no money. Mr. Bordwell was from necessity
a farmer, and during the long winter a tutor as well; for like most of the
ministers of the day, he fitted many a boy for ooUeige. The spiritual destitution
of the period was even greater than the material. Skepticism and infidelity
were rampant, and the church that held its own did well.
But during this period, under the leadership of Mr. Bordwell, the
church in Kent held the even tenor of its way without serious hindrance or
mishap. There was much to be done,—lands to be cleared and fenced, roads
laid out, and bridges and schoolhouses built. Worst of all there was no
money to do it with, as we have seen. Yet our hard-working, self-sacrificing
fathers did not stop there. The old meeting house, poorly built, unplastered,
unpainted, bare and cheerless, must be extensively repaired or a new
house built.
In 1770 the first vote to build anew was passed, and two years later decisive
steps were taken. It was voted to prepare timber, and stones for the
underpinning: a tax of 4d on a pound on the list of 1771 was laid. This tax
might be paid in wheat, rye, Indian corn, bar iron, or cash. The house was
52 HISTORY OF KENT.
to be 60 X 45 X 26 feet high between joists. It was probably occupied sometime
during 1774, although not entirely completed for several years after.
In 1777 a committee was appointed to sell or pull down the old meeting
house.
The church built in 1774 is the one which stood on the Green at Flanders,
and is so well remembered by many. It was a good-sized building, and
the galleries, which extended around three sides, seated a large number. It
was always full, for everybody went to church in those days.
Rev. Joel Bordwell died Dec. 6, 1811, in the eightieth year of his age and
the fifty-fourth of his ministry. Of his funeral the church record says: A
funeral sermon was delivered by Rev. Mr. Mills, of Torrington, to a large
and very solemn assembly, in which were several neighboring clergymen.
The Rev. Mr. Geltson (son-in-law of the deceased) made a very appropriate
address at the grave, at which time the funeral anthem, "I heard a great
voice," etc., was suhg in a very solemn and moving manner.
For several months the pulpit was supplied by Rev. Zephaniah Swift,
and in September a call to settle was given him. Mr. Swift was obliged to
decline the call, because he could find no convenient place which he might
purchase for a residence.
Six months later Mr. Asa Blair was called, and on May 26, 1813, was ordained
pastor. The faithful seed sowing of Mr. Bordwell now began tO' be
manifest, and in the years immediately following, the church was richly
blessed, revival following revival. On the first Sunday in November, 1812,
Mr. Swift received forty-seven into the church; and during the nine years
of Mr. Blair's ministry one hundred and seventy were added. Without extraordinary
ability Mr. Blair, nevertheless, combined those qualities of
head and heart which, together with good sense and thoroughgoing consecration,
rendered his labor blessed of the Lord, and himself dearly beloved by
the church. It was therefore the source of great grief when the state of
his health compelled him to ask leave of absence.
He journeyed South, and died in South Carolina in January, 1823,
mourned by everyone.
In October of the same year Rev. Laurens P. Hickok was called, and
two months later ordained and installed by consociation. Rev. Samuel Mills,
of Torringford, a native of Kent, assisted in the ordination service, being
one of those who "imposed hands." He was father of the famous Samuel
J. Mills, who by his prayers and consecrated effort did so much to call into
being the A. B. C. F. M., and was himself one of the most brilliant and
original of that band of great preachers who maide Litchfield County a
synonym for pulpit power. Harriet Beeoher Stowe writes of him, "Of all the
marvels that astonished my childhood, there is no one that I remember to
this day with so much interest as Father Mills."
The six years of Mr. Hlckok's ministry were somewhat stormy, and the
church and society records would lead one to think unsatisfactory. This,
however, is untrue with regard to the church as a whole. As a preacher Mr.
Hickok was simple, direct, and forceful, and as a man altogether lovable.
All the trouble came from the violent dislike of the minister on the part of
an influential man in the community, who permitted no oppoirtunity for
stirring up strife to pass. The minister was charged with unministerial conduct,
such as whistling, vaulting fences, running on the streets, and driving
a fast horse. Consociation was called, and it decided that there was no
HISTORY OK KENT. 53
cause for uneasiness, and therefore no reason for the dissolution of the pastoral
relation. When, however, the call came from Litchfield inviting Mr.
Hickok to succeed Dr. Lyman Beecher, he gladly availed himself of it as offering
a solution of the difficulty, and thus Kent lost the most eminent man
w^ho has ever oeoupied her pulpit.
During thesie yeairs society affairs moved smoothly. Votes are recorded
which look odd to us in these days; e. g., occasionally some one is granted
permission to build a pew, and for several years it was repeatedly voted
that the society seat the meeting house. In 1802 certain individuals were
given permission to- build a steeple, provided no expense accrued to the society.
On similar conditions individuals might saw out the crack in the
bell; and it was voted to let the burying ground to some one who would
fence it, and pasture it only with sheep.
In 1811 the first steps were taken toward raising a permanent fund for
the support of the public worship. The records speak frequently of a parsonage
fund, but where it came from is nowhere explained. A committee was
appointed to raise a fund for the support of the society, and this parsonage
fund was appropriated to that use. People were invited to contribute merchantable
neat cattle, grain, pork, bar iron, or cash. It was estimated that
six thousand dollars would be sufficient. The society already possessed two
thousand (parsonage fund probably), which would leave four thousand to be
raised. The interest on the sums contributed by various individuals was to
be set off against their tax. How soon the whole amount was raised cannot
be ascertained. What was contributed was of no benefit for many years, as
it was deposited in the Hartford Bank, which failed to pay dividends.
What led the fathers to this action is uncertain. It may have been local
cause, or possibly wise men saw the crisis that was coming, when the voluntary
principle should be substituted for the compulsory in the support of
public worship. Their church expenses were met by taxation. The right to
tax still exists, but is never exercised. At all events the consecrated Christians
of Kent toiled, and saved, and denied themselves for the sake of Christ.
For five years after Mr. Hickok's departure the church was without a
pastor, but the long waiting finally closed with the installation of Rev. W. W.
Andrews. For fifteen years he faithfully performed his labor of love, trusted
and beloved by his people and blessed by God. Having changed his ecclesiastical
beliefs, he resigned the charge May 21, 1849. Jo those who lived under
his ministry his memory is a benediction; and to the young, one of the most
cherished traditions of the past. He might well have been Goldsmith's
model in the "Village Preacher." He walked with God and mirrored Christ to
his people, and their every interest was his own.
"Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distressed;
To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given,
But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven:
As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form.
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm.
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head."
During the next ten years the church had only one settled minister, and
he remained but six months. The pulpit was well supplied by. a Mr. Green54
HISTORY OF KENT.
wood, Mr. Caldwell and others till 1850, when Rev. Blisha Whittlesey was engaged,
and remained three years.
During this period the society suffered more or less on account of the
withdrawal of several families about Flanders, in consequence of the removal
of the church.
For some time previous to the year 1848 there had been a feeling that the
old church should be repaired. Many thought it good enough as it was, and
were unwilling to do anything. Room, too, was needed for horse sheds, but
no one near the old church would sell any land for that purpose. The railroad
had gone through, and what was then called the corner seemed destined
to be the principal part of the town: it certainly was nearer the geographical
center of the parish than Flanders. Finally a meeting was called to see
about repairing the old church. Instead of voting repairs it was voted to
build a new church. Very naturally the people in the vicinity of the old
church opposed any change. Another meeting was held, with the same
result, and a disinterested commission of three, one each from Sharon, New
Milford, and Goshen, was appointed to locate the new church. They fixed
upon the present location and the work of construction began; also the work
of destruction. More or less had been said about the unsafeness of
the old edifice, especially the steeple, which many declared might fall over
at any time. At last the day came to pull it over. A great rope was fastened
high up, a hundred or more men and boys got hold, and the fun began. It
did not come so easily, however, and the good people of Flanders chuckled at
the frantic, and for a long time futile, efforts of the crowd. But at last it
started; a shout of exultation went up,—a shout which was cut short and actually
choked by the dust in which the multitude found themselves; for it
had only started to spring back again, and the snap back had laid them all
sprawling in the dust. Then it was that Flanders laughed, and one good old
lady thanked the Lord laat he had humbled the proud.
The new church was dedicated in 1850, probably some time during May.
The records do not give the date, but at a meeting held April 27th a committee
was appointed to make arrangements. It was voted to occupy the
church as soon as dedicated, and to rent the slips from May 1st. It is inferred
that the dedication was in May. The sermon was preached by Rev. Samuel
J. Andrews, brother of the former pastor of the church and first pastor of the
Broadway Tabernacle.
In 1859 the church was once more blessed with a settled pastorate. Rev.
Evarts Scudder was installed June 1st, just ten years after the dismission of
Mr. Andrews. The name Scudder is a guarantee of pulpit eloquence and pastoral
faithfulness, and the man was all the name implies.
Others who occupied the pulpit were Payson, and Cros^by, and Barclay, and
Vorce, and Porter. Tbey have gone to other fields, but their labors remain.
The ministers raised in the church are as follows:
Samuel John Mills, born May 16, 1743; died in Torringford, May 11, 1833.
He was graduated at Yale in 1764, and then studied theology. On June 29,
1769, he was ordained in Torringford, and remained in charge of that parish
until his death. He outlived all his college classmates, and became generally
known, on acount of his age, as "Father Mills." His son, Samuel John, born
in Torringford, is famous as the "Father of Foreign Mission Work in Christian
America." It is not so generally known that it was his suggestion
which resulted in the formation of the American Bible Society.
HISTORY OF KENT. 55 Rev. Edmund Mills, brother of Samuel J., Sr., born in Kent, and was
pastor in Massachusetts from 1790 to 1825.
Rev. Seth Swift, pastor at Williamstown, Mass., 1776-1807. He had two
sons who were ministers, Rev. E. G. Swift, and Rev. Elisha P. Swift, who
was professor in Alleghany Theological Seminary. A brother of Seth, not
born in Kent, Rev. Job Swift, D.D., was in the ministry from 1766 to 1804 in
Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont. One of his sons became Secretary of
State in Vermont, and another United States Senator from the same State.
Rev. Walter Smith, Yale, 1816; pastor of Second Church, Cornwall, from
1819 to 1838.
Rev. Birdsey Grant Northrop, LL.D., Yale, 1841; pastor, Saxonville,
Mass., 1847-57; Agent of Massachusetts Board of Education, 1857-6P; Secretary
of Connecticut Board of Education, 1869-82.
LIST OF PASTORS.
Rev. Cyrus Marsh was ordained and installed the first pastor May 5, 1741, and
was dismissed about 1754.
Rev. Joel Bordwell was ordained and installed in September, 1756, and died
Dec. 6, 1811.
Rev. Asa Blair was ordained and instal led May 26, 1813, and died Jan. —
,
1823.
Rev. Laurens P. Hickok was ordained and installed Dec. 10, 1823, and was
dismissed April 21, 1^29.
Rev. William W. Andrews was ordained and installed May 21, 1834, and was
dismissed May 21, 1849.
Rev. William W. Page was installed Dec. 7, 1853, and was dismissed July
16, 1854.
vRev. Elisha Whittlesey was engaged as pastor in 1856, and remained three
years.
Rev. Evarts Scudder was ordained and installed June 1, 1859, and was dismissed
April 1, 1867.
Rev. Edward P. Payson was installed Dec. 4, 1867, and was dismissed about
June 1, 1870.
Rev. Arthur Crosby began supplying the pulpit early in the year 1871; was
installed in January, 1872, and dismissed Sept. 29, 1873.
Rev. Thomas D. Barclay was engaged as pastor Nov. 30, 1874, and remained
until April, 1879.
Rev. J. H. Vorce was engaged as pastor in July, 1879, and remained until
June, 1883.
Rev. Elbert S. Porter was ordained and installed Dec. 19, 1883, and was dismissed
March 10, lo89.
Rev. Benjamin M. Wright was installed Nov. 19, 1889; resigned, 1896.
The present pastor is Rev. Howard Mudie.
PRESENT OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH.
Pastor—Rev. Howard Mudie.
Deacons—Samuel C. Conn, Levi W. Stone, Marshall C. Gibbs, Charles
L. Spooner.
56 HISTORY OF KENT.
Standing Committee—The Pastor, Deacons, Superintendent of Sunday
School, and President of Y. P. S. C. B., ex officio, Mrs. John Hopson, Miss
Mary A. Hopson, Mrs. Russell Eaton.
Clerk—Eugene W. Bull.
Treasurer—George R. Bull.
Auditor—Deacon Charles L. Spooner.
CATALOGUE OF MEMBERS.
The following list of names are those who signed the covenant and were
incorporated into a church by the neighboring churches of New Milford and
Sharon, April 29, 1741:
Cyrus Marsh, Azariah Pratt,
Bbenezer Barnum, Joseph Fuller,
Samuel Lewis, Bbenezer Lyman,
Abel Wright, Gideon Barnum,
Daniel Comstock, Samuel Bates.
Nathaniel Berry.
The following is a list of the members admitted in full communion with
this church, being recommended from the several churches wherefrom they
come
:
1741.
Daniel Comstock, Jr.,
Samuel Canfield,
Abagail Barnum,
Mercy Lewis,
Mary Wright,
Mary Comstock,
Hannah Pratt,
Lydia Fuller,
Lydia Lyman,
Anna Barnum,
Mary Canfield,
Catherine Comstock,
Nathaniel Sanford,
Margaret Peck,
Ebenezer Peck,
Benjamin Peck,
John Mills,
Jane Mills,
Esther Hambleton,
Ruth Bebee,
Capt. Timothy Hatch,
Deborah Hatch,
Mary Lothrop,
Sylvanus Hatch,
Jedida Hatch,
Benjamin Brownson,
Nathaniel,
Martha Brownson,
Ruth,
Nathaniel Slosson,
James Stewart,
Margaret Slosson,
Elona Stewart,
Bethiah Ransom,
William Roberts,
Joseph Peck,
Mary Roberts,
Daniel Brownson,
Mary Brownson,
Elizabeth Sanford,
Rebekah Segar.
1742.
Hannah Newcomb,
Daniel Joseph Benton,
Jehiel Benton,
Sarah Benton,
Mary Castle,
Abraham Raymond,
Mercy Raymond.
1743.
Sarah Thompson, Jr.,
John Dunning,
Hannah Dunning,
Daniel Thompson,
Sarau Thompson,
Joshua Lasell,
Mary Bentley,
Nathaniel Roberts,
Rel)ekah Roberts.
CHAPTER V.
THE SCATACOOKS.
THE NUMBER OF DESCENDANTS CONFINED TO A HANDFUL OF HALF-BREEDS WHO STILL
OCCUPY THE OLD RESERVATION—THEY WERE AT ONE TIME ONE OF THE LARGEST
TRIBES OF INDIANS IN CONNECTICUT WHO RETREATED BEFORE THE ADVANCING
COLONISTS.
One of the largest, if not the very largest, of the tribes of Indians
formed by the bands of wanderers who retreated before the advancing colonists
of Connecticut, was the tribe of Scatacooks in Kent. The founder of
this community was a Pequot, called Gideon Mauwehu, who possessed something
of the energy and commaniding character for which his nation was
once distinguished. He is first known as having been the leader of a small
band which lived about the lower portions of the Housatonic. He is said to
have resided, at one time, in or near Derby; and it is certain that he possessed
sufficient power in that region to settle one of his sons on a small
territory at Humphreysville. He is next heard of at Newtown, afterwards at
New Milford; and in 1729, he seems to have been one of the thirteen Indians
who claimed to be "the owners of all unsold lands in New Fairfield." At
all events, a deed of that year exists among the papers at Hartford, disposing
of the above lands for sixty-five pounds, and signed by Oockenon, Mauwehu
and eleven others. The tract thus sold was doubtless that now oomprehended
in the township of Sherman, which lies directly west of New Milford,
and about four miles west of the ancient residence of the New Milford
Indians.
Mauwehu afterwards moved to Dover, a town which is some ten miles
west of Scataco'ok and is situated on the Ten Mile River in the state of New
York. Here he had lived but a little while, when, in one of his hunting excursions,
he came to the summit of a mountain in Kent which rises to the
west of the Housatonic. Looking down from this eminence, he beheld that
gentle river, winding through a narrow but fertile and beautiful valley,
shut in by mountains thickly covered with trees. The whole country was
uninhabited; the white mam had not yet penetrated intO' these quiet recesses;
the streams were still stocked with fish, and the wooded hills plentifully
supplied with game. The gazing Indian was delighted with the scene,
and instantly perceived the capabilities of the region for supporting a considerable
population of his countrymen. He returned to his wigwam, packed
up his property, and journeyed with his family and followers to this
new-found land of quiet and plenty. From here he issued invitations to his
old friends at Potatuck and New Milford, to the Mohegans of the Hudson
river, and to other tribes of the surrounding country. Immigrants fiocked
in from all quarters; large numbers especially came from the clans south
74 HISTORY OF KENT.
of him on the Housatonic; and, in ten years from the time of settlement,
it was thought that a hundred warriors had collected under the sachemship
of Mauwehu. A considerable acceission was received from the New Milford
tribe, in 1736, a short time after the death of their sachem, Waramaug. The
Indians called their settlement Scatacook, and it is by this name that the
tribe thus formed always continued to be distinguished.
The Scatacooks had not enjoyed their happy valley many years before
they were disturbed by the arrival of the whites. The settlement of Kent,
commenced in 1738, was prosecuted rapidly; but no difficulties seem to have
occurred between the settlers and the Indians, and nothing worthy of notice
took place until 1742.*
In that year, the Moravian missionaries began to preach to the Scatacooks,
and soon effected a remarkable change in the character of the tribe.
As this mission had so much to do with the Indians of Connecticut, it will
be well to give a short sketch of its history. * * * In 1739 or 1740, a Moravian
named Christian Henry Ranch, arrived at New York, with the design
of commencing a mission among the Indians of this part of America. Shortly
after his landing, he fell in with two New York Mohegans, and accompanied
them to Shekomeko, an Indian village between the Connecticut and the
Hudson. His labors first met with much opposition from the natives and the
neighboring whites; but success finally rewarded his perseverance, and, in
1742, he had the happiness of baptizing several converts, among whom were
the two Indians who brought him to Shekomeko. A few of the brethren
joined him, and living and dressing in the Indian style, supported themselves
by their own labor. The religious interest extended into the neighboring
villages of Connecticut and New York, effecting, not only the natives,
but the white population. Many of the New Milford Indians were converted,
and a missionary named Bruce was established in Sharon, who remained
there until his death. Among the Scatacooks the effects of the Moravians
were eminently successful. Mauwehu and from one hundred and twenty to
one hundred and fifty of his people were baptized. A church was built and
a flourishing congregation collected.
An almost total reformation seemed to have been effected in the character
of the Indians. Nearly their whole conversation when among the English
was on religion; and they spent a great part of their time in the public or
private duties of devotion. This wide spread religious interest excited feelings
of deep hostility among the rumsellers and dissolute characters of the
surrounding district. They saw their gains at once cut off, and the Indians,
who had formerly been their best customers, now become temperate and saving.
Reports were spread, that the missionaries were providing the Indians
with arms, and endeavoring to draw them into a league with the French. In
New York they were called on to serve in the militia, and harassed and
persecuted to force a compliance with the call. An act of Legislature was
procured in the same colony, commanding the missionaries to take the oath
of allegiance, and forbidding them to teach the Indians unless they obeyed.
It was contrary to the religious prejudices of the Moravians either to take
oaths or to act any part in military affairs. Rather than violate their consciences,
they resolved to leave their present settlements, and retire to some
spot where they could preach the gospel in peace. Inviting tlieir flock to
* This account is chiefly from Barber, pp. 471, 472.
>>
HISTORY OF KENT. 75
follow them, they removed to Pennsylvania, where they commenced a village
which they called Bethlehem. The New York people now seized the lands of
the Indians, and set a guard to prevent the latter from being visited by the
brethren. A large number of the Mohegans* followed their teachers to Bethlehem;
many, also, of the New Milford Indians, and some of the Scatacooks.
But this change of climate proved fatal to numbers of the emigrants, especially
among the old people. The Connecticut Indians, discouraged by sickness
and hardship, returned to their ancient country, and settled at Scatacook.
Here, deprived of their teachers, they seemed to forget their religion, sank
into intemperance, and began to waste away. In this mournful manner ended
the most promising and, for a time, the most successful religious effort that
was ever commenced among the aborigines of Connecticut.!
During the war of 1744 with France, Governor Clinton of New York, and
a body of commissioners from Massachusetts and Connecticut, had an audience
with the Scatacooks and River Indians, J and made them an address
calculated to either keep them at peace or engage them on the English side.
They began, as is usual o^n such occasions, by styling the Indians neighbors
and friends; expressing the pleasure which the governor and commissioners
felt in seeing them, and declaring that they should henceforth look
upon them as their very near relations. After these compliments, they said
that they had spoken with the Six Nations, and now came to speak with
them: that it was a very proper time to brighten the chain of peace; for the
French, without any cause, had just begun a war on the English: that the
latter might therefore want the assistance of their good friends and brothei-s,
the Scatacooks and River Indians; and that, when a convenient time arrived,
they would make them such a present as would be suitable to the circumstances.
Such was the substance of a speech delivered by one of the commissioners.
On the next day the Indians made the following reply:
"Fathers of the Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut. We are glad to see
you here, and we bid you welcome. We are inclined to live in peace
and love with these three governments and all the rest of his Majesty's subjects.
Fathers: We are very glad that we are all united in one covenant chain;
we are resolved that it shall not rust, and will therefore wind it with beaver
skins.
Fathers: We are ready to promote good things; and what our uncles,
the Six Nations, have promised we will readily concur in on our part.
Fathers: You are the greatest, and you desire us to stay at home, which
we promise to do, and we hope that no harm will come to us.
Fathers: We are united with the Six Nations in one common covenant,
and this is the belt which is the token of that covenant.
Fathers of Boston and Connecticut: Whatever you desired of us yesterday
we engaged to perform; and we are very willing to keep and cultivate a
close friendship with you; and we will take care to keep the covenant chain
bright.
Fathers: You are a great people and we are a small one; we will do what
you desire, and we hope that you will take care that no harm come to us."
* Not the Mohegans of Connecticut, but those of the Hudson.
t Tracy's History of American Missions, pp. i8, ig. Trumbull, Vol. II., p. 84.
i Probably the Stockbridges of Massachusetts.
76 HISTORY OF KENT.
The Indians then presented a belt of wampum and three martin skins.*
FYom this speech it seems pretty evident that the Indians were considerably
more anxious to be protected themselves than to risk their lives in injuring
others. The warlike spirit had gi'eatly decayed among them; and
what was it to them whether the English beat the French, or the French beat
the English?
The township of Kent was sold to the original settlers by the colony; and
no records or papers remain tO' show whether the land was usurped from the
Indians, or was obtained from them by purchase. Reseirvatioms, however,
were made to them: one on the west bank of the Housatonic river; and one,
of two thousand acres, in the mountains: and, since there were reservations,
we may conclude that there must have been, in the first place, sales. One
of the only two land transactions, betv/een the natives and the colony, to be
found in the Kent records, is a deed dated December 19th, 1746. For the
sum of two hundred pounds, it leases to Benjamin Hollister, Robert Watson
and Henry Stephens, a large tract, extending from the Housatonic to the western
bounds of the colony, for a term of nine hundred and ninety-nine years.
This form of passing over the property is an evident attempt to evade those
colonial laws which prohibited the purchasing of Indian lands by individuals.
The record Is subscribed by the marks of "Capten Mayhew, Leftenant Samuel
Coksuer, Jobe Mayhew, John Anteney, Thomas Cuksuer and John Sokenoge."
f
From the above spelling of the sachem's name, we may infer the English
origin of the word Mauwehu. Gideon was very likely one of those "Indian
youths" who had been brought up, more or less in the families of the "godly
English," or other English, and had been baptized, or otherwise furnished,
with an English name. When Gideon became a chief, he was, naturally in
that military age of New England, dubbed Capten; and his surname was easily
transformed into Mauwehu by his own foreign pronunciation, or by the
outlandish spelling of the scribes of those early days.
The other Indian deed in the Kent records is a sale by Chere, son of Waramaug,
of four hundred acres in Waramaug's Reserve, that is in New Preston
in Washington. The price is not mentioned: Chere only declares that he has
received valuable consideration. X
After the Connecticut people commenced their settlements in Kent, the
Indians took up their residence chiefly on the west bank of the Housatonic.
The settlers gradually encroached on them, by purchase and perhaps otherwise,
until, about the year 1752, the Indians found themselves deprived of
nearly all their lands on the plain. Mauwehu and fourteen others now subscribed
a petition to the Assembly, saying that the tribe consisted of eighteen
families; that they had been deprived of all their planting ground except a
small quantity which was insufficient: for them; and praying that they
might have a tract of unoccupied land which lay below them along the Housatonic.
The Assembly granted them about two hundred acres in the place designated,
allowing them to cultivate it at pleasure, and to cut what timber
they needed for their own use, from the greatest part of it. The tract was
* Indian Papers, Vol. I., Doc. 262.
+ Kent Records, Vol. I., page 381.
t Kent Records, Vol. I., page 464.
HISTORY OF KENT. 7 7
not, however, given in fee simple, but was to be held by the Indians at the
pleasure of the colony.*
Other difficulties followed, similar in their nature to those which took
place between other tribes and the surrounding whites. The Indians complained
of encroachments and trespasses, sometimes with, and sometimes apparently
without, cause. State committees reported, and town committees reported,
without producing much more effect than the reports of a similar
number of pop-guns. At this distance of time it is not easy to understand
the precise grounds ot these petty differences, nor to discover what party was
in the wrong.
In 1757, Jabez Smith was chosen overseer of the tribe; being the first
officer of the kind appointed for the Scataoooks.
Ten years after this event, Mauwehu and many of the older persons in
the commiunity being dead the remainder became anxious to remove to Stockbridge.
The StO'Ckbridge Indians had invited them to come, and they therefore
petitioned the Assembly, that the tract of one hundred and fifty or
two hundred acres which had been granted them in 1752 might be sold for
their benefit. As this land, however, did not belong to the Indians, but to
the colony, the Assembly negatived the request
In October, 1771, the following singular petition, evidently the composition
and penmanship of the Indians themselves, was presented to the Legislature.
"We are poore Intins at Scutcuk in the town of Kent we desire to the
most honorable Sembly at New Haven we are very much pressed by the Nepawaug
people praking our fences and our gates and turning their cattle in our
gardens and destroying our fruits, the loss of our good friend 4 years ago
which we desire for a nother overseer in his sted to take Oare of us and
see that we are not ronged by the people we make choice of Elisha Swift of
Kent to be our trustee if it (be) plesing to your minds." f
The petition was signed by David Sherman, Job Sucknuck and eight others.
