Speranza
The town of East Haven contained about 9,000 acres of
land, until 1882, when about 1/3 d of its surface was annexed to New Haven.
The soil is generally light and sandy but capable of yielding good crops
when properly cultivated -- hence its alias: Davenport's Eastwood Farms!
It is congenial to Indian corn and barley.
In
favourable seasons potatoes do well.
In some parts of East Haven rye succeeds, but
it is very subject to blast and rust.
By good husbandry, East Haven lands may be made
more productive.
Though unhappily there is very little good pasturage in the
town.
There is very little clay, and some parts of East Haven n are encumbered and
disfigured with rocks and ragged barren hills.
About the first spring, or the
head of Bloomary Brook and the head of Claypit brook, and along the intervals of
Stoney river, good brick clay may be obtained.
Some of the best land lies in the
fresh meadows and Morris Cove swamp, which are now uncultivated and unproductive.
Were
these low lands drained, as they will be at some future period, they would be
the most productive lands in East Haven.
Along the seashore, there is a range
of granite rock, of the purest kind, but it is not found in any other part of
the town.
The Pond Rock and the ridge west of it are green or whinstone.
The same kind of rock appears in detached
eminences and ridges, in some other parts of the town.
Sandstone of the
secondary formation commences on the Indian land northeast from Morris Cove and
running north spreads through Fair Haven woods, and terminates on the Davenport's Eastwood farm, proper.
Another mass lies on the east side of the fresh meadows, and runs in a
northeast direction to the north line of the town on the half-mile.
The
green stone, generally, on the surface is in such a state of fracture as to be
nearly useless, except the smaller fragments, which make excellent gravel for
the roads.
In some places the sand stone is in a state of decomposition.
In the
ridge north of Mullen Hill agates are found in abundance.
The plains appear
to be composed of sand, coarse and fine, washed from the lands and valleys on
the north, and accumulating gradually by some powerful operating cause.
The salt
marshes are founded upon a bottom of sand, like that of the plains
adjacent.
East Haven is well supplied with water of an excellent quality.
There
are numerous springs and some fine rivulets, while Stoney river and Lake Saltonstall afford an inexhaustible supply of water of the best
kind.
Lake Saltonstall is about three miles long, and from one hundred yards to three
hundred yards broad, and very deep.
The fisheries in the waters of East Haven
are excellent and valuable.
In the Quinnipiac river, oysters are taken in vast
quantities and those of a superior quality are taken in the Cove and Stoney
river.
Clams, blackfish and whitefish abound in their season.
Whitefish are
used in vast quantities for fertilizer.
The trade in oysters is carried to a
great extent.
From sixty to one hundred thousand bushels are annually imported.
These are opened, put into kegs of small size, and dispersed all over the
northern and western country, quite into Canada.
The amount of sales for this
town and vicinity is estimated at 25,000 dollars during the fall
and winter season.
And it probably sometimes exceeded that sum.
A
considerable number of men are employed in the coasting, packet and oyster
trade/
But East Haven has suffered exceedingly by the loss of active men at sea.
Farming occupies the attention of the principal part of the male
population.
On October 8, 1797, great damage was done by a tornado, which
passed over the center of East Haven.
The same week, the following account of it
was published in a local newspaper paper.
On Sunday evening last, between six and
seven o'clock, we experienced a violent gale of wind from the westward, attended
with heavy rain and thunder.
The damage done in this town was not great,
compared with that done at East Haven.
The roofs of some
buildings were injured, the tops of chimneys blown off, and windows blown in,
some trees and fences blown down, and a barn in the New Township removed from
its foundation.
At East-Haven the steeple of the meeting-house was blown down,
which falling on the roof, broke through the side, where it fell, leaving only
one rafter standing, and penetrating the floor, greatly damaged the seats.
A large new
house was removed from its foundations; several dwelling houses were partly, and
others entirely unroofed. A number of barns met the same fate. Three large barns
were entirely demolished; the materials of which they were built were scattered
in every direction. The town of Branford experienced nearly the same fate. Part
of the roof of the meeting-house was blown off, and all the windows on the
western side destroyed; six or seven houses, a new store, and several barns were
unroofed, other barns blown down, the trees in several fine orchards laid
prostrate. The height of the tornado continued but a few minutes.
The same
tornado is described in Dwight's Travels, with the addition of several
particulars to the above account.
On Lord's day, October 8, 1797, in the
afternoon, a Tornado, the commencement of which, so far as I was able to learn,
was at Upper Salem in the County of Westchester, and State of New-York, passed
over Ridgefield, in Connecticut, and thence over Redding, Newtown, Huntington,
Derby, Woodbridge, New-Haven, East-Haven, Branford, Guilford, and Killingworth;
whence it directed its course over the Sound. At times it rose from the earth,
and held its most furious career in a higher region of the atmosphere. Such was
the fact at New-Haven, where, although its force was great, it did not blow with
sufficient strength to do any material damage. At Upper Salem it destroyed
orchards, groves, and buildings. At East-Haven it blew down the steeple of the
Presbyterian Church, and ruined several other buildings. It left many marks of
its violence also at Branford, and some other places; while in others it did
little or no mischief. This alternate rise and fall of a Tornado I have not seen
mentioned; nor do I remember a storm of this kind, at so late a season, in any
other instance."
Another violent gale, called the Salt Storm, occurred
September 3, 1821. Light showers passed in the morning; it was somewhat misty
through the day, with a light rain about 5 p. M., the wind rising about that
hour, it having been all day south and southeast. At six o'clock it became a
gale, still increasing and blowing with dreadful violence until eleven o'clock,
when it broke, and a calm succeeded. In this town very little rain fell; but in
the region of New York a vast quantity poured down. The sand and gravel,
however, were scooped from the earth and dashed against every opposing object. A
salt spray covered everything within its reach, and mingling with the dirt then
afloat, rendered the glass windows quite opaque, and formed a coat so firm that
it was not easily washed off.
The morning light disclosed a scene of mournful
devastation in the vegetable kingdom.
Trees of every kind were stripped of their
foliage, and also of their fruit. The small limbs upon the windward side were
killed and still exhibit the deadly properties of the storm, and along the coast
the fruit trees are rendered barren. Many small trees were destroyed. The
shrubbery and vegetation of the garden and the field appeared as is common after
a severe and early frost. The atmosphere was loaded with a very nauseous fetor.
The buckwheat was completely destroyed: the corn lay prostrate, the leaves of
which were whipped into strings. The weather afterwards being very warm, the
trees and living shrubbery put forth new leaves, and the fruit trees and the
lilac were adorned with flowers.
The deadly effects of the salt on vegetation
might be traced twelve or fifteen miles inland; but gradually diminishing
according to the distance from the shore. It having been a very dry season in
this town, and the ground being very hard, but few trees were overturned,
compared with what took place a few miles north, where the ground was softer,
for there great havoc was made among the tall timber.
A singular phenomenon
of frequent occurrence is noticeable in this town respecting the motion of
thunder clouds, proceeding from the west.
The cloud advances over the harbor and
approaches Fort Hill [now Beacon Hill] presenting a great and, in a dry season,
a hopeful appearance of a refreshing rain. But presently it breaks* and then
separates to the right and left; one part passing to the north of the village,
and the other part passing down the harbor and across the south end of the town,
pours down its refreshing streams upon the Sound. Sometimes no rain at all falls
upon the plains east of the hill and at other times only a sprinkling from the
skirts of the cloud. Whether the hill possesses a repulsive, or the water an
attractive, quality that operates upon the cloud, is a question left to the
wisdom of the reader to solve.
The town affords a few curiosities.
On an
island in Stoney river there is a regular cavity cut into the granite rock,
called the Indian Well.
It is from twenty-six to thirty-three inches in
diameter, and very smooth, especially the bottom of it. It is now about five
feet deep, but formerly was deeper.
When the dam below was built, some part of
the rock was removed and much injured its natural appearance.
The water on both
sides of the island passes through..
Old people who were not much in love
with the pranks of the college boys, used to say the clouds parted over Yale
College, because there was so much witchcraft carried on there
Here, there was found a large space paved with flat stones, all laid very evenly
together.
Hughes thought he was disturbing an Indian burial ground.
But his
father said they were Indian hearths where the wigwams had stood.
About 1840 Mr.
Alfred Hughes unearthed a similar place northwest of his house. His grandfather,
Mr. Daniel Hughes, gave the same explanation, saying they were where the Indians
had their summer villages when they came to fish. In winter they went into the
woods to hunt and for the convenience of fuel, and when they left, they covered
the hearths with earth, so that no other Indians might find them and profit by
their labor. In the summer they scraped the earth to one side, and erected their
huts.
All the flat lands near the shore are plentifully flecked with broken
shells, especially all around and west of the old stone house, now the site of
the Chapel of the Epiphany.
The Hughes family have given away to curiosity
hunters, from time to time, many relics found on their grounds.
One, a very
curious old spoon, still in the possession of the family, some experts think was
one of the "twelve alchemy spoons" given to the Indians by John Davenport
and Theophilus Eaton, when they bought the land of Momauguin.
It is not copper,
or brass or iron; yet it seems to be a composite of metals, hence called
alchemy..
The statement has often been made
that the European man has greatly wronged the Indians.
This may have been the case
in many places, but after a candid and careful search of town and Indian
records, the facts stand out in bold relief that this charge cannot be sustained
against the Connecticut and New Haven colonies; particularly the New Haven
Colony, which in their first purchase of Momauguin, rights of land, and
protection from other hostile tribes, were secured to them by the Davenport and
Eaton treaty.
The Indian reservation seems to have been kept intact, as
originally laid out.
In 1679 a proposition was made to purchase some land of
the Indians near Mr. Gregson's farm, "if the Indians were willing to sell it."
Due caution was advised, as the Quinnipiacs at that date (1680) numbered about
100 men, it was thought best not to sell their lands. In 1638 they numbered 46
fighting men and with squaws and children about 150 in all; but by living a
peaceful life under the protection of the English they had increased now to over
300 all told. Between the years of 1680 and 1750 this Quinnipiac tribe was
greatly reduced in numbers, occasioned by King Philip's War in 1675, the
Canadian War in 1690, the Cuban Expedition in 1740, and the siege of Louisburg
in 1745. In all these wars the Quinnipiac Indians helped to fill the quota of
Connecticut. Some went as sailors, but most of them as soldiers. Disease and
battle had thinned their ranks. In 1695 the General Court of Connecticut granted
the town of New Haven the right to sell Indian lands. Nayhassatt, alias George
Sagamore, sold to John Morris and others 18 acres in the old "Indian Field" near
the old ferry. President Stiles says, "In 1720 there were between the ferry and
Mr. Woodward's house twenty wigwams (old Indian village)." This section extended
from Farren avenue south to Forbes avenue and the harbor. The Indians in 1725
living on the East side numbered about 20 in all.
