Litchfield County CT Archives History - Books .....The First Twelve Settlers 1882 *********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ct/ctfiles.htm *********************************************** ************************************************************************ The USGenWeb Project makes no claims or estimates of the validity of the information submitted and reminds you that each new piece of information must be researched and proved or disproved by weight of evidence. It is always best to consult the original material for verification. ************************************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com May 15, 2005, 4:07 pm Book Title: HISTORY OF THE TOWNS OF NEW MILFORD AND BRIDGEWATER, CONNECTICUT, 1703-1882 CHAPTER II. THE FIRST TWELVE SETTLERS. BESIDES the work of clearing away the wilderness and building houses, the first twelve settlers "set up," as it was called, religious services at considerable cost and great personal effort. Having no authority as a town, they asked the General Assembly in October, 1711, to authorize a tax of seven shillings on each Right of land in the plantation, for the support "of a minister, and building for him a dwelling-house. This request was so modest that the amount reached was only .£36 8s., and they soon found it insufficient, and requested the Assembly, the next spring, to make the tax twelve shillings instead of seven, for four successive years, which secured £62 8s. a year, by which they were enabled to accomplish the proposed object, although the minister's house which was built for him was not fully paid for until about twenty years later. The town was organized the next October (1712), by which they had authority to tax themselves as residents of the town, but no others, and they were also released from paying taxes to the State, but because of which they were not allowed representation in the Assembly. Not long after the above privileges were granted, Mr. Daniel Boardman was secured to preach as a candidate, for the following record was made by himself in the Church book: "March 17, 1712, Daniel Bordman was called to preach ye gospel at New Milford." This apparently was a call to settle, after he had served some time as a candidate. The plantation as now established was indeed a primitive settlement in the deep wilderness, with no outlook, unless it might have been toward the Indian Field on the west side of the river, and the city of Indian tents on the plateau of Fort Hill, a little back of the Indian burying-place. The location of these twelve families, as nearly as can be ascertained, was as represented in the accompanying plan. It is uncertain as to Isaiah Bartlet's residence, but since no land was laid out to him, and he disappeared before the next May, it is possible that he occupied the house built by Col. John Read, which was located in the highway as indicated; occupied but a few months, when he removed, before the signing of the second petition. It should be remembered that at this time there was no street or highway laid out by authority, except the one on the top of Aspetuck hill, extending south only to the "brow of the hill," or the south end of the lot in which is now located Mr. John P. Treadwell's reservoir. The streets indicated were traveled roads, but were not laid out by surveyors. The cartway westward at this time was at what is now Bennitt street, and went down to the river's side and up the river about a mile to the rapids, which was then the common fording-place of the Housatonic. Imagine the appearance of the settlement at this time. There were no fences whatever. At each dwelling a piece of land—an acre or two or three—was cleared of the timber—the brush were burned to be rid of them, and the stumps left standing. A cart-track running among the trees up the hill north, and one running down Main street on the west side among the stumps; since probably the trees, whatever there were of them, were cut away for a space of two rods wide; and this way turned down Grove street toward the Falls. Every house was a log-house, with the door in the side at the center; the big chimney at the end making its appearance on the outside as a part of the end of the house, and barns consisting largely of a kind of shed made of logs. If now we take our stand at the corner of the streets near Doct. Charles Taylor's present residence, remembering that it is the middle of April, just after the Rev. Daniel Boardman has been engaged as minister-elect, and look up to the house of John Noble, Sen., we behold the real life of primitive settlers. In front of the house toward the cart-path is the wood-pile, at the north end of which is a blazing fire under an iron kettle which hangs upon a cross pole that rests upon the "crotches " of two stakes erected for the purpose. Mrs. Noble is making soap. At a little distance to the left is the tall leach-barrel, resting upon boards which lay upon two short logs, the front end of the boards lower than the rear, and from which is dripping slowly the lye with which the soap is to be made. Close by the side of Mrs. Noble stands the little daughter Mabel, six years of age, watching the mother at her work. David, the lad now seventeen years of age, is seated on a log near the wood-pile, and is engaged in pounding, or grinding with a pestle in a large wooden mortar, the corn which is to be baked into a "Jonny-cake" for dinner; for a large proportion of all the bread eaten in the plantation was ground in this way. But look!