Elisha Swift was appointed overseer, in accordance with its request. He
was shortly succeeded, by Reuben Swift, and he, in turn, by Abraham Fuller,
who held the office for several years. The Indians, during all this time, were
in extreme poverty-stricken circumstances; several of them, too, were sick,
and were unable to pay the expenses they thus incurred. David Sherman, a
signer, and perhaps the composer, of the above petition, broke his brother's
head so badly in a quarrel as to render a trepan necessary. By 1774, so
many Scatacooks had died or removed, that the number remaining in Kent
was only sixty-two*. Of the other bands of Litchfield county, there were
seven individuals in Cornwall, eight in Litchfield, and nine in Woodbury. ±
In 1775, the Assembly ordered that the lands of the Scatacooks should
be leased to pay their debts and defray their expenses. It was also ordered,
with regard to David Sherman, that he should be bound out to service, to
defray the expenses arising from his brother's broken head. Thomas Warrups,
probably a son of the old sagamore of Reading, was allowed to sell
thirty acres of land to pay his debts and provide for his family. Three years
after, another tract, of ten acres, was sold for the purpose of relieving the
* Indian Papers, Vol. II., Doc. 76.
t Indian Papers, Vol. II., Doc. 201.
t Mass. Hist. Coll., Vol. X., p 118
78 HISTORY OF KENT.
indigent circumstances of the Warrups family. The old squaw of Chickens
was still living; she was blind, however and had lately been sick.*
Not far from this time, Joseph Mauwehu, the sachem of Humphreysville,
came to Scatacook, and took up his residence in his father's tribe. His
name appears in a petition, dated April 13th. 17S6, which bears marks of
having been written by some of the Scatacooks. It complains concerning
their darkness, their ignorance, and their consequent inability to take care
of themselves; and prays that some means may be used to give them knowledge
and education. Most of their reserved lands, the petition goes on to say,
have been taken from them; they have lost their hunting grounds in the
mountains, and the New Milford people have deprived them of their ancient
right of fishing at the falls of the Housatonic. Some of their number have
suffered extremely from poverty, and the rest are themselves so poor as to
be unable to help them. As for the rents of their lands, they do not know
what becomes of them; and they ask the privilege of choosing a guardian,
onoe a year, and exacting from him an annual settlement. The petition states
the number of males in the tribe at thirty-six; the number of females at
thirty-five: twenty of the whole being of a suitable age for attending
school f
A committee was appointed, and examined into the grounds of complaint
mentioned in this memorial. They reported that the New Milford people
had satisfied the Indians as to their fishing rights; and that, so far from
the Scatacooks being entitled to complain of their guardian, they were actually
indebted to him to the amount of sixteen pounds, six shillings and sixpence.
The committee further stated, that the lands were rented for only one
year, and thus the tenants were induced to exhaust them without any regard
to their future fertility. They recommended that fifty acres should be allotted
to each Indian family, and that the rest should be leased to white
farmers in terms of fifty years. As for a school, they reported that the children
were so few in number, and "kept in such a wild savage way," that the
thing would be useless. The report was approved by the Assembly; and we
may suppose, therefore, that the measures which it recommended were carried
into execution. :[
In 1801, the Scatacooks were reduced to thirty-five idle, intemperate beings,
who cultivated only six acres of ground. Their lands still amounted
to twelve or fifteen hundred acres extending from the Housatonic to the
New York line. The greatest portion of this tract consisted of their ancient
hunting grounds, was situated among the mountains, and was rough and
unsuitable for tillage. In consequence of sickness among the Indians, their
overseer, Abraham Fuller, had contracted debts on their account to the
amount of over fonr hundred dollars. He petitioned that part of the reservation
might be sold, to pay him for these expenses. The Assembly voted
that the northern portion of it should be sold, the above debts liquidated out
of the proceeds, and two hundred dollars of the remainder applied to building
six wigwams for the Indians. The lands were accordingly disposed of for
the sum of thirteen hundred pounds; and the overplus, after paying debts
* Indian Papers, Vol. II. Colonial Records, Vol. XII.
+ Indian Papers, Vol. II., Doc. 2iq.
t Colonial Records, Vol. XII.
HISTORY OF KENT. 79
and deducting expenses, was put out at six per cent, interest on mortgage
securities.*
An honorable exception to the prevailing intemperance and idleness of
the Scatacooks seems to have existed in Benjamin Chickens, a descendant of
the old sachem. Chickens. Seven or eight years before the sale, he went on
to the northwestern part of the land, built him a small but convenient
house there, and fenced and cultivated several acres in such a manner as
to make it good meadow and pasture land. In consequence of these improvements
the whole tract sold for more than it could otherwise have brought.
Benjamin very reasonably requested that he might be rewarded for his
labor; and the Assembly as a remuneration, voted him one hundred dollars.
At first he purchased nineteen acres in Kent, but six or seven years after, he
sold his little farm and moved into the state of New York, f
Other portions of the Scatacook lands were disposed of at various dates;
and these sales, together with the appointments of overseers, constitute the
annals of the tribe in later times. In 1836, Eunice Mauwehu, a granddaughter
of the old sachem, and a daughter of Chuse or Joseph, was still living
at Scatacook, aged seventy-two years. X
The Scatacooks have yet a considerable tract of land on the mountain;
too rough and woody indeed to be cultivated, but well adapted for supplying
them, with firewood. At the foot of the mountain, also, and between
that and the Housatonic, they possess a narrow strip of plain, sufficient in
size for gardens, watered by springs from the upper ground, and containing
a few comfortable houses. The number of Indian descendants remaining
are few and mostly half-breeds. A few are sober and industrious, live comfortably
and have good gardens; but the majority are lazy, immoral and intemperate.
Many of them lead a vagabond life, wandering aboiit the state
in summer, and returning to Scatacook to spend the winter. A few are in
the habit of attending preaching and a few of the children go to school.
They live in little houses. In dress, language and manners, they are like
white people. There are now living Value Killson, wife and daughter; the
Widow Killson, whose daughter married a Bridgeport man; the widow of
Henry Harris, the well known "tinner," and Rachel Mauwehu. Near them
is the home of George Coggswell, the noted snake hunter, and his son, Archibald.
A little further north is the dwelling of the only other Indian family,
that of James Harris, son of the "tinner."
The widow of Henry Harris, wife and son James, are the only full-blooded
Indians remaining. Henry Harris, who died recently, was seventy-six
years old, but his form at that age was sturdy and erect and his vigor remarkable.
He possessed unusual mechanical ingenuity. With his queer
tools and contrivances he made earrings, repaired guns and pistols, even being
able to make a gun tube, and tinkered in many other ways, being a useful
man in the neighborhood.
On one of several strips of bark forming the back of a shanty near the
Widow Harris' house is noticed traced in large black letters the word,
"AMALLOK." It occurs to one at fii-st that it must be an Indian word, but
after careful study it is found to mean "Am all O. K." Her husband once had
* State Records, Vols. VI., VII.
t State Records, Vols. VIII., IX.
t Barber, p. 471.
8o HISTORY OF KENT.
the word "lAMOK" painted on the chimney of his house and it proved to be
a great puzzle for visitors who, of course, supposed it was an Indian word.
Rachel Mauwehu is eighty-four years old. Her grandmother was over 100 years
old when she died.
The ancient Indians did not smoke regular tobacco, but the plant which
is called lobelia was what they used. In medicine they seem to have been
quite advanced, experiment then being the guide as now. They gathered
roots and herbs, and as it was expressed, when a person was sick, "They
tried one and another preparation until they hit right."
Rachel Mauwehu has in her possession a large wooden bowl which belonged
to her great-grandmother and which is at least 200 years old. It was
hollowed out of an apple tree knot with such tools as the Indians had. It
has a little handle, now considerably worn, but once so shaped as to represent
a dog's head. IRON INDUSTRY.
MINE SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN WORKED HEFORE THE TOWN WAS INCORPORATED
—
PRIMITIVE WAY OF TRANSPORTATION WAS BY ORE IN BAGS ACROSS THE BACKS
OF HORSES.—BUSINESS NOW ABANDONED AND NO PROSPECT THAT IT WILL EVER
BE STARTED UP AGAIN.
One of the first resolutions passed at a town meeting in Kent referred to
the "iron ore pots." This leads the writer to believe that antedating the
settlement of the town iron had been discovered in the hills to the east and
been mined. The tradition is that the ore was taken in bags across the
backs of horses and transported to small forges in neighboring places. The
first owners so far as known were Robert Walker of Stratford, Jabez Hurd
of Newtown and John Warner and Thomas Noble of New Milfo<rd, the mine
being located in a tract of land known as the Fairweather purchase. This
was in 1758. The year before Joseph Wooster, claimed he was one of the
owners of a copper mine in Kent and had petitioned the General Assembly
to be allowed to work it at the expense of himself and the other members
of the company until the profits paid the expenses, which goes to show that
copper was sought for, too-.
In 1786 a committee was appointed to view and measure the several
roads leading from the iron ore bed toward the iron works who reported the
distance of the north road from the bed to the crotch of the road southward
of the Widow Mary Hall two miles two quarters and twenty-six rods and
the south road to Deacon Isaac Dayton's place two miles two quarters and
fifty rods.
After being worked for at least 150 years, the product going to Kent
furnace to be put into pig iron, the mine is now abandoned. The ore was
originally taken by tunnelling into the side of the hill, but later it became
necessary to sink a shaft about 300 feet deep, from which seventy-nine passages
were extended into the ore, the hill where the ore lies now being literally
honeycombed with underground tunnels, some of them several rods
long. The veins usually were from two to eight feet thick. The ore was
hoisted in buckets, the miners also ascending and desoendimg in them when
necessary to go up and down although there was another shaft called the
"man hole" for that purpose. It is related that a round broke once as a
workman grasped it and he descended until his legs caught in the rounds
below. When found his limbs were broken and he died in the hospital
shortly after. The old machinery is housed in a small building beside the
shaft, including a steam engine used for hoisting ore and constantly pumping
to keep the mine free of water, which but for it would soon have filled up.
From ten to twenty tons of ore were taken out daily and carted in teams
82 HISTORY OF KENT.
six miles. Tlie shaft is now boarded up, and it is haj^dly probable that it
will ever be opened again as the cost of transportation to market is too
much to compete with large mines which have railroads at their shafts.
The property is still owned by the Kent Iron Co., better known as
Stewart, Hopson & Co., which had a capital of $30,000 and were also owners
of the Kent Furnace which will be described later.
The Bulls Falls Iron Works capitalized at $70,000 was a very successful
concern for several years but finally had to close its doors. When it was at
its height half a century ago Bulls Bridge was a flourishing community.
There were a regular nest work of small forges in the surrounding villages
which wrought all kinds of iron work from a nail to heavy wagon tires, getting
their supply from the Bulls Falls works which beside casting the ore
into pigs also worked it into small bars or strips. The majority of the
iron was taken in two and four horse teams to Poughkeepsie thirty miles
away where it was probably shipped down the Hudson to New York, the
teams going one day and returning the next, stopping at Quaker Hill for a
load of ore. This when it arrived was weighed in a very primitive way.
Chains would be placed around the axles near the wheels, large steelyards
would be put in place, and the load would be drawn up on a windlass.
Twenty to twenty-five teams were kept in constant use and from fifteen to
twenty tons of iron was put into pigs daily.
Regarding the industry we cannot describe it better than by quoting from
an article from the versatile pen of Mr. J. A. Bolles of the New Milford Gazette,
published March 25, 1887:
"There are seven iron furnaces in the northwestern part of this state,
viz: One at Huntsville, one at Sharon, two at Canaan, one at Lime Rock, one
at Cornwall Bridge and one at Kent Furnace. The first six mentioned are
controlled by Mr. William H. Barnum of Lime Rock, but in the seventh at
Kent Furnace he has no interest.
"All of these furnaces have been in operation for a number of years, some
of them for many years, and while they do not rank among the great furnaces
of the country, not being situated in proximity to large ore producing
districts, they have for many years done a thriving business and turned out
excellent iron. The iron-making business is, indeed, one of the most important
industries of the Housatonic Valley, more important than many people
suppose, it being carried on in so quiet and methodical a manner as to attract
but little attention.
"Like most other concerns that have had an enduring prosperity, the
Kent iron works have steadily grown from a small beginning to their present
proportions. The first stack (the name of the receptacle in which the ore
is melted), was built in 1826 and from it was turned out three to four tons of
iron in a day; in 1844 the stack was rebuilt and its daily capacity then was
from five to seven tons of iron; in 1884 the stack was again rebuilt and enlarged,
and the present capacity is from thirteen to fifteen tons of iron in a
day, or from ninety to 100 tons in a week. The works were formerly run
by a priviate company, known as Stewart, Hopson & Co., but in 1864 the
present stock company, the Kent Iron Company, was formed and it now has
from twelve to fifteen stock holders. Mr. Hopson has been conected with the
business tor forty years, most of the time as its treasurer and manager, and
Mr. Bull has been the secretary for the last twenty-three years. Mr. Donald
HISTORY OF KENT. 83
J. Warner of Salisbury is the president, and has filled the office for five years.
His predecessor was the late Burrett Eaton of Kent.
"Kent Furnace is situated about one mile and a quarter above the village
of Kent on the Housatonic railroad, and besides the buildings of the Kent
Iron Co., and of the good-sized country store containing general merchandise
kept by George R. Bull and John L. Roberts, there are no structures. It
is a place for business solely and for its principal industry, iron-making, it
pos.sesses three admirable advantages. By means of a short side track, cars
containing the iron ore brought here from the mines at Salisbury, Ct., and
Richmond, Mass., can be quickly transferred from the main track to the very
doors of the works, the rapidly flowing Housatonic river on the west, but a
stone's throw from the furnace, furnishes all of the motive power needed for
blowing hot air into the stack, and there is also only six miles southeast of
the furnace a local mine from which all of the so called Kent ore, which is
liberally used by the company, is extracted. The buildings of the Kent
Iron Co., are brown, rambling structures, not at all fine in appearance but
well enough suited to the rough and dirty work which is done in them. On
the ample stretches of ground between the buildings and adjacent to them
are large piles of iron bars, which are all ready for shipment. On each side
of the side track are large heaps of iron ore, Including the remains of what
was a very large quantity of the Kent ore, so much of the latter having
been in stock that the mine from which it was obtained has not been worked
for about a year.
"The only kind of iron produced in the furnace is pig iron, and of this
two kinds are turned out, Kent iron and Salisbury iron. The former iron is
made entirely from the ore of the Kent mine. This ore works up into excellent
iron for fine machinery, especially for locomotives. It is strong, and
has a fine finish. At the mine a shaft 225 feet deep is sunk, and when the
mine is operated, about fifteen miners are employed and from 10 to 20 tons
of ore are taken out in a day. The Salisbury iron is produced from the old
Hill ore of the mine at Salisbury, Ct., and the ore of the mine at Richmond,
Mass., the proportions being about % to y% Salisbury ore to i/4 to y% Richmond
ore. The Salisbury iron is also strong and is used very largely for
car wheels. The Salisbury ore is somewhat used in two furnaces on the
Harlem railroad, but with these two exceptions, it is entirely consumed in
the Housatonic Valley, at the Kent furnace and at Mr. Barnum's furnaces
heretofore mentioned. It is impossible to keep the stack always at a uniform
heat, and consequently the iron varies in quality, it being divided into
seven distinct kinds, the degree of hardness attained determining in what
division a given lot of iron belongs. Both the Kent and Salisbury iron are
shipped in considerable quantities to prominent machine works located in
the eastern states and in the west and in the south.
"The process of converting the ore into iron is as follows: The ore arrives
at the works in two forms, known as wash ore and rock ore. The former
consists entirely of little chunks and particles, and as it is, is thrown into
the stack to be melted. The rock ore is in the form of large pieces, most
of them varying in size from the bigness of a man's head to the capacity of a
peck measure. The latter ore has to be crushed, and the cars containing it
are run on the side track into a building, where there is a rock crusher made
by the Farrell Foundry Co. of Ansonia, Ct. The crusher is impelled by a
54 HISTORY OF KENT.
steam engine and can crush 100 tons of ore in a day. Tlie crusher is a very
simple contrivance, the ore being shattered and ground by means of a cam
going very rapidly forward and backward and catching the ore, as it runs
down from a spout, between itself and a solid iron frame. After the rock ore
has been crushed, that and the wash ore are wheeled, as wanted, in barrows
and thrown into the stack, the contents of which look like a seething lake
of fire, and from which roaring blasts of air are continually rising into the
oven. The latter is placed on top of the stack, instead of to one side of it
as is the rule in many iron works, and this arrangement, Mr. Hopson thinks,
is a great advantage. In fact, it is his opinion that there is not a better
oven in the Housatonic Valley. The oven is at least twenty feet high and
the stack 34 feet high, making a total height of 54 feet. The whole structure
occupies quite an area, the 'round top" (the receptacle, in which the ore
is melted), being enclosed in a huge frame of stone. The round top is
perhaps three feet in diameter at the top, and about nine feet in the bosh
or widest portion, the stack being built large in the middle, from which it
gradually tapers smaller toward the top and to the bottom or hearth. The
latter consists of from twenty to forty stones laid very compactly and symmetrically
like the concave of a bowl. A new hearth has to be put in about
once a year at a cost of $600, and it takes about a week to build it. When the
fire in the stack is started it is called "blowing in," and when it is allowed
to go out, it is called "blowing out." The stack can be blown out in about
twenty-four hours. Only when a new hearth is put in or there is a shut
down for some purpose, is the fire allowed to go out. For many months, perhaps,
it is fed with fuel and ore, night and day, Sundays included. Several
men are kept constantly at work wheeling barrows full of charcoal and of ore,
to be cast into the insatiable maelstrom of flames. The stack is fed by what
are called "charges." A charge consists of perhaps thirty bushels of charcoal
and from 1,100 to 1,400 pounds of ore, and as these charges rapidly follow
one another, in order to keep the stack full, many thousands of bushels of
charcoal are being burned, and many tons of ore being melted at the same
time. Prom 1,500 to 1,700 bushels of charcoal are burned in a day of twentyfour
hours, and from thirty to thirty- five tons of ore are melted in the same
time. This quantity of of ore furnishes from fourteen to fifteen tons of iron
daily or about 100 tons in a week. The charcoal used is obtained from the
woods of the surrounding region. Continually mixed with the ore and charcoal
in the stack is a quantity of lime-stone, which serves as a flux to separate
the iron from the cinder. Of the lime-stone, three to four tons are used
in twenty-four hours.
"The roaring flames which permeate the stack from hearth to top are
only kept up by the continual introduction of powerful blasts of hot air at the
seat of the fire. The stimulating effect is tremendous. In what is called
the "wheel house" are huge and powerful bellows, the clatter and mournful
groaning of which, as they are forced through their labored movements, affects
the unaccustomed ear rather curiously. The water power from the dam
operates these bellows, which send big blasts of air through a long pipe connecting
with the furnace. From the main pipe the air fiows into a bed pipe
and thence into a tier of siphon pipes, rising into the oven. There are three
tiers of these siphon pipes, fifteen in a tier, forty-five in all. The pipes of
each tier are curved like an ox-bow, and the three tiers are connected with
HISTORY OF KENT. 85
each other by m'eans of three bed pipes. The air, as it is carried over and
over in these siphon pipes, so as to be thoroughly exposed to the heat of the
furnace, becomes very hot and it is estimated that its pressure, as it comes
down from the siphon pipes upon the fire, cannot vary much from one pound
to the square inch. The air is poured upon the fire through what are called
"tuyeres," these being short entrance pipes leading from a main pipe encircling
the bottom of the stack. There are five tuyeres. They are made of
iron, and in order to keep their ends, from which the air rushes forth and
which come in contact with the intensely hot fire, from being melted, they
are supplied with water chambers which are' continually kept full of water
pumped from the wheel-house. The water flows from the tuyeres intO' escape
pipes that sink into the ground. At the rear of each tuyere is a glasscovered
door, through which one can see the fire of the stack. If a tuyere
should become clogged up at the outlet, the glass, of course, would be darkened,
and the workmen would know what the trouble was, and be able to
thrust an iron throiugh the aperture caused by the opening of the glass
door.
"Prom the hearth of the stack the molten cinder is continually flowing
out into a channel, from which, before it has entirely cooled, it is dragged
TOOL-HOUSE NOW STANDING NEAR THE OLD KENT iKUiX MINE.
off in large slabs, to which the workmen attach grappling irons. Much of this
cinder is used in repairing the company's dam., and also in improving the
foundations of the neighboring roads. Once in six hours, or four times in
twenty-four hoiurs, the iron is cast. On a good-sized plat of ground, near the
bottom of the stack, a bed composed of common brown moulding sand, is
made. A number of pieces of wood, of the same shape and length, called
patterns, are set parallel to- each other, about four inches apart. Each pattern
is about three and one-half feet long, the width of the bed. Sand is then
filled in between the patterns and trod down hard. When sand has been thus
packed to^ the level of the patterns and the latter have been thinly covered
also with the same material, the patterns are then removed and the spaces
left vacant by them are ready for the reception of the molten iron. The
packing used to block up the stack at the foot of the hearth is next removed
and a molten stream of iron pours forth, runs through an enclosed track to
a main channel in the bed, which connects at a right-angle with each of the
small channels. In two minutes the bed is filled with hot iron, which is allowed
tO' cool. Owing toi the shape given to each channel by the pattern,
there is a central point in each of the cooling bars which renders it weaker
86 HISTORY OF KENT.
there than elsewhere, and when the iron is struck at this point by a hand bar,
it is easily broken into two lengths, each about one and a half feet long. At
the mouth of each channel a little sand is sprinkled, which has such an effect
on the cooling iron, that it can easily be severed from the iron in the main
track by a stroke of a hand bar. On the day when I was at the furnace, a
bed with sixty-six patterns was made, so that 132 small bars were turned out,
which with about eighteen bare obtained by breaking the iron in the main
channel, would make a total of 150 short bars. About four tons of iron are
usually obtained at one casting.
"The fire in the stack has, of course, to be constantly watched, and the
skilled eyes of the workmen are so well trained that they can tell from the
appearance of the fire in the stack, and the aspect of the molten cinder, as it
slowly winds out like a sluggish snake, in just what condition the stack
is at any time, and what quality of iron may be expected at the next casting.
The veteran foundryman who has charge of the stack is James Barker. He
has been employed at the furnace since 1838, most of the time in his present
capacity as superintendent.
"Fifteen or twenty men are constantly at work around the furnace, and
about thirty men are employed in all, some of them doing shoveling and like
labor, for performing which, no knowledge of the iron business is needed.
Two gangs of men take charge of the furnace; one comes on at noon, and at
midnight is relieved by the other gang. Each gang is, therefore, twelve
hours on and twelve hours off in the day of twenty-four hours.
"A portion of the water power of the Kent Iron Co. is employed in running
a grist mill, which belongs to the company. Grain of all kinds and
plaster are ground at this mill."
Stephen Tobias of Waldpot was one of the first superintendents of
the Kent iroo mine, and was most active in developing its early resources.
This gentleman was the seconid son of John Frobin Tobias of Waldpot,
Waldburg Zell, German baron and Teutonic knight who settled in Sharon
after the American revolution, having espoused the caujse of the colonies.
Stephen, the second son, was educated in the family of Hon. John Cotton
Smith, governor of Connecticut, where he imbibed those principles of strict
integrity and sterling worth which were ever after his chief characteristics.
A man of splendid physique, fair haired and having wonderfully beautiful
blue eyes, he combined the proweiss of a knight of old with the more modern
accomplishments of an old time gentleman. Excelling in the sports
and pastimes of the day he was always the champion of the weak and the
defenseless and the protector of womanhood.
The iron industry in the Housatonic valley is one of considerable antiquity.
As early as 1734, it is said that a blomary forge was erected at Lime
Rock, in Salisbury and it is certain that before 1740, the Livingstones of New
York province, had in successful operation at Ancram, a blast furnace and a
refinery forge.
In 1762, the celebrated Ethan Allen, with two associates, built a blast
furnace at Lakeville, which within a few years fell into the hands of one
Richard Smith of Hartford, who being a Royalist, was compelled to flee to
England during the Revolution, although the works were kept in active
operation by the colony of Connecticut during that period, producing great
quantities of cannon, cannon balls, shells, etc., for the use of the Continental
army. The blowing apparatus of this furnace consisted of a large leather
HISTORY OF KENT. 87
bellows driven by a water wheel. Probably the oldest furnace in Berkshire
county was that formerly existing at Lenoxdale, which was built in 1766 and
made iron the following year. This establishment continued in intermittent
operation for more than a century, not having been demolished until abouc
1881. During the most prosperous period of the iron industry in this region it
is said that twenty-seven furnaces were in full operation within a radius of
30 miles of Lakeville, the greater part of these being in Litchfield county.
The long acceptance without effective protest, of an industrial policy which
has been deliberately designed to build up the industries of Pennsylvania at
the expense of those of New England, has one by one put out these furnace
fires, until at the present time, only a few are left.
Prior to 1840, all the iron made in the United States was smelted by the
use of wood-charcoal fuel. The location of a furnace was originally determined
by the existence of. a sufficicient water power in convenient proximity
to a trustworthy source of ore supply, it being a fortunate circumstance
that wherever iron ore is found, it is sure to be accompanied with
plentiful deposits of limestone for use as a flux. In those days the use of a
stationary steam engine as a motive power for any purpose was very rare.
The unusually good quality and great abundance of the hematite iron ores of
Berkshire and Litchfield; the frequently occurring water powers, and the
vast tracts of forest which covered the rugged slopes of the Taconics and the
Green mountains, made this for more than a century an ideal region for the
successful prosecution of this picturesque and interesting industry.