In 1727 John, alias George
Sagamore, son and heir to George, late sachem of New Haven, and James, Tom,
Indians, sons of James, Indian, deceased, and Nimrod, Indian, and Jacob, Indian,
being all the men of our tribe (1727 five only) belonging to New Haven, sold to
John Morris several pieces of land amounting in all to 58 acres. In 1760 the
Indian land in East Haven was occupied by only one Indian and three squaws. In
1745 James Meekyeuh, sachem of the East Haven Indians, died in Cheshire. His son
James Mennau-yush died in Derby in 1758. Dr. Ruggles says in 1760 'there died in
Guilford the only remaining man Indian between Saybrook and New Haven Ferry.'"
The same year, Dr. Stiles says, "there was but one wigwam on the East Haven
reservation, and that was occupied by a squaw, and her son 16 years old.
In
1769, the memorial of one Adam, an Indian, of a New Haven tribe of Indians, who
had lived in Farmington some time, requested of the Assembly of Connecticut that
the planting land reserved for said tribe in the parish of East Haven, which
contained about 30 acres, might be sold, and the money received by the sale of
such land be laid out in Farmington, for the benefit of said tribe; whereupon
said Adam was empowered to make the sale; but he soon after died. In 1770 the
last sachem of the Quinnipiacs, Charles, was frozen to death, near a spring
about a mile north of East Haven meetinghouse.
In 1770 Samuel Adam, an Indian
belonging to Farmington, one of said tribe, was empowered to sell the East Haven
land to Capt. Timothy Tuttle, June 2, 1773. This Samuel Adam was the last one of
the tribe remaining, who was at this time living with the Farmington Indians.
The money for the land was expended in Farmington for Samuel Adam's benefit,
which he had the Farmington authorities sell for his benefit, according to law,
when he removed with his family into the Mohawk country. From the above we see
that the rights and property of the Quinnipiacs were strictly preserved, and
extended to them to the last man, by the New Haven Colony and parish of East
Haven.
East Haven is not without its taint of slavery.
In common
with many New England towns, slaves were owned in many families, as slavery
existed in all the early colonies of the United States.
There was a great
difference of opinion on the subject in those primitive times, as well as in
more recent years. Connecticut passed a law of total emancipation in 1794, thus
doing away with the evil forever in the "Constitution State."
The first
record of slave ownership in East Haven was in the early part of the eighteenth
century.
We find in a will of Joseph Tuttle, 1761, that he bequeaths "the house,
shop and negro rooms at East Haven." He also mentions four negro men, "Richard,
Bethuel, Cambridge and Reuben," and four women, "Dinah, Lucy, Statira and
Axsee." Doubtless these were parents of children which are not named. These
slaves ranged in value from £20 to £75.
The families owning the greatest
number of slaves were John Woodward, Sr., Capt. Amos Morris, Jehiel Forbes, the
Hemingways, Thompsons, Pardees, Chidseys and Smiths.
Even the saintly Street
owned his Tom, who used to sometimes come to him and say, "Master, I wish I
could be free!"
Street always replied:
"Well, Tom, you shall be free any day
that you will sign a paper that I need not take care of you when you are old and
can do nothing."
Whereupon Tom would roll his eyes, and whistle, going off
grinning and shaking. He died in servitude in 1791, in the 57th year of his age.
That Mr. Street had some qualms of conscience on the subject of slavery is very
evident, from an extract from one of his sermons when he says, "While we abhor
oppression as it comes upon us from the mother country, we may be harboring it
in our own bosoms." Furthermore, he exhorts all to "a careful search and
examination of all that has been written on the subject, in an impartial and
disinterested way." Pink and her daughter Chloe, slaves of Isaac Forbes, were
the last remnants of slavery dying in East Haven. Pink was a town charge for
some time, dying after 1850. Below are a few names of slaves which have been
gathered, showing their owners, their own names, ages and deaths.Owner. Age. Died.
Capt. Woodward Thate 70 1795
James Chidsey Flora 15
1805
Jehiel Forbes (Cork and wife, Sybil), Will, Caesar and others.
It has
always been currently reported that Sybil declared her master's son, Dr. David
Forbes, ate up her boy Caesar! The latter was sold to pay David's board bill
while in college, hence her construction, which might have been true. Charles
Bishop and Nathaniel Barnes owned Harry.
W1tchcraft 1n East Haven.
As John
W. Barber in his "Historical Collections of Connecticut" thought best to give
this subject space in his work, it may not be amiss to transcribe into this work
the following, which he says is "a fair sample of witch stories, which were
generally believed in ancient times."
"An old gentlemen was riding, one
bright moonlight evening, through a very lonely place called Dark Hollow (a
by-road which leads from East Haven to Fair Haven), when he saw two females at
the head of his horse, very earnestly (apparently) engaged in conversation, and
keeping pace with his horse. He was considerably excited and his feelings of
fear aroused, as he had no doubt, that these were the famous hags, who were
disturbing the peace of the land. He had, however, courage enough to speak to
them in these words: 'In the name of God, I beseech you tell me who you are.'
When, wonderful to behold, they immediately vanished. He got off his horse to
look for them, but could find nothing but a riding hood, which lay where they
disappeared."
"A short time after this event, the same gentleman was riding
past one of his orchards, when there appeared to him to be someone shaking one
of his apple trees, and a considerable quantity was falling to the ground. He
went up to the tree, and the ground was covered with apples, which had just
fallen, but there was no one to be seen, all was still as the grave."
The
following is still more mysterious.
There was an old woman who lived not far
from the neighborhood of this old gentleman, who was suspected by the neighbors
of being one of these tormentors of mankind.
Their hogs would run about on their
hind legs, and squeal as though they were possessed by legions of unclean
spirits.
Their children would be taken sick and cry out 'that some one was
sticking pins into them.' A member of one of the families would roll about the
floor with great rapidity as though urged forward by some invisible power, and
the members of the family had to keep an eagle's eye on the rolling gentleman,
lest he should roll into the fire. When the neighbors made their bread, it was
full of hairs, and their soap would run over their kettles, and fly about the
floor like burning lava from the crater of Mount Etna. In the night large stones
would tumble down their chimneys and break their cooking utensils, setting the
whole family in an uproar. It appeared as though the powers of darkness had been
let loose from Pandemonium to torment these neighbors. But not long after, these
difficulties all ceased in a singular manner, i. e., one of the neighbor's pigs
was running about on its hind legs as described, when a man who was noticing it
jumped into the pen, and cut off one of its ears. The old woman mentioned always
afterwards had one of her ears muffled. The neighbors were now satisfied that
this woman was the cause of all their troubles. However, they thought they would
say nothing or do nothing for the present but see how these things
continued."
A short time after this, one of the neighbors was making potash
beside the river, and it began to fly out, and run about so they could do
nothing with it. They held a consultation, and concluded they would shoot into
it with a rifle, which they did, and immediately there was a calm, and they were
enabled to go on with their work and finish it. In the morning the neighbors
went to the place where this woman resided, where they found her dead and thus
their troubles ended. But it appears this woman was not the only suspected witch
in the place. In an old lonely house which stood on the road leading to New
Haven, lights were seen in the night; the sound of the violin and the noise of
persons dancing, were heard by the inhabitants of the place around it, until
they went to work day after day, pulling its clapboards off, until the house was
completely destroyed to the joy of the inhabitants of the town. Nothing more of
any consequence was heard of witches from that time.
In the French War of 1755, a number of men were drafted from East Haven
for the English army near the lakes, and the greater part of them were lost by
sickness and battle. Of these I have obtained the following names, viz.: Jacob
Moulthrop, David Moulthrop, Adonijah Moulthrop, Jacob Robinson, Benjamin
Robinson, Thomas Robinson, Jr., David Potter, John Mallory, Abraham Jocelin,
Samuel Hotchkiss, James Smith, Samuel Russell and Stephen Russell, brothers, and
Asa Luddington. Benjamin Russell was captured at sea.
In the War of
Independence, which began April 19, 1775, the following persons were lost. In
1776, Elijah Smith was killed in battle on Long Island; Thomas Smith conducted a
fire ship to the enemy, but was badly burned, and the attending boat having left
him too soon, he had to swim ashore, where he was found three days after in a
helpless state; he was brought over to Rye, and there he died. Nathan Andrews
died a prisoner. In 1777 Isaac Potter perished in the prison ship. July 5, 1779,
Isaac Pardee was killed on Grave or Fort Hill, by a cannon shot. In October, on
board a privateer, Zabulon Bradley was killed. Richard Paul, Jacob Pardee, Jr.,
Asa Bradley, Abijah Bradley, and Elijah Bradley, were made prisoners and all,
except the last, perished in the prison ship at New York the following winter.
In 1780 Medad Slaughter died in the prison ship. In 1781 John Howe was killed by
the tories, when they surprised Fort Hale. John Walker was killed upon Long
Island.
Thus twelve young men were lost, and several men
returned from captivity so injured by hard usage that they pined away and
died—particularly Edward Goodsell, Isaac Luddington and Jared Hemingway.
On
July 4, 1779, the enemy intending to capture New Haven, landed a covering force
on Morris Neck and South End, and marched directly to Tuttle's Hill, where they
encamped that night, and the next day reembarked. They were led by the tories.
In this invasion they burnt most of the dwellings within their reach, and made
the rebel whigs feel the effects of royal British vengeance.
To meet these
losses and those of other towns of a similar nature, in May, 1792, the General
Assembly of Connecticut passed an act appropriating "500,000 acres of land west
of Pennsylvania, for the relief of the sufferers by fire."
The damage in each
town was assessed, and the amount of each person's loss in East Haven was as
follows:
Amos Morris, £1235 15 4
John Woodward, 838 17 3
John Woodward,
jun., 740 19 11
Elam Luddington, 408 6 7
Joseph Tuttle, 79 9 5
Jacob
and Abijah Pardee, 402 8 2
Jehiel Forbes, 173 13 i
Mary Pardee, 134 14
o
Mary and Lydia Pardee, 40 8 4
Noah Tucker, 99 17 4
Equal to
$13,848.24.
