TWO CENTURIES OF NEW MILFORD,
CONNECTICUT

{i}

{ii}

One thousand copies of this book have been
printed from type and the type distributed.

{iii}

AN ACCOUNT OF THE BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
OF THE FOUNDING OF THE TOWN HELD JUNE
15, 16, 17 AND 18, 1907, WITH A NUMBER
OF HISTORICAL ARTICLES AND
REMINISCENCES

PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE BY VARIOUS CITIZENS OF NEW MILFORD AND BY THE EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT OF THE GRAFTON PRESS

THE   GRAFTON   PRESS
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

Copyright, 1907{iv}
By THE GRAFTON PRESS

{v}

{xi}

{1}

TWO hundred years ago, in the summer of 1707, the pioneer John Noble, with his little daughter, made his way through the wilderness from Westfield, Mass., and set up his rude cabin in the beautiful valley of Weantinock, on the west side of “Stratford” River, under the shadow of Fort Hill, near neighbor to the Indians, with whom he became very friendly. He trusted their friendship so much that he left his daughter in their care while he went on a journey, following the Indian trail through the wilderness to Albany, to pilot some gentlemen; and, on his return, he found her well taken care of.

He subsequently built a log house on the east side of the river on land now occupied by the residence of Levi P. Giddings.

The next year his son, John Noble, Jr., came and made a settlement, and, before 1712, twelve families had settled here on sites purchased by the Milford Company from the Indians, the purchases having been ratified by the Colonial Legislature; but, strange to say, only two of the twelve, Samuel Prindle and Isaiah Bartlett, came from Milford town.

Some thirty years previous, Henry Tomlinson and others of Stratford, Conn., had purchased from the Indians who assumed to be owners, this tract of land, and Mr. John Read, joint owner, representing them, came and laid claim to it.

It is said that Zachariah Ferriss, a brother-in-law of Mr. Read, came here in 1706, before any other white man, and plowed a piece of land where Roger Sherman Hall now stands, in order to claim title to the land under the deed of the Stratford Company.

He was sued for trespass by the Milford Company, but won his suit, Mr. John Read being his counsel.

Mr. Read built a house on or near the site of the Knapp residence, in which he lived, meanwhile prosecuting his claim{4} to the title of the land. He obtained a verdict in his favor fifteen times, but the sixteenth time the General Court ruled against him; and he, being discouraged, soon after removed to Lonetown, now Redding, named for him.

The Colonial Government soon set off to him a large tract of land in what is now the town of Kent, of which the Scaghticoke Indians long after held possession, Mr. Read having exchanged it for territory in the town of Redding.

Mr. John Read was a notable man: He was well educated in theology and in the law, being a graduate of Harvard College, and is said to have preached the first sermon in this place. He was under thirty years of age when he came here. He married a daughter of Major John Talcott, was held in high esteem by the Governor of the Colony, and was appointed by him to many important positions. He held the office of Queen’s Counsel under the reign of Queen Anne. His son, widely known as Colonel John Read, was for many years very prominent in the Colony.

Other settlers came through the wilderness and erected their rude houses. The next thing these pioneers and pilgrims did was to petition the Assembly for the power and privileges of a township, which were granted, conferring authority relating to ecclesiastical matters. They then formed themselves into a church, and called a minister to settle over them.

They called Mr. Daniel Boardman to be their minister, and built the meeting-house and the schoolhouse, for these two institutions went hand in hand throughout New England and formed the characters of their descendants.

These early settlers of our town were busy men. They had{5}

hard work to perform in those early days to subdue the wilderness, to plant and cultivate the corn and the rye for their sustenance, to raise the flax and the wool which the womenfolk made into garments. Mechanics, artificers, and wheelwrights were at a premium. The village blacksmith was a most important and necessary person, and concessions were made and land given to induce blacksmiths to settle in the community.

Small manufactories were soon established on every considerable stream. The grist mill, the saw mill, the flax mill—these were important institutions. The spinning wheel was in every house, and the loom was set up in every neighborhood. It remained for our day to develop the immense manufactories situated near the large marts. Those were days that developed brawn and brain—two hundred years ago.

What were the deeds our fathers performed in those strenuous times? They have told us but little; a few things were recorded in the town books of record. They were too busy making history to expend much time in writing it. They cleared and fenced the fields; they built the town and the village.

They did not pretend to great academic learning, but they had good common sense which served them well. They went out to drive off the French and Indians who harried their borders in their peculiar savage way. They rallied to defend their liberties in the great War of the Revolution, for which they poured out their blood and treasure, more than two hundred and twelve from the town serving in that war.

Referring to the founders of this country, a noted orator said, “How little did these rulers of the Old World—James the First seeking to strangle the liberties of England, or Richelieu laying his plans to build up a kingly despotism—realize that a little group of English yeomen were founding a colony in a Western wilderness, from whose vigorous loins would spring a mighty nation to dominate the world when the Stuart and the Bourbon were alike forgotten!”

Of these Puritans and their English brethren, King James had scornfully said, “I will make them conform, or I will{6} harry them out of the land.” He did indeed drive these Pilgrim Fathers from his land; but within five generations thereafter their descendants had harried the English Government from these shores, and, within another five generations, had compelled not only England, but the whole world as well, to conform to America’s principles of free government, to America’s ideas, to America’s commercial predominance.

Those early days of New Milford produced some noted men, whose lives and example did much to mould the characters of the inhabitants. The names of Boardman, Taylor, Noble, Gaylord, Bostwick, Canfield, Baldwin, Griswold, Sherman, Sanford, Mygatt, Marsh, Hine, Turrill, and others of the same stamp will be recalled as those of leaders in the affairs of the town and the church.

The greatest and the most celebrated man that ever honored the town with his citizenship was Roger Sherman. He came from Newton, Mass., in 1743, at the age of twenty-two years, and was active and influential in affairs of the town and church; but the town could not retain him long. Of him Edward Everett Hale said: “They say dear Roger Sherman was a shoemaker. I do not know, but I do know that every central suggestion in the American Constitution, the wisest work of men’s hands, that was struck off in so short a time, is the suggestion of this shoemaker, Roger Sherman.”

It was said that Roger Sherman was placed on every important committee while in Congress, and that no law, or part of a law, that he favored failed to be enacted. John Adams said that Chief Justice Ellsworth told him that he made Roger Sherman his model in youth.

The Fathers of New Milford wrought wisely and well in establishing the religious and civic institutions. They built well the town and wide the streets, and their descendants have enlarged and improved so much that this little village has the name far and wide of being one of the most beautiful spots in New England.

Remembering these hardy pioneers, their devotion to righteousness, their perseverance amid discouragements, and their{7}

many virtues, we all—the loyal sons and daughters of New Milford, those who went forth to make homes for themselves elsewhere and have now returned hither, and the strangers from foreign shores who have settled here—join together this beautiful month of June to celebrate the founding of the town, two hundred years ago.

Minot S. Giddings.

{8}

Contributed by Charlotte Baldwin Bennett

FEW contrasts could be more striking than our beautiful village of to-day against the background of the place John Noble, the first white settler, found two hundred years ago. An unbroken wilderness met his eye, save for the Indian settlement across the river on Fort Hill, where the smoke, curling from many wigwams, marked the homes of over two hundred warriors with their families.

Even four years later, when the white man’s plantation included twelve settlers and about seventy souls, we find it a rather dismal picture. An irregular cart path, winding in and out among stumps of newly cut trees, formed the Main Street. A narrow road led from the north end of this street to the river, then followed the river bank a mile north to the rapids, the general crossing place. The first bridge over the Housatonic was built at New Milford, but not until 1737.

John Noble’s house, the first in the town, stood on the site of Mr. Levi P. Giddings’ present residence. At the time it was built, it was the last house this side of Albany, and fourteen miles from any white man’s dwelling. The original “Town Plot” was on Aspetuck Hill, our forefathers evidently being impressed even then with the beauty and healthfulness of the hilltops. What is now Park Lane was also in the first century of the town a more populous neighborhood than the one in our village. But the valley offered more shelter and protection in the rigorous winters, and doubtless the toilsome life of the pioneer made the hill-climbing a heavy burden; so the valley triumphed at last, and claimed the larger population.

In 1712 the “New Milford Plantation” became a town, the inhabitants having petitioned the General Court to that end. In this year, also, “Mr. Daniel Boardman was called to preach{9} ye gospel at New Milford.” Previous to this, except for occasional preaching here, the people had been obliged to go to Woodbury or Derby for church services. John Noble became a member of the Woodbury Church in these first years. When we recall what was meant by that long journey of twenty-eight miles through the wilderness, in which the narrow Indian trail was the only path, we bow in reverence before the faith and sturdy manhood that laid a sure foundation for the blessings that have come down to us. John Noble was a tower of strength to the little community during his brief life here.

He was evidently a modest man, who did not exalt his own deeds; but we may read between the lines a story of noble service and heroic courage. He fortified his house as a refuge for the people in times of danger from hostile Indians. He was the first town clerk elected by the town, and a surveyor of lands. When he died, in 1714, there must have been sincere mourning in the little community. He was the first adult person to be buried in the little graveyard. All honor to John Noble, our first citizen!

The first sermon preached here was by John Read, who had studied for the ministry, and who resided here from 1708 to 1711. His house, where Ingleside School now stands, was used, for several years after he left, as a meeting-house.

In 1713 the town voted to pay the expense of a minister; also to layout a pastor’s lot, and to dig and stone up a well for Mr. Boardman, if he became a settled minister. This recalls one of the first necessities of the new community—pure water. Strangely enough, this well is the only vestige now remaining of that earliest settlement. It is on the lawn of Mrs. W. D. Black’s residence.

The town, meantime, allowed five shillings and sixpence a week for the minister’s board. His salary was to be paid one-third in grain and two-thirds in labor, linen, or pork. This gives a pitiful glimpse of the slender resources of the people, but we remember with pride that there is no record of the church here ever receiving aid from any outside source. In 1716 the church was organized, and, on November 21 of that{10} year Mr. Boardman was ordained. The first meeting-house was commenced in 1718, but was not open for worship till 1720, and was then quite unfinished, the floor not being laid till 1723. It stood on the highway on Aspetuck Hill, a little north of the Knapp house.

Until 1745 the Congregational Church was the only one in the town, and every person was taxed for its support.

There was no Ecclesiastical Society till after 1750. The town was the Society, and provided for all expenses of public worship. It has been remarked of these early New England towns that “one might almost say that the church had selectmen and the town had deacons, so closely were the two united.” From 1750 to 1790 those who aided in supporting other churches were relieved of the tax for the support of this one, and, from 1800, only members of this society were taxed for its benefit. The renting of pews began in 1854.

Before this, committees had “dignified the meeting-house.” All persons of the age of fifty-six years and upwards were assigned to the first rank of seats, and all others were seated “according to the taxes they have paid toward building said Meeting-House.” We are told that in the early days of the colony the “dignifying the meeting-house,” that is, the seating people by certain grades of wealth, was unknown. It became common only after slavery was an established institution.

The people were for many years called to church by the beat of the drum. An appropriation was made for this when the church was organized, and, annually, the town appointed a person to beat the drum, and voted to pay him for the same.

This method may have been employed to remind the people that they belonged to the church militant. Certain it is, that the marching with measured tread to the martial sound was a fitting prelude to the grim and lengthy service awaiting them.

The meeting-houses were not heated till 1823, when two box stoves were put in the second meeting-house. No wonder our forbears developed strong and decided traits of character under such Spartan training!{11}

The tithing man was an important factor in church work. As early as 1729 it was voted in town meeting “that James Hine have oversight of the female sex during exercises on the Sabbath.” We are left in painful doubt as to whether the “female sex” needed more oversight than the men. But a later vote recorded relieves our minds, for “two men were appointed to oversee the youth (males), and one for the female sex;” during service. So we may conclude our foremothers needed only half as much watching as the fathers and sons.

The law requiring the appointment of tithing men was passed in 1721. Earlier, it was customary in New England to appoint an officer to keep people from sleeping during the delivery of the sermon.

In 1745 the town voted that “any farmers, inhabitants, have leave to build a small house to repair to on the Sabbath Day, on the common land, provided the public is not damnified thereby.” This building was “north of the meeting-house on the side of the hill.” After the second church was built, in 1754, on “The Green,” opposite the spot now occupied by Mrs. Henry Bostwick’s residence, the Sabbath Day house was built on the site of Mr. James Orton’s present home on Bridge Street. These “Sabba’ Day houses,” as they were called, were an important institution in the Sunday life of those old days.

Here those living at a distance stored loads of wood and barrels of cider, refilled their foot stoves and rested between services.

This little intermission, in which the settlers took breath after the two hours’ sermon of the morning, and gained strength for the ninthlies and tenthlies of the afternoon, is a pleasant picture in the midst of the rigorous Sabbath. We like to think there was a little relaxation for the housewives in exchanging their doughnuts and Indian bread, and comparing receipts for the same, and, perhaps, indulging in a little week-day gossip, when James Hine was not at hand to “oversee.”

The most notable figure in the town was always the minister.{12} He was the person, the “parson.” Even the “divinity that doth hedge a king” commands hardly more reverence than that which was paid to the early New England minister. The very children were taught to make obeisance to him as he passed along the street. An early rule of the New England churches read as follows: “If any person or persons shall be guilty of speaking against the minister, in any shape, form or manner, or of speaking against his preaching, said person or persons shall be punished by fine, whipping or banishment, or cutting off of ears.”

Mr. Orcutt, in his “History of New Milford,” says that Episcopal Church services were held here as early as 1742, perhaps earlier, Rev. Mr. Beach of Newtown conducting occasional meetings. The first resident Episcopal clergyman was Rev. Solomon Palmer, who came in 1754. The second Episcopal church stood on the lower end of “The Green.” It was consecrated in 1793, though begun many years before.

The Separatists, or Strict Congregationalists, as they were called, built a house of worship in 1761, near the entrance to the present cemetery. They disbanded in 1812. The Baptists had a small church in “The Neck,” now Bridgewater, in 1788, but soon moved away. The Baptist Church in Northville was formed in 1814. In 1825 the Methodist Church was established at Gaylordsville. The Methodist Church in this village was erected in 1849.

The Quakers were early in the field, their first meeting-house in the south part of the town being built about 1742.

The present Congregational Church edifice was built in 1833. In 1883 the beautiful new St. John’s Episcopal Church, which is one of the chief ornaments of our Main Street, was completed. All Saints’ Memorial Episcopal Church was organized in 1880. The beautiful church building was erected later on Aspetuck Hill, in memory of the late Judge David C. Sanford, by his wife. It was consecrated in 1888. The Church of St. Francis Xavier, Roman Catholic, was built about 1860, and has a large and flourishing congregation. The most recent addition to our list of churches is the Advent Church,{13} which has done an excellent work already in our community. It was built in 1901.

From very ancient times it seems to have been ordained that harmony and discord should go hand in hand in the churches, for no subject was more prolific of disturbance than the singing. In the first days of New Milford the deacons led the singing, standing in front of the pulpit. There seems to have been a difference of opinion as to any change, for, in 1739, a meeting was held “to consider about the singing of God’s praises in the congregation,” and it was voted “that we should ‘half’ the time; that is, to sing one day all the old way, and the next Sabbath all the new way, for the space of one year, and then have a reconsideration of the matter.” Samuel Bostwick was chosen chorister for the new way, and “Nathan Botsford second, in case of the other’s absence.”

The difference continued, for the following year a meeting was called to “agree about the singing in church.” It was put to vote that all in favor of singing all together the old way should go to the east end of the meeting-house, and those for the new way to the west end. On being counted, thirty favored the new way, against sixteen for the old. They peaceably voted that the majority should rule.

Eight years later a new trouble arose as to using Dr. Watts’ version of the Psalms. It was voted “that Dr. Watts’ version be sung the last singing in the afternoon on the Sabbath and at lectures.” The next year it was voted to sing from the old version in the morning, and from Dr. Watts’ version in the afternoon, for one year, and then altogether from Dr. Watts. Who could imagine Dr. Watts as a dangerous innovation!

Up to this time no reference is found here to any musical instrument but the pitch pipe. The bass viol and the rest of the stringed instruments must have come into use in the church services soon after. How the old fugue tunes, with the parts chasing each other all the way through, must have shaken the rafters and waked all the sleepers, without the help of the tithing man!

This town very early began to uphold morality and order.{14} In that first century it fined certain persons “for bringing into the town unwholesome inhabitants.”

The care with which the town guarded its temporal interests is shown by an early vote, “that a black bonnet, a red woman’s cloak, and a worsted gown belonging to Hannah Beeman, deceased, be kept for her daughter till she is of age; if she die under age, the town to have them.”

The cause of education went hand in hand with that of religion in those early days. When there were but twenty-five families in the town, a public school was ordered. In town meeting, September, 1721, it was voted that a school be maintained for four months, the town to bear half the charge. The next year a committee was appointed to raise money to hire a schoolmaster three months in winter, and a schoolmistress three months in summer. One of these early schoolmistresses was the little daughter of John Noble, who had come hither with him alone through the wilderness. Deacon Sherman Boardman, son of the Rev. Daniel, mentions going to school to her, and says she was an excellent teacher. The “little red schoolhouse” was preceded by the log schoolhouse, which was soon a frequent landmark through the town. The town was often divided into new districts. In 1782 there were twenty-one school districts. In 1787 a new building for townhouse and schoolhouse together was erected at the north end of the Main Street.

The singing schools were a pleasant feature of early days, and, in a time of few pleasures, afforded a harmless enjoyment. They were usually held in the schoolhouses, but sometimes at a dwelling in the neighborhood. In 1792 Mr. Cyrene Stilson is recorded as beginning a singing school at a private house. There are to-day treasured in many of our homes, brass candlesticks that were kept bright by our grandmothers to carry to the schoolhouse for the evening singing school. They suggest many bits of romance. When the boys were privileged to walk home with the girls, they carried the candlesticks, we hope, and they doubtless lingered on the broad doorstep sometimes, in spite of zero weather.{15}

One of the brightest spots in New Milford history is the patriotism the town has shown through all its generations. This sentiment seems to have been a perennial spring in the hearts of the inhabitants, ready to burst out into action whenever a crisis arose.

The long list of soldiers in the wars is proof of this. The War of the Revolution called out a host of brave men from New Milford. Not less patriotic was the minister, Rev. Nathaniel Taylor. He had long before served as chaplain in the French and Indian War, and, in 1779, he remitted his entire salary to alleviate the suffering caused by the war. It is inspiring to read that in this same year the county treasurer at Litchfield received the sum of ninety-four pounds sixteen shillings, by the hand of Col. Samuel Canfield—money contributed by the first Ecclesiastical Society of New Milford, for the relief of the distressed inhabitants of the towns of New Haven, Fairfield, and Norwalk.

The actual conflict came no nearer than Danbury. A large number of our citizens participated in that battle. The sending out of troops, and the mourning in many households for those who did not return, must have kept the war very near to the hearts of all the inhabitants of the town. Furthermore, the presence of three brigades (nearly 5000 men) in camp on Second Hill, for nearly a month in the autumn of 1778, brought the war atmosphere almost to their very doors.

Once during the war Lafayette and Rochambeau were entertained over night here; Rochambeau, at the home of Rev. Nathaniel Taylor, north of the present Congregational Church, and Lafayette, at the house of the son of Rev. Nathaniel, Nathaniel, Jr., south of the church.

There was a pretty romance of the war here also. Major Jones of Virginia, in charge of the commissary stores kept here the summer after the burning of Danbury, fell in love with pretty Tamar Taylor, the minister’s daughter. We have the story from Mrs. Helen Carr, the granddaughter of Tamar Taylor, as she heard it from the lips of her grandmother. The Major’s affection seems to have been returned, but her parents{16} frowned upon the affair for the sole reason that they could never let their daughter go to that far country—Virginia. The wooer was said to be “a very fine man, who won golden opinions from everyone,” the question of distance being the only obstacle to parental consent.

Four years later Major Jones wrote to Daniel Everett of New Milford, his sweetheart’s brother-in-law and his near friend, from Yorktown, during the siege, shortly before the surrender of Cornwallis. Even that exciting and arduous time seems not to have made him forget the young lady, for he says: “She is never out of my mind, though it seems Fortune has not been so favorable as to allot us to the possession of each other in this short transitory life, or if she has, parents seem to clash.... I wish I had time to write you fully on a subject that floats in my head, the last when I go to bed and the first when I awake, but must omit it till a future opportunity.”

After the war was over and the country had become settled, Major Jones, with his body servant, journeyed on horseback from his Virginia home to New Milford; but the journey was in vain, and he went sorrowfully home alone. Pretty Temmie Taylor seems not to have been inconsolable, for she was happily married later to the Hon. Nicholas Masters of this place. Mrs. Carr still cherishes the ring and locket given her grandmother by the earlier lover; and when we touched the ancient tokens, the long years fell away, and we, too, seemed to live in the love story of olden time.

New Milford was on one of the regular post roads from Philadelphia to Boston, and, if the old highways could speak, they might tell many stories of distinguished men who have travelled over them. We read in the letters of John Adams of his going through this town on his way to the Congress in Philadelphia. During the war there was frequent passing through the place of both British and Continental troops.

When the war was over there was still further expression of the patriotic sentiments of the people in a vote “that none of those persons who have voluntarily gone over and joined{17} the enemy, shall be suffered to abide and continue in the town during the present situation of our public affairs.” A committee was appointed to carry out these resolutions, with the result that several never came back, and their lands were confiscated by the State.

We learn of much pleasant social life in the peaceful days following the war. There were the “assemblies.” An invitation card for one of these functions is for “Friday Evening, July third next, at six o’clock.” What would the young people of our day think of that? Another is for a “Quarter Ball, at Mr. G. Booth’s Assembly Room, on June 3d at three o’clock, P. M.”! In winter there were merry sleighing parties to neighboring towns. Often large companies in twenty or thirty sleighs enjoyed an early supper together, getting safely home before ten o’clock.

Afternoon teas were frequent; not like yours, dear up-to-date woman of to-day, but “tea-drinkings,” where the women took their knitting work and spent long afternoons in visiting. Mrs. Nathaniel Taylor had on one occasion such a company. The parson, in his study overhead, was greatly interested in the fragments of conversation that floated up to him. Each woman had some exciting tale of her domestic experiences to relate. One quiet sister, unable to hold her own in the babel of tongues, tried again and again to tell her story, beginning, “My goose——.” But each time the quiet voice was drowned, and the story never proceeded further.

When good Parson Taylor was summoned to the tea table he said: “Ladies, I have been so interested in your conversation, I thought it worth preserving. So I wrote it down and will read it to you.” Great was the amusement when he read the persistent efforts of their friend to tell the story of “My Goose.” After all, human nature is much the same in all generations.

The town enjoyed in the old days quite a reputation for good living, and many were the notable feasts cooked over the great fireplaces and in the huge brick ovens before the days of stoves and ranges. What an amount of seasoned hickory logs{18} went up the chimney in smoke to cook them! Forty cords of wood, the record gives, as one item of the minister’s salary for the year.

The means of transportation in early times furnished one of the most serious problems. The Housatonic Railroad was not completed till 1840. Before this, all transportation of produce and merchandise was by wagons to Bridgeport, and thence by sloop to New York. The mail also came in much the same way, being brought here from Bridgeport by a carrier on horseback. Our old friend, the late Colonel Wm. J. Starr, remembered the postman of his childhood days, who announced his arrival by shouting as he rode, “News! News! Some lies and some trues!”