Flanders now represents little else besides farming interests, but once
it contained a tavern, a meeting house, a grist mill, a wagon shop, a blacksmith's
shop, a tailor's shop, tanning works, etc.; and there the important
town clerk attended to his duties and the village parson lived in spiritual
blessedness. It was about 1830 that Flanders began to lose its prestige in
favor of the modern village, its being somewhat apart from the line of the
railroad no doubt largely accounting for its decline.
Here is the Burritt Eaton's house, about 150 years old, which was formerly
a tavern kept by Col. Philo Mills. In the lot back of the tavern the militia
used to train. Next are the pleasant residences of George R. Bull, Kent Furnace's
worthy and prosperous merchant, and Albert Roberts, which are situated
at the head of the road leading to Kent Furnace.
FLLLEK MOUNTAIN SCHOOL.
Other noteworthy houses were those where Deacon Lewis Mills and
.lohn Slosson once kept stores. Within the limits of the road on a knoll
where a flag pole now stands was the site of the old Congregational meeting
house, long since departed. Rev. Joel Bordwell was its pastor for fifty
years. Mr. Bissell now lives in what was the Congregational parsonage.
Here too is the well known Slosson homestead from which a number of
eminent Slossons, lawyers, judges and the like, have emanated and made
their ability and influence vigorously felt in places of size and enterprise.
"Uncle Nathan Slawson," a farmer of the family, was an able man who
when he saw a good thing knew it. It is related of him that he once played
a trick on a dude from the eastern coountry who sought to ingratiate himself
into the good graces of a family of comely Hubbell girls who lived west
of the Housatonic river. The dude, or dandy, as would be a more fit word
to use for that time, assumed a patronizing air on one occasion and hired
"Uncle Nathan," humble in aspect and commonly dressed, to carry him on
his back across the river to visit the girls. When they were in the midst
of the stream, "Uncle Nathan" said, "I shall have to, for twenty-five cents,
set you down and rest," and thereupon shook off the dandy, completely
sousing him and his brave fine clothes.