They burnt eleven dwelling houses, nine barns, and some other
out-buildings.
Gurdon Bradley lost £66, in a sloop that was burnt.
The enemy and
the militia plundered the inhabitants of all they could carry off.
The whole of
this loss was collected by the commissioners appointed for this purpose, and the
amount was £421 1s. 4d. The entire loss of East Haven by this invasion in
property was $15,251.79.
Since 1824 a very great change has taken place in
the sentiment, interest and pride of ancestry of the Revolutionary patriots.
As
East Haven was one of the historic places of the Revolution, and one whose
inhabitants suffered more, in proportion to their numbers, than almost ony other
place, as the British burned nearly every building on their line of march,
besides destroying crops, slaughtering cattle and spreading ruin everywhere, it
is thought advisable to give the occurrences a place in history. Besides, East
Haven was one of the first places in Connecticut to be marked with a tablet
erected on Beacon Hill in 1895 by the Sons of the American Revolution.
In fact,
if the ladies of East Haven were so disposed, they could form a very respectable
sized chapter of the D. A. R.'s within the limits of the little town with a fine
record to each one. So, for the benefit of those who may succeed the present
generation, and who may take pride in their noble ancestry, a more detailed
account has been written. There may be some omissions of facts, which could not
be gathered, but which might be of much interest. It is the regret of the writer
that such may be the case.
On Sunday July 4, 1779, the British invasion of East Haven occurred on Sunday, and as has always been the custom, the people proposed
celebrating it on the following Monday.
It is within the memory of the older
inhabitants that all New England observed Saturday night with great religious
precision; but Sunday night was of a holiday nature. It was now the third
anniversary of American Independence, and as New Haven had never celebrated this
great event to any extent, it was decided that this year it should be fittingly
observed; accordingly at "sundown Sunday" the people assembled in the middle
brick church to make arrangements. Everything was decided about 9 o'clock, and
the inhabitants were quietly retiring for their night's rest, when the booming
of a signal gun announced the approach of the enemy, and instead of its being a
day of celebration, it proved to be a day of defence.
It had been reported in
the town, that a fleet was preparing for the eastward, from New York. Commodore
Sir George Collier was commander-in-chief of all the British naval forces in
American waters, rendezvousing in New York. It was supposed this fleet was
destined for either Newport or New London, until they had passed Stratford and
nearly rounded into New Haven harbor, which was late in the evening of July 4th.
About midnight the whole fleet was at anchor, the large ships about a mile from
Southwest Ledge Lighthouse. The smaller vessels came into the mouth of the
harbor about 5 A. M., July 5th, which was then about high tide. The first
division of 1,500 men and four field pieces landed at Savin Rock (West Haven)
under Brigader-General Garth. As soon as the boats, which had landed the men on
the west shore, returned to the transports, they were filled with British
troops, and were rowing to the East shore, under command of General
Tryon.
Morris Gove or Point had long been a coveted and objective place to
the tories and British.
Long Island Sound was full of foraging and marauding
parties, from the war ships generally commanded by a British officer, led by
tories, who were well acquainted with the localities.
Cattle, sheep, and poultry
were killed or driven off, houses broken into and robbed, and not infrequently
heads of families captured and imprisoned.
Just before the invasion of New
Haven, Amos Morris, of Morris Point, was one of the victims of a raid made
on his place.
He and his son were awakened, and captured, taken to a boat in
waiting, and conveyed to the British with little clothing to protect them from
the night air, and finally lodged in one of the far-famed prison-ships, at that
time the terror of all captured Americans.
"While on their passage across the
sound, as daylight appeared, Morris recognized one of his captors as a
man who had lived in the town of East Haven, and had been for a time in his
employ. Turning to him with the same commanding air and tone of authority that
he was wont to assume when occasion demanded it and which few men ever wielded
with more effect, he exclaimed, 'And is it you, J! What do you mean, sir, by
this treatment?'
The tory, cowering at the captain's rebuke, replied, 'You
shan't be hurt, Squire, you shan't be hurt.' 'Hurt,' retorted the squire, 'What
do you call such treatment as this?Dragging a man from his bed, in the dead of the night, tearing him from his
family, plundering his house, exposing him, half-clad, to the air of the cold
night, in an open boat, is this no hurt, sir?' His son, taking courage from this
bold tone, and seeing its effect, cast his eye upon the plunder, and discovered
among it his father's coat, and threw it to him in the other end of the boat. It
was a time of more than ordinary solicitude on the part of the son for his
family, his wife being in delicate health, and profiting by the lesson of his
captors, he availed himself of a dark night to effect his escape. The effort
cost him many perils and hardships, but was in the end successful. Captain
Morris was subsequently liberated on his parole." [Morris Gen.]
The British
now pulling oar for the shore were about 1,500 men, composed of the 23d
Regiment, the Hessian, Landgrave, and King's American regiments and two pieces
of cannon.
As soon as the boats were within range, the fieldpiece, which a
company of East Haven patriots had hauled to the beach at Morris Point and was
masked, opened fire.
When half a mile from shore, the line of boats divided, one
division putting into Morris Cove.
On account of the well-served battery of
three guns on Black Rock Fort (now Fort Hale) they were compelled to land near
where the Grove House wharf is now built.
Tryon it appears landed here,
and from the top of the Palisades directed the storming of the Rock Fort.
The
other line of boats landed on the beach east of the outer rocky point, and as it
landed, an officer hailed the shore, shouting, "Disperse, ye rebels!" and the
next moment fell back into the boat dead, from the fire of this detachment, who
were armed with rifles. This was the first enemy killed on the East shore; he
was Adjutant Watkins of the King's American regiment.
As soon as life was
extinct, they buried him near the light house.
In fact that is what they did
with all those killed on the East shore.
It seemed to be their object to conceal
their loss from the patriots as soon as possible, and their dead were buried
along their line of march.
The main body after forming on the beach and throwing
out skirmishers, one party going along the Fowler Creek meadows, east side, and
the other along the beach, protected by a section of marines and sailors in
Morris Cove, took up its march.
As the advance guard of this division approached
the Morris mansion, they were frequently fired upon, and this grand old manor
house, built of stone, was the first to be consigned to the flames, together
with the barns and all other buildings.
When the alarm guns called to arms,
great fear and consternation seized all, aS it was evident that rapine and
murder would mark every step. The first thing to be done was to send the women
and children, with what valuables could be best collected and transported, to a
place of safety. Those who possessed horses quickly saddled and loaded them with
bags of household goods, while others filled oxcarts with the same, driven by
the mothers or older children, while the fathers and older sons seized their
guns, to go forth to harass and annoy the enemy.
The time of preparation was
so short that many heard the whistling of bullets from the guns of the enemy.
The experience of one family is nearly the same of all those fleeing to some
place of supposed safety. "Captain Morris and his men made every effort to
secure such loose or movable property as could be conveyed to secret places in
the short time allowed for such work. Some were hidden in ditches, some in a
bushy swale, and some were carried to the woods whither the stock had been
driven, excepting the swine, which took fright at the discharge of muskets, and
breaking out of the sty took shelter in a field of rye. They remained at the
house as long as prudence would permit, securing the property. His last act
before leaving was to spread a table with refreshments and luxuries for their
entertainment, with the hope of rendering them more favorably disposed toward
himself, and thus saving his buildings.
Being now about to leave he cast a
glance out of the door, and saw a company of redcoats, within a stone's throw,
advancing towards the houses. 'They are upon us,' he exclaimed; and with his
hired men made their retreat under cover of the house, until they gained a stone
wall. By this time the house was no longer between them and the enemy and a
rapid fire was immediately opened upon them. The stone wall protected them,
until they reached a pair of bars in the wall; as they passed this, they were
greeted with a shower of bullets, but escaped all injury. One of the balls
struck a rail just above Mr. Morris' head and grooved out its center.
The rail
remained in its place on the farm till 1845, when that portion showing the mark
of the ball was placed with the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford.
He
now escaped into the woods just beyond, and finally joined his family. His
house, barns, and buildings for the manufacture of salt and cider, and for
storing goods, were burned, inflicting a loss of more than £1,235.
A short
time after the war, Morris had occasion to visit the state prison, and
to his surprise discovered among the prisoners the man who betrayed him at the
time of his capture by the British.
'What! is it you, J?' he exclaimed, 'and
have you come to this?' Not another word was spoken; but calling to mind the
noble revenge prescribed in the gospel, he drew from his pocket a golden coin,
and saw the tory brush away a tear as he received it." [Morris Gen.] This same
fellow was engaged in a raid on the house of Capt. Ebenezer Dayton, in Bethany,
Connecticut, with five others, headed by a British officer, five of whom were
caught, tried, convicted and sentenced to Newgate prison.
The march from the
Point to the Palisades was rapid and destructive. The Pardee houses, and one
belonging to the brother of Captain Morris were fired, and destroyed; Jacob
Pardee's house was held for a short time as Tryon's headquarters. The Pardees
had barely time to throw into an oxcart their valuables, which they buried in
Bridge swamp, a few rods northeast of Jeddy Andrews' house. The enemy destroyed
everything in their wake; but several of them had fallen and were hastily buried
in the thick woods just off the road.
The earthworks on Beacon Hill and at Black
Rock Fort were the only obstacles that this powerful land and sea force had to
oppose them. The enemy did not get possession of the Rock Fort until its brave
defenders had expended all their ammunition.
The fort was stormed by Tryon's
land force, and at the same time their shipping drew up and attacked it from the
harbor. The fort had only 19 men, under the command of Lieutenant Bishop, and
three pieces of artillery, yet was defended as long as reason or valor dictated,
and then the patriots spiked and dismounted the guns, and retreated northward,
but were outnumbered and captured, when not far distant. Everything in the Cove
was now in blazing or smoking ruins, and the advance guard of the main body was
marching up what is now Townsend avenue, a road of only two rods width thickly
set on each side with bushes, stone, and in some places a Virginia rail fence,
forming an excellent covert, from which the patriots were firing on the enemy
with much execution.
The next house after leaving the Cove was Joseph
Tuttle's, standing opposite the present Townsend homestead.
Tuttle owned the
farm extending from Black Rock to Beacon Hill, which he sold to the Townsends in
1709.