We owe to Colonel Starr a vivid picture of the Main Street of the village nearly a century ago, as he recalled it. It is not an agreeable picture. Pigs were kept in the street, and before almost every house was a long trough, where twice a day they were fed. We can hardly wonder that fevers broke out mysteriously. Geese also roamed at will, and mischievous youths were known to play a practical joke on some unpopular man by penning all the geese in the village into his front porch during the night.

Many of the front yards were adorned with huge wood-piles. A part of the street was a swamp, through which ran a crooked water course that, after a shower, left pools of mud, in which pigs and cattle cooled themselves, for “The Green” was also a cattle pasture. The story is told of a dignified gentleman of the old school, who, dressed in immaculate white on a summer Sunday, was hastening across “The Green” to church, making his way among the puddles, when a large hog, frightened from a pool, ran violently against him. He had an unsought ride on its back across the street, and was deposited in a puddle, in full view of the waiting congregation gathered on the church steps.

In 1838 the open-paved watercourse through “The Green” was constructed and was regarded as a grand improvement.

The Village Improvement Society as organized in 1871,{19}

and, a little later, under its auspices, “The Green” was put in its present attractive condition, a covered brick sewer being laid to replace the open-paved watercourse which previously ran through the center of the street. This was accomplished on the initiative, and largely though the instrumentality, of Mr. and Mrs. William D. Black, whose efforts and energies were always directed for the benefit of the village. A large and successful fair to raise money for this purpose was held in a tent on “The Green” in July, 1872, and the residents of Main Street accepted a voluntary assessment of a large amount to perfect the work.

A familiar and welcome sight of long ago was the village doctor on horseback with his saddlebags. He was the friend of everyone, beloved and venerated next to the minister. His store of huge pills and herbs and simples carried healing and comfort to all the countryside. Dr. Jehiel Williams was the last of these old-time doctors in New Milford. He is still remembered by many with reverent tenderness. His kindness knew no bounds, and his hearty laugh carried cheer wherever he went. A cautious man he was. Even his most cherished opinions were always prefaced with “I ’most guess.” He was cautious also in his remedies, and the overworked woman of this busy age would hardly accept his cure for nerves and sleeplessness: “Take a hop, put it in a teacup and fill the cup with hot water. Drink it at night and I ’most guess you will feel better.” It was whispered that his huge pills were often made of bread, when he felt none were needed.

He rode up and down the hills for a lifetime, charging twenty-five cents for a visit, fifty cents when the journey was long—afterwards sixty-two and a half cents! On one occasion he rode five miles to find that his patient had been already relieved by some housewife’s simple remedy. He declined any fee, merely saying, “What I have learned in this cure is worth far more to me than the trouble of coming.”

He was friend and helper to three generations, and when, at last, full of years and honors, he went to his well-earned rest, every household of the town mourned his departure.{20}

Slavery existed here, as elsewhere in New England, in the first century of the town. A written advertisement for a runaway slave, offering a reward for his capture, and signed, “Gideon Treat, New Milford, September, 1774,” is still in existence. It sounds strange enough to twentieth century ears. Judging from the records, slaves were generally well treated in New Milford, and many owners freed their own negroes long before the days of slavery were over.

A woman is recorded as the first in our town to free a slave. Mary Robburds, in 1757, gave her negro servant Dan his freedom. Partridge Thatcher, a lawyer here, was especially noted for his kindness to his slaves. Judge David S. Boardman wrote concerning him: “He had no children, but a large number of negroes whom he treated with a kindness enough to put to shame the reproaches of all the Abolitionists of New England.” And he freed them all during his lifetime.

But the sins of old days in this matter were somewhat atoned for in after years by the zeal of the Abolitionists of New Milford in aiding runaway slaves to reach Canada and freedom. In the later days of slavery in the South there were several stations of the Underground Railroad in this vicinity. Mr. Charles Sabin’s house in Lanesville was one, and the house of Mr. Augustine Thayer on Grove Street in this village was another. Mr. Thayer and his good wife devoted their lives to the Abolition cause. They helped many poor slaves on their way, rising from their beds in the night to feed and minister to them, and secreting them till they could be taken under cover of darkness to Deacon Gerardus Roberts’ house on Second Hill, from there to Mr. Daniel Platt’s in Washington, and so on, by short stages, all the way until the Canadian border was reached.

The spirit and courage of the fathers have descended to the sons through many generations. This has been proved again and again in later years, notably in our Civil War. During all the dark four years from the terrible day when the flag fell at Fort Sumter to the memorable rejoicing over the fall of Richmond, there were not wanting brave sons of this old town{21}

to offer their lives, and fathers to give of their substance. The daughters of the town vied with each other in loyal labors for their country, and, gave their time with their hearts to loving ministry.

In recent days the courage of our citizens has been “tried as by fire.” The great conflagration of May, 1902, swept away the entire business portion of the village; yet the Puritan fathers could not have met disaster more stoically than our brave men of to-day. The cheerful optimism that built “Shanty Town” on “The Green” while the ruins were still smouldering showed that the stout hearts of old New Milford were the same in the new, and that noble lives have been its inheritance through all its years.

We smile as we recall the old days and ways, but we bare our heads reverently before those godly men and women whose hardships meant a better way for us. Two hundred years hence others will read our record, and smile, perhaps. Will it be as worthy?{22}

NAMES OF THE PROPRIETORS IN THE MILFORD COMPANY, WHO, UNDER A DEED OF DATE OF JUNE, 1703, WERE THE OWNERS OF THE TOWN OF NEW MILFORD

Compiled and Arranged by General Henry Stuart Turrill[1]

THE following were proprietors to the amount of £1 4s.: Col. Robert Treat, Mr. Thomas Clark, Ensign George Clark, Lieut. Joseph Treat, Ensign Joseph Peck, Jonathan Baldwin, committee; Capt. Samuel Eells, Sergt. Edward Camp, Rev. Mr. Andrews, Thomas Wlech, James Prime, Stephen Miles, Barnabas Baldwin, John Woodruff, Mr. Richard Bryan, Daniel Terrell, Samuel Brisco, Timothy Botsford, Sergt. Daniel Baldwin, Mr. Robert Treat, Deacon Platt, Thomas Clark, Mr. Samuel Clark, Jr., Samuel Buckingham, Thomas Buckingham, John Buckingham, William Wheeler, Nathaniel Farrand, Sr., George Allen, Samuel Camp (mason), John Smith ye 4th, Samuel Clark, Sr., Ephraim Burwell, Joseph Beard, Joseph Camp, Samuel Camp (Lanesend), Nathaniel Farrand, Jr., Thomas Tibbals, Thomas Canfield, John Merwin, Samuel Smith (West end), William Gold, Joseph Wheeler, John Prince, Samuel Camp, (son of Edward Camp), Eleazor Prindle, Lieut. Camp, William Scone, Samuel Baldwin (wheelwright), Lieut. Joseph Platt, Sergt. Miles Merwin, Samuel Sanford, Sr., John Beard, Mr. Samuel Andrews, Sr., George Clark, Sr., Joseph Clarke, Joseph Peck, Jr., John Camp, Sergt. John Smith, Jonathan Law, Jr., John Allen, Hugh Grey, Joseph Ashburn, John Summers, James Fenn, Zachariah Whitman, William Adams, Joseph Rogers, Samuel Stone, Jonathan Baldwin, Jr.; Jesse{23} Lambert, Frederick Prudden, Sergt. Zachariah Baldwin, Benjamin Smith, Sr., John Smith, Jr., John Platt, Josiah Platt, Richard Platt, Samuel Prindle, Sergt. Samuel Beard, Sergt. Samuel Northrope, George Clarke, Jr., Samuel Coley, Samuel Merwin, Lieut. Samuel Burwell, Samuel Miles, James Beard, Samuel Nettleton, Joseph Treat (son of Lieut. Treat), Jeremiah Canfield, Thomas Smith, Nathaniel Baldwin, Jr., Jeremiah Beard, Bethel Lankstaff, Andrew Sanford, Sr., Nath. Sanford, John Merwin, Joseph Tibbals, Billin Baldwin (in right of her father, Sergt. Timothy Baldwin, deceased), and Mr. Samuel Mather.

The following were proprietors to the amount 12s.: Mr. Robert Plumb, Andrew Sanford, Widow Mary Baldwin, James Baldwin, Nathaniel Baldwin (cooper), Henry Summers, Samuel Smith (water), John Clark, and William Fowler.{24}

Contributed by Sarah Sanford Black

{25}

{26}

REMINISCENCES OF A TYPICAL NEW MILFORD FAMILY

Contributed by General Henry Stuart Turrill

Caleb Terrill, eldest son of Daniel and Zorvia (Canfield) Terrell, was born in Milford, Connecticut, December 3, 1717. Nearing his majority, he was given the right of land in New Milford of which his grandfather, Daniel, Sr., was the original proprietor. The first allotment to this right was made April 14, 1729, and consisted of about forty-two acres of land on Second Hill, fronting the old Bostwick place. Here, in the spring of 1738, Caleb built his house, cleared a little part of his land and planted a small garden. Late in the summer he returned to Milford. In September he married, in Stratford, Abigail, daughter of Josiah and Alice (Canfield) Bassett, his first cousin, and, in a few days, returned with his bride to the little home on Second Hill. On this spot he lived until his death, February 29, 1796.

This house was the home of his youngest son, Major Turrill, until his death in 1847. Among my very earliest recollections, is a visit to this old place. It was in 1846. I had just passed my fourth birthday, and spent my first day at school. So I, as the youngest of my name, was taken by my father to pay my respects to the oldest living member of my family. I think that this visit produced one of the most lasting impressions of my childhood. I can recall it now, sixty years after. At that time Major Turrill was seventy-eight years old. The large splint-bottomed chair in which he was seated had four enormous legs, seemingly six inches in diameter at least, the two in front continuing up to support the broad arms on which his hands reposed, the two behind extending far above his head. As he rested his head against the broad splint back, he produced the effect of a grand old gentleman in a rustic{27} frame. Major Turrill was a broad-shouldered man of medium height, very upright even in his seventy-eighth year. He had a large, well-formed head and a strong face of a rather stern cast of countenance, while his hair, which was abundant, was steel gray rather than white. My father presented me to him as the youngest of the race, who had just commenced his life work by his first day at school. He called me to him and, placing a broad hand upon my head, said to my father, “A fine little lad,” then turning to me he said, “You must grow up as fine a man as your grandfather, and stand for your country as he stood for it.”

The marriage of Caleb and Abigail, descended as they were from some of the most important of the founder families (she, from the Baldwins, Bryans, Bruens, and Schells, he, from the Fitches, Pratts and Uffords, and both, from the Canfields, the Mallorys and the Cranes), was an event of great importance in Stratford and Milford; and, when it was known that Caleb was to take his bride to the new Plantation of the Weantinaug, the interest in the affair was much deepened. The conditions in those days were quite different from what they are at present. There were no parlor cars, nor honking autos to whisk the blushing bride, amid a shower of rice and old shoes, to the seclusion of the city hotel, there to hide her nuptial joys among the unknown multitude. So Caleb and Abigail were married in that pleasant Stratford home, she, surrounded by the friends of her girlhood, who, if the records are to be believed, were about the whole community, and he, supported by his three stalwart brothers and troops of cousins. A few days were passed in all the feasting and gayeties of the times, after which the young couple, surrounded by a band of the Stratford friends, started on their wedding journey. At the ferry across the “Great River,” they were bidden farewell on the Stratford bank, only to be received on the Milford shore by an equally enthusiastic band of Milford friends, and to be escorted to Caleb’s home in Milford. This was the founder home of Roger, and Caleb was the fourth generation to bring a bride to its shelter. His bride was a namesake of an earlier{28} Abigail, who, ninety-nine years before, had come with her life mate to the then wilderness of Milford. Now, this second Abigail, this tenderly reared girl of scarce eighteen summers, was starting with her life mate, for another wilderness—the New Milford.

After a short stay at the old Tyrrell home, the wedding journey was resumed, up the “Great River” to the Weantinaug country. The “house plenishing,” demanded by the customs of those days, had been furnished by Josiah Bassett, and had been securely packed in a stout boat to be rowed and poled up the river, this being, at that time, the only means of conveying heavy articles to the settlements above. The various animals necessary to farming, although scarce in the New plantations, were plentiful in the older ones; and, since Daniel Terrell was a man of “much substance,” as the records say, an abundant supply had been assembled at the usual starting place for the journey up the river to the “Cove,” just above Goodyear’s Island. On a bright September morning, surrounded by brothers and sisters from both families, and a large company of friends and relatives, the newly-married pair set forth.

The accompanying friends went as far as the first “nooning,” somewhere below Derby. There, the last farewells were said, and Caleb, with his sweet girl wife on the pillion behind him, journeyed to their future home. They moved up the river, camping at night in some quiet nook, their boat, with their provisions and camp equipment, securely fastened to the river’s bank. The bright camp fires flashed out from under the dense foliage of the grand old primeval forests that lined the banks of the Great River, while this pair of children strolled in the deepening gloom, whispering their love, their plans and their hopes of happiness in their home in the wilderness. For four days they thus leisurely journeyed towards the cot on Second Hill, reaching the Cove about noon of the fifth day.

By the mouth of the little brook that falls into the Cove, just at the foot of “Lovers’ Leap,” they made their last camp, while their boat was being unloaded and a more permanent camp{29}

established, for it would be several days before their belongings could be conveyed to their home. As the sun was sinking toward the cover of Green Pond and Candlewood Mountains, Caleb led his bride up the winding trail that mounts the southern face of the grand old cliffs of Falls Mountain to Waramaug’s Grave; and, from that sightly place, she had her first view of the beautiful Weantinaug Valley. Waramaug’s grave has ever been held an almost sacred spot by the descendants of Caleb and Abigail. In my early youth, on just such another September afternoon, I was taken by my father up this winding trail, and sitting on the grass by the side of those honored stones, was told the tale I have been relating, as each succeeding generation of the name had been told it before me.

The wedding journey ended in that rough little home on Second Hill. There, the pair lived for fifty-eight years in happy wedlock; there, they reared a family of fourteen children (eleven sons and three daughters) of whom all came to manhood and womanhood; and, thence, in 1796, at nearly four score years, Caleb went to his eternal rest. Abigail survived him more than twenty years, in the full possession of all her faculties, and, at the extreme age of ninety-seven years, seven months, and eleven days, was laid beside the husband of her youth and the loving companion of so many years.

A wonderful life was that of grandmother Abigail. She lived through four French and Indian wars, and two wars with England. She saw one son go to the last French war and return from the decisive battle on the Heights of Abraham. She saw six sons go to the Revolution, and, having faithfully performed their part in their country’s struggle—at the siege of Boston, in the battle of Long Island and White Plains, in the crossing of the Delaware and at Valley Forge with Washington, in the battles of Trenton, Saratoga, Princeton, Monmouth, and Germantown—return victorious and unscathed. She also saw Stephen and Isaac return from the successful and conclusive struggle at Yorktown. Finally she saw four of her grandsons return from the second contest with England.{30}

It would be hard to find in American history two more remarkable women than the two Abigails of the Tyrrell family. The first, Abigail Ufford, leaving a happy English home in Essex, braving the trials and privations of the American voyage of 1632, lived through the horrors of the Pequot War, and went with her young husband to found a primitive home in Milford. She stood among that company, which, under the umbrageous trees of Peter Prudden’s home lot, listened to the stately Ansantawa, as, plucking a branch from a tree and gathering a grassy clod from the earth, sticking the branch in the clod and sprinkling it with water from the Milford River, he waved it in the air, declaring that he “gave to them forever, the earth with all thereon, the air, and the waters above and below.” In this home, thus acquired, she lived for fifty-five years, rearing eleven children; saw her sons go to King Philip’s War; and saw them when they had reached man’s estate, start off with their loving helpmates, as their father had done before them, to found other homes—in Southold, in Newark, in Stratford, and in Woodbury. Ninety-nine years after, comes into that Milford home the second Abigail, to venture forth in her turn, like the first Abigail, into the wilderness.{31}

By General Henry Stuart Turrill

For the first fifty years from its settlement by John Noble, the town of New Milford had very little concern in the military affairs of the colonies. The Colony of Connecticut furnished soldiers in the war of 1711 and in 1713; and, in 1721, occurred a great outpouring of Connecticut colonists for foreign service. In 1745 a call came to Connecticut from the sister colonies for large numbers of troops for service outside her borders, and, again, in 1755. In response to these calls, New Milford seems not to have sent any men. The defense of their own town and of its outlying districts was about all the colonists of New Milford undertook in a military way, this being sufficiently strenuous to engage their entire attention.

We are inclined, in these later days, to smile at the train-band of the ancient times, but the train-band service of our Colonial fathers was one of exceeding severity.

The first company in New Milford was organized in 1715, and was commanded for twenty years by Captain Stephen Noble. The service for the guarding of the frontier towns in the colony of Connecticut was an exceedingly arduous one. Every male citizen, except the aged, the infirm, and the ministers, was obliged to do military duty. These militia-men had to provide their arms and equipment at their own expense, and, if any business required their absence from the town, they were obliged to provide a substitute and to pay, themselves, for his services. The arms which each soldier furnished consisted of a musket or rifle, a bullet pouch containing twenty bullets, a powder horn containing twenty charges of powder, and such an amount of cloth or buckskin as would make sufficient wadding for this number of charges. These requirements{32} were constant, and frequent examinations were made to see that all of the men of the company complied with them.

As New Milford was, during most of these first fifty years of its existence, a frontier town, a line of guards was established which reached across the country from Woodbury to the New York boundary, and the members of the company had to take turns in patrolling this line.

The second company in New Milford was organized in 1744, and both of these companies continued to exist until the Revolution.

The first recorded service of the New Milford men beyond their own borders occurred about 1758. The greatest accumulation of men found on the record is a company raised for the French and Indian War in 1759. It was commanded by Captain Whiting and was known as the “Tenth Company of Colonel David Wooster’s Third Regiment of Connecticut Levy.” The New Milford men were First Lieutenant Hezekiah Baldwin, Sergeant Israel Baldwin, Corporal John Bronson, Drummer Zadock Bostwick. The privates were Isaac Hitchcock, Barrall Buck (there are two mentions of Buck, he being recorded also as David Buck), Martin Warner, David Hall, Dominie Douglas (whether Dominie stood for minister or was just the baptismal name, I do not know), Thomas Oviatt, Daniel Daton, Joseph Lynes, Ashel Baldwin, Elnathan Blatchford, Ebenezer Terrill, William Gould, David Collings, Joseph Jones, Moses Fisher, Zachariah Ferris, Jesse Fairchild, Joseph Smith, Benjamin Wallis, Benjamin Hawley, Moses Johnson.

The Colonial Records do not show where this regiment was used. Colonel Wooster had a long Colonial service and marched with several expeditions toward Canada. How far these men marched is not on record. They were enlisted in the spring, and seem to have returned to their homes in the fall. Whether they went as far as the expedition of that year toward Canada does not appear. Possibly family traditions might throw some light on the matter.

In the Eleventh Company of the Second Regiment, Colonel Nathaniel Whiting commanding, Ruben Bostwick was ensign,{33} and the records show that Private James Bennett went from the town in 1760.

In the calls from New Milford of 1759 and 1761 occur the names of Hezekiah Baldwin, Second Lieutenant, Second Company, Third Regiment (Lieutenant Colonel Hinman commanding), Israel Baldwin, and Josiah Baldwin. The records show that, in the same year, Ashel Turrell, son of Nathan, with his brother Nathan, went from the town to the army in New York or Canada. Caleb Turrill, Enoch Turrill, Isaac Turrill, sons of Caleb Terrell, also went in the same organization. John Terrell is mentioned as being in the war (1761), but I judge that to be a mistake, as there was no John Terrell in the town of New Milford of age sufficient to answer that call.

The Eleventh Company of the Fourth Regiment was commanded by Captain Josiah Canfield, the Regiment being commanded by Colonel Wooster. There appear the names of Ashel, son of Nathan Terrell, and of Enoch, son of Caleb Turrill.

In the Tenth Company of the Second Regiment (Colonel Nathaniel Whiting’s) commanded by Captain Gideon Stoddard, the name of William Drinkwater appears. The following New Milford names are scattered through the Second, Third and Fourth Connecticut regiments: Bronson, Baldwin, Beach, Bardsley, Beebe, Bennett, Boardman, Booth, Buck, Buell (David, afterward a Revolutionary soldier) Bostwick, Camp, Comstock, Couch, Crane, Curtis, Drinkwater, and Ferris.

Captain Joseph Canfield raised a company in 1758, of which Jeremiah Canfield was the drummer. The last edition of the Colonial Records (issued only a year or so ago), the best existing authority upon the period, gives merely the names of the members of this company and the length of their service, with dates of enlistment and of discharge. Exactly what rôle they played it is impossible now to find out. There are many traditions in the families of their doings, but these family traditions are not as full as those of the Revolution, which, following so quickly, effaced memories which would otherwise have survived. There are some tales of Bill Drinkwater, of{34} Stephen Terrell, and Thomas Drinkwater, but they are so indefinite that all which can be gleaned from them is that these men went as far as Quebec, and were in the battle on the Heights of Abraham, and, possibly, in some of the others.

Most of the members of this company must have returned, as their names appear in the town affairs after this period. There is no record of any loss of life, so far as I have been able to find, among the New Milford men who participated in the French and Indian War. Very little disturbance from Indians occurred in the vicinity of New Milford during this war; there is but one instance of trouble, I think, recorded. A very good understanding with the Indians was attained by the warm friendship between Waramaug, chief of all the tribes of the region, and the New Milford minister, Rev. Mr. Boardman, who attended old Waramaug on his deathbed. Quite an interesting tale is told of his death, but that will probably be recorded in another place. After the close of the French and Indian War there seems to have been little military activity in New Milford, except the keeping up of the two companies under the rigorous acts of the Colonial Guard. These were officered and drilled as they had been from their formation. It is not till the period of the Revolution is reached that the town takes on very much of a military character.

Canfield, Bostwick and Noble seem to have been the most prominent names in military affairs during the Colonial period.

The first company of which mention is made in connection with the Revolution is that of Lieutenant Ebenezer Couch, who served in the regiment of Colonel Andrew Ward. This company does not appear at all in either the Connecticut War Book or the rolls of the Connecticut Historical Society. The first notice of Ebenezer Couch in the Connecticut War Book is of his commanding a company of Colonel Canfield’s regiment at West Point and Peekskill in 1777. The only record of the company is in a roll which was in the possession of the late Colonel William J. Starr of New Milford, and which, I suppose, was among his papers when he died. It was raised in May, 1775. The names of its members are given in the{35} roll of New Milford men in the Revolution, which is appended to this article and need not be repeated here.

Its history is rather indefinite. It seems to have been raised for the Lexington alarm, but, being too late for that purpose, it probably went to the Sound or to New York. The date of its discharge does not appear on any record, but most of the men are soon found on the rolls of other companies in the service.