—from the east is approaching a young woman with a bundle wrapt closely and folded tightly in her arms. She is Hannah, the wife of John Noble, Jr.—the first bride of the town—and she is now coming over to the old home for the first time with the baby Thomas, about three months old. Her husband is in the hollow northeast of his house, finishing his work at the "Sapworks," which was an enterprise in that locality so important as to be mentioned in a deed of land. She has now reached the house, and all are taking a look at the baby. But look down the cart-way west. Who comes? A tall, athletic Indian, whose muscular frame bears on its shoulder a girl, as if she were but a fluttering bird. The girl is Sarah, who stayed with this same Indian's family while her father, John Noble, went to Albany five years before. This morning she went over the river with her father to the Indian Field, and, as this big Indian has done fifty times before, he again takes her upon his shoulder and carries her across the river and up home, as fond of her as if she were his own daughter;—nay, more;—it is said to have appeared as though he was never contented unless in sight of the child. And she too seemed delighted always to meet him, although he was such a giant-like Indian. Again we look down into the woods south and we see coming another young woman. She is the bride of three months of John Bostwick, Jr. She was from Danbury, another new plantation, but about twenty years older than New Milford. She is coming up through the woods from her new home down Great Brook, to visit the old home of her husband at his father, John Bostwick, Sen's, and make a morning call. A bride! and how is she dressed? A sun-bonnet of her own make on her head, and from it shine her bright eyes and flushed cheeks with the very personification of health and joy of life. Her dress is a plain home-made woolen pressed cloth, with a belt of the same. Her shoes are of calf-skin, the most approved style of the day, but what stampers compared to those her descendants wear in the fifth generation, on the concrete walks of New Milford. But see, she is trying to cross the brook that this time of the year flows meanderingly among the bogs and roots and logs, down to Great Brook. Heigh, ho! she has slipped from a bog and one foot is submerged, above the top of the shoe in the chilly water. Mercy, isn't it too bad. Hear her laugh. Isn't she just the most sensible woman out of the woods this morning? But listen again. There is a strange noise of voices up the Woodbury road to the southeast. It is the coming of new families of settlers from "down-east." We must go and welcome them and find a shelter for them until a house can be built. They are the families of Stephen Noble and Samuel Hitchcock, —all on horseback, with packs of goods, and a dozen persons, like an ancient caravan from Egypt. The plantation being now in working order, proceeded to establish rules and methods for proportioning the division of lands, and to adopt such regulations as would aid in an equitable-settlement of the territory, but it was found afterward that the plans adopted worked much injury and dissatisfaction. The rule to allow every settler or proprietor to locate his several divisions wherever he pleased, made a large amount of trouble years after, in settling disputed territory, and in re-surveying the same. By the votes passed the Proprietors provided for a division of ten acres to be adjoining to each home-lot for a pasture, and a forty-acre division which they seem to have supposed would be taken up on low land along the rivers; and hence they ordered another forty-acre division of "upland" or land on the hills. The twenty acres " on a square to be left on Aspetuck Hill to set a meeting-house on" seems never to have been laid out for the purpose specified. Two "Rights" were sequestered for the ministry or towns' .use, one of which was appropriated, a few months after these persons petitioned for religious privileges, to Mr. Daniel Boardman. And in regard to it, we hear of no minority vote, and no division of the community as to candidates, although parish matters did not always go smoothly with even Mr. Boardman. The other Right was laid out in part some few years later, on Aspetuck Hill, on the north side of the present east and west highway, but in 1748 the second whole Right was sold, and the receipts divided among the several denominations in the town, in proportion to the amount of the tax list of each denomination; Presbyterians (so called then), Episcopalians, and Quakers. The First Twelve Settlers. Life in a new, unsettled country has many charms, although to the dwellers in the city it may seem quite to the contrary. But, aside from the idea of enjoyment, the settlers of a new country are driven, by the hope of securing necessary comforts for their dependent families, to put forth great, and sometimes hazardous efforts for the attainment of their object, and therefore the world has seen, over and over, the head of the family going into a far country and building a hut, and afterwards a more commodious house, and others following him, until a village is built, and then a town and a state are settled; and finally cities rise in their grandeur,—all for the hope of securing the things which seem to be necessary for the fulfilling of the life-work given to men to do. Many, if they could have been consulted as to their being, would