Tuttle and his eldest son, Josiah, a lad not yet seventeen, were in
the fort defending it.
Both were now prisoners of war.
His son was a regularly
enlisted soldier, having joined Captain Phineas Bradley's company when only
sixteen years and four months old.
The British on both sides of the harbor were
led by Joshua Chandler's sons.
William Chandler led those on the West side, and Tom Chandler,
those on the East side.
Chandler was acquainted with Tuttle and knew the
ground well, having hunted it over, often, with the boys on the East side.
On
coming to his house, Chandler told the officer this was Tuttle's house, and
pointed him out.
The officer told Tuttle they would burn his house and
everything surrounding it, if he would not lay down his arms, and promise he
would not take them up again.
He replied:
"Not forall the gold in the British kingdom."
A shout rang out,
"Run the rebel
through."
He raised his right hand high above his head and said,
"By all the
laws of civilized warfare you are bound to protect your prisoners."
The officer
then asked,
"What are you fighting for, anyway?"
"God and my right," was his
reply.
The same shout rang out the second time.
The officer, waving his sword,
said,
"No, you cannot do that; that is the King's motto, and you cannot do it,
but he will get his rights in the old hulk Jersey."
Our troops were forced
back step by step.
Some of the East Haven patriots had fallen back on the road
east of Prospect Hill; others remained with the main body, fighting and
disputing every inch of the way, and keeping up a galling fire upon the British
from bushes and hedges in front and flank; and from this point there was
continual slaughter until the earthworks on Beacon Hill were carried.
The
patriot forces were about equally divided, some in the road, and some in the
fields, keeping back the skirmishers and sending an occasional volley into the
advance guard, always with effect. There were two fieldpieces, under the gallant
Lieutenant Pierpont; these would open a raking fire, and then be rapidly hauled
back by the brave patriots, and then moved to a new position, each shot making a
swath through the ranks of the invaders.
The Tuttle house, barns, outhouses
and fields of ripened grain were now in a fierce blaze.
On the site of the
present residence of Mr. Asa L. Fabrique, the British met with a severe check.
At this point was a clump of bushes and towards the road a brush hedge.
About 40
of the patriots masked themselves behind this hedge. Below, our troops were hard
pressed, as the enemy's cannon were better served, and it was decided to make
one more stand, fire, and fall back up the road to the intrenchment on Beacon
Hill, where they had sent their cannon. As the enemy followed, the party behind
the fence were to welcome them with a shower of leaden hail, and then fall back
to the hill. The stand was made when the enemy were midway between the Mitchell
and Townsend houses.
The order was given to fire, which they did with
considerable effect. A general stampede took place as agreed upon; but Adam
Thorp of North Haven said "he would not run another step for all Great Britain."
He loaded and fired his piece and the next instant fell, pierced with many
bullets.
He was the first one of the patriots killed from the East side, of whom
we have any record.
Afterwards the spot was marked with a stone thus inscribed:
"Here fell Adam Thorp, July 5th, 1779."
His great-grandson, Sheldon Thorp, says
he was buried in North Haven.
This check brought the whole division to a
halt, and after the smoke had cleared away, the patriots were seen retreating
toward the hill, and the division advanced at double quick. The advance guards
had passed the patriots in the bushes, when Captain Bradley said, "Wait till you
see their eyes, then fire and run." This was done with great effect.
The street
was strewn with killed and wounded.
The patriots, who fell back to the hill,
were pursued by the British in hot haste; they lost one of their field pieces,
but the other now opened upon the enemy, causing them to halt under the
depression of the hill, out of range, a few rods north of Mr. E. J. Upson's
residence.
There lying flat on the ground, out of harm's way, they rested, till
reinforcements came up; the hill was stormed, the patriots falling back, some
northwards towards the ferry, others to the heights, and to Lake Saltonstall.
The
fighting on the East side was now practically over, but the burning and
devastation by the British continued to the water's edge.
The dead were many,
buried in the rye lands on the west side of the road, north of the Tuttle home;
the spot being burned over, the locality of the graves was not discovered.
Many
wounded soldiers were seen being taken to the boats, and carried on board the
fleet, and it was supposed that the dead were removed, in order to hide their
great loss.
The next house north of the Tuttle house was that of John
Woodward, Sr., which they burned, with all the out-buildings.
The site was where
the old Woodward mansion stands, now owned by C. Edward Woodward.
Tryon
made Beacon Hill his headquarters, sending one detachment north to Turtle's Hill
(now the site of the reservoir of the New Haven Water Company) and another to
the lower ferry, now called Tomlinson's bridge.
The next house on the line of
march was that of John Woodward, Jr. (the site of the present residence of
Collis B. Granniss), which they also burned.
After pillaging and burning this
house, their march was towards the lower ferry, kept by Henry Freeman Hughes.
His house was directly opposite the brick residence of the late Samuel Forbes,
on what is now Samuel Forbes's avenue.
It happened at this time that two of Mr. Hughes'
sons, John and Daniel, had gone into the country to Simsbury, to visit their
brother, who had removed thither a year previous.
Their object was to see the
country with the intent to each buy a farm if sufficiently pleased.
On the alarm
of the approach of the British, his only daughter, Abigail, and John's wife
filled bags of the valuables of the house, and placing them on a horse, fled to
the woods, where they remained over night.
This took the remaining horse, and
left nothing to propel the scow ferry boat. The enemy came rushing on to the
ferry. Mr. Hughes was alone with his invalid wife, who was a cripple, and had
not walked a step for years. She was greatly alarmed, and fearing she would be
taken and killed persuaded him to desist from his purpose of fleeing.
The
advance guard rushed into his fields of grain and corn, trampling and destroying
both.
They broke open and scattered his flour and sugar, pitched his pork about
with their bayonets, and let out his molasses and rum till his cellar was shoe
deep with the mixture.
They also abused him, one soldier piercing his ear with a
bayonet.
When the officers came up, while the blood was still trickling down on
his shoulder, he went out and asked protection.
They said: "Are you a friend to
King George?"
He replied, "I am."
Then they told him no further violence would
be done, and placed a guard around his house.
From this circumstance, his
brother-in-law, Joseph Tuttle, before mentioned, called him a tory, which the
family justly resented and denied.
Mr. Hughes did not keep a store, but like
many other men in the maritime towns of Connecticut was interested in West-India
shipping, and he kept staple groceries and provisions on hand, for his own use,
and the accommodation of those who did not wish to cross the ferry to New Haven.
His house always afforded accommodation for those who desired it, when prevented
from crossing by adverse winds or tides; or, having spent the day in travel,
wayfarers would pass the night with him before entering the city.
Jehiel
Forbes' stone mansion was the next place upon which the British wreaked their
vengeance.
After breaking and destroying everything possible, they burned out
the interior, leaving only the blackened walls of this beautiful home.
The next
house to be destroyed was Elam Luddington's — a new house just completed,
standing on the site nearest the water's edge on the north side of the road.
Luddington was the fourth heaviest loser by this invasion.
The next and last
house to be destroyed was Timothy Tuttle's, standing on the shore south of
Forbes avenue where a small stone house now stands.
The walls of this house were
stone, so it was not entirely destroyed.
Timothy Tuttle was a brother of Joseph
Tuttle.
Gurdon Bradley of East Haven had a sloop lying at a wharf in front of Timothy Tuttle's house, which they also burned.
They had now reached the water's
edge, and there was nothing more they could burn and destroy.
Every house and
building from Morris Point to Tomlinson's bridge had been swept by the flames,
excepting the Hughes house, which they now made officers' quarters.
Tryon sent a detachment to occupy the village of East Haven, but the enemy's
advance only reached the stone meetinghouse, which they ransacked for plate,
and then fell back to the hill, near the present residence of L. F. Richmond.
Several shots were exchanged between the patriots and British, for when the
old Bradley house (the site of the present Levi Bradley home) was taken down,
many bullet holes were found in the timbers.
When the patriots retreated from
Beacon Hill they were pursued in hot haste by some British skirmishers, and
Chandler Pardee, a son of Mr. Jacob Pardee, was shot on the fresh meadows, a
ball entering one lung, and he was left on the field for dead. Soon after he was
taken to the Governor Saltonstall house, where Dr. Hubbard extracted the ball,
and he recovered to tell the story while a prisoner in New York, to the same
party of soldiers who had left him dying, as they supposed, on the field.
Not
far from the place where Pardee fell lived Samuel Tuttle, who with his
neighbours had marched to meet the foe.
Satisfied the day was lost, he returned
home and started with a cart load of household effects to conceal in a quarry,
east of the Pardee's or upper ferry, near the home of William Day. While Tuttle
and Day were storing away their goods, the Chandler Pardee pursuers passed Mr.
Tuttle's house, which they set on fire. Mrs. Tuttle rushed out with her children
into the tall grass. She saw the regulars aiming their muskets, when she called
to her children "to lie down in the grass, and say their prayers, as they had
but one minute to live." The next instant the whole volley went over their
heads. The pursuers passed on, and the neighbors put out the fire with water
from the brook. This party made a circuit of the peat meadows and, coming back,
found Day and Tuttle, and made them prisoners. They slaughtered Tuttle's cattle;
Day being an Englishman, they permitted him to escape, after he had shown them a
spring of water, in the rear of Mr. G. E. Lancraft's house, saying, "When I am
drinking, I can't see all that passes." Tuttle was carried to New York, where he
was paroled after six months.
The detachment sent to what is now Reservoir
Hill found the fieldpiece used on Beacon Hill; this the patriots had hauled
there on their retreat, fired a number of times, but finally spiked and rolled
down the hill into the bushes near Mr. Roswell Lancraft's house, now called
Burwell street. This was sent on board the fleet. This detachment busied
themselves with roasting an ox on the hill in the evening, which was distributed
among the different corps. On the site of the present N. W. Kendall mansion,
forty different animals were slaughtered, with pigs and poultry in great
abundance, all of which were sent on board the fleet. After the enemy had left,
Mr. Isaac Pardee took from this hill the sheep and cattle skins and had them
tanned. The detachment sent to Ferry Hill, now near Quinnipiac bridge, seemed to
destroy little, as there was only one house on the line of their march; and for
some reason they did not burn that which is still standing, on South Quinnipiac
street, No. 332, for the last sixty years known as the Goodyear house.