In July, 1775, a company was formed in New Milford, commanded by Captain Isaac Bostwick, who was first commissioned on the sixteenth of that month and, later, was recommissioned at Boston. It joined the regiment of Colonel Charles Webb, under the name of the Seventh Connecticut Levy, served along the Sound, and then went to the siege of Boston. Its term of service was to expire in December, 1775. About the time it was to be discharged, it was reorganized as the Nineteenth Regiment of Connecticut Line, enlisted for one year. Most of the men of Captain Bostwick’s company, as well as those of Lieutenant Couch’s company, appear in the new organization. The company and regiment remained at the siege of Boston until after the evacuation of that place by the British, when they accompanied General Washington to New York, going by land as far as New London and thence by boat. They were put to work at first upon the fortifications of New York, then, on the completion of that work, they were taken over to Brooklyn, and were employed, on the left of the line, in completing the fortifications there. They were not engaged in the battle of Long Island, but they covered the retreat, after that disaster, and played an important part in the subsequent movements about New York. They rendered some aid to the Brigade of Connecticut Militia in the disastrous affair of Kipp’s Bay, moved with the army across the Harlem to Westchester, and were hotly engaged, with considerable loss, in the battle of White Plains.

After this battle, and before the capture of Fort Washington, they were brought down to Spuyten Duyvil creek, just at its junction with the Hudson, and were kept there furnishing{36} guards, orderlies and escorts for the movements about the fort. While the Jumel mansion (then the old Morris house) was being used as the American Headquarters, many of Captain Bostwick’s men were frequently on duty about the place as guards and orderlies. The following is a tradition for which the only authority is the stories told by the old soldiers around John Turrill’s fireside many years after: During the engagement of the British with Fort Washington, a sergeant’s guard under the command of David Buell of New Milford, which had been placed at a picket station near the base of Inwood Hill, were separated, by the rapid advance of the Hessians up the Harlem River (a movement, which, but for the quickness of a soldier’s wife at the Morris house, would have resulted in the capture of General Washington), from their regiment across the creek and obliged to fall back to Fort Washington. Being hotly pursued by the advancing enemy, they were forced to take cover under the banks of the Hudson, to avoid the fire of almost an entire regiment. A small party of the Hessians endeavored to cut off their retreat to the fort and one of them succeeded in jumping down the bank in front of the New Milford men. Roger Blaisdell was in the advance, and, as the German stumbled down the bank in front of him, pushed him with a thrust of his bayonet into the river and the party reached temporary safety in Fort Washington.

The Fort was soon captured by the British, however, and our New Milford men found themselves in the unfortunate position of prisoners of war.

The prisoners, according to the stories told by them afterward, were moved down to a point about where Union Square is now, and were there confined in a barn, for three days, before any food was given them. Then, wagons from the British slaughter-houses arrived, loaded with the hock bones of the cattle killed for the British troops. These wagons having been backed up to the door of the barn, the hock bones were shoveled in on the floor, while the prisoners scrambled for what they could get. It is said that their hunger was so great that they seized the bones and gnawed them as a dog would.{37} They were kept for three days in this barn, and were then conveyed down to that much-dreaded place of confinement, the Old Sugar House Prison, a sugar store-house, which was between Ann and Fulton streets. It was a building with a large central portion, and had two wings which projected on either side of a little courtyard. There were no cellars and the floor was of puncheons (hewn logs eight or ten inches thick) laid loose on the floor timbers. It was very strongly constructed in order that it might sustain the weight of the heavy casks of sugar and molasses which came from the West Indies.

The place where our twelve New Milford men slept was just inside one of the doors. The two projecting rooms on either side were occupied by the guard of the prison and the officers, respectively. A sentry paced up and down the front from the guard room to the room of the officers. The provisions furnished to the prisoners were exceedingly scanty and of so poor a quality that they had been condemned as unfit for the use of the soldiers and sailors of the British army. Their rations consisted mainly of moldy and wormy pilot bread. This régime, following the “bone diet” of the barn, soon reduced them to the verge of starvation. These poor Continentals had little or no money with which to purchase favors and they were soon in a very bad way. The British profited by this situation to try to get the Americans to renounce the Patriot cause and enlist in the British army. A guinea a head was offered to each British soldier who would induce a rebel to join their cause. The English guard was well fed and it was very tantalizing to our New Milford men to see the burly Englishmen enjoying their abundant repasts. Necessity is the mother of invention, however, and our men soon formed a plan to obtain some of the much coveted food. The cooking for the guard was done in the room occupied by them and a limited amount of provisions was, from time to time, brought there. Late one afternoon, a half-barrel of mess pork was brought in and opened for use, and left standing under the charge of the sentry for the night. This was our boys’ opportunity and, as soon as the other prisoners were sound asleep, they very{38} quietly raised one of the logs in their floor space and scooped out a little hole in the sand underneath. A place having been thus prepared for their expected booty, they then proceeded to get the much desired pork. The night was so dark that a man could not be recognized at any distance and this was much in their favor. Roger Blaisdell quietly approached the sentry and, explaining that he was tired of starving, asked to be told where he could go to enlist in the British army, adding that he did not dare to come when the other prisoners were awake. The sentry, overjoyed at the prospect of the guinea, and fearing that, if he let the man go, some other would secure the much-coveted prize, told Blaisdell to walk up and down his beat with him until he should be relieved, when he would take him to the officer of the day. Accordingly, they paced up and down the sentry’s beat until, when a good opportunity occurred at the point farthest from the quarters of the guard, Blaisdell hit his companion a blow behind the ear which would have felled an ox and which knocked the sentry senseless. The men, who were on the watch, rushed to the pork barrel, scooped out an armful of pork each, quickly deposited it in the hole that they had prepared, replaced the plank, and dropped down upon it, snoring to beat a bass drum. Of course an alarm was raised and the prisoners were turned out, but the sentry was too much shaken up by the blow to be able to tell much about the matter. The loss of the pork was not discovered that night, if at all, so there was nothing to direct attention to the men, and they escaped detection. Each night, while the other prisoners were sleeping, the enterprising twelve would quietly raise the plank and have a meal of raw salt pork. In after days, those of the group who survived the prison experiences (particularly Sergeant David Buell) used to refer to their prison pork as the sweetest food that they had ever eaten, and for years the standing toast at their reunions was, “To Roger Blaisdell’s pork barrel.”

Within the last few months I have compared my recollections with those of other descendants of these men and have found that the traditions of these events agree so nearly as to warrant{39} the belief that there was much truth in the stories told by the old veterans.

After being confined for a number of weeks in the sugar house, the prisoners were taken to the prison ship Dutton. Two hundred of them were transported to Milford and put ashore there. Twenty were dead before the vessel arrived and twenty more died very soon after. All the forty are buried in the graveyard of that place. Of the twelve men of New Milford, tradition narrates the return of only four, Roger Blaisdell, David Buell, William Drinkwater and Lyman Noble. Through friends in Milford, they were able to secure a horse, and thus worked their way back to New Milford, reaching there about March, 1777. This group was eliminated from Captain Isaac Bostwick’s company and did no further service until their companions came home from the successful fields of Trenton and Princeton. Shortly after the fall of Fort Washington, the regiment containing Captain Bostwick’s company was ordered to Philadelphia. It was with Washington at Germantown before the army went into winter quarters at Valley Forge. Its term of service was to expire December 20, 1776. But Washington was then planning the move which ended in the crossing of the Delaware at Trenton, and many of its members remained in service, at his personal request, for a six weeks’ campaign.

Most of the men of Captain Bostwick’s company were with Washington and crossed the Delaware on the twenty-fifth of December, 1776, and, on the early morning of that day, they were in the battle of Trenton, where they assisted in the capture of the Hessian regiment. They were engaged in the succeeding battle at Princeton, January 3, 1777, and were finally discharged on the first of February, 1777, when they returned to New Milford.

Captain Bostwick appeared as a leader in the Danbury alarm. With him was John Terrell and David Buell, who had so far recovered from his prison experiences as to join his old companions on that occasion. Roger Blaisdell does not appear, but Bill Drinkwater does. With them was a New Milford man who had been in Captain Couch’s first company,{40} one Ruben Phillips. Ruben Phillips was a colored man, living in New Milford, who had evidently been the cook in Captain Bostwick’s company. The descendants of Ruben Phillips were living, in my time, in the little house where the road goes up Chicken Hill toward Bridgewater, and this family knew that their ancestor had been in the Revolution with my grandfather. A descendant of this Phillips, Chester Phillips by name, volunteered in the Twenty-ninth Connecticut Infantry in the War of the Rebellion and was killed in front of Petersburg, Virginia. Truly the Revolutionary blood of New Milford was as good in the black man as in the white.

The group from Captain Bostwick’s company were engaged four days in the Danbury alarm. The following story regarding this little band is extant: The British had commenced their retreat from Danbury by way of Ridgefield and these men were following them up very earnestly, pressing close upon a grenadier regiment which was the rear guard of the British force. John Terrell, William Noble, Bill Drinkwater and David Buell rushed together up one side of the famous rock in Ridgefield, while the grenadiers were still on the other side. One of them (which one I do not know), showing himself imprudently, was shot by the British grenadiers. Of the truth of this story I have never been able to learn. It is firmly believed in and about Ridgefield and also in New Milford. There is a plate on the rock, I think, commemorating the death of one of the company.

A number of men from New Milford were in the company of Captain Daniel Pendleton of Watertown, which belonged to the regiment of Colonel Judthon Baldwin, a regiment of artificers that served under the direction of the Quarter-Master-General as a Construction Corps. This regiment was in all the engagements of the war except those about Boston and those of the northern army above Albany, in more engagements, in fact, than any other body of Connecticut troops. In 1780, when General Green took command of the Southern Department, he requested that Captain Pendleton’s company be sent to him. The company joined him, as requested, and{41} was the only body of Connecticut men that served south of Virginia. It was on duty there until the disbanding of the army in November, 1783.

This was the only considerable group of men that went as a body from New Milford after the first two companies; perhaps it might be called the third company. The enlistments were for short periods and the changes were quite frequent, until 1778 and 1779, when enlistments began to be made for three years or the war.

New Milford is credited on the Connecticut War Records and the Connecticut Historical Society’s rolls with two hundred and eighty-five men in the war, many of whom served two and three, and some even four terms of enlistment.

While these soldiers of the Revolution were in the field doing military duty, their fathers and brothers were at home laboring for their support; not so easy a task when it is remembered that in the first three years of the war the Colony of Connecticut paid for the maintenance and equipment of her troops in the field, for the damage to her people in the British raids of Danbury and Norwalk, the immense sum of £516,606. During the last four years of the war the Continental Congress fixed Connecticut’s share of the expenses of the war at $1,800,000 a year. At times the tax rates were three shillings on the pound. The eight years of the war were years of toil and suffering to those on the sterile hill-farms, where the striving and stress were about as great as in the midst of the dangers of the battle-field. Indeed, much of the war had come to these farmers’ very doors, for the Tories of Squash Hollow and the Quakers of Quaker Hill and Straits Mountain had not proved themselves exactly the men of peace that they professed to be.

The leading family of New Milford in the Revolution was the Bostwicks. There were ten of the name in the service during the war—Amos, Benjamin, Elijah, Elisha, Ebenezer, Isaac, Israel, Joel, Oliver and Solomon. The next was the Turrills, of whom there are nine on the records—Ashel, Caleb, Ebenezer, Enoch, Isaac, Joel, John, Nathan and Stephen. The Canfields have seven names to their credit—Amos, Ezra,{42} John, Josiah, Moses, Nathaniel and Samuel—and the Baldwins, four—Jared, John, Jonas and Theodore.

It would be impossible to give all the actions in which New Milford men were concerned during the Revolution without giving a history of the entire war. Some of the marked battles in which they were engaged were those about Philadelphia, the Mud Forts, Germantown and Monmouth. They participated in the crossing of the Delaware from Princeton and, later, were at the surrender of Germantown. New Milford men were with Morgan at Saratoga and tradition says that they were at the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, with Ethan Allen. Colonel Warner of Roxbury, the companion of Allen, who was well and favorably known in New Milford, had many friends, some of whom may have gone with him on that expedition. There may be some truth in this story, therefore, as it is extant.

According to one of the legends current in Western Connecticut, a troop of New Milford and Roxbury men on their way to the Hampshire Grants to join Ethan Allen, assembled at New Milford. Their first morning’s march was up the Housatonic to a little spring which comes out near the present railroad a short distance below Merwinsville. There, they were met by Deacon Gaylord, who had crossed the river from his place in a canoe, with a lunch, which included a bottle of applejack, and a jug of hard cider. He distributed these liquid refreshments so freely, deacon though he was, that the party were quite jolly before they moved on to their night camp, which was to be at Bull’s Bridge. Whatever may be the truth of this story, it is evident that the New Milford men’s eyes were turned very much toward the Northern Department, and that many of them served in the operations of that department.

New Milford men were present at the famous charge of Mad Anthony Wayne at Stony Point. A company of pioneers was selected to go forward and cut away the pickets in order to facilitate the advance of the charging column up into the fort. There is a tradition that Lieutenant David Buell was one of these pioneers, and, as he was in the engagement, the tradition is probably correct. The pioneers, having cut away the pickets,{43} scattered to the right and left, in accordance with their orders, leaving the way open for the charging column, which began the ascent. The cannoneer of the fort was swinging his linstock to fire a cannon which pointed right down the line. History gives it that, at this critical moment, one of the pioneers rushed forward with his axe and knocked the cannoneer over before he was able to apply the linstock, thus saving the expedition; and legend claims that this pioneer was Sergeant David Buell. Legend goes on to say that, in the fort at Stony Point, the Continental soldiers found a number of Tories (some from the vicinity of New Milford) who had retired thither for protection. These Tories were paraded about the fort with ropes around their necks and David Buell, as a mark of distinction, led the procession, holding a rope around the neck of the most valiant and troublesome Tory. David Buell received a pension for his services and was long a resident of New Milford, where, I believe, he is buried. His house was on Second Hill, and, in his advanced years, he did little but travel about among his friends, frequently stopping for some time with a sister who lived in “Pug Lane” (now Park Lane). His favorite resort, when he was with his sister, was Mr. Cushman’s Tavern, which is still standing on the road going up to Second Hill and Northville. It was his morning custom to go over to the tavern and meet his friends there. It was observed that, whenever an Englishman and Tory happened into Cushman’s place, David Buell immediately left. He would go home and say “Umph! an Englishman was there; I could not stay.” Another favorite gathering place of many of these old soldiers was at the home of John Turrill, and it was there that they celebrated the anniversaries. Their habit was to gather in the morning, go and make a call on Captain Isaac Bostwick, drink a glass of wine, and then return to dinner at John Turrill’s home, where they would afterward tell their stories. Many of these stories were quite lurid, possibly by reason of the quantity and quality of John Turrill’s hard cider and applejack; for John, although extremely temperate himself, is said never to have stinted his former companions in arms either in food or drink.{44}

Stephen Turrill was another noted man in the regiments. He belonged at first to the company of Ebenezer Couch, but, soon after drifted into a number of organizations from New Milford which served about West Point. He was in that part of the country for nearly two years. There are numberless stories of his encounters with the Tories. One of these is as follows: A band to which he was attached, while marching through the lower part of the Debatable Land, came to the house of a Dutch Tory. They wanted something to eat and asked the woman of the house if she could give them some milk or anything. She very gruffly told them that there was nothing in the house to eat, that she had nothing for the Rebels. Just then, something called her out of doors for a minute, and the soldiers saw that, over the fireplace, in a large pot, the dinner was boiling. Stephen Turrill’s inquisitive mind determined to know what was in that pot. Accordingly, he pulled off the lid, saw a fine bag pudding, pulled it out, put it in his haversack, and marched away. The woman quickly discovered her loss and came crying that the Rebels had stolen her pudding. The sergeant in command marched by his men and then told the woman there was no evidence of her pudding there; but, after she had retreated a short distance, he said “Turrill, did you get that woman’s pudding?” “Yes,” said he, “here it is in my haversack.” The company passed on and dined sumptuously.

Scattered over the Debatable Land were little guard houses, in each of which a guard was kept for a week at a time, to intercept the approach of British or Tories. These guard houses usually consisted of two rooms, a front and back one. On one occasion——

[General Turrill’s narrative of “New Milford in the Wars,” was tragically cut short at this point by his sudden death in the office of the Grafton Press, where he was dictating it. It has seemed more fitting to leave this narrative in its unfinished condition, as a sort of memorial to him, than to have it completed by another. Any inconsistencies that may exist in it may be attributed to the fact that it did not have the benefit of his correction and revision.—Editor.]

{45}

The names given in the rolls of the Connecticut Historical Society are as follows:

The following is the roll of men on the various records as having had service in the Revolution who are accredited to New Milford:

Muster roll of a company said to have been raised in New Milford and to have formed a part of Colonel Andrew Ward’s regiment of Connecticut Militia, as given in Orcutt’s New Milford:

Lieut. Ebenezer Couch, Lieut. Elizur Bostwick, Ensign Noble Hine, Clerk Benjamin Bostwick, Sergt. David Whittlesey, Sergt. Benjamin Weller, Sergt. Mathew Bronson, Sergt. Oliver Bostwick, Corp. Gideon Morgan, Corp. Uri Jackson, Corp. Nathaniel Cole, Corp. William Nichols, Corp. Lemuel Thayer, Drummer Eleazer Hendrix, Fifer David Ruggles, Fifer John Couch.

Privates—Nathan Averill, Benjamin Adams, Salmon Bostwick, John Baldwin, John Beach, Israel Bostwick, David Buell, Jared Baldwin, David Bosworth, Caleb Barnes, Mathias Beeman, Stiles Bradley, Joel Bostwick, John Canfield, Jesse Camp, Jonathan Crittenden, Elija Cary, Israel Camp, Samuel Copley, Ezra Dunning, Jedadiah Durkee, Caswell Dean, Thomas Drinkwater, Stephen Evitts, Asa Farrand, William Foot, Jonathan Gray, Epenetus Gunn, Elnathan Gregory, Liverus Hawley, Ashael Hotchkis, Lewis Hunt, Richard Johnson, John Keeler, Nathan Keeler, David Keeler, Jonathan Lumm, Joseph Mygatt, Lyman Noble, Ephram Minor, David Porter, Samuel Prince, Amos Prime, Ruben Phillips, William Peet, John Rood, Isaac M. Ruggles, Aziah Robbards, Nathan Rowley, Liffe Sanford, Asa Starkweather, Jonah Todd, Ebenezer Trowbridge, John Turrill, Stephen Turrill, William Whitley, Nathan Wildman, Cooley Weller, Abel Wilkins.{50}

Roll of Captain Isaac Bostwick’s company, Seventh Company, Sixth Regiment, of Connecticut Line: Colonel Charles Webb; Capt. Isaac Bostwick; Lieut. Hulbutt; Ensign Amos Bostwick; Sergts. Gideon Noble, Simeon Porter, Simon Mills, Elisha Bostwick, Sowl. Barnum; Corps. Samuel Bennett, Harmon White, Ebenezer Barnum, Seth Hall; Drummers Eleazor Hendrix, Calvin Pease; Fifers Nathan Avery, Theodore Baldwin, David Roch; Privates Nathan Avery, Theodore Baldwin, David Beach, Elizur Bostwick, Joseph Bates, Jonathan Brown, Reuben Bellamy, Ashel Case, John D. Comstalk, Timothy Cole, Aaron Curtis, Hedekiah Clerk, Thadeus Cole, Charles Chapen, Joseph Clerk, Ashael Dean, Jeremiah Douchey, David Everist, James Gates, John Green, Hedakiah Gray, Daniel Grinnel, Amaziah Griswold, Joseph Hawley, Levit How, William Hale, Abner Kelsey, John Lewis, Simeon Lyman, David Lyon, Joseph Murray, Samuel Millar, Ruben Mager, Josiah Munger, Ruben Philips, Rufus Partridge, Howard E. Prince, Jeruel Philips, Phineas Palmer, John Smith, Cordeal Smith, Isaac Smith, Caleb Swetland, Job Tousley, Ruben Taylor, Absolem Taylor, Gamaliel Terrey, Benjamin Thomas, John Walter, Thomas Woodward, Cornelius Whitney, Samuel Waters.

Men who crossed the Delaware with Capt. Isaac Bostwick of New Milford, December 25, 1776, and were in the battle of Trenton and the succeeding battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777: Lieuts. Hulbutt, Elisha Bostwick; Sergts. Brownson, Beach; Ensign Amos Bostwick; Corps. Thayer, Grover, Bell; Drummer Gunn; Fifer Humstead; Privates Jeptha Bartholomew, Luther Bartholomew, Isaac Brownson, Moses Camp, Moses Canfield, William Cressey, Jonathan Crittenden, Hezakiah Clark, Jonathan Davidson, Francis Fields, Aaron Foot, Moses Hurd, Robert Nichols, George Norton, Elisha Phiney, Ruben Pitcher, Asa Prince, Wills Sherwood, John Turrill.

Officers and men from New Milford who served in the Sixth Company of the Fourth Regiment, Continental Line: Capt. Josiah Starr; Sergt. John Stevens; Privates Oliver Bostwick, Josiah Buck, Dar. Barns, William Beal, Asa Beal, Michael Beach, Amos Beach, Jas. Brown, Josiah Brooks, Herman{51} Smith, Ephram Alderman, Domini Douglass, Jabes Frizbee, Oring Ferriss, Elihu Grant, Levi Hunt, Christo. Hington, Geo. Lummis, Eben Lewis, Jere McCarte, Nathan Nichols, Oliver Phelps, Jos. Phelps, Lemuel Peete, Timoth. Stanley, Benajah Smith, Geo. A. Smith, John Seeley, Nathl. Stewart, Enos Scott, Zimri Skinner, Joseph Thair, John Tuff, Ezekiel Towner, Lem Walter, Jos. Worden, Amos Mc’Kinnee, Robt. Brown, William Drinkwater, Jonathan Mayo.

New Milford men who served in Lieutenant-Colonel Josiah Starr’s Regiment, Connecticut Line: Lieut. Col. Josiah Starr, Comd. Reg. and Co.; Lieuts. Augustine Thayer, James Bennett; Ensign Josiah Buck; Sergt. Oliver Bostwick; Privates Caleb Maxfield, Leef Sanford, Eleazor Hendricks, Ebenezer Bostwick, Solomon Bostwick, David Cole, Prince Crosley, Leverus Hawley, Samuel Hubble, Prime Hubble, Sep Hubble, Titus Heart, Stephen Headges, James Higgins, William Handy, Ira Hotchkis, Benjamin Heart, Aaron Hall, Ely Nichols, Robert Nichols, Samuel Nettleton, Holan Nettleton, Samuel Phillips, Jurel Phillips, Elijah Parker, Elab Parker, Nehimiah Piffany.

New Milford men who were in Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Canfield’s Regiment of Connecticut Militia, at West Point, in 1781: Lieut-Col. Samuel Canfield, comd.; Quartermaster Jonah Baldwin; Surgeon Dr. George Hurd; Capt. Ebenezer Couch, Comd. Co.; Privates Ruben Brownson, Elijah Hoyt, John Case, Andrew Merwin, Stephen Bennett, Benjamin Mead, Ebenezer Couch, Jr., Asa Read, Simeon Taylor, David Merwin, Henry Straight, Ruben Hurlbut.