have decided not to be; but since they are, they accept their lot with heroic fortitude, and venture in the paths of life to the verge of imminent personal loss or ruin, for the one only hope of good to those who look to them with longing eyes for help, protection, and guidance in the present life, and the fulfilment of their destiny hereafter in harmony with the will of their divine Creator, whatever that may be. To every man, therefore, if he be a true man, the work set before him has charms, the joy of which he is eager to possess, whether it be in the forests wild or in the city full. Divine are the destinies of man in this life, just as much as they will be in the life to come; not in a fatalistic sense, but in that of approval and help, to the intent of securing success therein. We need not, therefore, spend our pity on those who dwelt in the wilderness that they might plant the standard of prosperity for those who should be their successors in the work of the earthly life. The persons who stand before us as represented by the names of the First Twelve Settlers of New Milford need not our commiseration, but congratulation that they held so high and noble stations in life, and fulfilled them so honorably and succesfully. The catalogue, of these names is not a long one, but they were the forerunners of a long succession of eventful characters that have, after nearly one hundred and eighty years, just begun to pass in review, and, in hope of animating the travelers in that succession, the record of these pages is made. The list of these twelve names was made one hundred and seventy years ago, in the following order: 1. JOHN NOBLE, SEN. 7. SAMUEL PRINDLE. 2. JOHN BOSTWICK, SEN. 8. JOHN BOSTWICK, JR. 3. BENJAMIN BOSTWICK, SEN. 9. ZACHARIAH FERRIS. 4. JOHN NOBLE, JR. 10. ROGER BROWNSON. 5. ISAIAH BARTLET. 11. JOHN WELLER. 6. SAMUEL BROWNSON. 12. THOMAS WELLER. Not in the least did they or their families dream that their names, after one hundred and seventy years, would stand displayed on the pages of history as the twelve corner-stones of one of the most successful rural towns of the far-famed state of Connecticut. So little do the seed-sowers know what the harvest shall be. Long ages ago it was .written: " There shall be a handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon." And it might have been said, shall be planted in all lands, for to such an extent, nearly, have been transplanted the men raised in New Milford; and it is literally true that a young lady raised in New Milford was the first American woman that sailed around the world. It was she that was Lucia, daughter of Samuel Ruggles, and is now the widow Lucia Tomlinson of New Milford, in her 89th year. It is pleasant to take some particular notice of the first twelve settlers, since they all proved themselves worthy of the highest encomium and of the most lasting remembrance. 1. John Noble, Sen., came here when forty-five years of age, having a family of nine or ten children living, some of whom did not settle in this town. He was a brave, enterprising, noble-hearted man, or he would never have ventured into the wilderness to make a home for his family as he did. His dwelling-house stood on the site of the present dwelling of Col. Charles D. Blinn, or near it, which was a log-house, erected, probably, in the autumn of 1707. In 1714, he gave the north half of this home-lot to his son Stephen, who came at that time from Massachusetts, and upon this lot Stephen erected a house, a little north of his father's, and, after dwelling in it about a year, removed to that of his father's, and, after some years, sold his first one to his brother David. Prosperity, for a few brief years, filled his hands with work, in many public offices, as well as private labors, and his home with comparative comforts; but ihe great destroyer Death was destined to make a beginning in this new plantation as well as in all others, and, as he "loves a shining mark," made choice of the brave yet kindly heart that first raised a white man's home in this dense forest; and therefore, on the I7th day of August, 1714, his life-work closed, and his home was clouded with mourning, and his place left vacant. He was the first Town Clerk elected by vote of the town; was a surveyor of lands, a member of the Woodbury Church, and the first adult person (1) to be carried to the beautiful cemetery that now adorns the village of which he was the first civilized ornament. The land of his first home-lot remained in possession of his descendants until a very few years since. (1) Mary, daughter of Benjamin Bostwick, died before Mr. Noble. 2. John, Bostwick, Sen., came from Derby, and earlier from Stratford, and was the second settler in New Milford. He settled here probably in the autumn of 1707, since his first deed, dated Dec. 2, 1707, says he was "late of Derby." The first land laid to him was lot number one of the town plot, west side of the highway; but he had previously settled on the lot, and built a house near the site of the present residence of Miss Mary C. Boaedman. The northern part of this lot he afterwards gave to his son Daniel, who kept a tavern on it many years, and who was an influential and active man in the town. He had a family of eight children, some of whom settled here some years later than he. He was an energetic citizen, and bore his full share of official work for the new plantation and town. The dates of the deaths of himself and two wives are unknown. His second wife was the daughter of Jeremiah Canfield, Sen., and sister to the first Samuel Canfield in this town, and his brothers. 