Middlesex County CT Archives History - Books .....Millington 1887

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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com May 19, 2005, 9:41 pm

Book Title: The Old Chimney Stacks Of East Haddam

CHAPTER III.
MlLLINGTON.

  According to Field's History, the first settler in Millington was Jonathan
Beebe, from New London, who settled by the Long Pond about 1704, and was soon
joined by several persons, who have now descendants in East Haddam. They settled
west of the pond, on the hill about the Hayward farm, recently owned by Rowland
Allen. Some traces of their houses still remain, yet most of them are completely
obliterated. Except at this spot, there were no inhabitants in Millington until
about 1732-3-4, when families moved into it by the name of Arnold, Barnes,
Brainard, Chapman, Church, Cone, Emmons, Fuller, Gates, Olmsted and Spencer,
from East Haddam parish; of Harvey and Hungerford, from Hadlyme; of Clarke, from
Haddam; of Greaves, from Colchester; and Stewart, from Voluntown; Daniel Smith,
from some part of Plymouth Colony; Lemuel Griffin, from Lyme, and Thomas Fox,
from Colchester, settled here not long after. Millington Society was for a
number of years the most thickly settled and influential portion of the town. In
1810 there were 172. dwelling houses in that Society, while in the first Society
there were but 167. There were also a number of stores and a large local
business carried on, Millington being the centre of trade for quite a large
tract of country.

  With scarcely a solitary exception, those who now remain are tillers of the
rugged soil, and are noted for their frugality, industry and hospitality. But
alas! the growing tendency of the age to centralize in the cities and villages,
and the tempting allurements of the South and West have shorn the town of much
of her ancient renown. Many of her -children sleep in her hillside graves, and
many more have wandered far and wide; but none of them find happier hours than
when they return to meet the hearty welcome of their native home. Sixty years
ago the Middle or Green School District numbered 69. The same district now has
about one-third of that number. At the same time, the West District numbered 51;
it now numbers but 13.

  The Old Chimney Stacks form quite a prominent feature of the landscape. In
Millington, the tan-yard at McLean's, which once carried on a large business, is
now a mass of ruins. Just east of the yard is the cellar over which stood the
house of Nathan Beebe, an uncle of Manly, and great uncle of Sherman Beebe.

  Sherman broke loose from the old farm and went to California in its early
days, where he prospered, and returned to buy the large farm he now occupies in
North Millington. He has seven sons, and is one of the towns heaviest tax-payers.

  Just-west of the tan-yard, near the Dutton barn (so-called), stood another
house, and a short distance north, on the Colchester road, are ruins-which mark
the residences of families of Elys and Fullers.

  A half-mile south, on the corner, stands what is called the old Auger Stack,
and farther on, near Alexander's shop, lived Deacon Diodate Lord.

  The Austin Beebe house is comparatively a late ruin. This corner, now so
deserted, seems to have been quite a settlement many years ago. A store was kept
here by Timothy Spencer, and just north, on the old stony road leading to Long
Pond, lived Isham Fuller and Dr. Nye. The latter moved away and afterwards
gained considerable renown. The old house below Deacon Ackley's was built by one
Williams, one of the early settlers. "Wall street," the old road running north
from the Green, is now entirely deserted. The store built by Ephraim Warner,
near the entrance, and where considerable business was carried on, was long
since converted into Mr. Joseph Arnold's horse-shed. A short distance north was
Ephraim Warner's house, and further north, but short distances apart, stood the
Marsh house, the Burke house, the Ephraim Arnold house, the Plum house, the Hall
house, the Beri Gates house, and the Wickham house.

  Here large families were raised, and the street formed an important
thoroughfare of the town. Now, grass and weeds grow over its travelled paths;
green mounds of house-leek, and rude piles of stone and mortar are the only
evidences of former civilization. A goodly portion of the north part of
Millington Society was owned and occupied by the Arnolds—Ephraim, John and
Joseph. The latter was the father of Isaiah Arnold, and the grandfather of
Samuel and Joseph, Jr. Samuel has four children living, viz.: Fluvia, married L.
W. Cone; Nancy, married Charles Miner; Emeline, married W. L. Fuller; William
lives in Brooklyn, Long Island.

  Joseph, Jr., has one son, Joseph H., who married Harriet M. Swan, who died
early in 1879. She left two children, Dwight and Fred, but the latter has since
died.

  The old road leading southeast from Millington Green, or rather the road
branching off from this to Chapman's Mills, was in early days a main
thoroughfare, upon, which several families lived, but which is now lonely,
deserted and almost impassible—its silence seldom broken save by an occasional
ox-cart rattling over the stones, or by the sharp crack of the hunter's gun. The
terminus of the road, however, presents attractions which richly repay a rough
and toilsome journey. The wild and romantic beauty of the scenery about
Chapman's Mills is not surpassed by those historic spots about which volumes
have been written. The pond here is the source of Eight-Mile River, which
empties into Hamburg Cove. It starts with two separate outlets from a rocky
island, and joins about a half-mile below. Both streams leap down rocky ledges
over one hundred feet high, with a roar that can be heard far away. The grist
mill, upon the right branch, has gone to ruin, but the saw mill has been kept in
running order. Between the two mills, on the island, stands the house now
occupied by Cyrus W. Chapman, so that the place still retains the name of its
original owner. It was owned and occupied for several years by Col. A. T. Niles,
and here the writer spent many " happy hours of childhood."

  Following the river from the point of its quiet and peaceful reunion, at the
foot of the Falls, down over Kettle Hill, so called from the unfathomable
circular holes in its rocky crest; along the old coalpit, whose once black pit
is now white with birches; by the rough chimney pile which marks the little
house where Benjamin Banning raised nineteen children, whose exploits at "
diving from mullin stalks into the dew" surprised many a morning teamster;
through the Hop-Yard, with its tall evergreens, its frowning precipices, and its
Devil's Cave, and we reach the " Plain " with a feeling that we have journeyed
through the wilderness and finally reached the promised land. The "Plain" forms
the southeast corner of the town, and a part of Millington Society.

  The traveller here finds a pleasing landscape, with thrifty and
well-cultivated farms, which were originally owned by settlers from the
adjoining town of Lyme. The old chimney stack, which occupies so prominent a
position just north of Nathan Jewett's, was known as the Griffin house, where
lived Edward Dorr Griffin, D. D., President of Williamstown College. The old
Jewett homestead is just beyond the bridges over the Lyme Line. Returning to
Millington Green, and taking the Hadlyme road south, we soon come to the old
Spencer chimney stack, where lived Gen. Joseph Spencer, of Revolutionary fame,
who will receive notice in a future letter. Here, too, David Brainard, the
celebrated missionary, spent several years of his youth. Nearly opposite the
Spencer place is the Williams' place, where lived Dr. Datus Williams, a
prominent physician of the town. He afterwards moved in near the Center Church,
where he died a few years since. His son, George G., President of the Chemical
Bank, New York City, has enlarged and beautified the place till it is now one of
the finest in the town. He occupies it as a summer residence. A few rods south
of the Spencer place is the Lyman place, where Dr. Lyman lived, who was for many
years pastor of the Millington Church. In the woods, near Bald Hill, about two
miles south of Millington Green, are the remains of an old house where lived one
Will Fox. Near by is the Oakley house, where lived Dr. Root, father of Francis
G. Root, of Leesville. Dr. Root afterwards lived at the Warner house, on Potash
Hill.


Additional Comments:
Transcribed from:

THE OLD CHIMNEY STACKS OF EAST HADDAM, MIDDLESEX COUNTY, CONNECTICUT,
BY
HOSFORD B. NILES,
Author of Genealogy of THE NILES FAMILY.
NEW YORK: LOWE & CO., Book and Job Printers No. 210 Fulton Street.
1887


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