New Milford men who served in Connecticut Regiment of Pioneers: Colonel Judthon Baldwin; Capt. Daniel Pendleton, Comd. of Co. in which the New Milford men were engaged; Sergt. David Porter; Privates Jessie Cole, John Eggleston, Isaac Turrill, Jonathan Wilkinson, Ashael Turrill, James Bradshaw, John Turner, Lyman Mott, Samuel Oviatt, Abel Wilkenson, Isaac Mott, Samuel Turner.

New Milford men who served in Col. Moses Hazen’s Regiment, Connecticut Militia: Capt. Jeremiah Parmelie’s Co.: Michael Welch, Jabes Tomlinson.{52}

New Milford men who served in the Fifth Troop, Shelden’s Dragoons: Sergt. Liffe Sanford, David Buell.

New Milford men who served in Second Regiment, Connecticut Line: Col. Herman Swift; in Capt. Samuel Comstalk’s Co., Squire Davenport; in Capt. Richard’s Co., Ezerah Canfield, David Cole; in Capt. Belden’s Co., David Johnson, Moses Scott, Mathew Stewart.

A company of forty volunteers was raised in the towns of New Milford, Newtown, and Danbury, in December, 1776. The officers were: Capt. Benjamin Brownson, Lieut. Shadrack Hubble, Ensign Benjamin Seeley. The names of the privates are not given in the records.

In General David Waterbury’s State Regiment, Captain Charles Smith’s Company, were the following New Milford men: Sergt. Josiah Barnes; Drummer Eleazer Hendricks; Fifer Oliver Mead; Privates Nathan Murray, Benton Buck, John Ingersol, Achillies Comstalk, Amos Canfield, Daniel Davis, Jonathan Beecher, Isaac Utter, Mingo Treat, John Warner, Jonathan Jessup.

In Lieutenant John Phelps’ Troop of Horse was Private Nathaniel Canfield of New Milford.

In Colonel Benjamin Hinman’s Fourth Regiment, Continental Line, Sixth Company, Capt. Josiah Starr, were the following New Milford men: Sergt. John Stevens; Privates Oliver Bostwick, Herman Smith, Asa Brownson, Josiah Brooks, Ephraim Alderman, Josiah Buck.

In Colonel Herman Swift’s Second Regiment, Continental Line, in Captain Kimberly’s Company, served from January until June, 1783, the following New Milford men: Sergeants Charles McDonald, Ebinezer Bostwick; Drummer Job Hawkins; Privates Isaac Lockwood, Bostwick Ruggles, and John McCoy.

The following New Milford men served under Lieutenant Colonel Canfield in the Tryon invasion: Benjamin Stone, Nathaniel Barnes, William Cogswell, Ebenezer Couch, Noble Hine, Ruben Bostwick, Adam Hurlburt.

The members of the Society of Cincinnati from New Milford{53} were Colonel Josiah Starr, Lieutenant James Bennett, and Lieutenant David Beach.

The list of men from New Milford who served in the regular army during the War of 1812, taken from the rolls of the Adjutant General’s office, is as follows:

Lieutenant Thomas Weller; Privates, Hedekiah Baldwin, Theopholus Baldwin, Joseph C. Barnes, Rufus Beeman, Samuel Bunnel, Charles H. Crampton, Kneeland Edwards, Philo Gregory, Joseph Hawley, Stephen Hawley, Abram Hunt, Warren Hyde, Ithamer Lane, Benjamin Lee, James Lee, Stephen Lyon, Seth Nelson, Ebinezer Reynolds, John Saxton, Stephen Seignor, Caleb Shelden, Peleg Slocum, Levi Smith, Eliakim Stow, Samuel Summers, Jonathan Tharrs, Benjamin Warner, Harry Wakelee, William S. Wakelee, Thomas W. Way, Squire Whitney, Shelden Wooden.

The War Records of Connecticut do not give the places from which the Militia and Volunteers came, so it is impossible to tell exactly how many New Milford men participated in the war. The names of Baldwin, Barnes, Bartholomew, Bassett, Beech, Buck, Buell, Bostwick, Booth, Canfield, Comstock, Noble, Starr, Taylor, Turrill, and many other New Milford names are upon the rolls, but just how many are to be credited to the town it is impossible to say.

The names of the men from New Milford who served in the Mexican War, taken from the rolls of the Adjutant General’s office, were:

Henry Burrhants, Sherman Crosby, Albert Morey, Abner M. Philips, Ruben W. Phillips, Warren S. Tenbrok, James Schemmerhorn.

Two other men from the town were, I believe, in that war: Henry Soul, son of John Soul, who lived at the point of Buck’s Rocks, and Charles Ford, who afterwards served in the war of 1861.{54}

Recapitulation: Number of men credited to New Milford, 282; killed in battle, 17; wounded in action, 34; died in service, 35; discharged for disability, 33; deserted, 44; dishonorably discharged, 1; shot for desertion, 1. Casualties, honorable, 119; dishonorable 46; total 165.

There were thirty-seven drafted men and substitutes credited to the town; of these, twenty-seven deserted, leaving seventeen as the number of the town’s volunteers to desert their colors, and most of these were of foreign birth.

{67}

Contributed by Alice Merwin Bostwick

Indelibly stamped on my memory are pictures of the old homes of my ancestors, and the simple life within them, in which it was my privilege to share in early childhood. These houses, built before the Revolutionary War, were of the “salt box” style, two stories high except at the back, where the roof sloped from the steep gables down so low that my grandfather, a tall man, had to bow his head to go under the eaves into the stoop. This made windows necessary on but three sides of a house, and was designed to evade the heavy tax on every pane of glass used. The shrewd colonist preferred to have less light, rather than add to the King’s revenue. Every stick of timber was oak from the forest primeval, felled and hewed by the strong arms of the men who, with stout hearts, braved the perils and hardships of the wilderness for their altars and homes. Every shingle was “rived out” by hand. The laths, window sashes, doors, handles and latches, hinges and nails, were all hand-wrought.

How well our forefathers builded, these old houses, still standing in good habitable condition, after braving the summer suns, winter winds, and storms of more than a century and a half, bear witness. The great stone chimney was a tower of strength from its foundation in the cellar, fifteen feet square, up to the garret, strong as granite rocks could make it. It anchored the heavy beams and roof timbers, giving ample space for the many fireplaces needed in the large rooms growing around it. The kitchen fireplace was like those we read of, but seldom see. At one side of the crane was a bench where I, as a child, often sat watching the building of the fire—a work of skill. The big green back-log was first rolled in: then, the back-stick, fore-stick, chips and kindlings were added—a veritable woodpile, which, when kindled by the{68} aid of the bellows, sent sparks and flame crackling and roaring up the cavernous chimney.

There may have been much poetry in “the hanging of the crane.” There surely was much prose in cooking for a family, in pots and kettles hung on its hooks and trammels, over the burning coals and smoke. Long-handled frying pans, spiders, skillets, turnspits, bake kettles, and Dutch ovens would be unknown quantities to graduates from modern cooking schools; but they, with all their science and new appliances, cannot surpass the savory dishes evolved by our grandmothers from the limited means at their command, with the aid of these same out-of-date utensils.

From out the arch-roofed old brick ovens came famous loaves of rye and Indian bread, biscuits, pans of pork and beans, cards of gingerbread, seed cookies, election and pound cakes, baked as none of our ranges can ever bake. They had a flavor all their own, a color golden-brown as the fallen autumn leaves of the maple trees, whose “fair white hearts” went up in smoke out of the doorway, while the long-handled iron peel spread the glowing coals over the worn floor of the old oven.

Those were not days of ease and idleness. From sun-up till sun-down, there was work for each and all, indoors and out. “Hired help” was scarce. Some neighbor, not so “well-to-do,” who had more children than income, spared a daughter “to come as one of the family” to work for board, clothes and winter’s schooling till of age. Then, she was paid five dollars a month, and, at her marriage, was given a black silk dress and a feather bed.

Country stores were few and far between. Every family made and kept on hand their own supplies, loaning and borrowing in time of need; exchanging spare-ribs, roasts of beef and lamb; arranging their “butchering” in rotation, to accommodate each other. Fresh meat was a luxury, salted meat, the main reliance. In the smokehouse hung hams, shoulders, beef, tongue and sausage. Under these it was my task to pile green hickory chips, pine sawdust and corncobs,{69} which made a smoke of a peculiar, pungent, spicy quality and odor.

Tallow candles, the only light in the long evenings, were to be dipped; dozens and dozens, the whole year’s supply. To run out of candles was “shiftless.” A few, partly wax, for the tall silver and brass candlesticks on the mantels in parlor and keeping-room, were run in moulds and hung to bleach.

Soap was to be made, hard and soft. An empty soap barrel was thriftless. A cake of scented soap, brought from a distant city, was highly prized. Of spinning and weaving there was no end. The mother and daughters, instead of going to clubs and lectures, after the housework was done had their stents, so many knots of yarn to spin. No need to walk for exercise; back and forth they briskly stepped, as the wheel swiftly whirled, the rolls stretching into miles of yarn, “single twisted” for cloth, “double and twisted” for stockings and carpet warp. Then, the yarn must be scoured and dyed, not with “Diamond Dyes” from the drug store, but with vegetable dyes from fields and woods—white oak roots, butternut bark, chestnut burrs, sumach “bobs,” onion skins, and the wonderful indigo “dye pot blue.” Every good housewife was past master in the art of dyeing, and looked with pride on the line and fence draped with skeins of yarn of bright, unfading hues and shades. Flax wheels, not then strictly ornamental, hummed evenings by the fireside, while deft fingers drew from the flax-covered distaff fine linen thread for sewing, and for sheets, pillow-cases, towels, and all the underclothing of the family. The loom in the garret was never without its web of cloth in process of weaving—wool, linen, or wool and linen mixed (called linsey-woolsey). The linen was spread on the grass, bleached snowy white, then laid away in oaken chests, ready for the wedding “setting out” of the daughters, who made it up by hand, stitching “two threads over, two under,” the rule of the good seamstress.

From “homespun fulled cloth” the “every day” suits of men and boys were made, with the help of the tailoress who came spring and fall with press-board, goose, tailor-shears,{70} and rolls of patterns supposed to fit all figures. What wonder if these home-made garments looked their name! Bedquilts were pieced in intricate patterns—baskets of flowers, butterflies, peonies, chariot wheels, log-cabin, goose chase, double and single Irish chain—and quilted in shells, circles, squares, diamonds, sawteeth and herringbone. The quilt frames in the “spare bed room” usually had one of these marvelous constructions on, ready for a “Quilting Bee,” after which the company gossipped over their cup of tea as we over ours after a card party.

The shoemaker came with work-bench, kit of tools, lap-stone and boot-trees to make the common boots and shoes for the family (strictly common sense, no French heels). A smell of leather and “black wax” pervaded the room where he hammered merrily away at the heavy shoe soles on the lap-stone, singing of “Captain Kidd as he sailed, as he sailed,” and telling stories of haunted houses. One blood-curdling tale of a ghost in a cellar, seizing the feet of everyone who went upstairs after dark, still lingers in my mind—uncomfortably, if the truth be told.

The schoolmaster came, a welcome guest, “boarding around,” a week for each scholar, and perhaps an extra week for the child of some poor widow needing kindly help.

There came homeless wanderers silently claiming lodging and food. Under the low sloping roof was the “Old Shack’s Room,” where a bed was always kept in readiness.

One whom we knew only as “Old Shiver-to-bits” had been “crossed in love” and his mind unbalanced. He never spoke, except to himself as he looked up to the sky, muttering, “The air is full of women, all shiver-de-bits.” Another would sleep only on the floor by the kitchen fire, wrapped in a blanket, cooking his own food for fear of being poisoned. He was an astrologer and philosopher. A woman came, who wore a quilted hood, never taken off and kept drawn over her face, which was always averted when she was spoken to. None of these unfortunates was ever turned away from the open doors of those hospitable homes.{71}

The Schaghticoke Indians, who came from the Reservation with squaws and hounds on their fishing expeditions to the “Eel Rocks” at the Great Falls, always expected the privilege of sleeping in the barn. Their desire for cider was greater than their desire for food. They willingly paid for both with splint baskets. Sometimes they became quarrelsome and noisy, and then the “riot act” was read to them, whip in hand.

The visits of the parson were prized events. An atmosphere of dignity and solemnity seemed to emanate from his black clothes, high stock and white cravat. A reverence now unknown was felt for him, and he was looked up to as the fountain head of theology and religion. The doctrines of election, predestination and eternal punishment were talked of, filling my childish mind with dire forebodings of literal fire and brimstone. After a “season of prayer,” and dinner (always an extra good one), he drove away, to my great relief.

Visits in those days did not mean calls. Company came from miles away to spend the day, often uninvited, but not unwelcome. To “drop in and take pot luck” was not, as to-day, a figure of speech, but literally true, for a “boiled dish” was the regulation dinner. Corned beef, salt pork, and vegetables were served together on a big pewter platter, with a boiled bag-pudding of Indian meal. This may not sound as well as Beef à la mode, entrées and desserts; but, when well cooked, it was by no means to be despised; and on it our ancestors lived; thrived, and were content, thankful and happy. Possibly it did give them bilious and depressed views of the hereafter!

Sunday began Saturday night, when the sun went down behind the hills. With the lengthening shadows came a seeming stillness, in advance of the long day of rest to follow. The Sunday breakfast was early, giving plenty of time for the long drive to “meeting.” Come sun, come rain, snow or wind, nothing but sickness excused absence from the two long sermons, morning and afternoon, with prayer meeting between. The day was kept to the very letter of the old Sabbatical law. Dinner was prepared Saturday, and eaten{72} cold. For Sunday reading, the leather-bound Family Bible and Psalm Book were brought out; also Baxter’s Saints’ Rest, Pilgrim’s Progress, and the Book of Martyrs. A walk beyond the garden and dooryard was not allowed, till after sundown; a drive, except in case of necessity, was never thought of. Only “York State folks” did that. A maiden aunt reproved me for cracking nuts on Sunday, giving me to read the Fourth Commandment, and Isaiah 58: 13-14, “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day,” etc. The remembrance of those well-kept, solemn Sundays still remains; and, to this day, my inherited New England conscience never fails to accuse any transgression of the Fourth Commandment. Howells says, “The devout spirit of the old Puritans remained to their descendants long after the stern creed that had embodied that spirit had passed away.”

Fast Day, too, was strictly kept in Puritan households, without reference to Good Friday. We might ramble in the woods for wild flowers, however, gather wintergreen, birch and sassafras for root beer, and have fritters and maple syrup for supper.

Thanksgiving was the great feast day of the whole year. Then, the children to the third and fourth generation came trooping back, filling the low-ceiled rooms under the old rooftree; and for them high festival was held.

For days before, great preparations were made. The “buttery” was full of good things. On the shelves were rows of mince, pumpkin and tart pies, the last named made from cider apple sauce,—a lost art,—and pans of doughnuts and crullers, flanked by the sage cheese, ready to be cut. Baking in the brick oven was an immense chicken pie, made with cream crust,—another lost art,—and an Indian pudding rich with suet—still another lost art.

The turkey, the choicest young gobbler of the flock, stuffed with savory dressing, also a pig with an ear of corn in its mouth, were roasting in a Dutch oven on the hearth, all these together filling the house with an odor of good cheer.{73}

Oscar, of the Waldorf-Astoria, can do mighty deeds in his line, but, with all his skill, cannot equal one of those real old-fashioned Thanksgiving dinners.

After all the kin had come and gone, there was abundant “skippin” for the worthy poor; yes, and for the unworthy, who might come to partake of the free bounty of the ever charitable.

The winters were long, shutting families indoors by themselves. Books and papers were few, but these early settlers kept abreast of the events of the day, and they had clear-cut, strong opinions, which they expressed with no uncertain sound. In the long evenings they gathered around the great fireplace, listening with never-failing interest to the oft-told tales of Indians, of Tory raids, and of hardships and suffering in camp and field.

If neighbors joined the circle, promptly as the tall clock in the corner struck nine they donned surtouts, mufflers and striped knit mittens, lighted the candle in the pierced tin lantern, and trudged away over the hills to their distant homes.

The back-log had by this time burned down to glowing coals, and from these the shining brass warming-pan was filled, to warm the bed of the great-grandmother, and the trundle-bed of the small great-granddaughter; the remaining coals being carefully covered to kindle the morning fire. “Early to bed and early to rise,” was a lived-up-to motto. Each one{74} of the household climbed the steep, draughty stairway, with flaring, flickering candles, which dimly lighted the cold bedrooms, with their frost-covered windowpanes, Hastily undressing, they hurried under the blankets, and, burrowing into the deep feather beds, were soon lost in sound sleep, such sleep as open air life, good digestion, and a clear conscience alone can give.

This life of the early days may seem dull and humdrum to us in the rush and whirl of ours. If it was sober by reason of struggles with the hard conditions and stern emergencies contended with, it was cheerful, kindly, dignified, full of high ideals, aims and works. Who shall say our life is better?

None of us would willingly go back to the “good old times,” to their seeming narrowness, inconveniences and discomforts; yet let us not forget to give all honor to these, our forbears, through whose piety, loyalty, courage and toil we have received so goodly a heritage.{75}

Contributed by Frederick Knapp[7]

Among the unchartered institutions of the New England town, none has had a greater influence than its general “sitting-down” place, where, by common consent, the leaders of all classes gathered. It was to the town what political and social clubs are to the city; it was an exchange place, a go-as-you-please Lyceum, a modern market-place, where the newspapers of the day were criticised, where affairs of Church and State had to be discussed, where politics and politicians were weighed, ticketed, and shelved for future reference, and where neighborhood events were gone over and approved or disapproved. War, domestic or foreign, and its generals, were subject to this trial by jury. The jury consisted of lawyers, doctors, bankers, merchants, farmers. Party-leaders of every shade of opinion—Whigs (later Republicans), Democrats, Abolitionists (brass-mounted, or not mounted at all), Prohibitionists, Independents—all met here on common ground. It was an intelligent, earnest crowd, always good-natured, whose “give and take” was without circumlocution or apology.

In no town in Litchfield County, I fancy, was there quite such a sitting-down place as the store of Mr. Levi S. Knapp on Bank Street in our own town of New Milford, which was conducted by him until his death at the age of ninety-three, and, afterward, by his son, Gerardus Knapp. The place was known to everybody in the towns around. During the Kansas-Nebraska troubles in the late “Fifties,” a witty neighbor christened it “Topeka Hall”; and the name was accepted as quite the proper thing. For a half century, “Topeka Hall” was an informal congress, where earnest men threshed out the{76} problems of the hour. As our late Governor Andrews said of it, “It was the place where the world was wound up.” Had it been honored by a historian, like the late George William Curtis, and a Harper’s Magazine for record, its quips and repartees might have furnished the “Easy Chair” with abundant and amusing copy; and its “wise saws and modern instances” would fairly have covered the history of the town. While its good stories made fun for the day, the place became, none the less, an educator of public opinion, and wielded an influence second to no institution in the town.

The remarkable longevity of the men who assembled there is worthy of special record, covering, as it does, the greater part of the nineteenth century. Below is a list of several of the prominent men, and their ages at death. It is a matter of regret that a more complete list cannot now be made:

And, living with us to-day, the only survivor of the older men, Mr. Alanson Canfield,[8] who will be one hundred years old on the eighth day of October, 1907.{78}

Contributed by Frederic Knapp

“I LIKE boys, the masters of the playground and of the street—boys, who have the same liberal ticket of admission to all shops, factories, armories, town-meetings, caucuses, mobs, target-shootings, as flies have; quite unsuspected, coming in as naturally as the janitor—known to have no money in their pockets, and themselves not suspecting the value of this poverty; putting nobody on his guard, but seeing the inside of the show—hearing all the asides. There are no secrets from them, they know everything that befalls in the fire company, the merits of every engine and every man at the brakes, and how to work it, and are swift to try their hand at every part; so, too, the merits of every locomotive on the rails, and will coax the engineer to let them ride with him and pull the handles when it goes to the engine-house. They are there only for fun, and not knowing that they are at school in the courthouse, or the cattle show, quite as much and more than they were, an hour ago, in the arithmetic class.”

Our Emerson was right: he knew boys. And at no place or time was the boy let loose to see and do, quite equal to the training days in the “Forties.” This was his day, when school didn’t count, when the schoolma’am or master wasn’t in it, the day long anticipated. When the morning broke he was no laggard, but the wise mother would not allow him to skip or hurry his breakfast, for she knew that when the day was done her laddie would be too fagged to eat. So, breakfast over, she ties the ribbon in his broad turn-down collar, and the father gives him two fippenny bits for all his own to spend as he pleases, and then they launch him forth with a “good time” for a blessing.

At the hill’s foot he meets his comrades, and, further down,{79} more Johns and Jims and Sams and Bills, and then the fun begins. On the village Green things begin to take on a warlike aspect and the boys catch on to every movement and miss nothing; while the girls—pshaw! they ain’t in it to-day—keep in yards or on church steps. The darkey boys, as happy as any, begin to bring on the warlike steeds, which are praised or jeered as appearances demand. Presently there is a drum-beat on the big bass drum, and every boy scampers for the band, which consists of a fifer, a snare-drummer, and Charles Ford to beat the big bass drum. And he just could beat it like Sam Hill! I tell you, if the Britishers could have heard those fellows play, they would have got right off from Bunker Hill, you bet! Sure! they all admit. Now, at the upper part of “The Green,” a soldier in uniform appears, and soon another. It’s nine o’clock, and the first parade begins at ten. Soon they come in, in squads, until “The Green” seems to be covered with the mounts, after which the soldiers dismount and take things easy. Our boys are in and out amongst the horses, scooting, howling, criticising, or jeering, when an officer rides up and gives an order. This means business, and the small boy “gits,” nor does he “stand upon the order of his going, but goes at once,” and the soldiers hold the field. This is only preliminary work, however, a shaking down of the files preparatory to the reception of the Colonel and his staff in the afternoon. This over, the troops are off duty.

The soldiers take their ease as they please, some on “The Green,” but more over at the tavern, where the boys flock in amongst them, until the “barkeep” shouts to them, “Get out; there’s too many of you!” It’s lunch time, too, for the boys, who begin to mass around Aunty Thatcher’s gingerbread stand feeling about their jackets for the small coin. Whether they have any or not—it’s all the same. The boys are democratic and divide, paying just like grown-ups for what they buy with the coin of the realm. No line drawn to-day between the boy with money and the boy without, nor is the color line apparent. This cuts no ice with our boys. Here’s Dandy Lazarus, Fred Wilson (afterward sold into slavery), Joe Bassett,{80} and Phil Jacklin. Black or white, the boys never think, or care; so long as the fippenny bits last, no boy goes hungry.

Then they stroll over and wash the gingerbread down with some of Jennings’ ginger pop, happy as lords. Simple pleasures these; but, as Josh Billings says, the boys then got more fun out of a quarter of a dollar than do boys now out of a five-dollar bill. The bugle sounds, and every boy is off, for now the Colonel takes command. This is the “crowner” of the day which no boy will miss. The troop is again in line, with sabres drawn to receive its Colonel. A shout from the boys, and down the line comes Colonel Starr with his staff. Hurrah! ain’t it great! It’s Napoleon, or Old Put, or Ethan Allen, or Lafayette over again! The Colonel is received and takes command. The small boy holds his breath, for now you’ll see how it’s done in battle. The Colonel gives his orders; by fours, by eights, they wheel, they turn, they go en masse—it’s wonderful how they do it! Golly gracious! At last they return to place, salute their Colonel, clang their sabres back into the scabbards, and are dismissed, and Training Day is over. Our lads return to their homes to relate to the fathers and mothers the excitements and perils of the day.