3. Benjamin Bostwick, Sen., nephew of John above, came from Stratford a young man, and married Zeruiah, daughter of Moses Johnson of Woodbury, in 1711, and established his home on what is now Grove street, where he resided until his decease in June, 1739. He was a successful farmer, carpenter, and cabinet-maker,—the inventory of his property showing him to be equipped with tools for these trades, and also indicating that his home and farm were models for those days in their furnishings and comforts. 4. John Noble, Jr., when 21 years of age, purchased a Right of land in New Milford, the same day with his father, June 22, 1706, and came with his father's family, in 1707, to New Milford. His house was on the east side of the green about where the Town Hall now stands. This house and lot he sold in 1730, and soon after settled on the plains, in the first house below Gallows Hill, where he resided until his decease in 1773, at the age of 88 years. He was Captain of the Train Band in 1732, was a prominent man in the town for many years, and was one of a number of persons who petitioned for society privileges in 1743, from the south part of the town; which resulted in the parish and First Church of Newbury, and afterwards in the town of Brookfield. 5. Isaiah Bartlet, was a signer of the petition in October, 1711, but in a similar one the next May his name does not appear. There was no land deeded to him, and the probability is that he soon removed. Two of his daughters, apparently, were afterwards married in this town. 6. Dea. Samuel Brownson, from Farmington, settled here, probably, in 1708. His house stood at the southeast corner of the sequestered square or green, southeast of Doct. Thomas Picketts, or directly south, and across the road from tbe present residence of Mr. Edward A. Thayer. He was elected Town Clerk in 1714, upon the death of John Noble, Sen., and held that office until his death in 1733. He was the first Justice of the Peace in the town, being also Judge in the New Haven County Court, and was in his day, probably, the most widely-known citizen of the town, unless the military man, Capt. Stephen Noble, should be excepted; and in every way he seems to have been a man of dignity, integrity, and responsibility, and much esteemed. He was the first deacon of the First Church in the town. Lydia Brownson, his wife, was a woman of decided efficiency, as may be seen in the list of physicians in this book; she being a peculiar honor to the women of the community and the nation, for she was probably, for some years, the only person that made professional calls as a physician, in the town, except Doctor Pickett. She married, 2d, Mr. Jonathan Lumm, and they removed to Derby. 7. Samuel Prindle, from Milford, was in New Milford and signed the petition in 1711. John Noble, Sen., laid out Mr. Prindle's first forty acres, on Second hill, before 1714, on the Right of William Fowler; which was recorded in 1717, and described as "lying upon the westerly side of the Second hill at a place called Prindle's Pitch, 80 rods on the square, common land on all sides." In 1721, William Fowler deeded his Right, including this land improved, and another piece at the south end of the village, to Samuel Prindle and Joseph Bostwick. Mr. Prindle had paid all charges against the Right for seven years, by which he secured one-half of the Right to himself. His dwelling stood at the south end of the village, a little east of the present site of Hon. A. B. Mygatt's residence. He died in 1750. 8. Major John Botswick, Jr., came here with his father in 1708, and married Mercy Bushnell of Danbury, Jan. 30, 1712, and made his home on what is now Grove street; and his descendant, Mr. John R. Bostwick, is still residing on the old homestead. He became one of the most prominent and active men in the town; was lieutenant of the Train band many years, and afterwards major in the regiment; was elected deacon of the First church in 1733, and he and Capt. Stephen Noble were the first representatives of New Milford in the legislature. He also, apparently, gave some attention to the study of law, for the following action was taken in town meeting: "Dec. 12, 1737. Voted, that Dea. John Bostwick shall be allowed ten shillings for the use of his law book for town meetings, and for the use of particular persons as they shall have occasion," He was fourteen years of age when he came to New Milford, twenty-six when he was married; died in 1741, aged fifty-two years, leaving five children, all sons, two of whom, like himself, were very prominent citizens of the town for many years. 