The
condition of affairs in the harbor at a little after two o'clock in the
afternoon when General Tryon reached Beacon Hill was about this.
A line of
British ships lay anchored the whole length of the bay, with springs on their
cables, and guns run out on both sides, ready to belch forth fire and
destruction as soon as the expected order should be given to fire the town.
General Tryon kept chiefly on the East side; but crossed over to New Haven
before sunset, holding a council of war with General Garth and Commodore
Collier. The council now found their losses in officers and men had been heavy,
and the patriots, better armed than they expected, had made a stubborn
resistance; that the country around New Haven being hilly, it was not safe to go
any farther inland for forage; that large reinforcements, with heavy cannon,
were actually occupying high ground about the north part of the city and that
the militia were coming in from all directions. The harbor was shoal, and many
of the vessels at this time, 8 p. M., were touching bottom, and one large vessel
did actually lie on her broadside guns, just out of water. It was decided to
hold the north and west part of the town over night, with the balance of the
tired and drunken soldiers, who were collected on the Green, having been
commanded to lie on their arms all night. General Garth fearing his men would
become too drunk to remain safe on shore, proposed to Tryon to go on board that
night, but Tryon refused.
Affairs at 9 p. M. July 5th were in the worst
possible condition, as the British soldiers were mostly all drunk and lying in
the open air on the Green, surrounded by a few sober ones, who stood guard to
keep them from getting more rum.
The officers were at a banquet at the house of
Joshua Chandler, the father of William and Tom, who acted as pilots for the
British. At one o'clock in the morning of July 6th the troops were ordered to
parade, and the tories were notified of the departure. About forty people left
with the British, the Chandlers among the number. It is well they did, for had
they remained not one of the three would have lived to see the setting sun. The
enemy was in a constant state of alarm, and were all concentrated within a
hollow square of sentinels for the night. It has since been believed, that had
the patriot militia known the state of things they could have come into town
about midnight and made the whole division prisoners. The withdrawal of the
British from the town has been described as partaking of the ridiculous—the
drunken, reeling soldiers trying to keep in line, carts and wagons and even
wheelbarrows being used to get them to the boats. Drunkenness has not been
ascribed to the enemy on the East side, and certainly they did not appreciate,
or appropriate, Mr. Hughes' rum, which they let out in his cellar with his
molasses.
On the morning of the 6th of July they called in their outposts and
the march of the main body began before sunrise.
Some of the troops went
directly to the shipping, others who were sober enough crossed the ferry and
joined General Tryon's division on Beacon Hill, and the whole body left the hill
about noon Tuesday.
As the last boat shoved off from the East Haven shore, the
Pardee house at Morris Cove, in which officers had been posted, was standing.
This boat was ordered back to fire the house, and every house from Morris Cove
to lower ferry, except one in which officers had been quartered, was burned.
It
seems that when the last ship left the pier, she fired several shots at the
town, as a parting salute, while sailing down the bay, and as she was passing
Black Rock Fort, which had been re-occupied by the patriots, as well as the
earthworks on Beacon Hill, she rounded to and fired a whole broadside at the
fort. Many balls bounded as far as Beacon Hill, one of which struck Isaac
Pardee, aged twenty-two, severing his head clear from the body. He was just
ascending the hill, on the street side, with Mr. Smith of South End, having gone
to a spring to bring water. Smith says they heard the report of the firing; he
turned with Pardee to look, saw the ball and dodged it but it carried away
Pardee's head. Pardee and Thorp are the only ones of those who were killed of
whom any record is given. Chandler Pardee of the East side was wounded but
recovered. If there were any wounded or killed at Black Rock Fort, no record has
been made of it, so far as is known. The estimate made of the enemy's losses
during the invasion sums up two hundred in killed, wounded and missing. As to
the missing, it is an established fact that many Hessians deserted and remained
in New Haven, choosing honorable trades and becoming good citizens. There were
certainly several of the British killed and wounded while landing, also others
in the woods north of Morris Cove and back of Prospect Hill, where they were
quickly buried. East Haven patriots said the loss was heavy after Thorp
fell.
While widening Townsend avenue in June, 1870, this tradition of the
slaughter was well sustained by the discovery of human bones.
These remains were
proved not to be Indians by Dr. T. Beers Townsend, who was on the spot when the
graves were opened, and who made a most careful examination. While the doctor
was making a critical study of the bones, Capt. Charles H. Townshend thoroughly
searched the graves with a spade, and was rewarded by finding a number of German
silver buttons, about the size of a dime. Acopper coin was also found, about the size of an English half-penny, known
as a stiver. It had a hole in the circumference, and was probably worn on a
string around the neck.
On the face side is the motto, "Dominus Auxit Notnen"
("The Lord increased our glory"), in its center a man with a mantle about his
loins, left hand on his hip, in his right hand a sword, drawn over his head, as
if to strike. On the opposite side is a laurel wreath, with the word in the
center HOLLANLIA. Dr. J. Edwards of Yale University, an expert, and the best
authority, says this coin was struck off in Holland, a province of the
Netherlands, between the years 1648 and 1795. A pompon socket of brass,
bell-shaped, was also found. It had upon it No. 8 or 5, with these letters, D.
M. A. U. X. The captain says, "These relics satisfy me that these were the
graves of soldiers, of Tryon's division." He further verified this idea by
subsequently "obtaining in an old print store in Paris, some colored engravings
of the uniforms worn by the Hessian Landgraves, a regiment of which was a part
of the second division of Tryon's army, which participated in the engagement on
the East Haven Shore." March 22, 1879, tne captain made a visit to Europe, and
in London made an exhaustive search of the records in the colonial office;
obtaining much valuable information, and many copies of events and war
correspondence, which had never been published in America.
To Capt. Charles H.
Townshend the whole community is indebted for rescuing from oblivion the account
of New Haven's invasion, historical as well as traditional, the latter supported
and confirmed by records, from which copious extracts have been made, in this
work, and to whom the thanks of the compiler are gratefully due.
The enemy's
loss on the East Haven side was perhaps greater in proportion to the patriots
killed and wounded than on the New Haven side.
The East Haven men were most
excellent marksmen from long practice of hunting, and everyone carried his own
often-tried Queen Anne musket.
They knew every inch of advantage ground and,
with their long range guns, could keep but of the enemy's fire and do good
execution, as they were fighting for their own hearthstone and families.
On the
other hand, they were greater sufferers than those of New Haven.
Everything but
the soil was destroyed; homes burned, crops destroyed, animals of all kinds
killed, and destruction everywhere.
Who can describe the feelings of those
mothers who fled for safety with their children, when they returned?
Not a
shingle left for shelter, or a mouthful of food, save the little they took with
them!
Everything in ashes, excepting the few household effects in the returning
oxcart! Fortunately the weather was warm, and the devastation did not extend
over the whole town, but a clean sweep was made as far as the enemy marched.
The
present line of the street railway is mainly the same route that the British
took from Morris Point to Pardee's ferry (now Quinnipiac bridge), through Ferry
street to Neck bridge, at the head of State street, New Haven.
At that time this
was the only bridge between New Haven and East Haven.
The earthworks on
Beacon Hill and Black Rock Fort were quickly occupied, even before Tryon's
forces reached the water, and a lively fire was kept up between Beacon Hill and
the galleys as they passed out of the harbor.
This accounts for the numerous
cannon balls and shot formerly plowed out in the fields on the East side. A
garrison was still kept at the fort. April 18, 1781, a very thick foggy night,
the British, led by tories who were acquainted with the locality, came in with
muffled oars, surprised the garrison, killed the sentry, John Howe, and made the
men prisoners. They then turned the guns towards the magazine, and setting a
slow match, rowed off to an awaiting vessel. Mr. Joseph Turtle had always done
coast guard duty at night at the fort, but this night he had a very sick child
at home, who was not expected to live until morning, so he sent his second
eldest boy, a lad about thirteen, in his place. He went out at daybreak, and
glancing towards the fort, saw a small blue stream of smoke issuing from it;
losing no time, as he reached the place the fuse had only a foot more to burn,
when the whole magazine would have exploded and wrecked the fort. Seizing the
fuse, he threw it into the water and thus saved the structure.
This time he had
two sons captured, one eighteen, an enlisted soldier, and one thirteen.
He,
immediately went to New York with a flag of truce, and with the aid of some
English captains, whom he knew, succeeded in releasing his younger son. His
older one, on account of his youth, was taken out of the prison ship and placed
as a waiter to an officer, when he made good his chance, and escaped. He fled up
Long Island, until he thought he was about opposite New Haven, where he hired
out at gd. per day. He worked until he earned enough to buy cloth for a coat,
which he cut out with a jackknife, and made it in a barn. Thus equipped he took
a boat and rowed across the Sound, landing at the Lighthouse.
A garrison was
kept at the fort until the close of the war. On October 19, 1781, General
Cornwallis surrendered his whole army to Washington, which practically ended the
struggle, although there was still some fighting, but nothing of note occurred.
The British held for two years or more the cities of New York, Charleston and
Savannah. September 3, 1783, a treaty of peace was signed at Paris, which
conceded all that the Declaration of Independence had proclaimed; and the new
nation, now called "The United States of America," took its place among the
nations of the earth.
No doubt there are many interesting incidents connected
with the fleeing women and children if they could be collected, and yet the
experience of one is typical of all. In the writer's family, at the present
time, is a silver tablespoon, which was buried on what is now the Townsend farm
by Mrs. Joseph Tuttle, in a large iron kettle, used to boil sea water to make
salt, which had become scarce during the late years of the war. She took the
money of the house in one hand and her silverware in the other, saying, "I will
bury one and take the other, maybe I can save one"; as it happened she saved
both. They packed this great kettle full of valuables of the household, and
buried it among the currant bushes. They then drove off in the oxcart, with her
six children, one a babe in arms, to the woods in the north part of the town,
where they all passed the night. Here they stayed until the departure of the
British, who took with them her husband and son as prisoners from Black Rock
Fort. No mention has ever been made of robbing and abusing women on the East
side, because they all fled out of the way.
The British had stationed a
signal corps on Prospect Hill, directly back of the Townsend home, out of which
the next day the commander and two of his men were picked off by Capt. Jedediah
Andrews and some of his neighbors. The morning of the 6th a very dense fog hung
over the land, and Mr. Andrews and others crept along under cover of the bushes,
and picked off each his man, while they were roasting a sheep for their
breakfast. Their remains were buried at the foot of the hill, and for a long
time a large red boulder marked the place.