Well, my lads of the Forties, you had your fun; but, without knowing it, you learned much more than the pleasures of the day. You learned patriotism, you learned what it was to subject yourselves to obedience for the common good; what team work was, to work together, shoulder to shoulder, for the achievement of a common purpose. You learned self-control and discipline, which stood you in good stead later, on the real battlefield, and for which we, the living, honor you as you sleep in God’s acre, on each Memorial Day. And you also learned, without knowing it, what we older boys are slow to learn, that no man liveth to himself or dieth to himself, but that self-sacrifice, the greatest good to the greatest number, is the cornerstone of republics, the goal toward which the whole world is moving.

Lads of the “Forties,” I sing the “Sabre Song” to your honor, and may “Qui transtulit sustinet” be your sheet anchor and your motto!{81}

A Partial List Compiled from the Records by Minot S. Giddings

{84}

Contributed by Minot S. Giddings[9]

The town of New Milford originally was of much larger extent than it is at present. It contributed New Preston Society, on the northeast, to the town of Washington; Newbury Society, on the south, to the town of Brookfield; and “The Neck” (Bridgewater Society), in 1856, to form the town of Bridgewater. Notwithstanding this depletion, it is still one of the largest towns, territorially, in the State.

It is well watered and fertilized by the Housatonic River through the whole length of the town; by the Aspetuck River, East and West branches, from the north; by Still River and Rocky River from the south and west; and by other streams.

The hills and vales of its rolling landscape present to the eye a spectacle which equals, in some respects, the much-lauded scenery of the Old World.

The growth of the town has been slow but steady. Agriculture is the chief industry. The fertility of the soil and its adaptability to grazing purposes make the production of milk and butter profitable. There is a large creamery near the railroad in the south part of the village, where farmers of the surrounding country bring their milk, which is sent to the large cities. There is also a creamery at Gaylordsville, and there are two private establishments in the village to supply the local wants of the people.

Raising tobacco and preparing it for market are among the principal occupations of the inhabitants, the Housatonic Valley being celebrated for the fine quality and abundant growth of this plant.{85}

Vincent B. Sterling, who has been engaged with one of the large tobacco firms for many years, and is familiar with the tobacco business, has contributed the following regarding it:

“Like most great enterprises, the raising of tobacco in New Milford started from small beginnings. About the year 1848, the first tobacco in New Milford was raised by George McMahon, who was soon followed by Seeley Richmond and Elijah Hall. These three men were without doubt the pioneers of the tobacco-raising in the Housatonic Valley.

“From that time it has been cultivated with more or less success, until, to-day, it is the leading crop of the farmers of this and surrounding towns. The amount grown at present is about one thousand three hundred acres annually. The variety was Broad Leaf, up to 1883; since then, it has been almost exclusively Havana Seed.

“Probably the amount invested in tobacco in the early fifties did not exceed five thousand dollars per annum, while, at the present time, at least five hundred thousand dollars is used annually buying and packing it. No crop grown by the farmer requires such constant attention. From the sowing in April, through the transplantation in June, until the matured plant is harvested and placed in the curing sheds in August and September the greatest care must be exercised. ‘Eternal vigilance’ is the price of success, and a sharp hailstorm of a few minutes’ duration may destroy the results of the summer’s labor. During the early fall the plants are taken from the poles, the leaves are stripped from the stalks and packed in bundles, and the tobacco is then ready for the buyer.

“It is probable that tobacco was first assorted and packed in New Milford in 1848 by George McMahon, who was followed, a few years later, by Perry Hall. These men were the first packers in the Housatonic Valley. Space will not permit mention of the parties who have been engaged in the business since that time. At present, it is one of the leading industries of the town. There are twelve tobacco warehouses, employing through the packing season in the neighborhood of four hundred men.{86}

“Most of the capital needed to pack the tobacco is furnished by the large tobacco jobbing firms of New York and Chicago, who employ local men as buyers and packers.

“The crop as a whole is an important source of wealth to the farmers, as is evidenced by the many thrifty and beautiful homes of the successful tobacco growers scattered over the hills and valleys of New Milford.”

There are some notable manufacturing industries in this town.

The manufacture of wool hats here dates back nearly a century. Glover Sanford began making them in 1823, on a small scale, in Bridgewater Society. The business steadily increased and was carried on by himself and brothers till 1870, when the firm removed to Bridgeport, Conn.

Smith & Erwin opened a hat factory in Bridgewater in 1834, and removed to this village in 1855, occupying the long building now used as a store by the firm of Ackley, Hatch & Marsh.

Isaac Reynolds began hat manufacturing in Bridgewater in 1847, afterwards removing to Lanesville. Joseph Sanford, Lyman B. Stone, and Francis Callahan engaged in the business at different times. A company was organized there in 1853 under the name of the Union Manufacturing Company.

The modern hatting industry was established in this village in 1885. Some of the leading citizens donated to the firm of Bates & Green a piece of land on West Street Extension, where a building was erected, and the making of hats of fur was carried on in a moderate way until 1898, when a fire destroyed the plant. It was not rebuilt, but the business was reorganized as the New Milford Hat Company, which purchased a tract of land a short distance north of the village, near the mouth of the Aspetuck River, and erected there a large plant with modern improvements. The officers of the company are: Andrew G. Barnes, president; Seymour S. Green, secretary and treasurer, and William G. Green, superintendent. Under their able management the enterprise has been very successful. In 1906 the amount of business done was five hundred thousand dollars; the pay-roll amounted to one hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars, and there were two hundred and fifty employees.{87}

Merritt W. Hill and E. W. Hanke formed a partnership and began making hats, about 1890, in the Randolph Hill mill building on Mill Street. At the end of two or three years they removed to the upper part of Maltby Leach’s flour and feed store on Railroad Street, where they were incorporated as a stock company in 1894. This company was dissolved in a few years. Mr. Hill now has a jewelry store on Bank Street. Mr. Hanke went to Bridgeport, Conn., and is doing a flourishing hat business there.

The manufacturing of buttons from vegetable ivory was begun here in 1866 by Henry S. and Walter B. Bostwick, under the firm name of Bostwick Brothers. The ivory nuts were at that time brought to this country as ballast to ships and sold at a small price, so that the making of buttons from them was quite profitable. Bostwick Brothers erected a building on Railroad Street and carried on the business with great success till 1884, when the plant was damaged by fire. Soon after the firm dissolved. Walter B. Bostwick went to Bridgeport, Conn., where he engaged in business, became prominent and was elected mayor.

Buttons were made at the old hat shop, corner of Bridge and Railroad streets, for several years by Isaac B. Bristol, Robert H. Isbell, William Schoverling, Rufus Leavitt, and perhaps others. About 1878 the Noble Brothers purchased the business and carried it on for a few years. After that, various mechanical inventions were developed there. A few years ago, the building passed to the firm of Ackley, Hatch & Marsh, and is now used for a general store.

A button shop was erected in 1884 on West Street Extension, in which buttons were manufactured by William Schoverling, George W. Anthony, and David E. Soule till 1889, when it was burned to the ground. This put an end substantially to button making in the town, the cost of raw material having increased so much that it became unprofitable.

Making lounges was begun in a small way many years ago by De Watt Pepper. From this slight beginning, the business increased until it became necessary to establish a large plant to meet the growing demands of the trade. The Eastern Lounge{88} Company was first housed in William Schoverling’s brick building on Railroad Street, occupying, in addition to that, the old hat building on the corner of Bridge Street. In 1895 the business was removed to the commodious plant built by William Schoverling, on the site of the West Street Extension button factory, where it has been large and flourishing. The company is composed of De Watt Pepper, president, Mrs. William Schoverling, vice-president, and William P. Landon, secretary and treasurer.

Roswell and Sheldon Northrop began in 1832 the manufacture of machinery in a building, in Maryland District, near where the trout pond of Turney Soule now is, using the waterpower to carry on their business. In a few years they removed to the brook south, and erected a foundry and machine shop, enlarging the business and admitting a younger brother, David, to the firm. They made castings to order, cast-iron fences, and various kinds of machinery. Changes in the firm occurred from time to time, but it always continued in the Northrop family. In 1887 Jasper A. Northrop removed the business to this village on West Street Extension, erecting a foundry and machine shop. He invented and began making a heater for warming houses, which he named the “Unique.” This heater is made for both water and steam, and is sold extensively in this region.

Paper making from straw and rags has been carried on in this town for many years. Albert S. Hill and Edward Barton erected a paper mill in 1852, about a mile above Northville, on East Aspetuck River, where they made straw-board paper for hat and dry goods boxes. This business was continued until within a short time. The site had been used for a saw-mill more than seventy years before the paper mill was erected.

Just below this mill, on the river, was a grist mill, which was purchased in 1862 by William W. Wells and his brother Edwin S. They ground flour and feed there many years, and also constructed a saw-mill. This property has been used as a mill site for more than one hundred and twenty-five years.

Justus Miles came from Milford in 1742 and purchased the farm in Park Lane where the old house known as “Miles’

{89}

Tavern” still stands, and where, from an ancient sycamore, still hangs the old iron crane which bore the tavern sign a hundred years or more ago. He built the works known as the “Miles’ Grist Mill” in 1748 “by the north end of Henry Garlick’s home lot” on East Aspetuck River. Manufacturing of some kind has been carried on there ever since, paper having been made there for the last fifty years. A company organized as the “New Milford Paper Company” recently purchased the property, and is preparing to do a large business in making cardboard and paper.

The Merryall Plough Foundry was established soon after 1800 by Elijah Hall. He made castings for ploughs and invented the “Hall Plough,” which was very popular among farmers for many years. Mr. Hall was the first man in the State to use bituminous coal for forge work.

In 1768 Angus Nicholson purchased land on West Aspetuck River, and, some time after, built what was known for a long time as Nicholson’s Iron Works. He erected a square marble stone, which is now standing, on the corner of the road a short distance above Wellsville, with the following inscription: “To Wm. Nicholson’s Ironworks, 2 miles from New Milford, 85 miles from N. York, 1788.” On the east side of the stone, the words, “To Kent,” are inscribed, with an index hand pointing northward.

The manufacture of wool and linen into cloth was begun in the town at an early date. Mills for that purpose were erected on various water courses. Such a business was carried on near the mouth of Rocky River.

About 1820 William Roberts erected cloth works at Gaylordsville. A dam across the river was constructed in the early part of last century, and a saw-mill put into operation on the west side by Homer Gaylord, and on the east side a grist-mill, by Peter Gaylord.

George Wells and brother established cloth works at Wellsville, where they manufactured cloths quite extensively from wool and from wool mixed with cotton. The plant burned down eventually, and was not rebuilt. The property subsequently passed into the hands of Chauncey B. Marsh, who erected a{90} saw-mill and machine shop, which he carries on at the present time. Mr. Marsh is also engaged in large operations in wood and lumber.

As many of the hills about New Milford are of lime rock formation, the stone has been mined and burned for lime since an early date; but this business has been somewhat neglected in recent years. In 1893 Charles E. Griffin leased or purchased of Marshall Marsh a tract of land near Boardman’s Bridge, much of which was composed of lime rock. There he erected buildings and lime kilns, quarrying and burning lime successfully until 1897, when a fire destroyed the property. It was soon rebuilt and carried on until 1902, at which time the plant became incorporated in the New England Lime Company. Under that name, the business has greatly increased, and a large quantity of excellent lime is produced.

The mill site at Little Falls, about one mile below the village, has from early times been used as a grist mill. It was first known as Ruggles’ Mill, then, for fifty years, as Stillson’s Mill, and, after that, as Giddings’ Mill. The structure is substantially built of stone. In 1884, William D. Black joined with Levi P. Giddings in establishing an electric light plant there. Lewis F. Curtis joined the firm a few years later. The New Milford Electric Light Company was incorporated in 1893 by Lewis F. Curtis, Mrs. William D. Black, and Levi P. Giddings. A new dam of stone and concrete has been recently constructed across the river, which furnishes abundant water power. This company furnishes electricity for lighting the streets and public and private houses in the village. A few years ago, an acetylene gas plant was established, which is used to a limited extent.

For many years a company bought land and “rights” to use land on the Housatonic River from Falls Village southward as far as Newtown. The late Hon. Nicholas Staub was very active in this project. In 1898 a company was incorporated as the New Milford Power Company. This company built a high dam at Bull’s Bridge and constructed a canal for about a mile down the river. At the lower end of the canal, on the border of this town, they built a power-house and established on the river electric machinery about one hundred and{91}

ten feet below the level of the canal. Water is conveyed down this steep declivity to the wheels through a huge cylinder thirteen feet in diameter. The electricity generated here is carried on wires to Waterbury, Bristol, and other cities, and moves the trolley systems of those places.

A company was formed in 1888 for the purpose of making pottery. Buildings were erected a short distance east of Giddings’ Mill, which received their power from the mill by means of a long wire cable connected with a water-wheel. Quite a large business was carried on for a few years; then the plant passed into other hands for other purposes.

George B. Calhoun contributes the following concerning one of the large industries of the town, the Bridgeport Wood Finishing Company:

“This company was incorporated in Bridgeport, Conn., on October 7, 1876, with a silex manufacturing plant at Fort Ann, N. Y. In 1881 the company removed to its present location at Still River, and erected there a large silex, filler and paint, and japan and varnish plant. The principal portion of this plant was destroyed by fire in February, 1902, and was rebuilt with better facilities for meeting its business requirements. The products of the company are ground silex and feldspar, Wheeler’s Patent Wood Filler, Breinig’s Lithogen Silicate Paint, Breinig’s Water and Oil Stains, Japans, Varnishes, etc. The business of the company has steadily increased in volume from year to year, and its products now have a world-wide reputation, so that, at the present time, agencies have been established in all the principal cities of the United States and Canada, as well as in Porto Rico, South America, and the principal European cities. With an auxiliary silex manufacturing plant at Branchville, Conn., and branch offices and warehouses in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago, the company is well equipped to care for its largely increasing interests at home and abroad. The officers of the company are: David E. Breinig, president and general manager; Edward E. Porter, vice-president; George B. Calhoun, secretary; Henry S. Mygatt, treasurer.”

The cause of education has always received the earnest {92}attention of the citizens of New Milford, and the little brown schoolhouses, planted a few miles apart, in which the boys and girls received all their book learning, were landmarks in the New England colonies, as are to-day the more pretentious structures which have supplanted them. In the early days, the Bible was read every morning at the opening of school and religious instruction was given; it was also thought proper to invoke the blessing of the Great Ruler of the Universe.

New Milford was divided into twenty school districts, the schools of which taught the elementary branches. In later years, as the population increased and a greater desire for knowledge was manifested, private and select schools and academies were founded in different parts of the town; at Gaylordsville, at Northville, and in this village.

The most noted school, established in the early part of the last half century, was the Housatonic Institute, which was carried on many years by Benjamin J. Stone and Mary A., his wife. It was situated on the site now occupied by Memorial Hall. This school was known far and wide and received pupils from the surrounding towns. Many of the older people of the town received their education there.

A famous school for boys was the Adelphi Institute, which removed from Cornwall, Conn., to this town in 1860. Ambrose S. Rogers put up fine buildings on the sightly hillside southeast of the village, and conducted for many years an educational institution which took the form of a military school during the Civil War.

The Center School is graded. Its several departments range from the kindergarten to the high school, which last prepares students for college. It is estimated that there are about one thousand one hundred children in the town between the ages of four and sixteen years.

The first kindergarten school in the town was opened in 1873 by Mrs. Andrew Bristol, assisted by Miss Mary C. Wells. Miss Wells succeeded Mrs. Bristol in 1878, and removed the school to her own home on Elm Street. It is called “Sunny Nook.” She prepared herself for teaching at the New York Normal Ingleside School was established in 1892 by Mrs. William D. Black, a daughter of Hon. David C. Sanford and a native of New Milford.

It is a school for girls and has been patronized by prominent families in most of the states.

The literary standard is high. The best specialists are employed as teachers and the regular course exceeds the college entrance requirements. It is especially a finishing school and its Post-Graduate Department gives unusual opportunities for specializing in music, art, literature, languages, etc. Physical training is a popular feature. The number of pupils is limited to one hundred.

{93}

Kindergarten, at which she graduated in 1878. Miss Wells conducts her school with great success.

The Ingleside School for girls, which was established by Mrs. William D. Black, in 1892, and is the pride of the town, is described in another place.

There are six churches in the village—the First[10] Congregational, the parent church; St. John’s (Episcopal); the Methodist Episcopal; St. Francis Xavier (Roman Catholic); All Saints’ Memorial (Episcopal); and the Advent Christian. There is a Baptist church at Northville, a Methodist Episcopal church at Gaylordsville, and the old Quaker Meeting-house at Lanesville. Boardman and Merryall have each a chapel, in which Sunday schools and religious meetings are held weekly. A Sabbath school is conducted in Chestnut Land District.

The Memorial Hall and Library was erected in 1897 as a memorial to the soldiers and sailors of New Milford. Egbert Marsh contributed ten thousand dollars toward the building and gave part of the lot. He also gave the fund for supplying books to the library. Individuals contributed the balance of the cost of this memorial. The upper story is the headquarters of Upton Post, Grand Army of the Republic, which was organized December 20, 1882, with twenty-six charter members.

The first newspaper in this village was the New Milford Republican, established in 1845, by J. K. Averill, who carried it on for a year, then removed to Litchfield, Conn.

Messrs. Bailey and Donavan of Danbury, publishers of the Danbury News, began, in 1872, to publish the New Milford Journal, which was soon after sold to J. R. Johnson, and, later, to Marcus L. Delevan, who changed its name to the Housatonic Ray. The Gazette was started by Gee and Hale in 1877, and passed shortly after into the hands of Robert Erwin. Joshua A. Bolles and Franklyn Henry Giddings of Great Barrington, Mass., purchased the Ray in 1882 and, a little later, the Gazette, and merged the two papers into the New Milford Gazette. Mr. Giddings soon withdrew from the paper, not finding sufficient scope probably as an editor of a country newspaper{94} for his great ability. He has since attained world-wide fame as Professor of Sociology at Columbia University, having written several works on sociology and kindred subjects, some of which have been translated into many languages. Mr. Bolles continued to conduct the Gazette with much ability till he was stricken with a disease which suddenly caused his death, to the sorrow of the whole community. The paper then passed into the hands of Philip Wells, the present proprietor.

New Milford has had a brass band most of the time during the last half century. The original band was organized in 1855 by Earl Buckingham, who was its first leader. At the breaking out of the Civil War, the band engaged with the Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry. It was discharged by Act of Congress after having served about eleven months. In 1872, a reorganization was effected, with Winfred Soule as leader. Under different leaders, the band has continued, with occasional lapses, to the present time.

Roger Sherman Hall was built in 1875, at a cost of nearly fifty thousand dollars. It is of brick, and has a large hall on the second floor; a courtroom, probate, town offices, and a law library on the first floor; and a town courtroom and “lockup” in the basement. It stands on the site of William Sherman’s store, where Roger Sherman had his shoe shop. On the twenty-sixth of October, 1897, a bronze tablet to the memory of Roger Sherman, which had been placed on the north side of the front entrance of the building, was unveiled in the presence of a large company. The tablet was the gift of the Roger Sherman Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, organized May 15, 1893. Mrs. Sara T. Kinney, State Regent, D. A. R.; Senator George F. Hoar, a nephew of Roger Sherman; Senator Joseph R. Hawley; and Henry S. Sanford made addresses.

The first bank was started here in 1852 with one hundred thousand dollars capital, under the name of the Litchfield County Bank. It occupied a small brick building near the Boardman residence on Main Street. Frederick G. Chittenden was president. The first cashier was A. McAllister of Bridgeport, Conn. George W. Whittlesey succeeded Mr. McAllister{95}

as cashier, and Eli Mygatt and Henry W. Booth were successively presidents. In 1865 it was changed to a national bank and called the First National Bank of New Milford. The presidents were successively Daniel Marsh, Henry W. Booth, Andrew B. Mygatt, Isaac B. Bristol, and Henry S. Mygatt; the cashiers, John J. Conklin, Henry Ives, Henry S. Mygatt, and Everett J. Sturges. The present officers are: Henry S. Mygatt, president; Seymour S. Green, vice-president; and Everett J. Sturges, cashier. The clerks are Robert E. Murphy, Roland F. Mygatt, and Ray W. Leach.

The New Milford Savings Bank was organized in 1858. Eli Mygatt was president, Silas Erwin vice-president, and John S. Turrill secretary and treasurer. Mr. Turrill was succeeded by Charles Randall, who was succeeded, in turn, by his son, H. LeRoy Randall, the present incumbent. The present officers are: Turney Soule, president; Seymour S. Green, vice-president; H. LeRoy Randall, treasurer; Edwin J. Emmons, assistant treasurer. When Dr. James Hine was president, a fine building for the bank was built on Bank Street, which was destroyed in the great fire. On completion of the new United Bank Building, the bank was installed there.

The Agricultural Society of New Milford was formed in 1858, and, since that time, has held fairs and cattle shows each year—with a few exceptions. It now occupies a fine site at Conetia Park.

The New Milford Water Company was chartered in 1873, and organized with a board of directors. Charles H. Booth was chosen president, Charles H. Noble, secretary and treasurer, and Henry O. Warner, superintendent. A reservoir was located on the hill about one mile and a quarter northeast of the village, near the source of Cross Brook, which is fed by springs of pure water. Three other reservoirs have since been built of such capacity that the supply of water is ample for the public and private uses of the village. The present officers of the company are: Albert H. McMahon, president; Verton P. Staub, superintendent; and Harry S. Sanford, secretary and treasurer.

The first fire company, organized in 1830, was disbanded in{96} 1863, and succeeded by the Water Witch Engine Company No. 2. This company was succeeded, in its turn, in 1876, by the Water Witch Hose Company, No. 2, which now occupies a commodious building on Church Street.

New Milford has had several ruinous fires in its history. A fire swept through Bank Street in 1860, and another, a few years later; but the most destructive conflagration occurred on May 5, 1902, when the village was startled by the ringing of bells, the tooting of steam whistles, and the cry of “Fire!” Smoke and flames were seen issuing from the stables back of the New Milford House. The hose company hastening to the scene put forth great efforts, and for a time seemed to have obtained control; but the flames spread in all directions, to the alarm of the inhabitants, who were removing their goods to supposed places of security. The solid block on Bank Street was soon in flames. Then, in spite of the strenuous exertions of the firemen, the fire leaped across the street to the north side and ignited the roofs of brick buildings where merchandise had been placed for safety. The neighboring city of Danbury sent a gallant band of firemen with one of their best engines, with which they labored with great zeal to subdue the flames. With the aid of our own brave boys, this was finally accomplished, but not until the whole block and both sides of Bank Street were smoking ruins. Three hotels, two bank buildings, the Post Office building, and the largest mercantile establishments in the town, with their contents, were destroyed. The only building in the whole square that was saved intact was the fine mansion on the southeast corner of Main and Bridge streets, the residence of State Bank Commissioner Charles H. Noble and his brother, Town Clerk Russell B. Noble—worthy descendants of the pioneer settler of the town.