The center of Bulls Bridge is where the roads from Gaylordsville to Kent
and from South Kent to South Dover cross at right aagles. The hamlet comprises
a few houses, a country store and a "tabernacle." Two of these houses
are good sized and attractive white structures set in ample yards. They
stand on opposite sides of the South Kent road. The house on the north is
the home of Mott Judd, father of Jerome Judd. Mott Judd is a pleasant gentleman,
a fitting representative of the better class of New England farmers.
Alonzo Mallory, formerly a railroad man, now a farmer, occupies the house
on the south.
Mott Judd's sister, Mrs. Flora Millspaugh, keeps house for him. Her husband
was a man of ability. He built the house where Mr. Mallory now lives
and laid out an extensive flower garden in which at one time sixty-nine difi;
llls i;kiuge ahout 1870.
ferent kinds of flowers grew. He invented a kerosene tester and was the
author of a useful book entitled, "Kerosene Accidents and How to Prevent
Them."
On Mott .Tudd's farm is a tenant house occupied by Patrick McGarry.
West of Mr. Judd's home is an ancient house where the aged but active Elisha
Potter resides. On the south side of the road nearly opposite Mr. Potter's
house and within a few rods of the covered bridge that crosses the
Housatonic river are the store, and four houses. Of the three houses on the
bank of the river one is vacant and the other two are occupied by the families
of Minot Stevens and Joseph Wilcox. The fourth house, quite a large one,
at the rear of the store, is owned by Charles Stone. Charles Stone is the
business genius of the place. His restless and planning mind is fully alive
to the great future which awaits Bulls Bridge, it being a spot, where, except
at Falls Village, by far the best unutilized water power of the Housatonic
river is located. The ruins of an iron furnace stand on the river bank a short
distance from Mr. Stone's house.
HISTORY OF KENT. 95
North of Elisha Potter's house is the noted "Tabernacle," once a saloon
but redeemed for God's work by the Free Methodists. Now union services are
held in it and fervent flows of religiousfeeling are frequent. The so-called
"parsonage" beside the "tabernacle" is the home of Frank Ashmond and
family. Rev. E. B. Hawley is the sponsor for this good work in changiag a
saloon into a gosipel shop.
At the furnace a brick kiln rises amid a massive ruin of rocks that once
stood solidly around it. Just west of the ruins a large wall stands intact.
Its base is washed by the rapidly flowing waters of the river. Much money
was expended in the construction of the furnace and it was once the nucleus
of a large business, which flourished long before the railroad was built.
Probably 200 mien were employed at the furnace and in the carting work
connected with it. The oire was broiught from Clove, Dutchess coiuinty, N. Y.,
a distance Oif fifteen miles, and twentj'-one toamis employed in the wo^rk
could frequently be counted in line on the arrival at Bulls Bridge. Elisha
Potter was one of the teamsters.
line on the arrival at Bulls Bridge. Elisha
Potter was one of the teamsters.
96 HISTORY OF KENT,