The following story has often been
told, among other reminiscences, of an East Haven Bradley, and Captain Townshend
gives it as coming from an old Mr. Pinto who saw it.
"While sitting in his door,
a finely-dressed officer in red uniform came riding down Elm street, and turned
up State, toward Grove. Just then a Mr. Bradley, from East Haven, came from a
direction which is now Grand avenue, on horseback, with loaded musket, all
primed. Seeing the officer, he levelled his piece and fired. The officer dropped
off his horse and Bradley rode up to him, took the officer's sword, and gave him
several cuts over the head. He then took the officer's horse, and on his own
rode out of town." The officer crawled into a yard, where some of his comrades
found him.
Very little, if anything, has been related about tories in East
Haven and it is doubtful if there were any; if there were, they were in no way
active.
Henry F. Hughes' second son was a tory.
He was a merchant, residing in New Haven,
and persisted in selling tea. Complaint was entered against William Glen and
Freeman Hughes, Jr., and both were cited to appear before the committee of the
Continental Association. Glen pleaded guilty and begged to be restored to favor;
but Hughes would not appear to make his defense, whereupon the evidence was
called and sworn:—
"On motion voted that the evidence is sufficient to
convict Freeman Hughes jun. of a breach of the association, by buying and
selling Tea:—and ordered that he being advertised, that no person have any
further dealing or intercourse with
him."
Joh'th Fitch, Chairman,
Test, Peter Colt, Clerk.
When the British left New Haven, he with his wife and two children went
with them.
So bitter was the feeling of the family that they never afterwards
would hold any communication with him or his family. And so strongly did his
brother, Daniel Hughes, feel on the subject that he would never allow a dust of
tea in his house. Although he lived to be 83 years old, dying in 1842, and was
married three times, yet none of his wives ever enjoyed a cup of tea at his
table. Being a man of means, and a very hospitable one, he set an abundant
table, to which everyone was welcome, but tea was conspicuous by its absence.
"Had disgrace and trouble enough with the stuff," he always said. Chocolate was
his substitute at the evening meal. Mr. Hughes' store of goods was either
destroyed or removed to the vessels in the harbor, probably the latter. His real
estate was confiscated, and the whole transaction brought much financial trouble
upon the family.
It has often been asserted that rum saved the
city of New Haven from the flames.
No doubt it was quite a factor in the matter,
but the real savior was Col. Edmund Fanning, who was a son-in-law of General
Tryon, and commanded the King's American regiment.
He was a graduate of Yale,
having spent four years in New Haven, and was well acquainted with tory and
patriot.
Then too, perhaps, he possessed the "Yale spirit," which could not see
his Alma Mater destroyed. His influence, coupled with that of some influential
tories, saved the city.
The first mention of the site of Fort Hale, which
was a bold trap rock of basaltic formation, was in 1657.
It was then thought to
be useful for defensive purposes, and the records show it was made a coast guard
station in 1659, mounted with "great guns."
The Black Rock Fort of the
Revolution was constructed early in the year of 1775 on this site, and manned
with cannon made in Salisbury, Connecticut.
Although the site is considered
of no defensive use at the present time, yet in the Revolution it did good work
in keeping off plundering and foraging parties from the warships constantly
moving up and down the Sound.
Its capture in 1779, and subsequent history, has
been related in the invasion of that date. After the close of the Revolution in
1783, these fortifications were dismantled, save a gun or two, and allowed to go
to ruin.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the war cloud was
threatening Europe, the idea was originated, in our own land, of fortifying the
whole Atlantic coast of the United States, and money was voted in 1808 by
Congress to erect a new fort on this ancient site for the defence of New Haven
Harbor.
In 1808, the United States government ordered a battery to be built
on the site of the old Black Rock Fort at New Haven, as the channels had
deepened there. The fort was to hold six guns, the barracks forty men; $6,295
was paid by Congress for the fortification in 1809. Reported in December, 1811,
as an elliptic enclosure battery of masonry, mounting six guns, brick magazines,
brick barracks for fifty men, and officers in a field outside the fort. At the
commencement of the War of 1812, the fort was garrisoned with seventy-eight
artillerymen and named Fort Hale. The garrison at this fort was at no time in a
regular engagement, yet on several occasions it opened fire on British ships in
the offing, and forced them to "haul off." During the time from 18121814,
Commodore Hardy's British fleet of twenty sail were kept at bay by the guns of
this fort. On receipt of the news of the Treaty of Ghent the guns of Forts Hale
and Wooster proclaimed the glad tidings. They were the last guns ever fired from
either place.
After the war, Capt. John A. Thomas was appointed custodian,
residing with his family in the barracks and dying there in 1840. The barracks
accidentally took fire and were burned in 1850. About 1855 Mr. J. A. Stock
rebuilt the brick barracks, which he and his employees occupied while
manufacturing was carried on in the vicinity. When the War of the Rebellion
broke out, government took possession of the property, demolished the old fort
and rocky promontory, cut a ditch through the rocks from the moat, and
builta new earthworks fort, armed with Dahlgren guns, costing $125,000. This was
built under the direction of Lieutenant Mansfield, United States Engineer,
superintended by P. Ferguson and Hemingway Smith, the latter of East Haven. It
was completed about the close of the war, but was never garrisoned. In 1867 the
public property and tools were sold. The Farrel works of Ansonia, Connecticut,
bought the guns, to be melted up for other purposes. The wooden barracks and
buildings were shipped in sections to Newport, Rhode Island, and the whole
reservation, later on, was imparked, by the consent of the United States, into
Fort Hale Park.
East Haven had now obtained the long contested and much coveted desire to be
a separate town, and it now settled down to its industries and pursued the even
tenor of its way, dispensing its routine business of town affairs without
friction or controversy.
The water bounds between New Haven and East Haven were
settled in 1789.
The line is in the middle of Quinnipiac river and along the
channel of the harbor to the sea.
In 1789 the town granted the owners of the
salt meadows the privilege of building a dam across the Stoney river at the
lower narrows.
The first account of any bridge building is in the
year 1644, which was the first in East Haven.
In 1644 a bridge was built over
Stoney river, on the road to Totoket, by William Andrews, for which he charged
the town of New Haven £3 8s. gd.
The first
improvement to present itself in connection with New Haven after the separation
was a bridge over the Quinnipiac river at some convenient point for both towns.
A committee was appointed to oppose it, but without effect.
The people
considered the days of ferries were numbered. After due deliberation and an
agreement with New Haven, the two towns decided to locate the bridge where one
has ever since been maintained, at the corner of Quinnipiac street and Grand
avenue, now known as The Grand street bridge.
The bridge was built in
1790.
On August 29, 1791, the town surveyed a road leading to the
new bridge from what is now the Four Corners to North Haven line, now known as
North and South Quinnipiac streets.
In order to reach New Haven before this, by
team, they left Main street at Peat Meadow road, and followed round to the East
side, where the reservoir now is, through present Burwell street to Russell
street, thence through that rough, crooked road to Fair Haven. Probably this was
an old Indian trail, which formed the basis of many of the winding roads in New
England.
The bridge was opened as a toll bridge.
This was very distasteful to
the people of the neighboring towns, and others, who absolutely refused to pay
toll.
Samuel Davenport was appointed to show cause why the people of East Haven
should not pay toll to the bridge.
After much altercation the remonstrance came
to nothing.
A little time after, one very dark rainy night, the toll gates
disappeared and were nevermore found.
The public benefactor who carted off the
gates was generally believed to be a daring young farmer in the neighborhood; no
inquiry was made, however, by either town, and the bridge was forever free.
The
ferries were now abandoned.
In 1796 a grant was made
by the General Assembly for a bridge at the new or lower ferry, to Enos Hemingway, Stephen Woodward and others.
This has always been known as
Tomlinson's bridge, named from the man who contracted to build it.
"16th Feb.
1797. At a Proprietors' meeting, granted to Enos Hemingway, Stephen Woodward and
company, of the bridge, the flats, 187 feet in width, from the landing where the
lower Ferry hath lately been kept, running westward to the channel, on which a
bridge of 27 feet in width is to be built on the centre, and the remainder for
the perpetual use of the company for wharves, stores, &c. so long as the
said bridge shall be built and be kept in good repair."
This bridge was built
by shareholders and kept as a toll bridge until 1889. Through the strenuous and
long-continued efforts of Mr. Alfred Hughes, commencing in 1872, it became free
January 1, 1889.
Second Grand Street Br1dge.
About 1855 the Grand-street
bridge needed so much repairing it was considered best to contemplate and
prepare to erect a new bridge.
No definite action was taken until November 24,
1858, when a special town meeting was held and it was voted "To appoint a
Committee to confer with a Committee appointed by the Town of New Haven relative
to building a new bridge in Fair Haven. George Hultz, James C. Woodward and
Samuel T. Andrews were appointed that committee." After viewing different
bridges, and obtaining much information on the subject, they made a lengthy
report in favor of Whipple's iron bridge.
On May 3, 1860, a pecial Town-meeting voted to build a new bridge in Fair Haven, over Quinnipiac River, to
correspond with that portion of the bridge to be built by New Haven.
Voted,
William H. Shipman, Wyllis Hemingway, and Charles A. Bray be and they are hereby
authorized a committee with full power and authority to contract for, and in the
name of the Town of East Haven in connection with New Haven, one of 'Whipple's
Iron Bridges.'" (E. H. Town Rec.)
In 1871 agitation
commenced respecting building another draw bridge over The Quinnipiac river. May, 1872,
the legislature passed an act to build a bridge over Quinnipiac river.
Dec.
5th, 1872. Voted, "That the three Bridge Commissioners required by the act of
the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, passed at its May session
1872, are hereby appointed by ballot, viz: Edward A. Mitchell 1st Commissioner,
E. Edwin Hall 2nd, and Edwin Granniss 3rd Comm.
Sept. nth, 1873. The
Commissioners appointed reported concurrent action with the City of New Haven,
in locating said bridge, and have prepared plans &c. for the building of the
same, so that the City of New Haven and Town of East Haven can enter contracts
for building said Bridge.
Therefore resolved that Edward A. Mitchell, E. Edwin
Hall and Edwin Granniss are appointed a Committee on the part of the Town of
East Haven to jointly contract with the City of New Haven for the construction
of said Bridge." (E. H. Town Rec.)
Proceedings were not rapid, but the work
was commenced, and October 4, 1875, the selectmen were authorized and empowered
to borrow money on the credit of the town, such sums to complete the new
Quinnipiac bridge and approaches.
The bridge was completed in 1876, and bonds
issued.
Dyke Br1dge, Farm R1ver.
On March 18th, 1876, it was voted that the sum of
$2,250 be appropriated to pay for East Haven's portion of said bridge, and
approaches.
The Selectmen are instructed and authorized to lay out and work the
highway leading from the plains road to said bridge, and assess benefits and
damages. Voted to pay E. Ellsworth Thompson $200 to satisfy his claim of
damages." (E. H. Town Rec.)
On July 25, 1876, at a special
town meeting the condition of the stone arch bridge was taken into
consideration, and a committee appointed by the chair, consisting of Alfred
Hughes, Willet Hemingway and Timothy Andrews, to consider what was best to be
done about the stone arch bridge.
On July 31, 1876, Alfred Hughes, chairman of the committee, reported that
it was the unanimous opinion, that there was no other way but to rebuild the stone arch bridge.
It was in a very dangerous condition, the sand had washed out five feet
under the abutment, and that it hung shelving with danger of falling any
day.
Voted, "The Selectmen be authorized and instructed to build a bridge,
with 28 ft. in the clear, the foundation to go down to solid rock. The work to
be done as soon as possible, also given power to contract and receive proposals
for the same." (E. H. Town Rec.)
On Oct. 7th, 1878, it was voted that the
Selectmen cooperate with New Haven in building a new bridge at Lewis Bridge, and
a sum not to exceed $2000. be appropriated." (£. H. Town Rec.)
On May 23rd, 1004 it was voted that the Selectmen cooperate with
the selectmen of Branford in building the draw bridge at East Haven River and Farmer River.
As
this bridge was ordered by the United States Government, there was no other way
than to comply with the demand.
The village of Fair Haven grew very fast
after the bridge was built, and within a few years had a large trade with the
surrounding towns, and was a very busy place.
Horace R. Hotchkiss had one of the
largest and best stores for dry goods and groceries in the county, and carried
on an extensive trade.
The town had shared its municipal offices and honors with
the village equally.
It was the custom to alternate the representative to the
legislature with each part of the town, and village, but the seat of government
was at the center of the town.
About the year 1840, the daughter, like many
another precocious one, concluded it was time for the mother to resign the reins
of government into the hands of the daughter. Accordingly a town meeting was
called to remove the seat to Fair Haven.
This caused a tremendous buzzing in the
hive, and everyone was at white heat with spread wings. So sure were the Fair
Haveners of success, that they brought with them a set of colors and a band of
music, concealed in a wagon.
The old town arose, and shaking her locks, roared
forth a healthy No!
So the Fair Haveners went home a sadder but a wiser people
and thus saved their colors and music for a better occasion.
This experiment was
never tried again.
In 1857 the town was divided into two voting districts: East
Haven proper was First District and Fair Haven was Second District.
This was for
general elections, but all business and special town meetings were held in East
Haven.
Until 1841 East Haven had no place for miscellaneous
public gatherings.
The first town meeting was held in the stone meetinghouse but that
was an extra occasion, and dignified with a sermon by its pastor.
There is no
account that this was repeated.
According to Episcopal rules, their churches
being consecrated can only be opened for religious purposes.
Previous to
1841, town meetings were held at private houses. While Josiah Bradley was the
"Squire of the town" they were held in his house, in a very large old room, said
to have been used as a meeting place before the first meetinghouse was built in
1706. The site of the house is where the Bailey house now stands. Afterwards,
town meetings were held in the unused bar room of the old Gurdon Bradley tavern,
in the center of the town, subsequently the home of Mr. Ruel Andrews. He was a
man much in public affairs and so opened, his house for the good of the public.
The town did not see its way to aid in the matter, so a few public-spirited men
concluded to remedy the want by building a town hall by stockholders at $15 per
share. Not that they expected it to be a paying investment, but for a public
convenience, as some of the younger men declared they would not vote in "Aunt
Molly Gurdon's kitchen" any longer. It was a proud day for East Haven when the
first town meeting was held in the town hall in 1842.
Jan. 10th, 1866. Voted,
"That Bradley Pardee and Charles A. Bray be and are hereby appointed as a
Committee to purchase in the name and behalf of the Town of East Haven the Town
Hall property, so called. Provided it can be secured on reasonable and judicious
terms." (£. H. Town Rec.)
The property was secured to the town. April 30,
1864, Deacon Ruel Andrews passed away, in the 18th year of his town clerkship.
He was a manof unusual enterprise, industry and integrity, holding the higher offices
of church and town. East Haven had only two town clerks in the 58 preceding
years.
At the next annual town meeting, Charles A. Bray was chosen town clerk.
Mr. Bray's residence and business were in Fair Haven, so of course the town
records had to be removed there. This caused a twinge of regret to the older men
of the center, but as it was a square deal, and Mr. Bray was popular in both
sections of the town, the ripple on the surface soon smoothed out, and all went
harmoniously along to the end. East Haven still held the supremacy. The next
most important event was the annexation of the western part of the town to New
Haven, in 1882, when the ancient and more modern archives of the town were
carted back to the center for all time.
C1rcumstances Lead1ng To
Annexat1on.
We have now seen that between the years of 1860 and 1880 East
Haven had built, either in part or wholly, FIVE BRIDGES.
Some were very
expensive, particularly The Quinnipiac draw bridge.
During the Civil War, East
Haven kept up her quota of men to the full, and was liberal to her soldiers. The
extra war debt and extensive bridge building brought the town very heavily in
debt. Some parts of the town desired more improvements than the town felt
justified in making under the existing circumstances. After much deliberation
between the two towns, a decision was reached, whereby New Haven would assume
and pay East Haven's debt* provided the western portion was annexed to New
Haven, * The whole indebtedness was over $200,000. thereby giving New Haven
the control of the harbor, and waterfront (of which East Haven owned the lion's
share), also other considerations favorable to East Haven residents in the
western part.
At this time, Dwight W. Tuttle, afterwards state senator, was
East Haven's representative in the legislature.
He introduced this bill in the
House of Representatives, and it was referred to the Committee on Cities and
Boroughs, which reported adversely. Whereupon the town of East Haven immediately
called a special town meeting, April n, 1881. An overwhelming number was
present, so much so that a motion was made to adjourn to the street for lack of
room. The house was divided, resulting in 286 votes in the affirmative and one
in the negative.
Voted, "The proceedings of the meeting signed by the
Chairman, and certified to by the Clerk of the Town, with the seal of the Town
affixed, and that one copy be transmitted to the President of the Senate, and
one to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and one each, to the
Chairman on the part of the Senate and House, of the Committee on Cities and
Boroughs. Voted, A Committee of five be appointed to report the result of this
meeting to the Legislature now in session, viz: Hiram Jacobs, George H.
Townsend, Leander F. Richmond, H. H. Strong and A. L. Chamberlain, also Dr. H.
E. Stone be added." (E. H. Town Rec.)
Annexation of the Western part of East
Haven to New Haven.
A special Town Meeting of the Electors of East Haven was held first Monday of May, 1881, for the purpose of voting
upon the acceptance of an act of the General Assembly of this State passed at
the January session of 1881, providing for the annexing of the Western part of
the Town of East Haven to the Town of New Haven, and for the division of the
property of said Town, and the payment of its indebtedness, and certain other
matters, more particularly referred to in said act, and reference is here made
to said act for more particular description of its provisions.
By the terms
of said act, before its takes effect, it must be approved by the Electors of East Haven, in the manner therein provided.
The Electors of East Haven, living in that part to be annexed to New Haven, by
the provisions of said act, will meet and vote in the Engine House of the
Borough of Fair Haven, East.
Those living in the remaining portion of said East
Haven will meet in the Town Hall, in East Haven.
The meeting will be open
at each place at 6 o'clock in the morning; the vote will be by ballot, the polls
will be open at six o'clock A. M. and close at one o'clock p. M.
Ballots with
the word "Yes" will be counted in favor of the acceptance of said act.
Those
with the word "No" against the acceptance of said act.
The part proposed to
be annexed to New Haven is described as follows.
All that part of East Haven, lying westerly of a line commencing on the dividing line
between the North Haven and East Haven, at a point 1600 ft. E. of the east side of N. Quinnipiac St, where said street crosses said dividing
line, thence running southerly in a straight line to a point 300 ft. due E. of the south side of Hill St., where said sreet intersects with
E. Street, thence running southerly in a straight line to a point on the main
road running E. and W. from New Haven through East Haven Centre, 400 ft.
E. of the East side of a road running N. and S. where said North and
South road intersects said E. and W. road near the house of D. A. Bradley,
thence in a southerly direction to the JUNCTION of Mile Creek with Morris creek,
thence Southerly following the centre of Morris creek to its mouth in Long Island Sound, thence in a
due southerly line to the southern boundary of Connecticut.
Hudson B. Forbes J
Selectmen
Samuel Ch1dsey t of the Town of
John Chester Bradley ) East Haven.
Dated at East Haven
Apr. 25th, 1881.
"Pursuant to the above call, a special Town Meeting of the Electors of the
Town of East Haven was held on Monday May 2nd 1881, for the purpose of deciding
by ballot, the ratification, or rejection of House Bill No. 334 passed at the
session of the General Assembly, January term 1881, to which reference is made
for particulars, the result of the meetings named in the two other places
specified in said bill, is as follows:
Whole number of votes cast in that
portion of the Town, NOT to be annexed to the Town of New Haven: 132
Vote
in favor of Annexation: 123
Opposed to Annexation: 9
Report of the result
certified to by
Jonathan Dudley (Moderator). Vote in that portion of the Town
to be annexed to
the Town of New Haven:
Whole number of votes cast
386
Vote in favor of Annexation 301
Opposed to Annexation 85
Report of
result certified to by
Martin Allen (Moderator).
Received and recorded
May 2nd, 1881 By A. L. Chamberla1n,
Town Clerk. (£. H. Town Rec.)
East Haven was now free from debt, with no
costly bridges to maintain and many long and expensive roads taken off her
hands.
There was no annoying rivalry of any part of the town, as Foxon and South
End (the shoreline) were always loyal to the old town.
True she had lost about 1/3 of her
territory, but that was the most expensive part to manage, and she still had the
full use of all the roads and bridges without expense.
There was nothing now for
her to do but settle down to the march of improvement, and keep abreast of the
times, which the foregoing history proves she has done with a will.
In 1889 a water tank was located at the northwest corner of the public
square.
June 1, 1892, the whole center of the town was stirred as it never
was before, when the store of C. C. Kirkham and the town hall were burned to the
ground by an incendiary. Fortunately the safes with the records were saved. An
occasional barn in different localities had been burned before, with greater or
smaller loss.
June 25, 1892, a special town meeting was held in the basement
of the Congregational chapel.
Voted, "To appropriate from the Town Treasury a
sufficient sum of money for the purpose of building the Town Hall." Voted, "If
desirable to build said building of suitable size for use as a Public School
building, as well as Town Hall." "To appoint a Committee composed of taxpayers
and property owners to superintend building the same." Voted, "To lay a tax to
cover the expense of the same." Adjourned to July 16th, 1892.
"The report of
the Committee appointed, accepted and Committee discharged with thanks." Voted,
"The Selectmen procure estimates and plans of a building, to be used as Town
Hall. Dimension 35 x 50 ft." Adjourned to July 30, 1892.
Voted, "The
Selectmen procure plans and specifications and bids, and cause to be erected a
building to be used as a Town Hall, without basement, on the same foundation as
the old one. Cost not to exceed $2000."
August 13th, 1892, a special town
meeting was held and former vote of $2,000 was rescinded, and a vote of $3,000
was passed. Same dimensions. After several special town meetings, pro and con,
were held, it was definitely decided at a meeting held October 3, 1892, that a
town hall should be built.
Voted, "That a committee of three be appointed to
superintend the erection of a Town Hall." Voted, "That Henry T. Thompson, Albert
Forbes, and H. Walter Chidsey, be appointed that Committee." Voted, "That the
Committee be instructed not to exceed the sum of $3000 in building said Town
Hall. To give the contract to lowest bidder." Voted, "That that person to whom
the contract is awarded be instructed by said Committee to proceed immediately
and finish the Building as soon as possible. Voted, "That the Selectmen are
hereby instructed to borrow, on the credit of the Town the amount sufficient to
complete the Town Hall."
Thus the second town hall was erected and
finished.It is a noticeable fact in the history of East Haven people, from the
earliest days to the present time, that they are an argumentative community but
by no means a quarrelsome one. Let a question arise which is to be decided bv
the voice of the people, they will agree to disagree, then disagree to agree.
This sounds paradoxical, but it is true. A meeting will be called, and a vote
will be taken favorable to the object.
This is wherein they agree. Within a few
days another meeting will be called to rescind the first vote. This is wherein
they agree to disagree. After the question has been tossed to and fro, through a
series of meetings, with prolonged debate, and sometimes heated discussion, the
vote of the first meeting will be sustained, and they now all settle down to
harmony as before. This is where they disagree to agree. They are strictly a
peace-loving and law-abiding people. They may have their petty animosities and
neighborhood jealousies, but they never have quarrels which end in litigation
like many of the neighboring towns. Law suits between the native born are very
rare, a thing almost unknown. True, in settling estates and in various other
technicalities of the law, counsel is necessary, generally, to settle points of
law involved. In 1866, when the present senior resident lawyer was admitted to
the bar, and decided to make East Haven his residence, one of the sages of the
town deplored the event seriously; remarking, "Now the peace of the town will be
gone, for no greater calamity could befall a country town than to have a lawyer
settle in it." But the good man lived to see four of his townsmen full-fledged
lawyers, residing in the town at the same time, all in practice, and the whole
town as calm and unruffled as a mill pond in a May morning.
The subject of
temperance has always received its share of support from the people.
Various
temperance societies have arisen and flourished in their day and generation.
East Haven has often voted "No license," and were it not for the various seashore
resorts, would be a "dry town"; as it is, license is only voted by a very small
margin.
Even cider, which was so very prevalent and abundant at one time, is
scarcely seen in the homes of the people to-day.
East Haven has always been
called, socially, a very democratic town, which in a sense is true.
But at the
same time many family clans have felt their distinctive superiority, arising
from one cause or another, yet they all met on the same general plane.
The
social customs of the town have kept pace with the changing times.
In the days
of spinning spells, quilting bees, and singing schools, they generally ended in
a dance—particularly the two former. It may be a query how the sons and
daughters of such strict puritanical parentage ever learned to dance.
Youth will
have its pleasures and amusements, whether by tacit consent, or more direct
opposition.
In the first quarter of the last century, there were very few young
people but well knew the stately minuet and the Scotch reel, to say nothing of
the more familiar "money musk," "felicity," and a score of other dances.
There
was no "calling off" in those days; each one knew his or her part and kept step
and time with the music.
Every old hostelry had its spacious ball room, with
spring floor, and balls were very common through the winter months.
Eli
Whitney's invention of the cotton gin relegated the flax spinning wheel to the
garret about 1830, but the great or wool wheel held on, with waning success, for
about fifteen years longer, when that went to keep the former company.
Spinning
spells were merged into church sewing societies, conducted under a president and
officers similar to the present day, only the meetings were at the homes of the
members, as there were no public meeting places.
The neighborhood "tea
drinkings" were very enjoyable affairs.
Perhaps a dozen ladies, with their
sewing and knitting, would assemble about two o'clock and after tea the
gentlemen would join them; light refreshments or fruit were passed around in the
evening, and a general good time followed.
Then in the winter there would be one
or more general sleigh rides, according to the amount of snow.
The whole town
would turn out—heads of families as well as young people.
They would go to some
good public house or hotel, and have a supper, and the young people a dance. The
good matrons would take to the parlors, with their "wine sangaree," while the
fathers were busy with their "eggnog," and the youngsters were dancing in the
ball room.
Frequently some of the fathers would slip out and be found dancing
with their prospective daughters-in-law—living young days over again.
All would
enjoy a bountiful supper and have a really good time.
In the summer there were barbecues at the head
of Lake Saltonstall, and sailing parties down the East Haven and Farmer rivers in Mansfield's Grove.
Wherever such gatherings were held, the inner man was
bountifully refreshed.
In Connecticut and all over New England, the Lord's
Day began according to the Hebrew manner, at sunset Saturday night, because "the
evening and the morning were the first day," and ended Sunday at sunset.
No
sooner had the sun disappeared, than out came the spinning wheels, knitting
kneedles, spooling reels and quill wheels; so much work had to be done by the
female portion of the household that not a moment was to be lost.
Sunday evening
was also a time for recreation, especially with the young men.
Hence arose the
practice of the youngsters doing their "courting" Sunday evening. Although the
law was very strict, forbidding any young man to inveigle or draw the affections
of a maid without the consent of her parents or guardian, yet he probably knew
of some family where he might meet a young lady with whom he had exchanged
glances, from the opposite gallery of the meetinghouse, during the day, without
opposition from her elders, and oftentimes was treated to the best the house
afforded.
The story has been told of a very shrewd matron in East Haven, who
had more than a half-dozen girls to marry off.
The young men knew that if there
was one among the number of callers who was distasteful to the good dame, there
would be no refreshments forthcoming; but if all were acceptable, in a little
time the smell of hot doughnuts would greet their olfactories, as she always
kept the dough on hand to boil as occasion required.
Whether it was the hot
doughnuts, cheese, etc., or not, all her girls were successfully mated.
East
Haven was not without its appreciation of music: for as early as 1752 it
was voted, that Mr. Heminway shall name the Psalm in public; Nathaniel
Barnes shall tune the Psalm, and in his absence Jacob or Isaac Goodsell.
The
following extracts from the town records will speak for themselves:
On Feb. 5th,
1798 it was voted, that Capt. Hemingway & Joseph Hotchkiss be appointed for to
employ a singing master, two months for to teach a singing school in this Town,
and to draw the money out of the Town Treasury, to pay the singing master for
his service.
In Jan. 1801 it was voted, Joseph Hotchkiss and Zebulon Bradley be a
Committee for to lay out $12 as they shall judge best advantage to increase the
singing. Voted, that the Treasurer be directed to pay to the Committee $12 out
of the treasury, and in addition to the $12 as much as they have expended, for
the support of said school."
On March 18th, 1805 it was voted that Eleazer Hemingway,
Asahel Bradley, Zebulon Bradley and Samuel Barnes be appointed to superintend a
singing school, and they, or the major part of them be authorized for to draw
$15 out of the Town Treasury, to be appropriated and expended towards the
support of a singing school in the town." (£. H. Town Rec.)
East Haven kept
up these schools from time to time until 1819, called "Toleration year," when
Connecticut's first constitution was adopted, abolishing the support of
Congregational churches and its incidentals by taxation, thus making every
denomination stand equal before the law.
East Haven was among the very first congregational churches to introduce instrumental music into their worship.
The
instrument was a bass viol.
Isaac Pardee was the performer and chorister for
forty or more years, carrying his "big fiddle" (as the children called it),
carefully wrapped in a green baize bag, to and from the church every Sunday.
Previous to this time musical instruments were debarred from all New England
churches, as sinful and unchristian, and nothing was used in any of them but the
tuning fork.
An organ in a church was a puritanical abhorrence, considered as an
abomination of wickedness.
How time has mellowed down prejudices even in
music!
East Haven people have always been ready to take advantage of every
improvement in their business, as well as municipal affairs, as soon as
opportunity offered.
When water mains were laid, pumps and wells were very
generally discarded on the line.
Now there is scarcely a house but affords all
the modern conveniences which water brings in its train.
So also with gas;
wherever the pipes have been placed, gas is introduced and very few houses are
without their gas cooking range, if no more.
Street lights sprang up as if by
magic.
Main street is lighted from border to border of the town, and other
streets as far as practicable.
The people also have kept pace with the social
changes of the times, gay or grave.
In the forties, when the fashion of dances
changed from the old-fashioned minuet, contra dances, etc., to quadrilles,
cotillions and waltzes, East Haven had her dancing schools at the town hall.
An
accomplished dancing master was employed and the course was twelve lessons, one
a week, followed by a quarter ball.
These were by no means promiscuous dances.
Each member had a limited number of tickets, which were distributed to selected
friends, agreeable to the whole company, which eliminated every unpleasant
feature, and rendered the whole more like an invited party.
These were followed
by various temperance societies of their day, with weekly meetings, down to the
present.
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