Did the brave merchants and men of affairs, who could do nothing while they saw their property go up in smoke, sit down in despair? Not they! They cleared away the rubbish before it was cold. They worked with a will to bring order out of chaos. They erected on “The Green” cheap wooden buildings, in which they gathered the remnants of their goods; and{97}

soon the beautiful square looked like a mushroom city in some mining district of the West. They named it “Shanty Town,” and for several months business was transacted there.

After the fire, streets were improved, and the system of drainage was extended. Stores were enlarged—some to double their former size—their business increased, and in less than two years no trace of the terrible catastrophe was visible.

The town was rebuilt of brick, iron, and stone, more beautiful and substantial than before. The three hotels, which had been of wood, were replaced by much larger buildings of brick. On the site of that famous hostelry, the New England Hotel, now stands the magnificent United Bank Building, one of the best equipped banking establishments in Western Connecticut. The National Bank occupies one side, and the Savings Bank the other side of this structure, while in the second story are handsome, commodious offices.

The railroad station was partly burned, but was soon renovated, and at that point in the town great changes are now in progress. A new freight depot is being erected and more tracks are being laid. In the near future, a new passenger station is to be built, and other improvements will be made.

The population of the town is increasing, being estimated at the present time as fifty-five hundred inhabitants. A Board of Trade was organized many years ago. A commercial club now occupies the fine rooms over the new Post Office. The Town Court was established in 1901, and Postmaster George H. Jackson was appointed the first judge. J. Edwin Hungerford succeeded him, and J. Butler Merwin is the present incumbent. The wooden bridges that spanned the Housatonic, and were at times swept away by floods, have given place to graceful iron structures, which are above the reach of high water. The town possesses an excellent telephone system. The facilities for supplying all the needs of the inhabitants are adequate. In a word, to quote Newell Calhoun, “Wealth, learning, and religion have their abiding places here, and have helped to make this village the resting place of the weary, and the working place of the industrious.”

{98}

Contributed by Russell B. Noble and Minot S. Giddings

1702. Indian Deed to the Proprietors of New Milford was given, signed by fourteen Indians. Consideration, Sixty pounds current money of the Colony of Connecticut, and twenty pounds in goods.

There were 109 proprietors who owned Rights.

The Committee were Robert Treat, Sen., Thomas Clarke, Sen., George Clarke, Joseph Treat, Joseph Peck, Jonathan Baldwin.

New Milford was called a Plantation till 1712.

1703. The Legislative title called the “Patent” was granted by the Grand Court to New Milford.

1706. Zachariah Ferriss came to New Milford and plowed a piece of land near Roger Sherman Hall—the first work done by a white man here.

1707. The names of the three earliest settlers of New Milford are: John Noble from Westfield, Mass., John Bostwick, from Stratford, Ct., John Noble, Jr., from Westfield, Mass.

1708. Daniel Bostwick was born; the first male child born in New Milford.

Dea. Samuel Brownson, Farmington, Ct., Major John Bostwick, Jr., Stratford, Ct., and Zachariah Ferriss, Stratford, Ct., settled in New Milford.

1709 or 1710. Roger Brownson, Farmington, Ct.; John Weller, Springfield, Mass, and Thomas Weller, Westfield, Mass., settled in New Milford.

1710. Sarah Ferriss was born; the first female child born in New Milford.

1711. Benjamin Bostwick, Stratford, Ct.; Isaiah Bartlet, and Samuel Prindle, Milford, Ct., settled in New Milford.{99}

1712. The General Assembly of Conn. granted the powers and privileges of a Township.

1712 and 1713. Samuel Beebe and John Weller were chosen grand jury and sworn.

Benoni Stebbins and Stephen Noble were chosen haywards, or field-drivers.

William Gaylord was chosen inspector and brander, and sworn.

John Bostwick, Sen., was chosen Collector.

Voted: that the inhabitants should pay Six pounds, fifteen shillings towards the minister’s board, Zachariah Ferriss, Jr., holder, Samuel Brownson, town treasurer.

1713. Ensign Wm. Gaylord came to New Milford, residing on the lot subsequently owned by Rev. Nathaniel Taylor.

The town voted to lay out a pastor’s lot and dig and stone up a well for Mr. Boardman, if he became the settled minister.

Voted: to grant a twenty-four shilling lot to Mr. Daniel Boardman, a preacher of the Gospel at the said place, to his heirs and assigns forever, upon a condition that he shall become their settled minister of the place, and continue so for the space of twenty years, or during his natural life and ability so to be.

Voted: that a dwelling house, forty feet in length and twenty-one in breadth and two stories high, and fourteen feet between joints, be forthwith built upon the land at New Milford, proposed to be granted to Mr. Boardman.

John Noble was chosen the first Town Clerk. Zachariah Ferriss, Samuel Brownson, and Samuel Hitchcock were chosen Selectmen. John Bostwick was chosen constable and sworn. Zachariah Ferriss, surveyor. John Noble, Sen., and John Bostwick, Jr., were chosen collectors to join with Mr. Jonathan Law to collect 12 shilling tax for the year.

1714. Main Street, Bridge Street, Elm Street and Bennitt Street laid out.

Voted: that there shall be five shillings and sixpence allowed by the week for the minister’s board for the time to come.{100}

Voted: that there shall be six shillings cash allowed by the town to David Noble, in case he beat the drum the year coming upon all public meetings.

John Noble died Aug. 17. He was the first adult to be buried in the graveyard.

1715. In view of the need of a grist mill in the town, the proprietors, in a meeting held at Milford, Feb. 24, 1715, made this arrangement. Voted: that Ens. Samuel Clark, Sergt. Samuel Beard, and Samuel Brownson, are chosen a committee to agree with some person to build a mill on some part of Still river or elsewhere at his own charge.

1716. John Griswold came from Wethersfield and built a mill at what is now Lanesville.

The “First Church of Christ” was organized by Council on the day of the ordination of Mr. Boardman, and his call and acceptance of the ministry. Religious meetings were held in the house built by Mr. John Reed until a new meeting house was built.

The burying place laid out—Center Cemetery.

1718. Highway laid out from Danbury road to Mill at Lanesville.

Highway laid out across Indian Field from river on west side.

Highway laid out from Park Lane eastward.

1719. Highway from Main Street to Great Falls on east side river laid out 30 rods wide.

1722. June 12th, the New Milford North Purchase was made. It was taken from Waramaug’s reserve.

The first highway on west side of river to New Fairfield line through Gaylordsville laid out.

Highway laid out on west side of Great River from Rocky River by marked trees to Winnisink Brook.

Highway laid out northward.

1723. Ensign Wm. Gaylord went to Gaylordsville and built a log cabin.

1724-5. Capt. John Warner was the first settler at the “South Farm” (lower part of New Milford).{101}

1728. Ensign Wm. Gaylord erected a frame house which is still standing.

The first Grand List made in New Milford.

1730. John Noble, 2d, one of the first three settlers in New Milford, sold his house and lot in the village Nov. 6, to William Gillett of Milford, and soon after settled at Gallows Hill, New Milford plains, and resided there during his life. He was the first permanent settler below Gallows Hill.

1733. Capt. Joseph Ruggles was the third or fourth settler at the Iron Works (Brookfield).

1734. A burying place laid out in South Farms, New Milford, called Gallows Hill, lying on the country road to Danbury.

1736. “Capt. Stephen Noble, Dea. John Bostwick, Samuel Canfield, Sergt. Nathaniel Bostwick, and Joseph Ferriss were chosen a committee to order all the prudentials in building a bridge over the Great River in said New Milford at the place the town hath agreed upon, &c.”

This was a free bridge and was partly carried away by the floods in about three years, when a toll bridge was erected in its place.

Rev. Daniel Boardman was granted the privileges of the bridge free of cost.

1737. The Great Bridge across the Housatonic river was built in 1737—the first to be built from its source to its mouth.

1741. The first Quaker Meeting House built in or about this year, on Danbury road west side of river, nearly opposite Little Falls.

1743. Roger Sherman came to New Milford from Newton, Mass.

Feb. 6. “Voted: that Mr. Roger Sherman shall pass and repass over the bridge and his family; he paying ten shillings.”

December. “Voted: that the Indian natives shall pass and repass over the bridge toll-free.”

December. “Voted: that all persons that shall pass or repass on the Sabbath or Lord’s Day between sunrise and sunset, in order to attend the public Worship of God in a{102} lawful congregation in New Milford, shall pass free from payment over the great bridge in said town for the coming year.”

1744. Until 1744 there was but one military company in the Town. The officers were as follows: Capt. Stephen Noble (served 20 years), Lieut. John Bostwick, Ensign Wm. Gaylord, Capt. Theophilus Baldwin, Lieut. Joseph Bostwick, Ensign Samuel Canfield.

1746. The first Episcopal Church was established in New Milford about this time.

1746. Roger Sherman settled with his brother William on the west side of Winnisink brook, the place called New Dilloway.

1754. Rev. Solomon Palmer, the first resident Episcopal clergyman, came to New Milford.

Voted: “that the meeting-house—— shall be erected in the town street, east from Joseph Northrop’s dwelling house and west from Samuel Comstock’s well, where there is a heap of stones erected.”

Voted: “that the inhabitants of this Society will raise the meeting-house by free will offering.”

Voted: “that the committee shall provide what liquors they shall think necessary to be used at the raising of the meeting-house at the cost of the Society.”

The second Congregational meeting-house was built.

The Newbury Society was incorporated.

1755. The bridge was carried away by flood, and a new bridge built by the taxpayers of the town, and the Assembly granted the privilege of taking toll of all persons except taxpayers.

Ezekiel Payne settled on the east side of the Housatonic, at Gaylords Ville.

Lazarus Ruggles settled at Lanesville and erected the Iron Works.

1756. “Voted: that the old meeting-house which belongs to this Society shall be disposed of as follows, viz.: three-quarters of the body seats and two pews shall be given to the Church of England, and the remainder of the body seats to the Quakers in this Society, and the pulpit to those of Newbury (Brookfield),{103}

and the gallery seats to those of New Preston Society which belong to New Milford, and the remainder to be disposed of and the avails of it improved toward the new meeting-house in this Society.”

1757. Mary Roberts gave her negro slave, Dan, his freedom upon his paying her £3, 2s. 5d. annually during his life.

The church was organized in Newbury Society Sept. 28th.

Mr. Thomas Brooks was ordained the first minister.

1758. Capt. Joseph Canfield raised a company and served with them under Col. David Wooster. They marched to Albany in May.

1760. Gaylordsville School District laid out.

Upper Merryall burying ground laid out.

1761. The Separatists or Strict Congregationalists built a house of worship near the Center Cemetery.

An effort made to clear the Housatonic River for navigation. A committee appointed and liberty granted to raise 300 pounds money by lottery.

1766. The bridge was carried away and rebuilt, and in three years a part of it went off again. It was again repaired but did not remain a year.

1769. School District organized. Jared Lane introduced the Lombardy poplar tree into New Milford the latter part of the century.

1770. Voted: “that the town relinquish all their right to any part of the bridge to the proprietors, who shall rebuild the same in any place between Little Falls and Wannipee Island.”

1771. School District on east side of the river laid out.

1774. Partridge Thatcher liberated his slave Sibyl on her marrying Amos Lewis, a negro man.

1775. Capt. Isaac Bostwick was sent with a company of sixty-five officers and men from New Milford to Boston in the autumn and winter of 1775, and remained there during January and February, 1776. They were in Colonel Webb’s Regiment.

1776. Josiah Starr served in the Revolution. In May, 1776, he was appointed Captain. In June he was appointed Lieutenant{104} Colonel, Commission dated January 9th, 1777, signed by John Hancock. He was commissioned as Colonel, 1780. Died Oct. 15, 1813.

1776. Capt. Couch’s Company, in Col. Andrew Ward’s Regiment, containing seventy-six officers and men, were sent to New York. The company was in the service two months and twenty-three days.

At an annual meeting of the inhabitants of the town of New Milford holden on the 9th day of December, 1776, the committee of Inspection and Correspondence appointed were: Mr. Samuel Comstock, Mr. Israel Baldwin, Capt. Abram Camp, Daniel Everitt, Esq., Capt. James Terrill, Mr. John Comstock, Mr. George Smith, Doct. Jonah Todd, Joseph Ruggles, Esq., Col. Bushnell Bostwick, Samuel Bostwick, Esq., Col. Samuel Canfield, William Cogswell, Esq., Abel Hine, Esq., Mr. Amos Northrop, Capt. Sherman Boardman, Mr. Reuben Booth, Mr. Asahel Noble, Dea. Benjamin Gaylord, Mr. Oliver Warner, Mr. Caleb Bennett, Mr. Samuel Warner, Dea. Ebenezer Hotchkiss.

1777. Public town meeting held Mar. 10. Voted: “That the regulations contained in the late Acts of Assembly respecting the laying of embargoes and the stating of prices now in force are good and wholesome, and such ought to be strictly adhered to and that it is the indefeasible duty of all informing and executive officers to prosecute in the most effectual manner all violations of said regulations; and that it is the duty of the inhabitants of this town to give all the assistance in their power to such officers in the discharge of their aforesaid duty.”

Mar. 31. “Voted, that a committee be appointed according to the advice of His Honr., the Governor, &c., for the purpose of furnishing the quota of soldiers in the Continental service for said New Milford.

“Lt. Zadock Noble, Capt. Joseph Ruggles, Jr., Jeremiah Canfield, Mr. Ithiel Stone, Dea. Israel Baldwin, Mr. Thomas Brownson, and Mr. Zachariah Sanford, were chosen the committee.{105}

“Voted, that the town of New Milford will give twelve pounds lawful money, bounty, for the first year’s service in addition to all encouragement already given to such inhabitants of this town as shall enlist into the Continental service for three years, or during the present war, within ten days from this time, including those who belong to this town who have already enlisted, subducting only their wages from the time they enlisted to this day, and such private donations as they have received.

“That for the second and third years, said soldiers who shall so enlist shall have six pounds lawful money pr. year to be paid out of the town treasury.”

Sept. 30. “Capt. Sherman Boardman, Mr. Samuel Warner, Mr. Simeon Baldwin, Capt. Benjamin Brownson, Capt. Ebenezer Couch, Mr. Ithiel Stone, Dea. Ebenezer Hotchkiss shall be a committee to procure clothing for the soldiers in the Continental service.”

1778. A meeting held in January was recorded as follows:

“1st. The articles of Confederacy as proposed by Congress stiled, The United States of North America, was read in said meeting and taken into serious consideration by Articles separately, and in succession, and no objection made to said Articles, except some part of ye 5th Article, which respects the mode of choosing our Delegates in Congress.

“Voted: that the Freemen will always hold the Prerogative and sole power choosing our Delegates in Congress by vote.

“2d. Said Articles of Confederacy was approved as good, and adopted in full by the members of sd. meeting without one dissenting voice.”

The Revolutionary Army under General McDougall encamped at Dea. Benjamin Gaylord’s. Some time during the War Generals Washington and Lafayette were said to be guests of Dea. Benjamin Gaylord.

Army under General McDougall was encamped on Second Hill.

The committee of inspection and correspondence, which was a kind of home police of patriotism, were:{106}

Capt. Elizur Warner, Lt. Isaac De Forest, Lt. Benjamin Seelye, Capt. Reuben Bostwick, Capt. Paul Yates, Mr. Daniel Everett, Capt. James Terrill, Mr. Amos Northrop, Mr. John Porter, Mr. Nathan Gaylord, Mr. Samuel Merwin, Jr.

The committee to procure supplies for the soldiers in the Continental army were: Capt. James Terrill, Mr. Reuben Booth, Lt. David Smith, Mr. Simeon Baldwin, Capt. Benjamin Brownson.

To provide clothing for the soldiers in the Continental army were: Ens. Jeremiah Canfield, Mr. Ebenezer Hotchkiss, Mr. Simeon Baldwin, Mr. Asahel Noble.

1779. Received, Litchfield, 28th Sept. 1779, of the First Society of New Milford by the hands of Col. Samuel Canfield, ninety-four pounds, sixteen shillings money, which was contributed by said Society for the relief of the suffering and distressed inhabitants of the towns of New Haven, Fairfield and Norwalk, £94-16.

Per Reuben Smith, County Treasurer.

Nathan Dayton purchased of Enos Camp a piece of land lying “southeast of the lime kiln,” and on it his father and brother Abraham Dayton built a Saw Mill. Col. Josiah Starr and Abel Hine owned a grist-mill there at that time.

1780. The town voted that every soldier who shall voluntarily enlist to serve in the Continental Battalions for the space of six months, or until sooner discharged shall be paid four bushels of wheat or an equivalent in money in addition to the bounty already given by the State. They also voted to give three bushels of wheat or its equivalent in money to all militia men who might be called to serve one month, in addition to all other pay, and when they should serve more than a month, then three bushels of wheat for every month.

Two months later the town offered ten bushels of wheat per month for every soldier who should enlist for four months.

It was voted that none of the persons who had voluntarily gone over and joined the enemy, shall be suffered to abide and continue in the town during the present situation of affairs.{107}

March 13. A committee of inspection on provisions, agreeable to a late act of Assembly, was chosen as follows: Mr. Simeon Baldwin, Capt. Noble Hine, Mr. Daniel Everitt, Capt. Paul Yates, Mr. Ebenezer Hotchkiss, Mr. George Smith, Capt. Sherman Boardman, Mr. Ithiel Stone, Mr. Thomas Lewis, Capt. Benjamin Brownson, Capt. Reuben Bostwick, Mr. Israel Baldwin, Joseph Hartwell, Doct. Reuben Warner, Benjamin Gaylord, Ebenezer Gaylord, Asahel Noble, Capt. Elizur Warner, Israel Camp, Lemuel Warner, Capt. Joseph Ruggles, Dea. Abram Camp, Ephraim Buck, Samuel Merwin, Martin Warner, Uri Jackson, Robert Bostwick, Nehemiah Hawley.

In June, upon the call from Congress for more soldiers, the town voted that “every soldier who shall voluntarily enlist to serve in the Continental Battalions for the space of six months, or until the first day of January next (unless sooner discharged) shall be paid out of the town treasury of said New Milford by the first day of January for every month they are in said service, four bushels of wheat, or an equivalent thereto in money in addition to the bounty and encouragement already given by the State.”

The first burial in the Northville burying ground was that of Abraham Dayton.

Partridge Thatcher liberated his slaves Jacob and Dianah gratis.

Capt. Sherman Boardman liberated his negro slave Nehemiah.

John Treat liberated his negro man named Mingo.

1782. Jemima Wilkinson came to New Milford, held meetings, taught peculiar doctrines and gained some adherents. She was considered an impostor.

1788. The Society of Newbury was organized into a town and named Brookfield in honor of Rev. Thomas Brooks. The town was formed of portions of the towns of New Milford, Newtown, and Danbury. New Milford, Newbury Society contributed nearly one-half of the territory.{108}

The Baptists built a small church in the “Neck,” now Bridgewater.

Nicholas Wanzer deeded land to a Society of People called Quakers, it being the same on which the building known as the Quaker Meeting-house now stands.

1789. Town and School house built north of the cross highway at north end of Main street.

1790. Prof. Nehemiah Strong had a private school for boys about this date.

Rev. Stanley Griswold was ordained by the Consociation of Litchfield Co. Colleague pastor with Rev. Nathaniel Taylor of the First Church of New Milford.

A troop of horse formed, belonging to New Milford, Woodbury, and Litchfield; Captains belonging to the town, were William Taylor, Stephen Chittenden, Jr. & Hermen Canfield.

1792. Bridge built at Little Falls.

A company of Light Infantry was formed, of which the Captains have been Daniel Boardman, Nicholas S. Masters, Briggs Ingersoll, Abraham Hayes.

1793. New Milford divided into two military divisions, line running just north of the Levi S. Knapp residence. The new South Company was organized in that year and Nathan Bostwick was made Captain and James Hine, Lieutenant.

A company of militia was formed belonging to the “Neck” (now Bridgewater).

The second Episcopal Church begun in 1765 was finished and consecrated this year.

1794. June 19. A destructive tornado crossed New Milford; blew over houses, barns, apple trees, destroyed timber, killed a child of Mr. Cole; some others wounded, much grain destroyed.

New bridge across Great River in the Neck.

1796. Watering place for horses and cattle established on Danbury road between Israel Camp’s and Ephraim Buck’s.

The Union Circulating Library established.

1797. Col. Samuel Canfield’s name stands at the head of the tax list of the town. He was the son of Samuel Canfield,{109} Esq., who was the first Canfield in New Milford and one of the Judges of the General Court.

At the annual town meeting, Dec. 11, question put, whether this meeting will remit and give in the fines which are laid upon a certain number of persons for laboring upon the Sabbath at harvest work the year past, and the town treasurer be directed to give up the obligations for sd. fines which are lodged in his hands. Voted in the negative.

1800. Up to this date there had been eight military field officers in the town, viz.: Major John Bostwick, Col. Bushnell Bostwick, Col. Samuel Canfield, Col. Josiah Starr (in ye Army), Col. Elisha Bostwick, Maj. Daniel Boardman, Maj. Reuben Warner, Maj. William Taylor.

The Merryall Plough Foundry established by Elijah Hall, the first foundry established in Conn., and the first that used Blacksmith coal (bituminous). Mr. Hall went about the country disposing of his own wares and, one trip, he collected a bushel basket of coppers in payment.

Perry Smith and William Terrill established a store near Upper Merryall.

1802. After stages began to run for carrying the mail, the bridge was carried away, and the Stage Coach Company sued the town for damages in failing to make a crossing. The town employed Homer Boardman to build a boat to be run across by a large rope to meet the emergency, and the next Spring they applied to the Assembly for the privilege of a toll-bridge.

1803 or 1804. Bridge built at Gaylordsville.

1807. A dam was built across the river. Saw mill erected and Grist mill at Gaylordsville.

Peter Gaylord built a store on the east side of the river about this time.

1809. Church organized in Bridgewater. Meeting-house begun to be built by lottery instituted 1807.

1810. St. Mark’s Episcopal Church organized in Bridgewater.

1812. A fever epidemic occurred that carried off by death fifty-eight persons in two and a half months.{110}

1814. St. Peter’s Lodge No. 21, F. A. M. leased land of Eli Starr to build Lodge on.

1814. Baptists at Northville organized a Church known as the New Milford Baptist Church. Eleazer Beecher was licensed to preach the Gospel to them.

1816. Upon the petition of sundry inhabitants in the vicinity of what is called Gaylord’s Bridge praying a grant of money from the town to rebuild the bridge upon Ousatonic River at Gaylords Falls, it was put to vote that a sum of $400 be granted which was negative; another vote was then put for a sum of $300 which was also voted in the negative.

1818. The New Milford and Sherman Turnpike Company incorporated.

1819. Wm. Roberts settled in Gaylordsville, erected clothing works.

1822. A convention of delegates met to consider the advisability of building “The Housatonic Valley Canal.” Funds were raised and an estimate of the expense of construction made. The enterprise failed.

1823. A Baptist meeting-house erected near Lower Merryall burying place.

Glover Sanford began making hats in Bridgewater.