missing text
Tim Lannigan, an employe at the furnace, fell into the river near it and
was drowned. While men were searching for the body some odd suggestions
were made. One was that a candle be placeid in a bundle of straw
which, it was asserted, would float to that part of the water under which
the body lay. A wag claimed, inasmuch as the deceased was an Irishman,
that a potato should be attached to a string for the purpose of "skiddering"
for Tim.
The corpse was finally recovered without reconrse to the extraordinary
expedients. There was a big wake over the remains and at the funeral tho
widow frequently and lustily cried: "Oh Tim, why did ye come to America
to be drowned!''
Beside the furnace is a beautiful grove where the Sunday school children
from Kent frequently hold picnics. Just east of the grove are the ancient
remains of the Bulls Bridge cemetery. A few badly broken stones lie askew
beneath a canopy of regardless sumacs.
The chief attraction at Bulls Bridge is the falls. They begin a few
rods above the bridge, tumbling many feet down a ledge that extends from

-------------MACEDONIA.
The scenery along the route from Bulls Bridge to Kent is pleasing. A
fine view can be obtained of Scatacook mountain, rising a short distance west
of the stream.
Along this route are the homes of .lohn Newton, a well-to-do farmer,
Edwai-d Gregory and Charles Lee. Mr. Gregory is a bold companion of Geo.
Coggswell, the noted snake hunter, whose home stands opposite Mr. Gregory's
on the west side of the river. The two men have often visited Rattlesnake
Den and together have fearlessly slaughteTed many of the venomous reptiles.
Charles Lee is a jovial farmer, a Democrat in poilitics, who represented
Kent in the House of Representatives in 1893. It is said that the late
Charles Edwards, once delivered a lecture in schoolhouses in Kent and vicinity,
asking a small price for admission and using the funds thus obtained foi
the benefit of a needy neighboir. The lecture was full of local hits and
abounded in humor. In it full explanation was given to the nicknames,
98 HISTORY 0F KENT.
"Leather Wheels," "Old Hail Cut," etc., to which reference has been made in
a previous aj*ticle.
The lecture gained such celebrity that it was finally decided to print it
in pamphlet form. It is thought that a few copies of this pamphlet are still
extant.
Birdsey G. Pratt was born in Macedonia and lived on a farm a good part
of his life and is well acquainted with Macedonia and all the surrounding
country. The traveler, not acquainted with the past, who journeys through
this region, now quiet and unambitious in appearance, the abiding place 01
farmers, little dreams that it was onoe a busy manufacturing center. Mr.
Pratt, who can remember when Macedonia was an important place, feels sad
when he thinks of the glory that is no more.
Macedonia lies west and northwest of the village of Kent and is separated
from it by a long elevation called Pismire Hill, followed toward ths
northern part of the valley by Pond mountain, leading west from which is a
OLD MILL AT KENT FURNACE.
third hill, known as Stone's Ledges. The valley is a beautiful spot, like
that described by Whittier in his poemof Barbara Frietchie:
"Fair as the garden of the Lord,
To the eyes of the famished rebel horde."
The Macedonia Brook, a stream of considerable size and force, runs
through the center of the valley.
The old Gilbert place, once the home of the brothers, John, Allen and
Henry Gilbert, all of whom are dead, is now the home of F. H. Gilbert, a
son of Allen. The brothers were shoemakers and conducted a large tannery
which stood a little north of their house near the present residence of John
Duncan. On the opposite side of the road was a, cemetery. At present it is
a plowed field, all efforts to preserve its graves and to maintain its sacred
character having been abandoned.
Near by is the house once the home of Dwight Chamberlain, a relative of
President Dwight of Yale college. Here is the Macedonia wagon shop, established
in 1847, where a thriving business was conducted by the brothers,
Norman, Allen and Linus Winegar.
HISTORY OF KENT. 99
The water of a stream flowing north of the shop turned the big overshot
wheel, the power moving a saw, and felloes and other wood pieces needed in
the construction of carriages were sawed out. The father of the brothers was
Bcecher Winegar, who had a little wagon shop where a pump stands in the
yard of the house just north of the old wagon shop. A short distance from
here is the commodious and pleasant residence of Deacon L. W. Stone and
near by is the school house, from which a remarkably fine view of the southern
portion of the valley can be obtained, showing a long stretch of beautiful
meadows and Cobble and Algo mountains beyond them.
Near where the old road turns northward from an easterly course, is the
only dam left on the Macedonia Brook. Here was the site of the large puddling
works, which were run by the Kent Iron Company. Probably twemtyfive
men were employed in the puddling operations alone, not to speak of
the many teamsters and other workmen connected with them. All kinds
of wrought iron work, such as crow-bars, wagon tires, etc., were made and
sent in great quantities to Poughkeepsie, New Haven and Bridgeport.
The overseer of the work was Eber S. Peters, who also conducted near by
the saw mill which is now successfully managed by his son, J. H. Peters.
He lives in a handsome stone house nearly opposite his mill. In the third
building he keeps a store.
The Kent Iron company established the Macedonia store in a large old
fashioned building. Later the proprietors were Charles Edwards and Squire
Rufus fuller. In the manufacturing days this building, where now a private
family dwells in seclusion, was a lively place and did a big business, being
a center where the people from miles around gathered. In front of the store
were scales and a platform for weighing big loads of coal, iron and other
things. Teams were constantly arriving and departing and there was a great
bustle.
In the neighboring stream is an old dam still in good condition. Here
a cider mill stood. The owner was Zachariah Winegar, who lived in a large
brick house which stands opposite the site of a defunct grist mill, the latter
being a little north of the cider mill. Edward Schermerhorn conducted
the grist mill. The brick house is two stories high, and was considered the
finest house in the region at the time it was built. After Zachariah, his son,
Anson Winegar owned the house, and it is at present the home of Mrs.
Frances Barnum, a daughter of Anson.
The next place of interest is Forge Hill, where what was called the
"second forge" stood. At the foot of this hill on the east is the entrance
to a road which crosses a bridge and leads to Fuller mountains. At the second
forge were stamping works where shot iron was stamped out of the
cinder, from the fui'nace.
At the blast furnace were made thousands of tons of pig iron and hundreds
of bushels of charcoal were burned to make the iron. The ore was
hauled from South Kent, Amenia and Salisbury; all told, hundreds of
people were employed to keep the furnace running. The charcoal was made
on the mountains near by. Limestone used in the furnace was all hauled
from the east side of the Housatonic river, as there was none on the west
side in Kent. Near the furnace were large coal houses and a blacksmith
shop. Trees and shrubs cover the ground, and the traveler sees scarcely
anything to remind him that he is passing a place where an extensive buslOO
HISTORY OF KENT.
iness was done forty years ago. The chief reminder of the iron industry 's
the dark color 6f the highway, noticeable all the way betweien the first and
second forges. The gi-ound is still specked with the cinders that emanated
from the forges.
SOUTH KENT.
The village of South Kent is a ^mall place, only four hoaises in the center
and two houses in the suburbs, so to sipeak. But it represents a lot of
enterprise; for it is here that Fred H. Chase has demonstrated the large possibilities
of the country store when it is situated in a favorable spot and run
at a minimum of expense.
Mr. Chase is now South Kent's leading business man, and he is well entitled
to the honor. One dozen years ago he bought of William Geer the
small and ancient grocery store of the place. Geer had run the store a
year only. His predecessor was Edwards Dakins, who made a snug sum of
money from the business, after he bought it of a man named Segar. It
was an old stand, but it remained foi' Chase to make it a noteworthy establishment.
He had $600 in cash and $2,100 borrowed money when be took possession
of the small grocery, and to-day he is a well-to-do citizen, even a rich one for
a small country place. Close to the railroad station stands his store and
dwelling house, a good sized and good looking structure. South is a feed
store, it being the remodeled building formerly occupied by the small grocery,
and north of the main store is Mr. Chase's latest building, a structure
100 feet long, 30 feet wide and 22 feet high.
It is fitted up in modern style with tanks of cool water for the reception
of the milk in cans, and a churn run by steam power. The second floor
contains a room for cheese making and a large space for the storage and
grinding of grain, the mill for grinding being run by the steam engine on
the first floor. At the east end of the building is an apartment for the ice
needed in the creamery, capacity for storage being 600 tons, ice being obtained
from Hatch's pond a short distance from the station.
The four houses in the immediate vicinity of the station ai'e those of
Walter Page, VanNess Case, Miss Emiline Fanton and John Burkhardt. All
are farmers and Mr. Page runs a distillery and cider mill. Miss Fanton although
eighty-two years old, is alert and businesslike, a fine specimen of
the old fashioned American housewife. Her farm is managed by a competent
man, but she has general oversight.
Another thing worthy of mention is tbe railroad station, about the size
of an umbrella, which is ably managed by Store-keeper Chase, who waves a
red flag for trains to stop, but has no tickets to sell. Then there is a little
ancient history of particular interest. There have been six hotels in the
place, usually one at a time, which were frequented in days before the railroad
when cattle drovers were thick on the roads.
The former name of the village was Pigtail Corners or Hopson Corners,
the name Pigtail, according to tradition, being adopted because one neighbor
got angry at another neighbor and cut off the tail of his enemy's pig.
Following the Bulls Bridge road westward, one passes the John Straight
farm now owned by Mr. John Judd. It is one of the largest and best farms
in the town of Kent. Adjoining this farm are the premises of Miss Helen
Straight, a most competent woman farmer.
Ascending Turkey Hill, one comes to the house of Robert Boyd. Mr.
HISTORY OF KENT.
Boyd is a good farmer, Ms buildings and well cultivated acres showing the
care and enterprise of the thorough manager. From the summit of Turkey
Hill, so called because wild turkeys in old times used to alight on it hi
great numbers during their expeditions, a fine view can be had of the valley
through which flows the Housatonic river and of the noble Scatacook range
beyood. At the foot Oif the hill is the fine home of William Newton, a wellto-
do farmer. After turning north into the road leading over Spooner Hill
one passes the home of Nathaniel Dwy, also those of Oharles L. Spooner and
Simeo>n Griffin. At this point one can look down into a shelving valley, where
enclosed on three sides by picturesque hills lies the beautiful little Leonard
Pond. Bast of the pond is Leonard Mountain, north of it Cobble Mountain
and west of it an elevation of Spooner Hill.
Where the road turns eastw^ard to join the main road from South Kent
to Kent, is the old John Spooner place. John Spoo'ner was a noted cattle
dealer in his day. A little south of the junction of the roads is the farm of
Mott Darling, a thrifty tiller of the soil, and a little north of the junction
is the house of another farmer, Jerome Leonard.
TEACHERS AND BOARD OF SCHOOL VISITORS OF KENT, l8g5.
Up the main road from Soaith Kent a short distance is the house of John
Orton, nearly opposite Leonard Pond. On returning to South Kent via the
main road one passes the hoiises oi Seth Monroe and Leonard Unson, who
lives on the boTders of Hatch Pond. A little south of Mr. Unson's house is
the abode and shop of Ephraim Merrit, blacksmith and general repairer of
the region.
Near by is the school house, a small red structure, humble enough but
celebrated now as the place where a rising young business man obtained all
his book education. The young man referred to is young John Burkhardt of
South Kent village. Mr. Burkhardt is now traveling salesman for a large
New York firm and his employers consider him the best drummer in the New
England states.
About ten years ago there was a curious landslide fi^om the hill east of
Hatch Pond. Tons of earth suddenly left a high bed and made a double
quick run over a stretch of meadow, across the railroad track into the lake.
The thundering noise came in the midst of the night and aroused the inhabitants,
terrifying them mightily. Hatch Pond is about a mile long and is a
celebrated resort of fishermen from New Milford, Danbury and other places.
I02 HISTORY OF KENT.
The old house, a cut of which is shown on pagie 92, is supposed to have
been the oldest one in town. It was demolished in 1895 and was owned at that
time by Hiram J. Wildman, who still retains the ground, on which he intends
to build a summer hotel. A Dr. Raymond lived there a long time ago.
After him John McCoy occupied it as a hotel. Next Asa Slade lived in it and
kept a store in one part. This was in the time of the famous Maine law and
Slade used to sell an equally famous "Schiedam Schnapps" for sickness. When
a customer wished to buy he would say "I suppose it is for sickness." The
reply was usually in the affirmative. After Slade, Frederick Mallory lived
there till his death in the spring of 1895. The house was then sold to Wildman
and his family went West. It was known to the older inhabitants as the old
Asa Slade house and to the younger ones as the Old Mallory house.

Let me give you an example. In my boyhood days there stood near a
by-way that I travel over in going to an outlying farm, what would be
-v
HISTORY OF KENT. 107
known as a farm-house. The owner had a little farm, kept a horse and cow,
possibly two cows some times, and made and mended boots and shoes. The
old shoemaker died years ago and shoe-making as an individual industry died
about the same time. The farm-house is gone also, only the site remains,
and the little farm is deserted. I have offered double what the house, barn
and farm brought the last time it was sold, about thirty years ago. for the
land alone, but the owner, employed in a nearby city, thinks he may come
back to the country to live some time and prefers to let it grow up to brush

In 1761 Nathan Skiff journeyed from
Tolland county into the wilds of western
Connecticut. In what is now the
town of Kent and on the western side
of the Housatonic river, he purchased
a large tract of land, including a
mountain, which was named Skiff
Mountain, and there the pioneer erected
his log house, with only the ScatHISTORY
OF KENT. ^33
acook Indians as his neighbors. After
five years Nathan Skiff moved from
his log house into a new frame house
which he had built, and into whose
chimney he had inserted a large square
stone bearing the date "1766." When
Nathan Skiff rested from his labors,
house and land descended tO' his son,
Nathan Skiff 2nd; from him to his
youngest son, Luther Skiff; again
to the latter's youngest son, Samuel A.
Skiff, who sold it in 1875 to his brother,
the subject of this sketch.
Farm and homestead have therefore
been occupied by the same family tor
one hundred and thirty years.
In this house on the 4th of October,
in the Revolutionary army under Captain
Abraham Fuller of Kent, and responded
to the defense of New York
in 1776, and in aid of Danbury when
raided by General Tryon in 1777. He
was the son of Nathan Skiff, sr., and
Thankful Eaton, and he the son of
Stephen of Tolland, and Elizabeth
Hatch, and he the son of Nathan and
Hepsiba Codman, of Martha's Vineyard,
and he the son of James and
Mary Reeves, the emigrant. James
Skiff, the first of the name, and undoubtedly
the ancestor of all the Skiffs
in America, came from England, probably
London, about 1636. He removed
to Saugus (now Lynn) and af-
SKIFF MOUNTAIN HOMESTEAD.
1828, Paul Cheeseborough Skiff was
born. Dr. Skiff's parents, Luther Skiff
and Hannah Comstock, were married
April 8th, 1818, and had eleven children:
Elijah, Mary Ann, Edward,
Peter, Paul C, Helen, Hannah J.,
Giles, Samuel A., Margaret, and Mira,
all born at the old homestead. As
stated above Luther Skiff was the
son of Nathan Skiff, jr., and Abigail
Fuller. Their children were also born
at the Skiff homestead, and were as
follows: Elijah, Meses, Delia, Heman,
Julius, Abigail, Thankful, Luther
and Harriet. Nathan Skiff jr., served
terwards became one of the founders
of Sandwich, also taking a very prominent
and active part in the affairs of
Plymouth colony. A man of strong
opinions and indomitable will, his influence
is shown in our histories of
that setttlement.
Dr. Skiff's grandmother Abigail Fuller
was the daughter of Captain Zachariah
Puller and Abigail Hubbell and
he the son of Joseph Fuller and Lydia
Day who was one of the original
grantees and incorporators of the
township of Kent. Joseph Fuller
came from East Haddam to Kent in
134 HISTORY OF KENT.
1738. He was the son of Jolin Fuller
and Mehitable Rowley of Barnstable,
whose parents were Samuel Fuller and
Jane, daughter of the Rev. John Lathrop
of Scituate. They were married
by Captain Miles Standish. Samuel
Fuller with his father, Edward, and
uncle Dr. Samuel Fuller, were among
the Pilgrims who came in the Mayflower
in 1620. Dr. Skiff's mother, Hannah
Comstock, was the daughter of Peter
Comstock and Hannah Piatt, and he
the son of Eliphalet and Sarah Pratt
anid he the son of Daniel, jr., and
Catharine, who with his father, Daniel
Comstock, sr., were also among the incorporators
of Kent. Daniel, sr., was
the son of Christopher Comstock, the
emigrant who came to Fairfield in
1661. Dr. Skiffs maternal grandmother,
Hannah Piatt, was the daughter of
Judge Zephaniah Piatt and Hannah
Davis of Plattburgh, N. Y. Zephaniah
Piatt, jr., was the son of Captain
Zephaniah Piatt, who was the son of
Jonas Piatt and Haninah Saxton nf
Huntington, L. I., who was son of Captain
Epenetus Piatt and Phoebe Wood
and he the son of Richard Piatt, the
emigrant who came to New Haven in
1638 and settled in Milford. Thus it
is shown that of the early families and
settlers of the township of Kent, Dr.
Skiff's ancestors include branches of
the Comstock and Fuller line, also the
families of Hubbel and Pratt, he descending
from Captain Bphraim Hubbel
and Joseph Pratt, additional incorporators
of the town.
Dr. Skiff's boyhood was spent in
working upon the ancestral farm, and
in profiting by such educational facilities
as the town afforded. When he
was fifteen years of age his mother's
sister, Mrs. Mills Bissell, a most estimable
lady, living on the Western
reserve in the town of Austinburg,
Ohio, invited him to come and live with
her, and attend school at the neighboring
Grand River institute. Eagerly d'^-
siring a liberal education, he determined,
in spite of many hindrances, to
profit, if possible, by the offer. With
his worldly goods in a small trunk, and
with sixty dollars in his pocket, money
given him by his grandmother Comstock,
he set forth alone for what was
then the far west. After a four years'
course of study in Austinburg, he returned
to his home in Kent and for
several years combined the tasks of
managing a farm, teaching and the
study of medicine.
He graduated at the Yale Medical
school in 1856. Afterwards he took a
two years' post graduate course at the
Jefferson Medical college in Philadelphia
under those eminent instructors,
Professors Mutter, Pancost, Meigs, and
Dungleson.
Returning to New Haven in 1859 he
began the practice of medicine and has
resided in this city since that time.
Dr. Skiff had oeen educated in the
tenets of the old school of medicine but
even during his stay in Philadelphia
his attention had been called tO' new
theories. After a careful and conscientious
study of Homoeopathy, he concluded
that it was an advance upon the
elder medical system, and he embraced
its principles. For this development
he was indebted to the suggestions of
Dr. Herring of Philadelphia and largely
to the influence of his cousin. Dr.
Charles Skiff, the earliest homoeopathic
doctor iin New Haven and seconid
in the state.
Dr. Skiff's success in his profession
was speedy. From the first year of
practice to the present time he has
been one of the busiest of men. His
varied experiences have given him an
acquaintance with all sorts and conditions
of men. His skill in the healing
art has been supported by prompt judgment,
admirable foresight, unflagging
good temper, and by an independent
attitude toward all theories of practice.
He has contributed to various medical
journals, was one of the founders of
tne State Homoeopathic society, and
HISTORY OF KENT. 135
also an incorporator of Grace hospital
of New Haven, a Homoeopathic institution,
and one of the most flourishing
hospitals in New England, of which he
is director and consulting physician.
In June 1874, he married Miss Emma
McGregor Ely of Brooklyn, N. Y.,
whose great grandfather on her father's
side was the Rev. Dr. David Ely
of Lyme, Conn., and whose maternal
grandfather was the Rev. Dr. Thomas
Punderson of New Haven. They have
one child, Pauline, born in May, 1880.

REV. B. G. NORTHROP.
Birdsey Grant Northrop was born :n
Kent July 18, 1817. He was graduated
at Yale college and Yale Theological
seminary. His grandfather Amos Northrop
graduated at Yale in 1762. He
joined the Congregational church m
Kent, when fourteen years of age. For
ten years he was pastor at Saxonville,
Mass., for ten years agent of the Massachusetts
board of education and for
sixteen years state school superintendent
of Coinnecticut. This period of
twenty-six years of state work for pul)-
lic schools is longer than the similar
service of any other person in New
England. His wide educational experience
early showed the close connectioin
between the home and the school,
his motto being "as is the home so is
the school," and prompted a strong desire
to work for the esthetic and sanitary
improvement of the homes of the
American people. Hence he is recognized
by the press as the "Father of
Village Improvem^ent Societies," now
spreading widely over the country from
Maine to California. The New York
Evening Post says: "There are very
few men capable of working as Mr.
Noirthrop has done for many years in
a systematic effort to arouse enthusiasm
for these imiprovements, in which
his apostleship has been a beneficent
influence."
Hon. J. Sterling Morton started Arbor
Day for economic purposes—reclaiming
the tractless prairies of the
Trans-Missouri states, but Arbor Day
in schools was originated by Mr.
Northrop. His resolution in favor of
this measure was unanimously adopted
by the American Forestry association
in 1883. He has been annually reappointed
chairman of its committee to
push their observance. This effort has
achieved remarkable results. Arbor
Day in schools is now observed in all
of the United States and territories.
REV. B. (;. \0RT1IR01'.
except Delaware, Utah and the Indian
territory, in all the Provinces of the
Dominion of Canada, and in many foreign
countries including the Hawaiian
Islands and Japan. Everywhere it is
an adjunct of village improvement.
Its school lessors are mostly applied
in dooryard adornments and in
planting trees by the wayside. Dr.
Northrop has lectured in most of the
American states, in Honolulu and
Japan and twice visited Europe and
in his busy life found time to write a
number of timely books and pamph136
HISTORY OF KENT.
lets. The American Gardening says
"The results of his teaching may be
seen in thousands of towns in all parts
of America. Succeeding generations
will continue to appreciate the labors
and bless the

LEWIS HENRY IVES
Lewis Henry Ives, a son of Joseph
Ives, jr., and Sally (Johmson) Ives
was born in Kent, December 28, 1841.
His grandfather, Joseph Ives, sr.,
passed his childhood in Pejiinsylvania
where on arriving at the proper age
he learned the trade of a cooper. He
afterward removed to Kent bringing
with him his son, Joseph Ives, jr., then
a little boy. The latter on reaching
manhood married Sally Johnson, a
daughter of Eliphalet Johnson, who
was a soldier in the patriot army in
the Revolutionary war. Their union
was blessed with only one son, Lewis
Henry, the subject of this sketch.
Mr. Ives received his education in
the public schools of the town, and
afterward took up farming for a life
work.
On July 13, 1874, he married Miss
Jennie Beebe, a daughter of Richard
and Ann M. Beebe. Their union has
been blessed with one daughter, Josephine,
who was recently married to
George R. Simpson of Thomaston.
Mr. Ives has held the office of constable
and has a number of times been
a juryman. Since 1890 he has had
charge of the town house and its inmates,
who certainly could not have
fallen into better hands. Both he and
Mrs. Ives are as kind to them and as
MR. AND MRS. LEWIS H. IVES.
considerate of their wants as if they
were their own children. In fact the
writer comld name children who are
not treated as kindly by their own parents
as are the present inmates of
the Kent town house.
Mr. and Mrs. Ives are people whom
it is always a pleasure to meet. Their
guests are made to feel perfectly at
home and certain that they are in the
hands of friends.
Mr. Ives is a Republican in politics,
a Congregationalist in religion and a
member of the Masonic order.

town of Kent. As in the other northwestern towns, shares were sold at auction, entitling the purchasers to take up land under certain conditions. The sale for Kent took place at Windham in March, 1738, the bids to start at £50 per share. The majority of the purchasers were from Colchester, with others from Norwalk and Fairfield. Actual settlement began the same year, and the town was incorporated in 1739. The name was taken from the English county of Kent.

One of the first resolutions passed at a town meeting in Kent referred to the "iron ore pots." This leads the writer to believe that antedating the settlement of the town iron had been discovered in the hills to the east and been mdned. The tradition is that the ore was taken in bags across the backs of horses and transported to small forges in neighboring places. The first owners so far as known were Robert Walker of Stratford, Jabez Kurd of Newtown and John Warner and Thomas Noble of New Milford, the mine being located in a tract of land known as the Falrweather purchase. This was in 1758. The year before Joseph Wooster, claimed he was one of the owners of a copper mine in Kent and had petitioned the General Assembly to be allowed to work it at the expense of himself and the other members of the company until the profits paid the expenses, which goes to show that copper was sought for, too.

and as soon as the division was completed in 1731, the whole was laid out into towns; the eastern half, into Colebrook, Hartland, Winchester, Bark- hamsted, Torrington, New Hartford, and Harwinton; and the western half into Kent (including Warren) Sharon, Cornwall, Goshen, Norfolk, Canaan, (including North Canaan), and Salisbury. The owners on each side were eager to get their land into the market at the earliest day, and so between sellers and buyers, a genuine land speculation arose, and a western excitement spread throughout the colony. The colony enacted that its lands should be sold at public auction, "to inhabitants of Connecticut only," at the different county seats, and they were no sold: Goshen at New Haven, in December, 1737; Canaan at New London, in January, 1738; Cornwall at Fair- field, in February of the same year; Kent at Windham, in March; Norfolk at Hartford, in April; Salisbury at Hartford, in May; and Sharon at New Haven, in October. Meanwhile, in 1732, Hartford and Windsor had effected a division between themselves of their naif of the Western territory, Hartford taking three townships, viz.: New Hartford, Hartland and Winchester, with a half of Harwinton; and Windsor taking three townships, viz.: Barkham- sted, Torrington and Colebrook, with the other half of Harwinton; this latter town taking its name from this joint ownership of Hartford and Windsor; viz., "Har-win-ton." The lands of those seven townships were divided among the inhabitants of Hartford and Windsor respectively, and were of course, at once for sale. So that for the time, "western land" was no scarcity in the Connecticut real estate market, fourteen townships at once being a very fair supply. Speculators bought to sell again; young men "went west to grow up with the country;" and all north and east of Kent was alive, as was itself, with the interest of.new settlement. Harwinton was the earliest settled; it being incorporated as a town in 1737, the General Assembly, in its act of incorporation, mixing matters spiritual and temporal1 in this fashion: —

FIRST DIVISION, MAY 1738.

Humphrey Avery,
John Beebe,
Nathaniel Berry,
Josiah Barn,
Abel Barnum,
Kbenezer Barnum,
Nathaniel Barnum,
Thomas Barman,
Thomas Capson,
Philip Caverly,
Daniel Comstock,
Samuel Canfleld,
Daniel Comstock,
Johnathan Dunham,
Francis Fanton,
Joseph Hatch,
Ephraim Hubbel,
Peter Hubbel,
Richard Hubbel,
Johnathan Hubbel,
Philip Judd,

SECOND

Humphrey Avery,
Benjamin Brownson,
Ebenezer Barnum,
Abel Barnum,
Nathaniel Berry,
Josiah Barre,
John Beebe,
Thomas Beeman,
Thomas Carson,
Philip Oaverly,
Daniel Comstock, Sr.,
Samuel Canfield,
Daniel Comstock, Jr.,
Johnathan Dunham,
Frances Fenton,
Ephraim Hubbel,
Jonathan Hubbel,
Joseph Hatch,
Richard Hubbel,
Peter Hubbel,
Philip Judd,

John Knapp and Noah Rockwell,

Samuel Lewis,

John Mitchell,

John Mills,

Jonathan Morgan, Sr.,

Jonathan Morgan, Jr.,

Mitchel Knell (or Knell Mitchell),

Samuel Miner,

Thomas Newcomb,

John Porter,

John Smith,

Thomas Skeels,

Nathaniel Slosson,~'

Zephanla Swift,

John Seely (or Seely John).

Josiah Starr,

Thomas Tozer,

Abel Wright,

Elisha Williams,

Jacob Warner.

DIVISION, SEPTEMBER 1738.

John Knapp and Noah Rockwell,

Samuel Lewis,

John Mills,

Jonathan Morgan,

John Mitchel,

Samuel Miner,

Knell Mitchell,

Thomas Newcomb,

John Porter,

Noah RocKwell and John Knapp,

z/ephariah Swift,

John Seely,

Thomas Skeels,

Josiah Starr,

Nainaniel Slosson,

John Smith,

Thomas Tozer,

Abel Wright,

Elisha Williams,

Abraham Warner.

Humphrey Avery,
Benjamin Brownson,
Nathaniel Berry,
John Beebe,
Josiah Barre,

THIRD DIVISION, MAY 1739.

Abel Barnum,
Ebenezer Barnum,
Nathaniel Barnum,
Ebenezer Barnum,
Thomas Beeman,

Thomas Carson,

Daniel Comstock, Jr.,

Philip Caverly,

Daniel Cometock, St.,

Samuel Canfleld,

Jonathan Dunham,

Prances Fenton,

Josepn Hatch,

Peter Hubbel,

Jonathan Hubbel,

Ephraim Hubbel,

Richard Hubbel,

Philip Judd,

John Knapp and Noah Rockwell,

Samuel Lewis,

Knell Mitchell,

John Mills,

FOURTH

John Mitchell,

Jonathan Morgan,

Samuel Miner,

Thomas Newcomb,

John Porter,

Noah Rockwell and John Knapp,

John Smit^,

John Seely,

Zephaniah Swift,

Josiah Starr,

Thomas Skeeles,

Nathaniel Closson,

Thomas Tozer,

Abraham Warner,

Abel Wright,

Elisha Williams.

DIVISION, MAY 1740.

Humphrey Avery,

Joshua Barnum,

Ebenezer Barnum,

Gideon Barnum,

Ebenezer Barnum and Jehiel Barnum,

Thomas Beeman,

Benjamin Brownson,

Nathaniel Berry,

John Beebe,

William Burnham,

Samuel Batts,

Nathaniel Bostwick,

Thomas Carson,

Daniel Comstock,

Philip Caverly,

Samuel Canfield and others,

Daniel Comstock,

Joseph Fuller,

Richard Hubbel,

Barnabas Hatch,

Timothy Hatch.

Ephraim Hubbel,

Philip Judd,

Samuel Lewis,

Ebenezer Lyman and others,
John Mills,
Jonathan Morgan,
Knell Mitchell,
Ebenezer Marsh,
Thomas Newcomb,
Azariah Pratt,
Joseph Peck,
John Porter,
John Roberts,
John Ranson,
Judah Swift,
Thomas Skeels,
John Smith,
Zephaniah Swift,
Thomas Skeels,
Nathaniel Sanford,
Nathaniel Slosson,
Abel Wright,

Abel Wright, Samuel Canfieid and Ebenezer Lyman.

FIFTH DIVISION, MAY 1748.

Thomas Beeman,

Benjamin Brownson,

Jehiel Barnum and — Swift,

William Burnham,

Nathaniel Berry and Josiah Starr,

Nathaniel Bostwick,

Nathaniel Berry and Philip Judd,

John Clemmons,

Philip Caverly,
Daniel Comstock,
Nathaniel Cushman,
Philip Caverly,
Joseph and John Gary,
Daniel Comstock Sr. and Jr.,
Charles Duncumb,
Ebenezer Devotion.

John Davis and Neamiah Mead,

John Davis and Josiah Starr,

John Fitch,

John French and Joseph Themberry,

Joseph Fuller and James Laid,

John Fitch and Henry Silsby,

John Henderson,

Barnabas Hatch,

Sylvanius and Timothy Hatch,

Ephraim Hubbel,

Richard Hubbel,

Philip Judd and Nathaniel Berry,

Nathaniel Kingsley,

Joseph Kingsley and John French,

James Lazel and Joseph Fuller,

Elisha Lilly,

Joshua Lazel,

Cyrus Marsh, John Roberts,

Nehemiah Mead and John Davis,

Knell Mitchell,

Jonathan Morgan,

John Mnls,

Ebenezer Marsh,

Daniel Pratt,

Josiah Starr and Nathaniel Berry,

John Roberts and Josiah Thomas,

Jonathan Rudd,

David Ripley,

Jabez and Moses Swift,

Henry Sibley and John Fitch,

Nathaniel Sanford and Henry Silsby,

John Smith, Jabez Swift,

Nathaniel Slosson,

David Smith and Josiah Thomas,

Jehiel Barnum and — Swift,

SIXTH DIVISION, 1750.

Nathaniel Bostwick,

Jehiel Barnum,

Thomas Beeman,

Benjamin Brownson,

Nathaniel Berry,

Heirs of William Barnum,

Nathaniel Cushman,

Philip Caverly,

Daniel Comstock, Sr. and Jr.,

John and Joseph Gary,

John Cogswell,

John Davis,

John Davis and Nehemiah Mead,

Ebenezer Devotion,

Charles Duncomb,

John French and Joseph Kingsberry.

Josiah G-riswold,

Silas Geer,

Richard Hubbel,

Ephraim Hubbel,

Timothy Hatch,

Philip Judd and David Ripley,

Nathaniel Kingsley,

Joseph Kingsberry and John French,

Joshua Lazel,

Elisha Lilley,

Ebenezer Marsh,

Nehemiah Mead and John Davis,

John Mills,

Jonathan Morgan,

Knell Mitchell,

Cyrus Marsh,

David Ripley,

Jonathan Rudd,

David Ripley and Philip Judd,

Jonathan Rudd and Joseph Skiff,

Jonathan Rudd,

John Smith.

Jabez and Mo^es Swift,

Joseph Skiff,

Joseph Skiff and Jonathan Rudd,

Nathaniel Sanford and Joshua Lazel,

Jabez Swift,

David Smith,

Josiah Thomas,

John Walden.

SEVENTH DIVISION, 1752.

Benjamin Brownson,
Heirs of William Burnham,
Nathaniel Berry and Jabez Swift,
Jehiel Barnum,
Nathaniel Bostwick,
David Barnum,

Heirs of Thomas Beeman,

Philip Caverly,

Daniel Comstock, Sr. and Jr.,

Nathaniel Cushman,

John Davis,

Ebenezer Devotion,

Charles Duncumb,

John French and Joseph Kingsberry,

Nathaniel Fuller and John Mills,

Silas Geere,

Josiah Grlswold,

Ephraim Hubbel,

Timothy Hatch,

Richard Hubbel,

Barnabas Hatch,

Philip Judd and David Rlpley,

Joseph Kingsberry and John French,

Nathaniel Kingsberry,

Elisha Lilley,

Knell Mitchell,

Jehiel Murray,

Pelatiah Marsh.

Nehemiah Mead and John Davis,

Ebenezer Marsh,

Daniel Pratt,

David Ripley,

David Ripley and Philip Judd,

Jonathan Rudd,

Jonathan Rudd and Joseph Skiff,

Jabez Swift and Nathaniel Berry,

David Smith,

John Smith,-"

Jabez and Moses Swift,

Jabez Swift,

Joseph Skiff,

Josiah Thomas,

John Welden.

EIGHTH DIVISION, 1755.

Joseph Beeman,

Peleg Bruster and Nathaniel Smith,

Heirs of Williams Burnham,

Heirs of Nathaniel Bostwick,

Samuel Carter and Wm. Swetland,

Josepu Gary,

John Caverly,

Nathaniel Cushman,

Jehoshaphat Eldrid and Jabez Swift,

Charles Duncumb,

Ebenezer Devotion,

David Ferriss and Paul Welch,

John Finney,

Frances Fen ton,

Josiah Griswold,

Samuel Hotchkiss,

Barnabas Hatch,

Ephraim Hubbel,

Timothy Hatch,

Philip Judd and David Ripley,

Samuel William Johnson,

Nehemiah Mead and Samuel William

Johnson, Nathaniel Kingsley,

Joseph Kingsberry,

Joshua Lazel,

Heirs of Knell Mitchell,

Thomas Morriss,

John Mills,

Ebenezer Marsh,

Pelatiah Marsh.

Jonathan Rudd,

Jonathan Rudd and Joseph Skiff,

David Ripley and Philip Judd,

Thomas Rowley and Paul Welch,

William Swetland and Samuel Carter,

Juban Strong,

Samuel Silsby,

Nathaniel Smith and Peleg Bruster,

Jabez Swift and Je.ioshaphat Eldrid,

Samuel Silsby,

Joseph Skiff and Jonathan Rudd,

Juban Strong,

Jabez Swift,

Heirs of David Smith,

John Walden,

Samuel Waller,

Paul Welch and Thomas Rowlee,

NINTH DIVISION, 1761. Humphrey Avery and Philip Caverly, Nathaniel Barnum,

Abel Barnum,
John Beebe,
Ebenezer Barnum,
Benjamin Brownson.
Thomas Buman,
Nathaniel Berry,

Thomas Carson,

Daniel Comstock,

Samuel Canfield,

Jonathan Dunham,

David Ferriss,

David Ferriss and Paul Welch,

Frances Fenton, Noah Rockwell,

Ephraim Hubbel, . Jabez Swift,

Jediah Hubbel, John Smith,'

Joseph Hatch (supposed to be), Thomas Skeels,

Peter Hubbel, Nathaniel Slosson,

Richard Hubbel, Zephania Swift,

Jonathan Hubbel, John Seely,

Thomas Newcomb, Josiah Starr,

Jonathan Morgan, Thomas Skeels,

John Mills, Thomas Lozer,

John Mitchel. Abell Wright,

Knell Mitchell, Elisha Williams,

John Knapp and Noah Rockwell, Paul Welch and David Ferriss,

Philip Judd, Abraham Wanser.

John Porter,

TENTH DIVISION, VOTED 1771 AND LAID OUT 1773.

Friend Beeman, Ephraim Hubbel,

Moses Billings, Jethro Sylvanus and Timothy Hatch,

Sherman Boardman, Jedidiah Hubbel esq.,

Heirs of William Burnham, Philip Judd and Rev. Nathaniel Tay- Timothy Beeman, lor,

Rev. Joel Bordwell and his wife Jane, Samuel W. Johnson esq.,

John Beeman and Gideon Morgan, Joseph Kingsberry and John French,

Ebenezer Beeman, John Keeney and Isaac Camp,

Nathaniel Brown and Nathaniel Bos- Amaziah Lyon and James New- worth, comb,

Daniel Comstock Jr., Abel Comstock Heirs of Colonel Ebenezer Marsh,

Gersham Comstock, Jerusha Miner,

Heirs of Joseph Gary, William Marsh,

Samuel Carter and William Sweet- Gideon Morgan and John Beeman,

land, James Newcomb and Amaziah Lyon,

Ebenezer Curtis Jr., Joseph Parks and Julius Caswell,

Roger Cogswell, Joseph Parks, Julius Caswell and Isaac Camp and John Keeny, Eleazer Thomson,

Juliue Caswell and Joseph Parker, Joseph Pratt Jr.,

Julius Caswell, Joseph Parker, Daniel Pratt,

Eleazer Thomson, Peter Pratt,

Jehoshaphat Eldrid and Jabez Swift, Lester Road, Silas Tracy and Joseph John French and Joseph Kingsberry, Whittlesey.

Amaziah and Joel Ferriss, William Swetland,

Simeon Fuller, . Heirs of Jabez Swift and Jehosha-

John Foot, phat Eldrid,

John Finney Jr., Ebenezer Strong,

Jedediah Hubbel and William Sam- Philip Strong,

uel Johnson esq., Paul Welch esq. Barnabas Hatch,

N. B. The whole of the foregoing in their alphabet respect only. The Ten original divisions without any regard to after conveyances, highway, etc.

[The above notice is written as it is in the records in regard to capitalization, etc.]

We quote from the quaint way of the surveyors the following language: "We, the subscribers, being appointed a committee to view and lay out the plot in the township of E, accordingly repaired to said township viewed and laid out the town plot in manner following, viz: Beginning at the southernmost part of a large intervale called the Great Plains where a small spring or run of water empties Itself into the Ousatonic river, there we laid a heap of stones. Thence we run east thirty-three degrees; south and westerly two rods. Thence we pitched a stake and laid stones to it. Thence we run north forty-five degrees, east four miles and a half and have laid a highway so far twelve rods wide and from the foresaid stakes and stones. We have continued the highway twelve rods wide running south twenty- five degrees, west down to Fairweather's land and have laid out the land on both sides of the said highway beginning at the aforesaid stakes and stones and have divided the Great Plains into thirty-nine lots all numbered by the highway, which thirty-nine lots have a lot numbered with the same number belonging to them either on the eastward or westward side of the said highway, except the twelfth lot on the plain."

The first meeting of the new owners was held in Windham according to the records "March ye 8th 1738," and is described as "ye proprietors of a certain township in the colony of Connecticut, sold at public vendue (per- suing to a vote of the assembly) at the court house at Windham the 7th inst." This however does not agree with the colonial records, which says the public vendue took place the preceding December. Humphrey Avery of Groton was moderator and also proprietors' clerk. At this meeting Lieutenant John Mitchell of Woodbury, Lieutenant Thomas Newcomb of Lebanon, Captain Johnathan Dunham of Colchester. Humphrey Avery of Groton and Captain Ebenezer Hubbell of Newtown were appointed a committee fully empowered to lay out such parts of the new town as they should think for the best interests of all. They were also to lay out to each proprietor an equal part for quality and quantity and give a survey of the same under the hands of a major portion of the committee, including the highways. The lots were not to be less than fifty acres, were to be laid out in one or two parcels for each proprietor as the committee should think fit and to be drawn by number. Their pay was to be at the rate of ten shillings per day.

In May of that same year, before leaving for their new homes in the wilderness, Humphrey Avery was appointed agent to prepare a memorial to the general assembly for the abatement of the price of the land in whole or in part. His application could not have been successful because about five years later some of the land owners applied to the assembly for relief as they were unable to meet their maturing obligations, the land having been bought with a bond for a deed. They were given more time and it is supposed eventually paid up.

The next vote was to give Yale College 300 acres of land "near what is called the Tamerish swamp," now in the township of Warren. The boundaries must surely have perished ere this. They are described as "white oak stakes, with pile of stones, marked Y. C., rock marked Y. C. and a red oak tree." The farm is one of the college's not over valuable assets now, and is generally rented.

One of the first things needed in a new town is a saw mill, and Ebenezer Barnum of Danbury was given the forty-ninth lot in the first division provided he would erect one by the last of the following December and a grist mill in two years, the lot to be retained if not built on. Six years later he was given liberty to lay out six acres of undivided lands for the making of a dam for his iron works, which leads the writer to believe that he was an ancestor of the late Wm. H. Barnum who made a fortune in the iron business in the nearby town of Salisbury. Next he was given four more acres, and in 1757 was given all the proprietor's land that his dam would cause water to flow over.

Apparently the woodland had been so well cleared up by April, 1748, that some alarm was felt that the supply would not more than equal the demand for Nathaniel Slos^on and Samuel Canfield were appointed a committee "to take care of the woods on the common and see it is not destroyed by anybody cutting it off."

We have already noted that at this time the wheels of industry had been started and that the town voted substantial encouragement. The next man to receive public favor was John Henderson, who was voted a pitch of land toward his fifth division, a little below the grist mill that stands on Apetuk brook in the commons, containing twenty acres or any number under that, to set up a fulling mill.

In December, 1738, John Morgan was given ten acres of land on both sides of the brook known as Mill brook provided he had a good saw mill fit for use by the first of June, 1739, and kept said mill in good repair for twelve years. Elisha Perry was given sixty-four acres, including the "great falls" above the ten acres for a grist mill. Evidently in those days one or both of these men wanted to monopolize the business, for a few months later it was voted that neither should combine the two kinds of mills at their respective places. After this when encouragement enough had been given in this line the saw mill place in lots 35 and 36 was offered at public auction.

In 1750 Daniel Comstock must have become the village shoe maker for he was given the privilege of building a "shew" maker's shop in the highway right against his house.

Jacob Bull of Dover, Duchess County, N. Y., was the next to apply for the privilege of building a saw mill or -iron works on the grant known as the Fairweather. This was in 1756, and he paid thirty pounds to the town. When his mill was finished he was given liberty to build a house in the highway.

James Stuart was given the right to turn the water of the Housatonic into Mill brook if he built a good grist mill, and about the same time Thomas Skeel was privileged to build another grist mill at the most convenient place near south "Spectial" pond, provided he had it done within a twelve months and a day.

The first years evidently were prosperous, as the grand list of that year shows:

£ s d Isaac Benton, --------- 28 00

Nathaniel Berry, 115 50

Richard Barnum, -------- 18 00

Benjamin Bronson, ------- 62 00

Samuel Bates, --- 29 00

Ebenezer Barnum, ------- 23100

Thomas Beman, --.,,... 66 00

In 1748 the society of East Greenwich was authorized as the inhabitants found it difficult to attend public worship at the first society. In 1767 upon the petition of Nathan Tibbals, Stephen Starkweather, Wm. Wedge, Jede- diah Durkee, Wm. Guthrie, and Ephraim Guthrie, the society was annexed to New Preston, the bounds "beginning at a bridge over the Shepaug river in the road from New Milford to Litchfield, thence a straight line to the southeast corner of Philip Strong's lot he now lives on. thence to straight line to the southeast corner of the lot of Joseph Beamond now lives, thence to the West Pond so called." Wm. Spooner, Peleg and Perez Sturdevant and Ebenezer Peck were others that were set off to the new society.

The old deeds refer frequently to the Fairweather purchase, but as there is no deed on record in Kent of this property a search was made through the old colonial records where it was found that in 1707 there was a large tract of land granted to Hon. Nathaniel Gold, Peter Burr and several others of Pairfleld for a township in what is now the southern portion of Kent and the northern portion of New Milford, and that they in turn sold a part or all of it to Robert Silliman, Richard Hubbell and Benjamin Fairweather, the latter being described as the "cornet of the troop in Fairfleld." The latter's purchase contained some 3,800 acres and was six miles in length from east to west and three hundred rods wide. When the owner died the large tract was divided between his heirs.

The property is still owned by the Kent Iron Co., better known as Stewart, Hopson & Co., which had a capital of $30,000 and were also owners of the Kent Furnace which will be described later.

At this point we return to Litchfield, for a side trip through some of the towns farther west. Warren, formerly a part of Kent, was settled about 1737. The parish of East Greenwich was organized in 1750. In 1786, a town was incorporated and named for a Massachusetts man, Gen. Joseph Warren, the Revolutionary hero, who lost his life at Bunker Hill. The town consists of a high plateau, bordered on the south by Lake Waramaug.

Leaving Litchfield on R. 25, the traveler may enter Warren by R. 341, or take the more scenic Route 45, along the eastern shore of Waramaug and across the hills to Cornwall Bridge. On R. 45, about a mile above the Lake, a dirt road leads northwest to Above All State Park, 1456 feet elevation, with a fine view to the west. About 12 mile south of the highway junction, we cross an attractive hemlock ravine. The tiny village of Warren has an interesting Congregational Church, with pilastered pediment, a good tower, and fine interior woodwork. It was built in 1818, during the pastorate of Rev. Peter Starr, who served for 57 years. The church sent 16 young men into the ministry, including Charles G. Finney (1792-1875) the famous evangelist, associated with the early history of Oberlin College; and Julian M. Sturtevant (1805-1886) a member of the Illinois Band that went out from Yale, and founder of Illinois College. About 1 1/2 miles north of the village, a road turns west, 1/2 mile to a brick school house, built around 1793, one of the oldest in New England in continuous use.

The blue-marked Mattatuck Trail runs from Prospect Mt. along abandoned roads to Flat Rock, where connection is made with the Appalachian Trail coming east from Kent Falls along the northern boundary of the town. (Flat Rock may be reached at some seasons by car, on road to east just beyond Cornwall line.) The signboard reads: "New Haven, 62 miles; Mt. Katahdin, Maine, 619 miles; Mt. Oglethorpe, Georgia, 1439 miles."

Lake Waramaug from The Pinnacle

above from http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardspics/718893025/in/pool-24554386@N00

Upon the memorial of William Spooner, Peleg Sturdevant, Perez Sturdevant, Ebenezer Peck, of the first society of Kent in the county of Litchfield, shewing to this Assembly that their situation from the meeting-house in the first society is more than four miles distant, and the traveling bad and difficult, and that they live within three miles of the meetinghouse in the parish of East Greenwich in said town of Kent, and that both said societies are willing that they should be. released from said first society and annexed to said parish of East Greenwich; praying this Assembly that they, the said William Spooner <frc., with their families and estate may be set off from said first society of Kent and annexed to said society of East Greenwich <fec., as by said memorial on file appears: Resolved by this Assembly, that the said William Spooner, Peleg Sturdevant, Perez Sturdevant and Ebcnezer Peck, with their families and estates, be and they are hereby released and set off from said first society of Kent and annexed to said parish of said East Greenwich, and shall be and belong to said society of East Greenwich.

THE tract now comprising the towns of Kent and Warren was sold at auction at the court house in Windham, in March, 1738. The settlernent commenced the same year. The town was laid out in fifty three shares. The principal settlers were rom Coichester, Fairfield and Norwalk. Payne, Washburn, Wright, Ransom and Platt, were from Calchester; the Comstocks were from Fairfield; and the Slausons, Canfields and Bassetts, were from Norwalk. The town was incorporated, and vested with town privileges at the session of the Legislature in October, 1739. The first minister was the Rev. Cyrus Marsh, ordained in May, 1741. The settlement of the town was rapid. In May, when Mr. Marsh was ordained, the church consisted of ten males only; but before the end of th.e year, there was an addition of fifty three persons, male and female, principally by recommendations froth other churches.

Kent is characteristically mountainous; it is bounded N. by Sharon, E. by Warren, s. by New Milford, and w. by the state of New York. It is nearly 8 miles in length, and 6 in breadth from east to west. The manufacture of iron was formerly carried an to a considerable extent in this town; there are at present three furnaces in operation. There are 3 houses of worship in the town; 1 Episcopal, 1 Congregational, and 1 Methodist.

The above is a representation of the Episcopal church in Kent, 50 miles from Hartford, and the same distance from New Haven. The Housatonic river passes at the foot of the mountain seen in the back ground. About a mile and a half below this building, on the opposite side of the river, the Moravian church or mission house was standing 30 or 40 years since, near the house of Mr. Raymond, which is just discernible.in the distance on the extreme left. The Moravians left this place about half a century since. The Scatacook tribe, for whose benefit this mission was established, occupied the interval on the west side of the river for about three miles. The scenery in this place has a peculiar charm, being uncommonly beautiful and interesting. The river, calm and still, winds with grace and beauty through this fertile spot, while the mountain rises abruptly, high, rugged and precipitous, forming a back ground and finish to the picture. During the Revolutionary war this tribe furnished 100 warriors. It is said that they were able to communicate intelligence from the sea coast 10 Stockbridge, Mass. the distance of 100 miles, in two hours. This was effected by Indian yells, or whoops, from their men, who were stationed at proper places along the borders of the Housatonic, from its mouth up to Stockbridge. Dr. Dwight, who passed through this place in 1798, says that there were sixteen wigwams remaining.

Gideon Mauwehu, the king or sachem of the Scatacook tribe, was a Pequot Indian. The last place of his residence, previous to his coming to Kent, was in the town of Dover, N. Y. on Ten mile river, a few miles west of Scatacook. Mauwehu, in one of his hunting excursions, came to the summit of the mountain which rises almost precipitously west of Scatacook, and beholding the beautiful valley and river below, determined to make it the place of his future residence. It was indeed a lovely and desirable place; there were several hundred acres of excellent land, covered with grass like a prairie, with some few scattering trees interspersed. The river was well supplied with fish, and on the mountains, on both sides, was found an abundance of deer, and other wild game. At this place Mauwehu collected the Indians, and became their sachem, and here the Moravians had a flourishing mission.

A granddaughter of the sachem, Eunice Mauwehu, and two or three families, are all that now (1836) remain of the tribe at Scatacook. The place where Mauwehu resided was sold by the state for about 3,000 dollars, the interest of which is annually appropriated for their benefit. This farm has been recently sold by Mr. Raymond for 18,000 dollars. The tribe still possesses about 300 acres of land, lying south of this farm; the greater part of which, however, lies on the mountain west of the valley, and is valued from 1,500 to 2,000 dollars.

"There is in this town, (says Dr. Trumbull,) convincing evidence, that it was a grand seat of the native inhabitants of this country, before Indians, who more lately inhabited it, had any residence in it. There are arrow heads, stone pots, and a sort of knives, and various kinds of utensils, frequently found by the English, of such curious workmanship, as exceeds all the skill of any Indians since the English came into this country, and became acquainted with them. These were not only found when the town was first settled, but they are still found on the sides of Housatonic river. The history of the Indians in the town when the settlement of it commenced, is well known. Mowehue, a sachem, who a few years beforehad removed with his Indians from Newtown to New Milford, about the year 1728 built him a hunting house at Scatacook, in the northwest part of Kent, on the west bank of the Housatonic river. He invited the Indians at New Milford, from the Oblong, in the province of New York, and from various other places, to settle with him at Scatacook; and it appears that he was a man of so much art and popularity among the Indians, that in about ten or eleveh years, about the time when the town was settled, he could muster an hundred warriors. The whole number, probably, was about live or six hundred. These, like the other Indians in this state, and in most other states, have been greatly diminished.

WARREN was formerly a part of Kent. it was incorporated as a town in 1786. It is bounded N. by Cornwall, E. by Litch6eld, s. by Washington, and w. by Kent. Its average length from north to south is five miles, and its average breadth about four miles and a half. The township is hilly and mountainous, and its rocks and soil are of a granitic character. The agricultural productions are grass and some grain. Butter and cheese are made, and beef and pork raised by the inhabitants. The town is watered by the Shepaug, a branch of the Housatonic. Raumaug pond, a considerable body of water, is situated partly in this town, and partly in Washington.

The population of the town in 1810 was 1,096; in 1830 it was reduced to 986. The central part of the town is 8 miles west from Litchfield, 38 from Hartford, and 45 from New Haven.

Warren, formerly a part of Kent, was settled about 1737. The parish of East Greenwich was organized in 1750. In 1786, a town was incorporated and named for a Massachusetts man, Gen. Joseph Warren, the Revolutionary hero, who lost his life at Bunker Hill. The town consists of a high plateau, bordered on the south by Lake Waramaug.

History of Kent, Connecticut

Lake Waramaug from The Pinnacle

Isaac the Planner ~~ Turnpikes, Canals, Athens & Esperanza

The Landholders

Northrops Expanding Through New York