9. Zachariah Ferriss from Stratford, settled here, probably in 1708, on a lot a little way south of the Town Hall, and extending south to the corner of Main street, and east across Great brook; and his first forty acres lay directly east and adjoining his home-lot. This was the same land, most probably, as that he ploughed in June, 1706, when there were no settlers here except Indians. When Mr. Ferriss had ploughed this land in 1706, the New Milford company prosecuted him for trespass, and Col. John Read plead his case in court. It must have been, therefore, that Mr. Ferriss laid claim to this land under the deed which was given by the Indians to Henry Tomlinson and others of Stratford, which, having been received under a permit from the General Court in 1670, under no restrictions or conditions, was as much a legal deed, and received as honestly as any deed then existing in the colony. The deed had stood on the records, sanctioned by a court decision, more than thirty years,, when the General Assembly gave the permit to the New Milford company, and their deed was received, upon the specific conditions that the plantation should interfere with no other titles. It is no wonder, then, that in fifteen trials in court before the governor and his assistants, a jury gave Col. Read the case, and his deed as valid; but it is surprising that on the sixteenth trial the land was given to the New Milford company without a penny's allowance to Col. Read. Is this called Christianity? And when the title to the land was secured in this way, against right and Christianity, by professed- Christians as they were, it is no wonder that it took them twelve years thereafter to build a meeting-house, amidst great privations and almost extreme poverty; whereas, had they received Col. Read under a liberal consideration of the money he had placed in the enterprise, and treated him as a Christian brother, the plantation might have been settled at once, and the meeting-house built in a third of the time it was. Zachariah Ferriss was brother-in-law to Col. John Read, he having married, probably, the sister of Col. Read. Mr. Ferriss was a very efficient business man, placed on committees of importance; he served in many official capacities; surveyed more land, apparently, than any other man in the town during the first one hundred years, unless Col. Elisha Bostwick should be excepted. He was town treasurer a number of years, when taxes were paid in various kinds of grains, which were stored, and sometimes accumulated on hand from year-to year, until by some special town vote the accumulation was sold in a summary manner. He might have been styled, or would be at the present day, the President of the Bank of Town Deposits. Samuel Brownson sometimes was elected to this office, but after a number of years Roger Brownson more frequently bore the burdens of this office. Mr. Ferriss adhered to the First church through life, although his wife and several of his children became Quakers. No record of his decease has been found. 1O. Roger Brownson, from Farmington, settled near his brother Samuel on what was then the Woodbury road, perhaps a little way south of the residence of the late A. S. Rogers. When his brother died he became Town Clerk, and held the position fourteen years. He was also Justice of the Peace for a number of years. There were no more reliable men in the town than he and his brother, for they were elected continually in the highest places of trust, and proved themselves worthy of the confidence imposed upon them; Roger being town treasurer many years. He died in 1758. 11. John, Weller, Sen., from Springfield, Mass., settled in New Milford before December, 1710, since at that time he was here, and entered into an agreement with Thomas Smith to work the land which had been laid to Smith—lot number two, east side of the street—and in 1722 he bought Thomas Smith's Right, and in 1723 was living on this home-lot, next north of John Noble, Jr's. He was a substantial farmer; bought several pieces of land besides the one Right; was not prominent in town offices or enterprises, but served his part well. He died in 1734, leaving a number of sons and their families, to each of whom he had given quite a farm. His son John was a prominent man, his farm being a little below the mouth of Rocky river, and which is now owned by Col. Wm. J. Starr. 12. Thomas Weller, of Westfield, Mass., bought of John Noble one-half of a twenty-four shilling Right in 1707, and settled here probably before 1710; was here in 1712, but was residing in Woodbury in 1715, when he sold several pieces of land in New Milford. Only one of the first twelve families came from Milford, unless Isaiah Bartlett was of that place, which would make only 'two, and therefore it could hardly be said that the place was settled at first from Milford. It was settled by Milford people as original proprietors, but they were very slow to come here themselves. Four of these families were from Northampton and Westfield, Mass. four were from Stratford, and two were from Farmington. They were all poor people, strictly speaking, being able most of them—not all—to buy a Right of land, and to have a little left with which to commence a farmer's life in the wilderness. The Bostwick families possessed more property than the others, and they have held their own comfortably well ever since. They are so steady and untiring in the same line of work, that they must win if death does not rob them of their allotted time. Then, also, they had a good start, which fact, if attended to, is more than half the race, in the short life any one may live in this world. These were the twelve pillars of the First Eclesiastical Society, and of the town; but not of the church, for when the church was organized, some of them had removed from the town and others had come in. Additional Comments: Extracted from: HISTORY OF THE TOWNS OF NEW MILFORD AND BRIDGEWATER, CONNECTICUT, 1703-1882, BY SAMUEL ORCUTT AUTHOR OF THE HISTORIES OF TORRINGTON, WOLCOTT, AND DERBY, AND THE INDIANS OF THE HOUSATONIC AND NAUGATUCK VALLEYS, CONNECTICUT. HARTFORD, CONN.: PRESS OF THE CASE, LOCKWOOD AND BRAINARD COMPANY. 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