1824. The first Methodist Church organized by Rev. C. Silliman.

1826. Peter Gaylord appointed first Postmaster, Gaylordsville.

Union Church building erected, Gaylordsville.

The trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Northville bought of Henry Benson a piece of land for erecting a house of worship.

1827. Sylvanus Merwin erected a store and hotel on west side.

1828-9, A Methodist meeting-house was built at the Corners at the old John Warner place in Lanesville.

1830. Anan Hine, James S. Clark, and George Taylor, and such other persons as they shall associate with them, not exceeding twenty in the whole, be and they and their successors{111}

are made a corporation by the name of “The New Milford Fire Company.”

A Baptist Church was organized.

1832. Roswell and Sheldon Northrop started Machinery business and Foundry in Maryland District, now carried on by Jasper A. Northrop in this village.

1833. Congregational Church erected.

1835. New Milford Toll Bridge Company incorporated with liberty to erect and maintain two toll bridges, one at the present in the village, the other at the great falls.

1836. A special town meeting held February 29, to take into consideration the propriety of making an appropriation not exceeding $500 to defray the expense of surveying a route or routes for a railroad to pass through the town. It was voted that the Treasurer be authorized to borrow on the credit of the town a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars to be devoted to the accomplishment of this object.

1837. A special town meeting, May 12, voted to grant the request of New Milford and Sherman Turnpike Company upon the consideration that said company or some other company for that purpose to be formed shall build and keep in repair a toll bridge at the place commonly called Boardman’s Bridge.

1840. The Housatonic Railroad was opened from New Milford to Bridgeport. Daniel Marsh was the first station agent.

Highway from near railroad station to village of Northville, laid out by commissioners, commencing at land of David S. Boardman.

1841. The New Milford Washingtonian Temperance Benevolent Society organized. Within three years 900 names were recorded as members.

1842. Town appropriated one hundred dollars to assist in paving water courses in village provided two hundred and fifty dollars be expended by the inhabitants of said village.

1843. Erected the Housatonic R. R. station which was called Merwinsville.{112}

The first elm trees in the park were set by Solomon E. Bostwick in front of his residence.

Doct. George Taylor and Albert N. Baldwin appointed a committee to purchase a farm for the town.

1845. The New Milford Republican, the first newspaper in the village, was established by J. K. Averill.

1846-50. “The Housatonic Institute” erected.

1847. Highway laid out now called Bank street.

1849. Bridgewater and Brookfield Toll Bridge Company, incorporated.

1850. The present Methodist Episcopal Church erected.

1852. Bank of Litchfield County organized.

Albert S. Hill erected a paper mill across the road from the Wells Grist Mill.

Mr. and Mrs. B. J. Stone took charge of “The Housatonic Institute.”

1854. The first week in May occurred a great freshet that carried away the dam at Gaylordsville; also the Boardman’s bridge and the town bridge.

1855. New Milford Brass Band organized, Earl Buckingham leader.

1856. Bridgewater set off from New Milford as a separate town.

1858. The New Milford Savings Bank organized.

The Housatonic Agricultural Society formed.

1860. The Adelphic Institute established by Ambrose S. Rogers, A. M.

In Nov., fire destroyed business portion on south side of Bank St. and east side of R. R. St., to the property now owned by Ackley, Hatch & Marsh.

1861. The town voted to pay for the support of the wife, children, father or mother of those persons who enlisted, such sums as the Selectmen deemed necessary.

St. Francis Xavier’s Church erected.

1862. The town voted a bounty of $200 for each resident who should enlist, for a certain time.

William Wells and Edwin S. Wells, sons of Philip Wells,{113}

purchased the grist-mill on the Aspetuck River a mile above Northville.

1863. The town offered $300 to each person who might be drafted.

Water Witch Engine Company organized.

1864. The town offered a bounty of $500 for each soldier accredited to the town.

The town authorized the issue of bonds to the amount of $21,000 to meet war expenses.

1865. Bank of Litchfield County changed to First National Bank of New Milford.

1870. The Glover Sanford firm removed to Bridgeport, Conn. Ousatonic Chapter, No. 33, R. A. M. organized.

1872. The Housatonic Ray (newspaper) established.

1873. Kindergarten school established by Mrs. Andrew Bristol, Miss Mary C. Wells, assistant.

The New Milford Water Company chartered, authorized capital $25,000.

1875. Roger Sherman Hall erected.

1877. The Good Shepherd’s Lodge, No. 65, I. O. O. F., instituted.

The first New Milford Savings Bank building erected on north side of Bank St.

The New Milford Gazette established.

1878. Miss Wells established kindergarten school in her home in Jan.

1882. Upton Post, G. A. R., organized Dec. 20th, with 26 charter members.

St. John’s Church erected.

All Saints Memorial Church erected.

1884. Sunday School established in Merryall.

1886. Board of Trade established.

1887. New Milford made a Shire town.

Iron bridge built at Boardman.

1888. The great blizzard, March 13.

1889. The New Milford Button factory burned.

1890. The new hose house built.{114}

Union Chapel built, Lower Merryall.

1893. Roger Sherman Chapter, D. A. R., organized.

1893. Congregational Church remodeled at a cost of $18,300.

The New Milford Electric Light Company incorporated.

1897. Public Library and Memorial Hall erected on the site of Housatonic Institute, it being the same site that Eli Starr leased to St. Peter’s Lodge No. 21, F. & A. M., to build lodge on in 1814.

Lime Works at Boardman destroyed by fire.

A bronze tablet to the memory of Roger Sherman was placed on Roger Sherman Hall by Daughters of the American Revolution.

1900. Great Fireman’s parade, 1,300 men in line.

1901. A Town Court established. George H. Jackson, appointed first Judge.

1902. Great fire destroyed the business portion of the village, May 5.

President Roosevelt stopped at the station and made a speech.

The Boardman Sunday School Society organized.

Bridgeport Wood Finishing Company plant burned.

1903. The New Milford Power Company plant established at Gaylordsville.{115}

AS REFERRED TO IN THE COLONIAL DOCUMENTS OF CONNECTICUT

Contributed by Hon. Ebenezer J. Hill of Norwalk, Conn.

October, 1745, Roger Sherman appointed to be surveyor for the County of New Haven.

Roger Sherman, surveyor for the County of New Haven, appointed in October, 1750, to lay out lands for certain parties from ungranted lands of the Colony.

May, 1751, appointed to layout certain lands for Williams and Crary.

May, 1751, appointed as one party to view and appraise certain lands in the town of Kent.

May, 1752, made Surveyor for Litchfield County, instead of New Haven.

May, 1752, paid £82, 9s. 10d., in full for his bill for laying out land and highways on the west side of Ousatonick River. As one of a Committee appointed previous October.

October, 1753, Roger Sherman, Surveyor for Litchfield County, ordered to run the Northwest line of town of Litchfield.

October, 1754, mentioned as the fifth Selectman of New Milford.

May, 1756, costs of £2, 17s. 4d., assessed against him and other proprietors of common land in New Milford in certain case.

May, 1755, Representative in Assembly for New Milford, 2d.

August, 1755, Representative in Assembly for New Milford, 2d.

October, 1755, Representative in Assembly for New Milford, 1st.{116}

January, 1756, Representative in Assembly for New Milford, 1st.

February, 1756, Representative in Assembly for New Milford, 1st.

March, 1756, Representative in Assembly for New Milford, 1st.

February, 1756, ordered to eject one Macantire from certain public land.

October, 1756, ordered to inspect certain complaints in regard to land and report. Report made May, 1757.

May, 1755, Appointed Justice of Peace for Litchfield Co.

May, 1756, Appointed Justice of Peace for Litchfield Co.

October, 1757, Appointed to make deeds for certain public lands.

March, 1758, With others incorporated as Toll Bridge Company to own and maintain toll bridge over Ousatonick River in New Milford.

May, 1758, Representative for New Milford, 1st.

October, 1758, Representative for New Milford, 1st.

February, 1759, Representative for New Milford, 1st.

March, 1759, Representative for New Milford, 1st.

May, 1759, Representative for New Milford, 1st.

October, 1759, Representative for New Milford, 1st.

March, 1760, Representative for New Milford, 1st.

May, 1760, Representative for New Milford, 1st.

October, 1760, Representative for New Milford, 1st.

March, 1761, Representative for New Milford, 1st.

May, 1761, Representative for New Milford, 1st.

May, 1757, 1758, 1759, 1760, and 1761, Justice of Peace, Litchfield County.

October, 1760, 1761, 1762, 1763, 1764, 1765, 1766, and 1767, in Nomination for Governor.

October, 1762, Guardian of two Carpenter children authorized to sell land.

October, 1765, Appointed as Committee to investigate certain legal questions. Report made October, 1766.

October, 1764, Representative for New Haven, 1st.{117}

May, 1765, Representative for New Haven, 1st.

October, 1765, Representative for New Haven, 1st.

May, 1766, Representative for New Haven, 1st.

May, 1766 and 1767, Chosen Assistant.

May, 1765, Justice of Peace for New Haven County.

October, 1765, Justice of Peace for New Haven County.

May, 1766, Justice of Peace for New Haven County.

May, 1766 and 1767, Judge of the Superior Court; also, May, 1773, 1774, 1775, 1776, 1777, 1778, & 1779.

May, 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, 1773, 1774, 1775, 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, Chosen Assistant.

Nominated for Governor, 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, 1773, 1774, 1775, 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, 1780.

October, 1768, Appointed to make index of laws.

May, 1769, Appointed to layout highway from New Haven to Windham. Report accepted May, 1770.

May, 1771, Appointed to layout highway, New Haven to East Hadam.

October, 1771, Appointed to purchase some elegant plate to present to Richard Jackson, Colonial Agent. Afterwards bought in England on account of duty if bought here.

October, 1771, Assessed in the construction of addition of Meeting-house.

October, 1772, One of joint Committee on Collegiate School.

January, 1774, One of Committee to adjust certain land questions near the Delaware and Susquehannah Rivers.

October, 1773, One of Committee to consider Earl of Dartmouth’s letter.

April, 1775, Wrote and offered resolution appointing Committee to present letter of Gov. Trumbull to Gen. Gage, demanding explanation of attack of 19th of April and his future plans.

August 3, 1774, Chosen Representative in Congress.

February 27, 1775, Purchased 90 kegs of powder, 3,500 lbs. lead, 30,500 flints for the Colony.

October, 1775, Representative in Congress.{118}

October, 1776, Committee to visit Army and grade the officers appointed by the Assembly.

May, 1777, Named as member of the Committee of Safety.

October, 1776 and 1777, Representative in Congress, 1st man.

July, 1777, One of a Committee to confer with Mass., New Hampshire, R. I., and New York on the state of the currency.

January, 1778, Committee to inquire into conduct of foreign traders in this State.

January, 1778, Commissioner to New Haven Convention. Chairman of Committee to draw report of Convention.

May, 1778 and 1779, Council of Safety.

October, 1778, Representative in Congress.

January, 1780, Representative in Congress.

February, 1780, Delegate to Philadelphia Convention to regulate prices.

Representative in Congress 1789 and 1791. Senator 1791 to 1793. Mayor of New Haven.{119}

{121}

Contributed by Charles N. Hall

In April, 1906, a call was issued in the columns of the New Milford Gazette, asking all citizens to meet at Mygatt’s Hall, Bank Street, on Monday evening, April 30, to consider the project of celebrating the town’s two hundredth anniversary.

About forty citizens responded to the appeal and met at the appointed time and place.

The meeting was called to order by Mr. William G. Green, and Mr. Henry S. Mygatt was appointed chairman of the meeting.

After full discussion as to the possibility and advisability of such a celebration as that implied in the call, the following preamble and resolution were adopted:

“Whereas, New Milford was first settled in the year of our Lord, 1707, and has from a humble beginning gone steadily forward in growth and prosperity, through the industry and patriotism of its sons and daughters, and the blessings of a Divine Providence:

“And Whereas, It seems fitting that the two hundredth anniversary of this town, now near at hand, should be recognized and celebrated by all its citizens in such manner as to confer proper dignity upon the occasion; to call together for a day all its children; to honor the memories of those who contributed to its past and present welfare; to show the industrial, agricultural, commercial, educational, and religious progress of the community throughout the past years; and to give due thanks to the Providence that has watched over it.

“Therefore it is Resolved: That during the year 1907, upon a date to be named at a future meeting, there shall be held a celebration to be known as the New Milford Bi-Centennial.”

After further discussion as to forms of organization, it was voted:{122}

“That in accordance with the spirit of the foregoing resolution, this meeting shall appoint a General Committee of Arrangements, said committee to have entire charge of all arrangements pertaining to the New Milford Bi-Centennial Celebration; to have power to make changes in and additions to its own numbers; to have authority to appoint and organize all necessary sub-committees, and the power to direct the work of such sub-committees, and to make removals and substitutions in such sub-committees; and to take any and all measures necessary to carry the foregoing resolution into effect.”

The meeting then appointed a Nominating Committee consisting of C. M. Beach, W. G. Green, H. L. Randall, S. S. Green, G. M. Breinig, and Rev. Marmaduke Hare, to present to the meeting the names of those who should constitute the General Committee of Arrangements.

After consultation, the Nominating Committee presented a list of those persons who should constitute the General Committee, and those so named were by vote declared appointed as the General Committee of Arrangements, with the powers and duties above set forth.

It was then voted:

“That when this meeting adjourns, the chairman of this meeting shall have authority to call, at his pleasure, a meeting of the General Committee of Arrangements.”

The meeting then adjourned.

The General Committee of Arrangements met on July 6, 1906, about one hundred members being present. At this meeting a permanent organization was effected, officers elected, sub-committees appointed, and a date set for the celebration.

The officers elected were:

Permanent Chairman and President, Henry S. Mygatt; Vice-Presidents, Andrew G. Barnes, Francis E. Baldwin, Stephen C. Beach; General Secretary, Charles N. Hall.

It was voted:

“That the Celebration be held on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, June 15, 16, 17, 18, 1907.”

It was voted:{123}

“That Sub-Committees be created as follows:

An Executive Committee,

A Finance Committee,

A Committee on Exercises,

A Committee on Refreshments,

A Committee on Decoration,

A Committee on Publicity,

A Committee of Invitation, Reception, and Entertainment;

A Committee on Religious Observances,

A Committee of Public Safety,

A Committee on Historical Research and Permanent Publication.”

It was further voted:

“That each member of the General Committee pay the sum of one dollar, and each member of a sub-committee the additional sum of two dollars to the Bi-Centennial fund.”

Subsequently the Executive Committee, acting for the General Committee, appointed from time to time other sub-committees found necessary in the progress of the work. These were:

A Loan Exhibit Committee,

A Committee on Vocal Music,

A Colonial Reception Committee.

The officers and members of the General Committee of Arrangements were as follows:

President, Henry S. Mygatt;

Vice Presidents, Andrew G. Barnes, Frances E. Baldwin, Stephen C. Beach;

Secretary, Charles N. Hall;

Members

{125}

The members of the special committees—appointed by the General Committee[15] to arrange for and carry out the plans for the Celebration—were:

Executive Committee: Seymour S. Green, chairman; J. B. Merwin, Everett Sturges, Verton P. Staub, Mrs. H. S. Mygatt, Mrs. C. M. Beach.

Finance Committee: H. Leroy Randall, chairman; Charles H. Noble, treasurer; Willis G. Barton, William G. Green, Turney Soule, Edwin J. Emmons.

Committee on Exercises: Charles M. Beach, chairman; John H. Morehouse, clerk; Willis F. Bennett, Frank E. Soule, D. W. Pepper, John Pettibone, Mrs. Verton P. Staub, Frederic M. Williams, Joseph La Hait, Samuel R. Hill, Chauncey B. Marsh, Miss Helen M. Boardman, Miss Ella F. Noble, and the selectmen of the town, ex officio.

The Committee on Exercises appointed the following marshals for the Civic and Military Parade, and the following sub-committees to arrange for Colonial features in the Parade and for an Automobile Carnival on Monday, June 17:

Marshals: Samuel R. Hill, chief marshal; David E. Soule, George E. Ackley, Henry O. Warner.

Committee on Colonial Features: Willis F. Bennett, chairman; Alfred H. Noble, clerk; William G. Green, Dr. Charles P. Blinn, Chauncey B. Marsh, Mrs. J. C. Barker, Miss Helen M. Boardman.

Committee on Automobile Parade: Roland F. Mygatt, chairman;{129}

Henry D. Hine, Dr. B. E. Bostwick, Robert Dunlap, S. Woolsey Pepper, George T. Soule.

Committee on Refreshments: Miss Adaline L. Buck, chairman; J. Edwin Hungerford, clerk; H. C. Ives, Vincent B. Sterling, Mrs. Charles N. Hall, Mrs. Margaret Moore, Mrs. A. C. Clark, James E. Mullins, Wm. L. Richmond, Mrs. Walter C. Hine, George E. Ackley, P. M. Cassedy, Dr. B. E. Bostwick, Emil Anderson.

Committee on Decorations: Charles P. Bentley, chairman; Wm. B. Pell, Dr. Charles P. Blinn, John F. Addis, Geo. T. Soule, Frederick L. Bennett, Henry D. Hine, Mrs. F. E. King, W. H. Adams, A. W. Peelstrom, Levi P. Giddings.

Committee on Publicity: Charles N. Hall, chairman; W. G. Brown, Dr. Geo. H. Wright, A. C. Worley, David E. Breinig.

Committee on Invitation, Reception and Entertainment: W. F. Kinney, chairman; Miss Sarah J. Roberts, secretary; Russell B. Noble, Mrs. Frederic M. Williams, Mrs. H. S. Mygatt, Mrs. Albert H. McMahon, Henry S. Sanford, Andrew C. Clark, Stanley L. Warner, Mrs. Isaac Reynolds, Alexander H. Barlow, Andrew J. Baldwin, Charles Northrop, Mrs. George B. Ackley, Mrs. C. E. Wright, Miss Caro S. Sanford, Mrs. Chas. Taylor, Mrs. Wm. Bostwick, Mrs. Catherine Smith, Mrs. H. E. Bostwick, Orrin Roberts, Mrs. Merritt Beach, Alanson N. Canfield, Albert Evitts, George H. Jackson, Mrs. Wm. B. Pell, Miss A. E. Bostwick, Francis E. Baldwin, Oliver S. Hartwell, Mrs. E. O. Marsh, Henry Ferriss, Miss Jeannette L. Gaylord, Seeley B. Richmond, Mrs. Carlos Merwin, J. B. Merwin, Mrs. W. D. Black, Mrs. J. L. Buck, Mrs. Phœbe L. Anderson, Mrs. Henry R. Treadwell, Mrs. Wm. G. Green, Mrs. G. H. Jackson, Chas. B. Camp, Cyrus A. Todd, and the selectmen of the town, ex-officio.

The chairman of this committee appointed Albert Evitts, chairman of reception; Henry S. Sanford, chairman of entertainment.

Committee on Religious Observances: Rev. Frank A. Johnson, chairman; Rev. John F. Plumb, Rev. Frank B. Draper, Rev. T. J. Cronin, Rev. J. J. Burke, Rev. Marmaduke Hare, Rev.{130} Stephen Heacock, Rev. H. K. Smith, Rev. S. D. Woods, Rev. T. J. Lee.

Committee of Public Safety: Henry Donnelly, chairman; Charles Planz, Albert H. McMahon, L. N. Jennings, Charles Reilly, Chas. H. Osborne.

Committee on Historical Research and Permanent Publication: Minot S. Giddings, chairman; Russell B. Noble, Mrs. Henry E. Bostwick, Miss Charlotte B. Bennett, Miss Kate T. Boardman.

Committee on Loan Exhibit: Dr. George H. Wright, chairman: Wm. B. Pell, C. Andrew Humeston, Miss Flora G. Stillson, Herman C. Buckingham, Mrs. Clarissa R. M. Staples, Miss Jeanette L. Gaylord, Miss Mabelle Sanford.

Committee on Vocal Music: F. E. Starr, chairman; Prof. Edwin G. Clemence, director; Henry C. Harris, Mrs. H. S. Mygatt, Rev. H. K. Smith, Mrs. M. W. Hill.

Committee on Colonial Reception: Stephen C. Beach, chairman; W. F. Kinney, Wm. G. Green, J. Stuart Halpine, Charles M. Beach, Henry S. Sanford, Roland F. Mygatt, Frank W. Marsh.

All the committees worked nobly and in perfect harmony.

Upon the Finance Committee devolved the responsibility of raising the necessary funds, and the duty was splendidly performed. Solicitors were appointed in each district of the town, and furnished with books in which subscriptions were pledged to be paid on or before April 1, 1907. The solicitors, besides the members of the Committee, were: Henry W. Murray, Oliver W. Hoyt, Henry M. Baldwin, Nicholas Glennon, Nelson W. Kinney, Edgar A. Peet, John W. Pulver, John T. Underhill, Daniel Marsh, Walter C. Hine, Millard B. Dorwin, Charles H. Evans, Chauncey B. Marsh, Henry S. Mygatt, Charles N. Hall.

So successful was this canvass that the needed funds were all subscribed before May 15. The result speaks volumes for the enterprise and systematic work of the Finance Committee, as well as for the generosity and public spirit of New Milford’s citizens.

The Executive Committee met frequently to authorize appropriations{131} and receive reports, and, in May, opened an office in the Knapp Building on Bank Street, the second floor of that building having been very generously placed at their disposal by Mr. Frederic Knapp of Hartford.

Meetings of all the Chairmen of Committees were occasionally held, and were found very useful in promoting the work.

The Committee on Exercises had the greatest task to perform in arranging a suitable and comprehensive programme of exercises for the entire Celebration, co-operating as to Sunday’s exercises with the Committee on Religious Observances. In order to secure full participation in the Parade, District Committees were appointed throughout the town, to look after Parade features in their respective localities.

These Committees were:

Lower Merryall: F. C. Merwin, H. W. Murray, S. B. Hendrix, W. D. Stone, John Pepper.

Waller: John T. Underhill, Smith Waller, Thomas Austin, Alexander H. Barlow.

Hunt: Nelson W. Kinney, M. W. Beers, Earle Morehouse, Chester Lyon.

Long Mountain: Henry M. Baldwin, H. H. Pomeroy, Wm. Pomeroy.

Gaylordsville: Chas. H. Evans, Wm. Gaylord, Chas, H. Soule, George Newton, Wm. J. Roberts.

Northville: Francis E. Baldwin, A. C. Bowers, E. B. Buckingham, Walter C. Hine.

Still River: Percy Collins, Fred P. Chase, Stanley L. Warner, Chas. H. Stevens.

Park Lane: N. H. Root, James S. Sullivan, W. B. Leavenworth.

Hill and Plain: Wm. D. Wanzer, Arthur E. Knowles, Merwin P. Hine, Geo. W. Hatch.

Second Hill: Robert Duncan, Robert J. Hungerford, Mrs. A. C. Clark, Mrs. J. A. Cowan, Mrs. T. Walsh, Wm. Hartwell, Millard B. Dorwin, Joshep Cowan, Miss Alice Beers, Mrs. Wm. Johnson, Mrs. Hans Ahlstrom.{132}

Upper Merryall: V. B. Hatch, Israel B. Smith, A. H. Squires, Geo. W. Squires, Fred M. Straight.

Pickett: Nicholas Glennon, Mervin Andrews, Leslie Marsh. Chestnut Land: Ivory Phillips, P. E. Clark, Howard C. Clark, Frank Erwin, Fred Anderson, E. F. Hartwell, Samuel Thompson.

Aspetuck: Daniel Marsh, Joseph Hill, E. Noble Bennett, Levi S. Richmond.

Boardman: Oliver W. Hoyt, Andrew G. Barnes, Sheldon Northrop.

The District Committee on refreshments were:

Upper Merryall: Mrs. Geo. B. Ackley, Geo. W. Squires; assisted by Mrs. Wm. Birkins, Mrs. Frederick Squires.

Lower Merryall: Mrs. Carlos P. Merwin, Mrs. Geo. N. Abbott, Mrs. H. W. Murray.

Hunt: Mrs. Myron W. Toohey.

Northville: Mrs. Walter C. Hine, Miss Elizabeth Baldwin.

Chestnut Land: Miss May Galvin, Edgar Phillips.

Second Hill: Mrs. Robert J. Hungerford, Mrs. Joseph A. Cowan.

Park Lane: Mrs. Mary D. Bostwick, Mrs. Wesley Northrop, Mrs. Edward C. Howland.

Boardman: Mrs. Oliver W. Hoyt, Mrs. Henry W. Kimlin; assisted by the Christian Endeavor Social Union.

Waller: Mrs. Thomas Austin, Mrs. Smith M. Waller.

Gaylordsville: Mrs. Arthur Hungerford, Mrs. J. A. Dolan.

Long Mountain: Mrs. Henry M. Baldwin, Miss Minnie Pomeroy.

Aspetuck: Mrs. Levi Richmond, J. Fred McEwan.

Hill and Plain: Mrs. Robert Osborne, Arthur E. Knowles.

Lanesville: Mrs. Laura Campbell, Mrs. Nora Dickey, Mrs. Horace A. Allen.

Pickett: Mrs. Edward O. Marsh, Mrs. Daniel B. Brewer, Miss Bessie Adams.

Center: Mrs. W. C. Beeman, Miss Kathleen Duncan, Mrs. Robert S. Todd, Mrs. Timothy Heacock, Miss Bessie I. Brown, Mrs. V. B. Sterling, Mrs. A. M. Booth, Mrs. P. M. Cassedy,{133}

Mrs. W. M. Keeler, Mrs. Albert Sterling, Mrs. Emil Anderson, Donald E. Hungerford, Francis Mulcahy, Clifford Castle, Mrs. James E. Mullens.

The Committee on Decorations furnished the town with a fine public flag pole and flag, to be used first at the opening exercises of the Celebration. The committee also carried out the beautiful plan of decoration and illumination on Main Street.

The Committee on Publicity kept the Celebration before the public in many ways. Printed envelopes of the Bi-Centennial were furnished to the citizens to the extent of several thousand. One thousand very attractive cards were sent throughout the State, and frequent items were published in all the newspapers of the State. This committee also published the official Programme of the Celebration.

The Committee of Invitation, Reception, and Entertainment devised, addressed, and sent out the official invitations; arranged for the official reception of all guests; and, in many ways, made all guests feel truly welcome. This committee arranged for Reception Headquarters and a Bureau of Information in Roger Sherman Hall during the Celebration.

The Committee on Religious Observances had charge of the exercises on Sunday, June 16, and arranged so well that this proved to be one of the most delightful days of the Celebration.

The Committee of Public Safety, co-operating with the selectmen of the town, provided most complete arrangements for the preservation of order and the safety of property throughout the days and nights of the Celebration.

The work of the Historical Committee was difficult and important in a high degree, and the task of collecting all the historical facts needed, and presenting the whole in attractive and interesting form, kept all the members extremely busy up to the opening of the Celebration. The committee received most practical and valuable assistance from The Grafton Press of New York City, which not only contracted to publish the book of the Bi-Centennial, but in many ways facilitated the preliminary work. This firm agreed to report, for the book, the entire{134} proceedings of the four days, and, to this end, established a representative on the spot some days in advance, to remain throughout the Celebration. The reportorial work was under his direction.

The Loan Exhibit Committee were tendered the use of Grand Army Hall, through the kindness of Upton Post, and began early to look up all articles of historic value and interest. The amount of work involved was very great, but was most successfully accomplished.

The Committee on Colonial Features made preparations which contributed very greatly to the interest and success of the parade, spending a great deal of time and thought in representing the scenes of old Colonial days.

The Committee on Colonial Reception prepared the hall and made all arrangements for one of the most pleasurably anticipated events of the Celebration.

The Committee on Vocal Music, under the direction of Professor Edwin G. Clemence, prepared an elaborate musical programme and gave abundantly in time and efforts to perfect this most important portion of the exercises.

Rest Houses for women and children were established at various convenient places, in readiness for the crowds anticipated.

James C. Barker, M. D., and T. B. Merrin were appointed a Committee of Public Health and Comfort.

Owing to ill health, Mr. Henry O. Warner was unable to serve as Marshal, and Walter C. Hine was appointed in his stead.

The Marshal’s aides appointed for the Parade were:

From January, 1907, up to the opening day on June 15, all the committees worked arduously and unceasingly to make the Bi-Centennial a success. Less opposition and discouragement were met than are usual in such enterprises, and to the public-spirited and loyal citizens of the town belongs the credit of all this work, so triumphantly accomplished.{136}

There never was a time and place, perhaps, in which a keener interest was taken in the weather than at New Milford during the days immediately preceding the Bi-Centennial Celebration. One of the most backward and inclement springs known to New England history seemed to have bequeathed all its inclemency to the summer month of June, and, on the afternoon of Friday, June 14, not only were the signs few and feeble that summer had come, but the sky was extremely threatening. The boldest prophet did not venture to predict fair weather for the following day with any approach to positiveness; and, under the besetting dread of a down-pour which would ruin the beautiful Bi-Centennial decorations already in place on “The Green,” and interfere sadly with the Bi-Centennial exercises (most of which were to be in the open air) New Milford faces wore an expression of anxiety that was piteous to see. Saturday came without rain and without clouds, however, and, better still, brought with it that light, luminous haze, which, in this part of the world, presages a spell of dry weather—an augury that, happily, was to be fulfilled. The rows of white pillars with gilded capitals (typifying the Colonial architecture) and the clusters and festoons of national colors and navy signal flags (typifying our present national greatness), which constituted the official decoration of “The Green,” assumed new splendor in this highly favorable light, while the private decorations, which had been delayed somewhat by the fear of rain, were brought to completion so rapidly that, by noon, the town was literally enveloped in flags and patriotic and Colonial bunting.

Promptly at four in the afternoon the Doxology pealed forth from the chimes of All Saints’ (played by Prof. Clemence) and was quickly taken up by the voices of the large concourse gathered on “The Green” about the band-stand, on{137}

which the chairmen of the Bi-Centennial committees were seated. Rev. Frank A. Johnson invoked the blessing of God upon the coming Bi-Centennial ceremonies in an impressive prayer, after which “America” was played by the band (Gartland’s of Albany) and sung by the audience. Charles N. Hall, Secretary of the General Bi-Centennial Committee, then stepped forward and delivered the following address of welcome:

“Citizens and Friends:

“For this seems the most comprehensive and fitting title by which to address such an assemblage as this; since many of you are citizens, and all of you are friends of New Milford. Citizens and friends then; to one and all; to those of you who are citizens; to those of you who were New Milford born, but have found other homes; to those of you whose forefathers were once New Milford’s children; to each and every one of you, and to all guests yet to come, the General Committee of the Bi-Centennial, speaking for this entire community, extends a most heartfelt welcome.

“But our welcome is tinged with regret; regret that these words cannot be spoken to-day by the one man that is best fitted for, most entitled to, that honor. Those of you who have worked during these months of preparation, and all who know him, will bear witness that no man living has done more for this Celebration; no man living could have greeted you more gracefully or with greater sincerity than would our honored President, Henry S. Mygatt, were he present. But though not with us in person, we know that he is so in thought; that his hopes and best wishes are with us to-day.

“It is difficult to find words fitting for an occasion like this, for no occasion like this has ever before confronted us.

“For the first time in her history, New Milford fittingly celebrates a birthday anniversary. For the first time in her history, New Milford has planned a great general home-coming of all her scattered children. For the first time, we shall see, during these four days, all our own people gathered together in a common cause: and it is not likely that any now living will ever see them so gathered again.{138}

“This then is The Event, not merely of the years, but of the centuries; an event which must occupy a place unique and unapproached in the history of our town; and words may well fail to express the sentiments which such an occasion must inspire.

“Since that day in the year 1707, when the pioneer, John Noble, first traversed the wilderness to this place, up to this day of June, 1907, every event and circumstance, toil and danger, hardship and prosperity, peace and war, all have been but successive steps leading to this Celebration, and making it possible. And, in this Celebration, we mark not this anniversary alone, but celebrate as well all that has gone before.

“We celebrate the founders of our town; the heroic men and women who, by their toil, their courage and their faith, not only made New Milford, but helped to lay the corner-stone of this nation. Every event in this, our Celebration; this flag-raising; the splendidly impressive service of Sunday; the historic addresses, and the reception of Monday; the imposing parade of Tuesday; all were planned, not only to afford pleasure and entertainment for our guests, and to glorify the New Milford of to-day, but also to commemorate and glorify the past.

“But while we celebrate New Milford, past and present, what shall we say of the New Milford to come? Shall not the civic pride, and energy, the patriotism, that have inspired this Celebration, continue to be moving forces toward a better New Milford? Shall not some of the thousands who visit us, impressed with the attractions of our town, remain and help us to make a greater New Milford?

“New Milford has done wisely and well to inaugurate this home coming, for such home comings are vitally essential to the right life and growth and prosperity of any community.

“New Milford is proud of her history; proud of her position among the hills and towns of old Litchfield County, in this blessed commonwealth of Connecticut; proud of her business enterprise, of her schools and churches; and proud of her children, whom she welcomes home to-day.{139}

“You are here, not as chance visitors, or strangers, but as members of one great family. We ask you to be not only with us, but of us at this time; to become, for the time being, citizens of our town, and would be glad to have you become so in fact.

“New Milford and its Celebration are yours; be at home with us; survey the attractions of our town; visit and greet old friends; enjoy the Celebration to the utmost, and then if you must leave us, take with you the kindest thoughts, and happy memories of the Bi-Centennial.”

At the close of this address, the band, playing “Auld Lang Syne,” marched to the south end of “The Green” (the chairmen of the committees, the New Milford Cadets under command of Capt. Gifford Noble, and the audience falling in behind) to the new, white, eighty-foot flag pole, which had been erected there under the supervision of Grand Marshal, Samuel R. Hill. To the strains of the “Star Spangled Banner,” Mr. Hill, assisted by Lewis W. Mosher, ran a new flag[16] up the pole, while the Cadets stood statue-like near its base. As the flag touched the peak, a cannon salute was fired by a firing squad under the direction of Samuel R. Hill, Jr. This was a signal for the playing of “We’ll Rally Round the Flag, Boys,” by the band, for the blowing of factory whistles, and the ringing of church bells; and, with this acclaim, the formal opening of the New Milford Bi-Centennial Celebration was ended.{140}

The Loan Exhibition in Memorial Hall was opened to the public at ten o’clock Saturday morning, several hours in advance of the formal ceremonies of welcome described above, and was kept open during the entire four days of the Celebration. It proved an agreeable surprise, not only to the guests of the town, but to the townspeople themselves, who had no idea how rich their homes were in relics of the past until they were thus brought together for this Bi-Centennial occasion. Indeed, it was pronounced by competent judges one of the most interesting collections of antiquities ever seen in the State of Connecticut. By its aid, any person possessed of the slightest imagination could easily reconstruct the every-day existence (in-doors and out-of-doors) of the ancestors, and could even divine the intellectual, moral and religious ideas and ideals which governed them. Besides the local relics associated directly with the New Milford life of yore, were a number of curiosities from remote corners of the globe, which testified to the important rôle played by natives of New Milford in earlier times as merchants, ship-owners, travellers, and missionaries.

These various richly-stored heirlooms were a source of great joy to the aged, whose observations and reminiscences, as they moved about among the show-cases, were well-nigh as fascinating as the exhibits themselves; and a means of instruction for the young, to whom most of the objects displayed appeared as strange as if they had been brought from another planet.

The finest thing about this exhibition, however, was the public spirit it exemplified. The committee in charge met scarcely a refusal from the persons to whom they applied for loans, and, once the character of the undertaking was understood, volunteers came forward in such numbers that twice the space{141} afforded by the G. A. R. rooms might have been filled, had it been available.

Many of the visitors expressed regret that so remarkable a collection must be scattered so soon and a hope that New Milford would one day see its way clear to maintaining a permanent exhibition of the sort. And it would not be surprising if the ultimate outcome of this loan exhibition should be a museum of antiquities, since a large proportion of the exhibitors would gladly contribute their treasures to the common-weal, if a specially-constructed, fire-proof building should be provided for the conservation of them.

A complete list of the exhibits is given herewith:

Henry Kimlin:

1. Razor dated 1688.

2. Pair of spectacles.

Minot S. Giddings:

3. A deed to Jonathan Giddings of a tract of land on the Connecticut Reserve of Ohio, given by Elijah Boardman, Homer Boardman, David S. Boardman, Stanley Griswold, of New Milford, Ct., Elijah Wadsworth, Frederick Wolcott, Litchfield, Ct., and Zepheniah Briggs of New Fairfield, Ct. Dated 1800.

4. Razor. Portrait of Washington engraved on blade.

5. Sampler, Ruth Buck, date 1786.

6. Bible, Ruth Buck, date 1771.

7. Copy of “Washington’s Political Legacy,” 1800.

8. Copy of “Gertrude of Wyoming,” date 1809.

9. Copy of “Life of Dr. Benjamin Franklin,” by himself, date 1795.

10. “The Federal Calculator,” 1802. Samuel Giddings.

11. The Prayer Book, 1795. Ebenezer Sanford.

Fred’k E. Starr;

12. Section of Pulpit of Meeting-house, 1754.

Mrs. Arthur Caldwell:

13. Grandmother’s jewelry.

14. Pin, 1816.

15. Floral comb.{142}

16. Candle tray and snuffer.

17. Fluid lamp.

18. Vase.

19. Bowl.

Dr. L. J. Pons:

20. Canteen, Civil War.

Lyman Caldwell:

21. Collection of arrow heads.

Wm. H. Marsh:

22. Pie platters, that the extra good pies of our grandmothers were baked in.

23. Churn. This churn is probably over a hundred years old.

24. A bottle of the Eighteenth Century.

25. A bottle of the Eighteenth Century.

26. A doll’s cradle used fifty years ago.

Fred’k Berry:

27. Dress sword and sash. Presented to Capt. F. M. Berry, by Company H, 2d Conn. Artillery.

F. A. Johnson:

28. Tea pot, buried in the War of 1812, with other valuables, to prevent its falling into the hands of the British.

29. Rifle shot, picked out of the side of a Confederate fortification at Atlanta, Ga., where they had been fired in by General Sherman’s troops.

30. French lancer’s spear head, picked up on the battlefield of Waterloo, soon after the battle.

31. Arrow given by “Dave,” one of the party of Modoc Indians who killed Gen. Canby. Secured in the Indian Territory.

32. Strip of Confederate flag, which was lowered from the Capitol at Richmond at the surrender, when the city was captured. Confederate money from Gen. Lee’s treasure chest. Captured at Appomattox.

L. T. Peet:

33. Trencher and knife, used before the Revolution.

34. Candle-stick, used by Alba Peet 150 years ago, he being a shoemaker and working evenings.{143}

35. Rock-salt pounder, used by my grandfather, Samuel W. Peet.

Henry E. Squires:

36. Green and white coverlet. Wool raised, spun, and woven in Merryall.

37. Plaid blanket. Wool raised, spun, and woven in Merryall.

Mrs. F. A. Mallory:

38. Flowered coverlet.

Mrs. G. B. Ackley:

39. Pair of silver candle-sticks, candle snuffers and tray.

G. B. Ackley:

40. Book, 1809, specimen of penmanship.

Mrs. G. B. Ackley:

41. Bible, 1806. Almanacs, 1803 to 1814.

L. E. Peet:

42. Water Yoke. Over 100 years old.

James H. Cole:

43. Collection of papers. Deed and other papers.

Mrs. E. J. Sturges:

44. Discharge paper.

45. Old paper, 1754.

Lottie A. Waldron:

46. Sugar-bowl.

47. Pair of glass candle-sticks.

May G. Brown:

48. Portraits of Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Holman, painted in Boston in 1819 by Prof. Morse, (inventor of the telegraph) just before they sailed as members of the first band of missionaries to the Sandwich Islands. They were great grandparents of May G. Brown.

49. Journal of Mrs. Thomas Holman, one of the first missionaries to the Sandwich Islands in 1819. Written on board the brig Thaddeus. Mrs. Holman’s daughter was the first white child born in the Sandwich Islands, and Mrs. Holman was the first woman to go around the world. (See Nos. 50 & 114.){144}

50. Feather cape and wreath, red, yellow and black, worn by the native chiefs of the Sandwich Islands. Made from thousands of feathers of a rare bird, but one feather suitable being found on each. These articles were given by Kamehameha I. to the Holmans (missionaries). They are no longer made and there are few, if any, like them now in existence. They are, therefore, of great value. (See Nos. 49 & 114.)

Ruth T. Booth:

51. Casters, over 100 years old.

52. Coffee pot, over 100 years old.

53. Platter, over 100 years old.

54. Plate, over 100 years old.

55. Cup and saucer, over 100 years old.

56. Tea set, 11 pieces, 125 years old, formerly owned by my great-grandmother, Ruth T. Downes.

Harriet V. Sherman:

57. Sampler.

Mrs. Mary E. Stone:

58. Spectacles and goggles. Arrow head and bayonet.

D. C. Kilborne:

59. Lottery tickets. Sold by the first Cong’l Church Society of Bridgewater to raise money to build the church edifice.

Mrs. S. D. Woods:

60. Daily paper with the account of the funeral of George Washington. 1799.

Dr. L. J. Pons:

61. Rapier, used by Capt. Eli Booth, (1800) Milford, Ct.

62. Revolutionary sword.

63. Lantern from two-wheeled physician’s chaise, used by Dr. Myron Downs, 1830-1860.

64. Bayonet and sheath, 1812.

65. Old English dagger. About 1790.

66. Lantern.

67. First glass lantern. About 1840.

68. Dragoon’s helmet, 1775. Bearskin bush.{145}

69. Dragoon’s flint lock pistol. 1775.

70. Old English pistol.

Mrs. George Trieschmann:

71. Lutheran Bible, 1784.

Mrs. Chas. M. Beach:

72. Tea caddy. This was made at Read’s Pottery in Lower Merryall, about the year 1780. It was part of a tea set which Mercy Sperry (who married Sylvester Wheaton) had when she went to housekeeping.

73. Invitations to assembly balls, one hundred years ago.

74. Grape shot, picked up on the battlefield of Waterloo, about the year 1820, by Rev. Nathaniel S. Wheaton, D. D.

75. Half-cent, American coin, 100 years old.

76. Brazilian dump, coin worth about 2½ cents.

77. Powder horn taken from the dead body of an Indian by Capt. Theophilus Baldwin, a volunteer in the French and Indian Wars, while Baldwin was on a scouting party. The Indian shot at him from ambush, and missed. Theophilus did not miss.

Mrs. H. H. Hartwell:

78. Flint lock gun. Carried through Revolution.

79. Gun. Carried by a French officer in the Revolutionary War. Afterwards changed from a flint lock to a percussion lock.

80. Cartridge belt and cartridges, used in Revolutionary War.

81. Autograph bond of Roger Sherman.

82. Brigade orders, Gen. Sedgwick.

83. Two commissions, Joseph Hartwell. As ensign. As lieutenant.

Geo. N. Canfield:

84. Cane, made from the hull of Old Ironsides. Inscription on head: “From the hull of the Constitution, first built in 1798, and dear to Americans for having successfully fought the Java, Guerrierre, Cyane, and Levant, the bombardment of Tripoli in 1812, and also{146} for her miraculous escape from the British Squadron. Presented to R. E. Canfield by S. Oaks, Esq., U. S. N.”

Dr. G. Bragaw:

85. Flint lock gun with bayonet.

Edward H. Beach:

86. Indian battle axe.

Mrs. E. H. Austin:

87. War club, Sandwich Islands. Made from root of a tree.

88. Quilt, hand spun and woven.

Mrs. Hannah Fuller Austin:

89. Commission of Abraham Fuller. He was afterward Captain of Connecticut troops, most of his men being from Kent.

E. H. Austin:

90. Pewter flagon. Supposed to be 150 years old. Belonged to Mills family of Kent. Authentic record of age for more than 100 years. It was an old flagon when this record began.

91. English army belt clasps. Picked up on the field of Waterloo a few days after the battle. Forty-second Somerset.

Mrs. Thomas Austin:

92. Britannia tea pot. More than 100 years old.

A. H. Barlow:

93. An old deed, given to William Barnes of Haddam, by Samuel Barnes in 1734. Also some of the Continental money.

94. Daguerreotype, Gaylord’s Bridge.

Mrs. A. H. Barlow:

95. Embroidered apron, 65 years old.

96. Collection of handkerchiefs and chemisette, over 65 years old.

97. Lace bonnet, worn in 1868.

98. Stockings knit by Mrs. Joseph Marsh for her eldest daughter, Mrs. Laura Bailey, and worn by each of her six children.{147}

A. H. Barlow:

99. One spoon of a set given to the grandmother of A. H. Barlow as part of her “setting out.” Made of silver dollars in 1799.

Mrs. A. H. Barlow:

100. Spoon, 1830.

101. Old jewelry, 2 lockets and 3 pins. Tortoise shell combs.

102. Three old lace veils.

Mrs. Edward Dakin:

103. Tea canister. Belonged to my great-grandmother, and used by her during her lifetime. Purchased in the year 1770.

Marion D. Underhill:

104. Netted lace, made from flax, raised by my great-great-grandfather on Kent Mountain; spun by my great-great-grandmother; and netted by my great-great-aunt, over eighty years ago.

Miss E. A. Bailey:

105. Cane, brought from England. Has been in the Bailey family for 209 years.

Mrs. A. B. Giddings:

106. Tea pot, brought to New Milford in 1707 by Zachariah Ferriss. Was the only tea pot in town.

107. Toddy tumbler and vinegar cruet, one hundred and fifty years old.

Harriet A. Taylor Lee:

108. Coat worn by Wm. Taylor as Colonel of Militia, 1789.

109. Colonel Wm. Taylor’s duelling pistols, 1789.

Mrs. Chas. Taylor:

110. Pewter porringer, 200 years old.

111. Dr. George Taylor’s wedding hat, 1825. (See No. 255.)

112. Pewter candle-stick, very old.

Bessie I. Brown:

113. Chinese chest, very old.

114. Calabash, very old. Used for carrying water. (Wicker work encloses a gourd.) This calabash and the Chinese chest were presents received in 1852 from{148} China by the Holmans, missionaries to the Sandwich Islands. (See Nos. 49 & 50.)

Chas. N. Hall:

115. New England Courant, 1723. Published by Benjamin Franklin.

Elsie Cummings: