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Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


©0  the  ^hree^ 

MRS.  ALICE  ELDREDGE  LOVELL 
MRS.  MARY  BISHOP  BULLARD 
HARRY  FOWLER  GRISWOLD 

Whose  constant  encouragement  and  steadfast  faith  in 

this  undertaking  through  the  years 

have  made  it  possible. 

This  Book  of  Guilford  is  Dedicated. 


Copyrighted  1938  by  Mary  Hoadley  Griswold 

5* 


Tester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Qontents 


Page 

Lost  Acres  of  Guilford  Green 9 

The  Naughtys  of  Guilford 17 

Thomas  Jordan's  Home  Lot 21 

Miles  Dudley's  Homestead 27 

Comfort  Starr's  House 29 

The  Acadian  House 33 

The  Leete  Corner 38 

Ephraim  Darwin's  Place 42 

Col.  Samuel  Hill 43 

Abial  Eliot  House 49 

Abel  Chittenden  House 53 

The  Burgis  Houses 56 

The  Philo  Bishop  House 62 

House  Madison  Once  Owned 64 

The  Fowlers  of  Moose  Hill 66 

The  Black  House 70 

The  Amos  Seward  House 75 

The  Great  Ox  Pasture 78 

The  Tragedy  of  The  Daniel  Brown  Leete  House     .  88 

Nathaniel  Johnson  Homestead 94 


Yester -Years  of  Guilford 


Joseph  Chittenden  House 98 

Two  HoDGKiN  Houses 99 

David  Hull^s  House 102 

The  Griffing  Brothers .104 

The  Fosdick  Place 108 

Isaac  StoVs  Property Ill 

A  Widow  In  1759 114 

Two  Collins  Houses 119 

The  Lees  of  Crooked  Lane 121 

Fourth  Church  Parsonage 127 

Caldwell  House 129 

Great  Guns  of  Guilford 131 

Benton-Beecher  House 136 

Philemon  Hall  House 143 

Four  Elms  House .  144 

The  Island  House 146 

Franklin  Phelps  House 149 

Major  Lathrop's  Four  Chimneys 152 

The  Woodward  Tavern 155 

Minor  Bradley  Tavern 159 

Little  Journey  of  A  Great  Man 161 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Illustrations 

East  Side  of  Guilford  Green  in  1830       .     .     .     frontispiece 

PAGE 

Dr.  John  Red  field's  Hottse 18 

Jared  Leete's  Home         19 

Comfort  Starr's  House         34 

The  Acadian  Hotise 3') 

Daniel  Brown  Leete  House 98 

Nathaniel  Johnson  Homestead 99 

Captain  Samuel  Lee's  House 130 

Caldwell  House      .     .     .     .     .     .     . 131 

The  Minor  Bradley  Tavern .162 

Major  Lathrop's  House 163 


foreword 

Tester- Tears  of  Guilford  is  the  result  of  thirty  years 
of  search  of  Guilford's  records;  of  accumulation,  from  sources 
no  longer  available,  of  early  names  and  events;  of  tracing  the 
history  of  some  of  Guilford's  old  houses  the  origin  of  which 
had  been  buried  in  the  dust  of  centuries. 

Tester-Tears  does  not  include  those  ancient  houses  of 
Guilford  whose  history  is  preserved  already  by  historical  organ- 
izations or  by  families  long  owning  them.  Its  concern  is  with 
Forgotten  History. 

— Mary  Hoadley  Griswold 


Tester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Lost  Acres  Of  Guilford  Green 


^. 


*HE  LOST  ACRES  of  Guilford  Green— What  became  of 
them? 

The  fact  that  nearly  four  acres  of  ground  had  disappeared 
from  the  original  area  of  Guilford  Green  was  accepted  without 
comment  for  many  generations.  No  theory  nor  tradition  con- 
cerning that  disappearance  survived  two  centuries  and  a  half. 

Guilford  Green,  according  to  early  historians,  was  original- 
ly a  parallelogram  containing  sixteen  acres,  the  distance  around 
it  being  one  mile.  Guilford  Green,  today,  contains  eleven  and 
three-quarters  acres,  eight  rods,  within  the  curbing. 

What  happened  to  it? 

Nicholas  Huges's  Home  Lot 

The  land  on  which  the  old  Betts  house  stood  south  of  the 
Green,  now  the  site  of  the  new  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Store,  was 
originally  part  of  Guilford  Green,  pared  off  the  south  side  of 
the  central  plot  to  provide  a  home  lot  for  Nicholas  Huges,  black- 
smith, whose  trade  was  necessary  to  life  in  the  primitive  village. 

The  record  reads  thus:  "At  a  town  meeting  the  8th  of 
November,  1670,  the  town  grants  to  Nicholas  Huges  for  to 
incorig  him  to  work  in  his  trade  a  parcil  of  land  stacked  out 
by  the  towne  men  beside  John  Parmily's  home  lott  to  be  his 
own  inheritance  at  the  end  of  the  tearm  of  seven  years." 

The  "parcil"  was  measured  off  by  William  Seward  and 
William  Johnson  on  June  25,  1673,  21  rods,  4  ft.  long,  4  rods 
wide  at  one  end,  2  rods,  10  feet  wide  at  the  other,  and  was 
bounded  on  three  sides  by  the  Green,  on  the  south  by  John 
Parmily's  home  lot.  And  this  is  the  reason  for  the  jog  in  the 
highway  at  the  southwest  corner    of    the    Green.     Tradition 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

states  that  it  was  once  possible  to  stand  on  Jones's  Bridge  and 
look  east  along  the  highway  to  the  old  oak  in  Boston  Street, 
near  the  corner  of  Lovers'  Lane. 

So  Nicholas  Huges  came  and  set  up,  for  a  time,  his  forge 
on  the  south  side  of  the  Green  beside  the  original  highway. 
"When  Mr.  Markham  was  excavating  for  the  foundations  of  the 
Markham  Building  he  came  upon  ashes  and  cinders  from  that 
ancient  forge  under  the  southwest  corner  of  his  present  build- 
ing. 

As  the  roadway  was  subsequently  altered  to  run  on  the 
north  side  of  Nicholas  Huges's  home  lot,  small  strips  of  land 
on  either  side,  that  had  belonged  originally  in  the  Green,  became 
part  of  adjoining  home  lots.  Evidently  Huges  did  not  remain 
the  stipulated  seven  years  and  the  land  set  off  to  him  was  ab- 
sorbed by  adjoining  properties. 

Now  William  Plane,  one  of  the  Whitfield  Company,  had 
his  home  lot  assigned  to  him  in  Whitfield  Street,  reaching  up  to 
the  Green.  He  was  executed  in  New  Haven  after  a  few  years, 
his  widow  married  John  Parmelee,  Jr.,  and  brought  with  her 
into  the  Parmelee  family  the  real  estate  of  her  first  husband. 
Thus  reads  the  record:  "John  Parmalee  married  the  widow 
plaine  and  soo  these  tow  parsells  of  land  ....  as  they  are  here 
teriord  became  his  possession  ....  this  six  day  of  Aprill,  1668." 

After  the  death  of  his  wife,  formerly  the  Widow  Plane, 
John  Parmelee  married  another  wife.  Their  son  was  Stephen 
Parmelee,  who  married,  in  1693,  Elizabeth  Baldwin.  They 
lived  here  until  1710,  when  they  traded  property  with 
Josiah  Rossiter  of  Guilford,  deeding  to  him  "one  messauge  or 
tenement,  his  home  lot,  1  acre  more  or  less  with  buildings."  The 
land  Stephen  Parmelee  got  in  return  from  Josiah  Rossiter  was 
located  at  "Newtown  on  the  Stratford  River,"  and  was  described 
as  "Sherman's  Farm."  Josiah 's  wife  was  Sarah  Sherman,  daugh- 
ter of  the  Honorable  Samuel  Sherman  of  Woodbury. 

So  the  Stephen  Parmelees  went  to  live  in  Newtown  and 
Josiah  Rossiter  brought  his  family  to  live  south  side  of  Guilford 
Green.    Josiah  was  a  son  of  the  distinguished  Dr.  Bryan  Rossiter 

10 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

and  became  one  of  the  principal  men  of  Guilford.  He  was  town 
clerk,  deputy  at  the  general  court,  judge  of  the  New  Haven 
County  Court  and  of  the  County  Court  of  Probate.  He  died 
in  1716  but  this  was  the  home  of  the  Rossiters  until  1781,  when 
the  heirs  sold  the  homestead,  now  reduced  to  three-quarters  of 
an  acre,  to  Henry  Hill. 

The  new  owner  was  no  less  distinguished  than  the  former 
family.  Henry  Hill  was  the  grandson  of  the  renowned  Colonel 
Samuel  Hill  ,whose  residence  was  next  east  of  the  Hyland  House. 
He  was  a  worthy  successor  of  his  grandfather  and  of  his  uncle, 
Nathaniel  Hill,  in  offices  of  public  trust,  his  father  having  died 
early.  He  died  in  1827  and  with  him  ended  the  Hill  dynasty 
in  local  politics,  but  his  son,  George  Hill,  was  consul  to  Asia 
Minor  and  a  poet,  a  contemporary  of  Halleck. 

By  the  authority  of  her  husband's  will,  Leah  Hill,  widow 
of  Henry  Hill,  sold  the  homestead  in  1828  to  pay  his  debts. 
Henry  W.  Chittenden  owned  it  for  ten  years,  selling  it,  in  1838, 
to  Henry  H.  Eliot. 

Prelate  Demick  was  the  next  owner  for  two  short  years. 
Of  him  nothing  is  known  now  beyond  the  fact  of  his  tenure 
but  the  name  is  an  unusual  one.  Whoever  he  was  he  leased 
ground  to  Albert  Wildman  before  he  quitclaimed  the  property 
to  Samuel  Eliot  in  1841  and  disappeared  from  the  records. 

Thirteen  days  later  Samuel  Eliot  sold  to  Abigail  Franklin. 
By  1861  she  was  dead  and  the  property  passed  to  Laura  Betts, 
the  land  being  now  diminished  to  one-half  acre.  In  the  Betts 
family  the  property  remained  until  Laura  Betts  sold  it  to  Charles 
Williams  in  1902. 

Clarence  Markham,  the  next  owner,  came  to  Guilford  in 
1896.  For  a  time  he  conducted  his  jewelry  business  in  a  store 
in  the  Norton  Block,  Water  Street,  then  moved,  in  1900,  to  the 
building  of  J.  Harrison  Monroe,  on  the  corner.  In  1902  he 
bought  the  old  Betts  house  from  Charles  Williams,  cut  off  the 
east  wing  and  moved  it  into  the  rear  yard  and  built,  in  its  place, 
the  Markham  Building,  which  houses  the  jewelry  store  on  the 

11 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

first  floor,  with  the  family  apartment  on  the  second  and  third 
floors. 

The  old  Betts  house  was  taken  down  in  1935,  when  Mr. 
Markham  replaced  it  with  a  modern  store,  now  leased  to  the 
Atlantic  &  Pacific  Tea  Co. 

Some  yet  remember  the  spacious  porch  over  the  front  door, 
with  its  built-in  benches,  and  the  picket  fence  which  shut  in 
the  tiny  dooryard.  These  went  when  the  street  was  widened 
and  the  sidewalk  moved  back.  Mr.  Markham  kept  the  original 
front  windows,  casements  opening  out,  and  placed  them  on  the 
wing  in  the  rear  of  his  store  where  they  are  now. 

Samuel  Baldiuin's  Home  Lot 

In  1676  the  Town  of  Guilford  again  had  need  of  a  central 
home  lot  wherewith  to  induce  another  blacksmith,  Samuel  Bald- 
win, to  forsake  Fairfield  and  ply  his  craft  in  Guilford.  All  the 
land  around  Guilford  Green  had  already  been  assigned  to  own- 
ers.   What  could  the  Town  Fathers  do  in  this  emergency? 

What  the  Town  Fathers  did  do  was  to  shear  a  strip  of  land 
off  the  east  side  of  Guilford  Green,  toward  the  south,  and  deed 
it  to  Samuel  Baldwin  and  his  heirs  and  assigns  forever. 

To  understand  this  it  is  necessary  to  visualize  the  original 
layout  of  this  land.  Imagine  State  Street,  or  Crooked  Lane,  not 
ending  at  the  northeast  corner  of  the  Green,  as  now,  but  ex- 
tending on  to  meet  Boston  Street  or  East  Lane.  Then  imagine 
Guilford  Green  extending  eastward  from  its  present  boundary, 
over  the  ground  now  occupied  by  Park  Street  and  over  a  section 
of  the  present  home  lots  on  the  east  of  the  Green  to  meet  this 
extension  of  State  Street. 

Thus  the  language  of  the  town's  deed  of  land  to  Black- 
smith Baldwin,  hitherto  incomprehensible,  becomes  clear  of 
meaning.  It  reads:  "One-half  acre  of  land  UPON  THE 
GREEN,  between  John  Bishop's  barn    and    the    sawpit,    ALL 

12 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

ALONG  AGAINST  THE  FRONT  OF  JOHN  BISHOP'S 
HOME  LOT,  according  as  it  is  there  laid  out." 

Immediately  there  arises  the  tradition  that  John  Bishop's 
home  lot  of  seven  acres  faced  the  east  side  of  Guilford  Green. 
It  did.  But  it  was  the  original  Green  that  it  faced.  When  the 
Green  receded  to  the  westward  and  Samuel  Baldwin's  long,  nar- 
row home  lot  was  contrived  between  the  original  Bishop  home 
lot  and  the  diminished  Green,  there  was  no  outlet  for  the  Bishop 
acres  on  the  later  Green  frontage  except  by  buying  land  of 
Samuel  Baldwin.  And  that  is  exactly  what  happened.  The 
second  and  third  generation  of  Bishops  obtained  the  northern 
part  of  Samuel  Baldwin's  land  by  an  exchange  effected  in  1696. 
Not  until  then  did  the  Bishop  family  build  houses  facing  the 
Green's  east  side,  none  of  which  survive  today. 

In  fact  there  is  but  one  house  standing  now  that  was  built 
by  a  member  of  the  Bishop  family  on  or  near  the  original  home 
lot.  This  is  the  third-period  house  of  Captain  Nathaniel  Bishop, 
in  Boston  Street  near  the  southeast  corner  of  the  Green,  owned 
now  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  Maljkovich. 

The  crook  in  Park  Street,  near  the  former  Third  Church, 
reveals  where  Samuel  Baldwin's  improvised  home  lot  stopped. 
It  lay  "all  along  against  the  front  of  John  Bishop's  home  lot" 
which  was  east  of  it.  North  of  it  was  the  "saw  pitt,"  probably 
the  place  on  the  original  northeast  corner  of  the  Green  to  which 
the  first  settlers  hauled  their  newly-felled  trees  to  be  sawed  and 
hewn  into  timbers  and  lumber  for  those  first  houses,  which  had 
to  be  built  as  rapidly  and  efficiently  as  possible.  This  bit  of 
land  could  easily  be,  and  doubtless  was,  absorbed  by  the  Jones- 
Meigs  home  lot  on  which  it  bordered,  and  which  extended  north 
to  Union  Street.  Crooked  Lane  was  necessarily  cut  short  off  at 
the  northeast  corner  of  the  Green  and  the  present  Park  Street 
was  substituted  for  the  part  of  the  original  Crooked  Lane  which 
had  to  be  sacrificed  to  meet  the  smithian  emergency. 

The  early  house  of  John  Bishop,  the  settler,  stood  probably 
where  the  house,  now  the  home  of  George  Travers,  was  built  in 
1844.     Such  an  old  house  is  mentioned  in  the  inventory  of 

13 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

Captain  Nathaniel  Bishop's  estate  in  1769,  at  which  time  the 
present  house  had  been  erected.  Yet  another  house  stood  on 
the  original  Bishop  home  lot,  which  extended  to  the  ground 
where  Graves  Avenue  was  opened  about  1850,  this  being  then  a 
private  road  through  Graves's  land.  This  house  was  remembered 
by  people  lately  living.  It  was  of  the  salt  box,  or  second  period 
type,  stood  on  or  in  front  of  the  site  of  Raymond  Rolf's  bun- 
galow and  was  probably  the  home  of  Ebenezer  Bishop,  an  uncle 
of  Captain  Nathaniel  Bishop. 

Samuel  Baldwin,  having  obtained  title  to  his  long,  narrow 
home  lot,  built  his  house  on  or  near  the  site  of  the  later  house 
now  owned  by  Thomas  H.  Landon.  After  a  time  he  found  the 
land  not  lying  to  his  liking.  A  trade  of  land  was  arranged  be- 
tween him  and  his  next  neighbors  on  the  east,  Widow  Susannah 
Bishop  and  her  son,  Sergeant  John  Bishop  (the  third  John). 
By  this  trade  the  Baldwin  lot  secured  more  land  east  of  the 
dooryard  with  a  frontage  on  the  "common  country  road,"  now 
Boston  Street.  The  Bishop  lot  obtained  an  outlet  on  the  Green 
frontage  in  exchange  for  the  acres  lying  just  behind  the  narrow 
strip  that  was  Baldwin  land. 

The  bargain  was  made  but,  before  the  deeds  could  be 
signed,  Samuel  Baldwin  died,  in  January,  1696,  and  the  year 
was  in  December  before  the  General  Court  empowered 
Widow  Abigail  Baldwin  to  sign  her  husband's  name  to  the  deed. 
Finally  this  was  done  and  the  north  part  of  Blacksmith  Bald- 
win's home  lot  became  Bishop  property.  Sergeant  Bishop  built 
a  house  where  the  Third  Church  or  Chapel  Playhouse  stands. 
Samuel  Bishop,  a  brother  of  the  elder  Nathaniel,  soon  built  a 
salt-box  house  where  the  Town  Hall  now  stands.  In  1739  an- 
other blacksmith,  Stephen  Spencer,  lately  come  to  town,  bought 
Sergeant  John  Bishop's  house.  He  sold  this  to  Lewis  Fairchild 
in  1754,  having  built  for  himself  a  new  and  more  modern  house, 
the  one  now  owned  by  E.  P.  Bates.  So  the  east  side  of  Guilford 
Green  was  filling  up  with  dwellings. 

Samuel  Baldwin,  the  blacksmith,  having  died,  his  son, 
Timothy  Baldwin,   a  weaver,  owned  the  Baldwin  homestead. 

H 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

Nathaniel  Bishop,  Sr.,  the  neighbor  on  the  east,  died  in  1714. 
The  young  men,  Timothy  Baldwin  and  Nathaniel  Bishop,  Jr., 
in  1720,  arranged  another  trade  of  land.  By  this,  Baldwin  ac- 
quired more  land  in  the  rear  while  Nathaniel  Bishop,  Jr.,  re- 
gained the  lot  on  the  "common  country  road"  that  earlier 
Bishops  had  traded  to  Samuel  Baldwin.  This  was  the  land  on 
which  Captain  Nathaniel  Bishop,  later  in  life,  built  the  present 
Maljkovich  house. 

In  1721  Timothy  Baldwin  and  his  wife,  Bathsheba,  sold 
their  homestead  on  the  southeast  corner  of  Guilford  Green  to 
David  Naughty,  merchant,  late  of  Boston.  They  removed  to 
North  Guilford  and  many  illustrious  descendants  have  traced 
their  lineage  to  that  home  high  in  North  Guilford  hills. 

Captain  Nathaniel  Bishop  House 

It  was,  then,  on  June  13,  1720,  that  young  Nathaniel 
Bishop  bought  land  from  Timothy  Baldwin  on  the  west  side 
of  his  deceased  father,  Nathaniel  Bishop's,  homestead.  On 
December  12  of  the  same  year  he  married  Abigail  Stone,  but 
he  seems  to  have  continued  living  in  the  old  house  of  his  ances- 
tors until  his  fortune  was  made.  He  went  to  sea  and  became  a 
sea-captain,  commanding  probably  one  of  those  vessels  which 
were  built  in  Guilford  shipyards  for  the  West  India  trade,  car- 
rying down  cargoes  of  animals  and  farm  produce  and  bringing 
home  rum,  molasses  and  other  products  of  the  tropical  islands. 
He  accumulated  money  and  gear,  for  the  inventory  of  his  estate 
fills  several  pages  of  the  probate  record.  He  was  a  farmer,  as 
well  as  a  sea  captain,  not  an  unusual  combination  in  his  day. 
The  inventory  valued  his  estate  at  2,347  pounds,  nearly  $12,000, 
a  considerable  fortune  for  that  time. 

Captain  Nathaniel  Bishop's  house  today  bears  evidence  that 
it  was  built  by  a  man  of  means.  When  Captain  Nathaniel  died 
in  1769  the  house  was  unfinished,  for  both  will  and  inventory 
mention  "bords,"  sash  and  glass  for  finishing  the  house. 

Captain  Nathaniel  Bishop  was  sorely  bereaved  a  few  years 
before  his  own  death.     A  son,  Beriah  Bishop,  living  north  side 

15 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

of  the  Green,  died  in  1756;  his  wife  and  their  oldest  daughter, 
Abigail  Scovil,  died  in  one  year,  1758;  his  youngest  son,  Levi 
Bishop,  in  1760. 

The  ownership  of  Captain  Nathaniel  Bishop's  homestead 
passed  to  his  grandsons,  John  Scovil,  Jr.,  and  Daniel  Scovil.  By 
1790  the  Scovils  had  sold  the  house  to  Daniel  Stanton,  who 
opened  a  store  on  the  home  lot.  He  sold  out  to  Dolly  Stanton 
of  Killingworth  (Clinton)  in  1798. 

Dolly  Stanton  sold  the  place  in  1816  to  Abel  Kimberly, 
who  owned  it  until  1829.  Then  he  sold  to  Richard  Holmes, 
who  continued  in  business  until  business  became  over-compli- 
cated. The  title  passed  to  William  C.  Taylor  &  Company  of 
New  York  in  1841.  Through  the  next  three  years  Harry  B. 
Fowler  was  acquiring  the  title.  He  sold  to  Samuel  Landon  on 
April  18,  1844. 

Immediately  Samuel  Landon  set  off  the  east  part  of  the 
home  lot  and  the  barn  thereon  to  his  son,  Charles  W.  Landon, 
who  built,  probably  the  same  year,  the  house  now  the  home  of 
George  Travers.  Charles  W.  Landon  sold  to  Russell  Crampton 
in  1848.  Samuel  Landon  lived  on  in  the  older  house  until  his 
death  in  1886,  forty-two  years  in  all. 

So  broken  up  into  small  parcels  are  the  original  home  lots 
of  the  two  men,  John  Bishop  and  Samuel  Baldwin,  that  it  was 
necessary  to  trace  the  origin  of  every  present  house  as  far  east 
as  the  Hyland  House  and  as  far  north  as  the  former  Third 
Church  property  in  order  to  trace  the  history  of  Captain  Na- 
thaniel Bishop's  house  which  has  served  as  a  marker  above  the 
submerged  land  divisions  of  Guilford's  earliest  years. 


16 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


The  Naughtys  Of  Guilford 

\^  HE  home  lot  of  Samuel  Baldwin,  the  blacksmith,  which 
the  town  fathers  had  contrived  for  him  by  cutting  a  section 
off  the  east  side  of  Guilford  Green,  passed  into  the  possession  of 
David  Naughty,  late  of  Boston,  in  1721,  when  Timothy  and 
Bathsheba  Baldwin  sold  to  him  the  half-acre  and  more  of  land, 
the  dwelling,  barn  and  orchard. 

David  Naughty  and  his  wife,  Ruth,  at  once  opened  a 
store  on  the  place,  David  having  been  a  merchant  in  Boston. 
After  his  death  in  1739  goods  in  the  store  and  wine  in  the  cellar 
were  inventoried  at  658  pounds.  His  worldly  estate  included 
a  herd  of  cattle  and  two  horses.  His  debts  in  Boston,  paid  by 
his  widow  in  settling  his  estate,  amounted  to  2,252  pounds. 

Peter  Naughty,  a  brother  of  David,  was  living  in  North 
Guilford  in  1731  when  David,  "for  love  and  brotherly  affec- 
tion" deeded  to  Peter  "my  home  lot  in  Cohabitation".  And 
Peter  had  children;  David,  not  yet  21,  named  for  his  uncle  and 
heir  to  his  property  when  Madame  Naughty  should  marry  a 
second  husband  or  die;  Ruth  and  Joanne  Naughty,  to  whom 
Uncle  David  willed  a  mourning  suit  each;  Margot  Naughty 
who  was  to  receive  nothing  by  special  instructions  in  the  will. 

The  Naughtys  had  slaves,  Montrose  and  Phillis,  who  had 
one  son,  Pompey,  at  the  time  of  David  Naughty's  death  in 
1739.  For  their  future,  and  the  future  of  any  children  that 
might  thereafter  be  born  to  Montrose  and  Phillis,  David 
Naughty  made  provision  in  his  will.  They  were  to  be  set  free 
after  the  death  of  Madame  Naughty.  A  house  was  to  be  built 
for  them  on  a  lot  of  land  near  the  Naughty  farm  in  Nut 
Plains,  the  lot  to  belong  to  Montrose,  the  house  to  be  furnished 
and  ten  pounds  yearly  to  be  paid  to  them  by  his  nephew  and 

17 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

heir.  Pompey  was  to  have  50  pounds  outright  and  to  be  fitted 
with  his  master's  best  suit  "and  all  things  comparable  to  said 
suit  from  top  to  toe".  The  rest  of  his  wearing  apparel  was  to 
go  to  Montrose. 

David  Naughty  had  set  his  heart  upon  having  the  estate 
he  was  leaving,  lands  in  Saybrook,  Litchfield,  North  Guilford, 
Nut  Plains  and  Guilford,  as  well  as  movable  property,  always 
in  the  Naughty  name  and  made  careful  provision  to  that  end. 
But  the  futility  of  human  planning  becomes  painfully  apparent 
for  the  century  had  not  closed  before  all  had  passed  from  the 
hands  of  his  nephew  and  heir. 

Madame  Naughty  never  married  again  and  so  never  was 
reduced  to  "my  best  bed  and  furniture  and  my  best  silver  tank- 
ard", which  was  all  that  David's  widow  was  "to  enjoy  of  my 
estate  after  such  marriage".  Instead  she  took  efficient  com- 
mand of  affairs  and,  in  spite  of  the  co-executorship  of  Nephew 
David  after  he  became  of  age,  she  was  able  to  pay  up  all  her 
husband's  debts  and  leave  a  considerable  estate  when  she  died 
in  1773. 

After  the  death  of  David  Naughty  in  1739,  three  more 
children  were  born  to  Montrose  and  Phillis.  These  were  Moses, 
Aaron  and  Candace.  For  them  all  Madame  Naughty,  also, 
made  generous  provision  in  her  will.  The  older  slaves  were  to 
be  set  free  and  some  of  her  jewelry  and  silk  garments  were  to 
be  sold  for  their  maintenance.  Pompey  had  been  provided  for 
by  her  husband's  will.  But  as  for  the  younger  Negroes,  Moses, 
Aaron  and  Candace,  it  seemed  to  Madame  Naughty  not  well 
to  set  them  adrift  in  a  world  with  which  they  were  unfitted  to 
cope.  So,  notwithstanding  the  provision  of  freedom  made  in 
her  husband's  will,  Madame  Naughty  indentured  the  three 
for  life. 

Candace,  then  about  22  years  old,  was  committed  to  Eben- 
ezer  and  Ann  Parmelee  in  the  Hyland  House  and  after  their 
death  Candace  was  to  go  to  their  son-in-law  and  daughter, 
Ensign  Hooker  Bartlett  and  Ruth  Bartlett.  Candace  went  to 
her  new  home  with  most  of  the  personal  possessions  of  her  late 

18 


^.: 


Dr.  John  Redfield's  House,  Built  1768,  Torn  Down  1937 


m  1 1 


Jared  Leete's  Home,  Broad  Street 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

mistress.  But  Mrs.  Ebenezer  Parmelee  died  in  1789,  Ebenezer 
Parmelee  and  Hooker  Bartlett  and  his  wife  were  already  dead 
and  there  was  no  one  with  legal  claim  so  that  Candace  auto- 
matically became  free  at  the  age  of  38.  A  glimpse  of  her  in 
later  years  is  given  in  the  story  of  the  Weld  family  in  which 
she  is  mentioned  as  "poor  old  worn-out  Candace,  going  here 
and  there  for  the  accommodation  of  the  public,  sometimes 
washing,  sometimes  making  wedding  cake." 

Aaron  was  placed  in  the  family  of  Levi  Hubbard,  builder 
of  the  Black  House,  and  went  with  them  to  New  Haven  when 
they  sold  the  house  to  Nicholas  Loyselle. 

Moses  became  the  servant  of  the  Rev.  Amos  Fowler  whose 
home  site  is  now  occupied  by  the  Town  Hall.  Moses  was  the 
thrifty  and  prudent  servant  who  sent  to  college  the  son  of  his 
improvident  master.  He  had  been  allowed  to  work  out  and 
had  saved  his  wages  and  when  the  family  problem  came  up  he 
said  "I  got  money,  I  send  him  to  college".    And  so  it  was  done. 

The  nephew,  David  Naughty  II,  had  to  wait  some  years 
after  the  death  of  his  uncle  to  enter  upon  his  inheritance  for 
Madame  Naughty  outlived  her  husband  more  than  thirty 
years.  He  was  past  middle  age  when  he  became  the  owner  of 
the  "house  in  town"  and  other  landed  estate  of  his  uncle.  That 
he  occupied  Madame  Naughty's  house  for  a  few  years  after 
her  death  is  evident  for  he  was  in  litigation  with  his  neighbor, 
John  Redfield,  whose  home  was  the  so-called  Monroe  house, 
which  stood  next  south  of  the  Town  Hall  until  November, 
1937.  Six  years  after  Madame  Naughty's  death,  John  Redfield 
obtained  judgment  against  David  Naughty  II  "for  surrender- 
ing seison  and  possession"  of  land  at  Quonapaug,  Nut  Plains 
and  100  rods  in  "the  town  platt".  Sheriff  Hooker  Bartlett 
served  the  papers  on  Naughty  and  delivered  "turf  and  twig" 
on  the  premises.  But  the  next  spring,  April  12,  1780,  for  "100 
lawful  money",  John  Redfield  deeded  back  to  David  Naughty 
the  land  at  Nut  Plains  and  Quonapaug,  retaining  "the  town 
platt"  land. 

19 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

David  Naughty  II  then  hved  on  the  Nut  Plains  farm 
until  1795  when  he  sold  the  "home  lot  where  I  now  live,  with 
dwelling  house,  etc.,"  to  Samuel  Evarts,  father  of  Nathaniel 
Evarts  and  great  great  grandfather  of  Mrs.  Alice  Eldridge 
Lovell.  Part  of  this  home  lot  he  had  previously,  in  1790,  deeded 
to  his  son,  David  Naughty,  Jr. 

Parcel  by  parcel,  between  1779  and  1795,  David  Naughty 
11  sold  all  the  land  in  Guilford  that  his  uncle  had  acquired  so 
happily  sixty  years  earlier  in  the  expectation  that  his  estate 
would  remain  in  the  Naughty  name  forever  and  a  day.  And 
now,  two  centuries  later,  the  name  remains  only  in  connection 
with  a  lot  in  Nut  Plains  known  as  the  Naughty  Lot  and  the 
tradition  that  David  Naughty  II  desired  to  be  buried  with  his 
head  out  of  ground  that  he  might  glare  at  his  enemy  from  the 
burying  ground  on  the  Green — across  from  John  Redfield's 
house. 

The  home  of  Thomas  H.  Landon  stands  approximately  on 
the  site  of  the  Baldwin-Naughty  house  which  fell  into  Dr. 
John  Redfield's  hands  in  1779.  Here,  in  1780,  Dr.  John  Red- 
field  built  the  mansion  house  which,  with  its  quarter-acre  at 
the  southeast  corner  of  Guilford  Green,  Jared  Redfield  sold,  on 
January  24,  1818,  to  George  Landon,  grandfather  of  Thomas 
H.  Landon,  the  present  owner. 


20 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Thomas  Jordan^s  Home  Lot 

CDhOMAS  JORDAN,  who  came  from  England  with  the 
Rev.  Henry  Whitfield  and  his  group  in  1639,  was  assigned  a 
home  lot  at  the  north  side  of  Guilford  Green,  land  now  occupied 
by  the  home  of  Nelson  H.  Griswold,  the  Sage  property  recently 
owned  by  the  late  Robert  T.  Spencer,  and  the  old  Sage  house, 
now  owned  by  Francis  E.  Langdon. 

Returning  to  England  in  165  5,  Thomas  Jordan  became 
an  eminent  attorney  at  Lenham,  in  Kent,  and  died  about  1705. 
He  is  supposed  to  have  married  Dorothy,  oldest  daughter  of 
the  Rev.  Henry  Whitfield.  A  daughter,  Elizabeth  Jordan, 
married  the  Honorable  Andrew  Leete,  son  of  Governor  William 
Leete,  and  to  this  son-in-law,  Andrew  Leete,  Thomas  Jordan, 
then  of  England,  made  over  the  title  of  his  homestead  in  Guil- 
ford on  March  25,  1674. 

Andrew  Leete  is  said  to  have  been  instrumental  in  the  con- 
cealment of  Connecticut's  charter  during  the  usurpation  of 
authority  by  Major  Andros  and  to  have  hidden  that  charter, 
for  a  season,  in  his  house  in  Guilford.  This  early  house  prob- 
ably stood  somewhat  back  from  the  street,  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  present  house,  home  of  the  late  Robert  T.  Spencer,  as  men- 
tion of  an  old  cellar  is  made  in  a  deed  from  Jared  Leete  to 
David  Landon  dated  May  28,  1782.  Andrew  Leete  died  in  1692. 

The  homestead  passed  to  Andrew  Leete's  son,  Samuel  Leete 
(1677-1751)  who  married  Hannah  Graves  in  1722. 

The  pastor  of  the  First  Congregational  Church,  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Ruggles,  Sr.,  died  in  1728,  and  a  division  of  opinion 
developed  concerning  the  settlement  of  his  son  and  namesake 
in  his  place,  some  favoring  the  settlement  of  another  young 
man  of  Guilford,  Edmund  Ward.     The  outcome  of  the  dis- 

21 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

agreement  was  the  formation  of  the  Fourth  Congregational 
Church,  of  which  the  Rev.  Edmund  Ward  was  ordained  as 
pastor  on  September  21,  1733.  Samuel  Leete  was  affiliated  with 
the  Fourth  Society  and  on  April  10,  1730,  gave  the  land  for  a 
meeting  house,  so  long  as  it  should  be  used  for  that  purpose  and 
no  longer.  This  meeting  house  stood  approximately  on  the 
present  site  of  Nelson  H.  Griswold's  store.  Church  Street,  or 
Durham  Turnpike,  was  not  opened  until  almost  a  century  later. 
This  meeting  house  continued  in  use  until  March  4,  1811.  Deeds 
show  that  it  was  yet  standing  on  February  8,  1813,  but  it  was 
taken  down  soon  after  and  the  land  then  reverted  to  the  original 
ownership. 

Just  before  his  death  in  1751  Samuel  Leete  sold  to  William 
Redj&eld  a  building  lot,  part  of  his  home  lot,  next  west  of  the 
Fourth  Church.  Two  months  later  William  Redfield  sold  the 
west  section  of  this  building  lot  to  Pitman  Collins.  Each  man 
built  a  house  on  his  land.  William  Redfield  sold  his  house  and 
land  to  Beriah  Bishop  on  March  26,  1754.  Pitman  Collins  sold 
his  house,  next  west,  to  Nathaniel  Joslin  (or  Jocelin)  on  May 
17,  1760. 

Both  places  presently  had  new  owners.  In  1756  Beriah 
Bishop  deeded  the  homestead  he  had  bought  from  William  Red- 
field  to  his  son,  Nathaniel  Bishop,  "for  his  advancement  in  the 
world".  In  1769  Daniel  Humphreys  of  New  Haven  succeeded 
Nathaniel  Jocelin  as  owner  of  the  Pitman  Collins  house  and 
promptly  sold  it,  on  April  8,  1769,  to  Captain  David  Landon, 
son  of  Judge  Samuel  Landon  of  Southold,  Long  Island,  who 
had  married,  on  October  18,  1763,  Rebecca,  daughter  of  Dr. 
Nathaniel  Ruggles  of  Guilford.  They  were  the  ancestors  of 
the  Landon  family  of  Guilford. 

In  the  meantime,  Samuel  Leete  having  died  in  1751,  his 
son,  Jared  Leete,  inherited  by  his  father's  will  the  eastern  half 
of  the  Leete  homestead.  Jared  bought  the  other  half  from  his 
sister,  Anna  Leete,  in  1773,  this  including  her  right  and  title  in 
the  dwelling  house  which,  doubtless,  was  the  original  house 
built  for  Thomas  Jordan  more  than  a  century  earlier. 

22 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

Back  in  1712  Samuel  Leete,  father  of  Jared,  had  sold  to  a 
kinsman,  Peletiah  Leete,  the  southwest  corner  of  his  home  lot 
and  thereon  Peletiah  Leete  had  built  a  house.  He  had  married 
Abigail  Fowler,  daughter  of  Abraham  Fowler  whose  home  was 
on  the  corner  of  Broad  and  Fair  Streets,  next  west.  Their 
daughter,  Abigail  Leete,  sold  the  land  back  to  Jared  Leete,  re- 
serving the  right  to  take  away  the  buildings  any  time  before 
May  10,  1774.  Later  deeds  reveal  that  Abigail  Leete  did  move 
her  house  to  the  east  side  of  the  Fourth  Church,  on  land  now  in 
Church  Street. 

By  the  close  of  1773  Jared  Leete  owned  the  western  part 
of  his  father's  original  home  lot  and  about  1774  he  built  the 
house,  afterward  owned  by  Miss  Sage  and,  at  the  present  time, 
owned  by  Francis  E.  Langdon.  This  house  originally  stood 
farther  east  on  the  home  lot  and  was  moved  to  its  present  loca- 
tion when  Joel  Tuttle  built  a  new  house,  farther  back  from  the 
street,  later  the  home  of  his  sister-in-law,  Miss  Sage,  and  yet 
later  the  home  of  the  late  Robert  T.  Spencer. 

Returning  to  the  sister  houses  next  west  of  the  Fourth 
Church,  the  westernmost  one  was  now  the  home  of  Captain 
David  Landon,  but  the  other,  next  to  the  church,  was  sold  by 
Nathaniel  Bishop,  2nd.,  on  September  28,  1776,  to  the  Rev. 
Daniel  Brewer. 

This  transfer  was  the  more  noteworthy  because  the  Rev. 
Daniel  Brewer  had  lately  been  dismissed  from  the  pulpit  of  the 
church,  beneath  the  eaves  of  which  he  elected  to  live.  He  had 
embraced  the  doctrines  of  the  Sandemanians,  the  church  was 
split  by  controversy  and  for  several  years  was  without  a 
minister.  On  August  8,  1783,  the  Rev.  Daniel  Brewer  sold  the 
house  to  his  neighbor,  Captain  David  Landon.  From  Guilford 
he  went  to  Newtown,  Conn.,  where  there  was  a  society  of 
Sandemanians,  and  died  in  Taunton,  Mass.,  in  1825,  aged  81. 

Captain  Landon  now  owned  all  the  street  front  between 
the  Fourth  Church  on  the  east  and  Jared  Leete  on  the  west. 
In  1787  the  property  on  the  west  passed  from  the  name  of 
Jared  Leete,  his  conservator,  Noah  Fowler,  being  obliged  to  sell 

23 


Yester  -Years   of  Guilford 

the  homestead  to  reaUze  145  pounds,  1  shiHing,  11^  pence  for 
Jared  Leete's  creditors.  Joel  Tuttle,  late  of  New  Haven,  bought 
it  and  lived  there  until  his  death  in  1822.  His  second  wife  was 
Elizabeth  Fowler. 

Captain  David  Landon  sold  the  house  next  the  church  in 
1793  to  Samuel  Brown,  but  after  Captain  David's  death  in  1796, 
it  came  back  into  the  family  and  his  sons,  Jonathan  Landon  of 
Southold,  Long  Island,  and  William  Landon  of  Guilford,  sold 
it,  on  May  22,  1798.  to  John  Hoadley,  probably  from  Branford. 
Hoadley,  on  July  12,  1804,  sold  the  house  to  Orren  Hand. 

Orren  Hand  and  his  sister,  Marina,  were  two  of  the  seven 
children  of  Ichabod  Hand,  a  distant  relative  of  Jared  Leete's 
wife,  Hannah  Hand.  Orren  Hand  was  a  seafaring  man.  On 
September  6,  1804,  he  made  his  will,  naming  his  sister,  Marina 
Hand,  his  sole  heir  and  his  executrix.  In  December,  1806,  at 
the  age  of  29  years,  he  was  lost  at  sea,  as  was  a  brother,  while 
another  brother  perished  at  sea  a  few  years  later. 

Marina  Hand  became  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  Nathan  Bennett 
Burgess,  a  native  of  Washington,  Conn.,  who  was  rector  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  on  Guilford  Green  from  1801  to  1805.  They 
were  living  in  Brookhaven,  N.  Y.,  October  12,  1812,  when  they 
sold  the  house  and  lot  next  west  of  the  meeting  house  to  John 
Taylor. 

John  Taylor  had  already  bought,  on  July  18,  1812,  the 
little  house  of  Abigail  Leete,  on  the  east  side  of  the  Fourth 
Church,  Abigail  having  died  in  1792.  Her  heirs,  Daniel,  Miranda 
and  Wealthy  Leete,  had  sold  it  to  Ezra  Stone  Bishop,  from 
whom,  two  years  later,  John  Taylor  had  bought  it.  On  Feb- 
ruary 8,  1813,  John  Taylor  bought  the  old,  abandoned  meeting 
house  from  the  Fourth  Society.  When  he  sold  the  property,  on 
December  13,  1814,  to  Joseph  Nichols  of  New  Haven,  there 
were  two  houses  thereon,  the  Abigail  Leete  house  and  the  Hand- 
Burgess  house,  and  a  barn,  but  no  mention  was  made  of  the 
meeting  house,  evidence  that  it  had  been  torn  down. 

Samuel  Eliot  of  Guilford  bought  the  property  from  Joseph 
Nichols  on  December  25,  1817,  and  a  month  later,  January  23, 

24 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

1818,  sold  it  to  the  Rev.  David  Baldwin  (1780-1862)  who 
married  Ruth  Eliot,  daughter  of  Wyllys  Eliot  of  Guilford,  and 
was  rector,  at  various  times,  of  the  Episcopal  Churches  of  Guil- 
ford, North  Guilford,  North  Killingworth,  North  Branford 
and  Branford,  but  continued  to  reside  in  Guilford.  At  one 
time,  three  young  girls  from  the  South  were  members  of  his 
family  and  he  tutored  them.  One  of  these,  Mary  Ann  Tut- 
hill,  probably  a  relative  of  the  Tuttles  next  door,  afterward  be- 
came the  wife  of  Frank  Stockton,  the  writer  of  delightful 
stories.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stockton  were  guests  of  Miss  Clara  I. 
Sage  in  later  ^ears. 

On  April  16,  1818,  the  Rev.  Nathan  B.  Burgess,  then  of 
Plymouth,  Conn.,  quitclaimed  to  the  Rev.  David  Baldwin,  for 
one  cent,  all  claim  to  the  property,  the  latter  having  paid  up 
the  mortgage  placed  thereon  by  John  Taylor. 

Ten  years  after  the  death  of  the  Rev.  David  Baldwin,  his 
heirs,  on  May  4,  1872,  sold  the  property,  with  one  dwelling, 
store  and  other  buildings  to  Nelson  Hotchkiss.  The  little  house 
of  Abigail  Leete  had  gone  to  make  way  for  the  opening  of 
Church  Street  about  1825.  The  store  was  on  the  ground  as 
early  as  1846  when  William  H.  Baldwin  quitclaimed  to  David 
Baldwin  the  store  on  the  latter's  land  "now  occupied  by  me  as 
a  country  store". 

Nelson  Hotchkiss,  who  now  owned  the  house  built  by  Wil- 
liam Redfield  in  1751,  moved  the  house  back  from  the  sidewalk 
to  its  present  location,  enlarged  and  improved  it.  It  passed  to 
his  heirs  and  is  now  owned  by  a  grand  nephew  and  namesake, 
Nelson  Hotchkiss  Griswold. 

As  to  the  house  built  by  Pitman  Collins  in  1751  and  later 
the  home  of  Captain  David  Landon,  his  son,  Nathaniel  Ruggles 
Landon,  at  the  southwest  corner  of  the  Green,  sold  the  house 
and  half -acre  of  land  to  Elizabeth  Tuttle  on  April  6,  1830.  In 
the  Griff ing  genealogy,  published  in  1881,  mention  is  made  of 
a  "two-chimneyed  red  house"  lately  removed,  which  was  the 
home  of  Deacon  Robert  Griffing  before  he  removed  to  North 
Guilford  about  1767.    He  was  a  tenant  only. 

25 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

The  stately  mansion  of  Joel  Tuttle  was  doubtless  built  soon 
after  Joel  Tuttle,  Jr.,  had  inherited  his  father's  property  and 
after  his  mother  had  bought  the  Landon  place,  that  is,  about 
1830.  Joel  Tuttle's  wife  was  Lucy  Sage  of  Cromwell.  Her 
sister,  Clara  I.  Sage,  made  her  home  with  her  widowed  sister. 
The  only  son,  Willie  Sage  Tuttle,  died  in  youth.  Miss  Clara  Sage 
outlived  her  sister,  Mrs.  Joel  Tuttle,  and  inherited  the  Tuttle 
property.  After  her  death  it  was  purchased  by  Robert  T. 
Spencer,  who  came  back  to  his  native  town  to  spend  his  last 
years  and  died  on  June  25,  1535. 


26 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Miles  Dudley^ s  Homestead 

\D  HE  HOME  of  William  Dudley,  one  of  the  Whitfield  Com- 
pany, was  on  the  east  side  of  Fair  Street,  his  house  standing 
about  on  the  site  of  the  present  home  of  Attorney  George  E. 
Beers,  the  well,  with  its  sweep  and  bucket,  being  on  the  side- 
walk. Nathaniel  and  Betsy  Ruggles,  descendants  of  William 
Dudley,  were  its  last  occupants.  They  died  in  1840,  after  which 
the  house,  two  centuries  old,  was  taken  down. 

Joseph  Dudley,  son  of  William  Dudley,  occupied  his  father's 
homestead  but  his  son.  Miles  Dudley,  (1676-1753)  who  married 
Rachel  Strong  in  1706,  lived  on  Miss  Ida  Hubbard's  site  by  the 
evidence  of  a  deed  of  1707.  The  Dudley  lot  extended  south  to 
the  present  north  line  of  the  Fair  Street  School  grounds. 

Miles  Dudley's  youngest  son,  John  Dudley,  (1721-1808) 
married  Tryphena  Stone  and  lived  in  his  father's  homestead 
until  1775,  when  he  sold  "the  home  lot  where  I  now  dwell", 
lYz  acres,  with  house,  etc.,  to  Nathaniel  Bishop  II  for  360 
pounds. 

Nathaniel  Bishop  II  sold  the  place  in  1777  to  Jasper  Grif- 
fing  who  had  lately  bought  the  Old  Stone  House.  Jasper 
Griffing  died  in  1800,  his  son,  Joel  Griffing,  in  1826.  Joel 
Griffing's  daughter,  Lydia,  wife  of  Colonel  William  Hart,  died 
in  1819,  seven  years  before  her  father's  death.  In  1832  Colonel 
William  Hart,  father  and  guardian  of  Sally  A.  Hart  and  Wil- 
liam H.  Hart,  grandchildren  of  Joel  Griffing,  sold  the  property 
to  William  Hale.  In  1833  William  Hale  sold  the  present  corner 
lot  to  John  S.  Bishop  of  North  Madison. 

York  Street  then  extended  no  farther  east  than  Fair  Street 
and  this  homestead  was  bounded  on  the  north  by  John  Starr 
and  Bela  Stone,  east  by  Durham  Turnpike,  south  by  the  Town 

27 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

of  Madison  which  then  owned  the  present  TurnbuU  homestead, 
and  west  by  Liberty  Street,  as  Fair  Street  was  called  for  a  few 
years.  Prior  to  1825  the  home  lots  on  the  east  side  of  Fair  Street 
"reared  back"  against  the  home  lots  on  the  west  side  of  State 
Street. 

The  estate  of  John  S.  Bishop  in  1838  sold  the  house  and 
lot  to  William  Wooster  of  Guilford.  The  property  changed 
hands  several  times  until  1859  when  John  F.  Kimberly  bought 
it  from  Daniel  S.  Redfield  and  made  his  home  there  until  1878, 
when  he  sold  the  place  to  William  D.  Frisbie  of  New  London, 
son  of  Mrs.  Abigail  Hubbard  by  her  first  marriage  and  half- 
brother  of  Miss  Ida  Hubbard,  the  present  owner. 


28 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Comfort  Starves  House 

[^  OMFORT  STAR  in  1694  came  from  Middletown  to  Guil- 
ford. Here  he  lodged  in  the  "ordinary"  kept  by  John  Hopson 
or  Hobson  in  the  Old  Stone  House  which  had  been  built  as  the 
home  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Whitfield,  leader  of  the  founders  of 
Guilford  who  had  come  from  England  in  1639. 

Now  John  Hopson  had  a  daughter,  Elizabeth,  a  maid  of 
twenty  summers.  Comfort  Starr  was  twenty-five.  They  met 
and  their  courtship  was  short.  They  were  married  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1694,  bought  the  house  of  John  Collins,  formerly  Henry 
Kingsnorth's,  in  Crooked  Lane,  and  there  passed  their  lives.  This 
house  is  the  only  one  now  standing  in  Guilford,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  rebuilt  Henry  Whitfield  House,  of  all  the  houses 
that  were  the  homes  of  the  Henry  Whitfield  group. 

Comfort  Starr  of  Guilford  was  a  son  of  Comfort  Starr  of 
Middletown,  a  grandson  of  Dr.  Thomas  Starr  of  the  vicinity 
of  Boston,  and  a  great  grandson  and  namesake  of  Dr.  Comfort 
Starr,  that  pioneer  surgeon  or  chirurgeon  who,  with  three  child- 
ren and  three  servants,  left  the  comforts  of  Kent,  England,  in 
1635,  went  on  board  the  good  ship,  "Hercules"  of  Sandwich, 
"and  therein  transported  from  Sandwich  to  the  plantation  called 
New  England  in  America".  Later  his  good  wife  followed  him 
with  the  other  children.  Dr.  Comfort  Starr  practiced  first  in 
New  Towne  (Cambridge),  then  in  Duxbury,  and  finally  re- 
moved to  Boston  where  he  died  in  1680. 

Comfort  Starr  of  Guilford  was  a  tailor.  In  the  south 
chamber  of  his  house  in  Crooked  Lane  he  worked  at  his  trade 
with  such  assiduity  that  he  is  said  to  have  worn  through  the 
floor  where  he  stood  at  his  cutting  board.  His  tailor's  goose 
and  a  chest  bearing  the  initials  of  Comfort  and  Elizabeth  Starr 

29 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

were  exhibits,  in  later  years,  in  the  state  historical  museum  in 
the  Henry  Whitfield  House.  His  industrious  life  brought  re- 
sults. He  became  a  large  land  owner  and  left  a  handsome  estate 
when  he  died  in  1743,  lacking  one  year  of  a  half-century  of 
married  life.  Elizabeth  lived  nine  years  longer.  Their  ashes 
lie  beneath  the  turf  of  Guilford  Green  west  of  the  Soldiers' 
Monument. 

There  had  been  eight  children,  but  one  son,  another  Com- 
fort, had  died  at  the  age  of  18  years.  Five  daughters  and  two 
sons  lived  longer.  These  were  Elizabeth  who  married  Ebenezer 
Fowler;  Hannah,  wife  of  Ensign  Nathaniel  Dudley;  Abigail, 
wife  of  John  Graves,  Esq.;  Submit,  single  woman;  Amy,  wife 
of  John  Davis;  Jonathan  who  married  Abigail  Cadwell;  Jehos- 
aphat  who  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  the  elder  Rev.  Thomas 
Ruggles. 

Jonathan  Starr  learned  his  father's  trade  and  to  him,  in 
1732,  the  father  deeded  more  than  an  acre  of  land  across  the 
street  from  his  home.  There  Jonathan  built,  that  same  year, 
the  large,  square,  hip-roofed  house  now  the  home  of  Rollin  F. 
Beecher.  The  house  was  a  fine  one  and  appears  to  have  been  too 
ambitious  a  project  for  the  young  man  for  the  next  year  he 
deeded  it  back  to  his  father.  In  his  will  Comfort  Starr  be- 
queathed to  Jonathan  "(besides  what  I  have  already  given  and 
paid  for  him)"  the  life  improvement  of  certain  lands  and  "my 
musquet  and  half  my  ammunition."  After  Jonathan's  decease 
half  the  said  lands  were  to  go  to  Jonathan's  son.  Comfort,  "in 
case  he  shall  live  to  the  age  of  21  years".  This  grandson  died 
at  the  age  of  20,  as  had  that  other  Comfort  at  the  age  of  18 
years.  Only  one  of  Jonathan  Starr's  children  lived  to  mature 
years.  This  was  Lucy,  a  woman  of  great  beauty,  who  outlived 
four  husbands,  all  of  East  Guilford;  Simeon  Dudley  who  died 
at  sea,  Nathan  Meigs,  Thomas  Bevan  and  Mr.  Wilcox,  whose 
widow  she  was  when  she  died  in  1816. 

Jehosaphat  Starr  inherited  his  father's  homestead.  He  was 
of  different  calibre  from  his  brother,  Jonathan,  and  was  a  prom- 

30 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

inent  man  in  the  town.  He  died  in  1769,  leaving  the  home- 
stead of  his  father  to  his  sons,  John  and  WiUiam  Starr.  In  1808 
the  brothers  divided  the  homestead  and  John  and  his  wife,  Mary 
Parmelee,  remained  in  the  old  house  while  William  Starr  oc- 
cupied the  homestead  of  Captain  Samuel  Lee,  next  above,  which 
he  had  bought  in  1795. 

John  and  Mary  Starr  were  the  parents  of  one  son  and  seven 
daughters,  these  wittily  known  in  Guilford  as  the  "Seven  Stars" 
or  the  "Pleiades".  The  son,  John  Starr,  removed  with  his  fam- 
ily to  Verona,  N.  Y.,  in  1834.  The  seven  sisters  were  Ruth, 
Clara,  Hannah  and  Grace,  none  of  whom  married;  Elizabeth, 
second  wife  of  Jedediah  Parker;  Mary,  wife  of  Captain  Joel 
Griff ing;  Minerva,  wife  of  Charles  Edward  Fowler,  mother  of 
the  late  Mrs.  Beverly  Monroe,  and  grandmother  of  the  late  John 
R.  Monroe.  Grace  Starr  was  the  last  of  the  sisters  to  remain  in 
the  old  Starr  homestead  where  she  died  in  1874,  at  the  age  of 
83  years,  the  place  soon  after  being  sold  out  of  the  family.  It 
was  Hannah  Starr  who  planted  in  the  front  yard  two  black 
walnut  trees  from  nuts  picked  up  by  her  beneath  the  trees  in 
front  of  the  present  property  of  Mrs.  M.  F.  Bonzano  on  the 
west  side  of  the  Green.  She  planted  them  while  the  church  bell 
was  joyously  ringing  because  of  the  signing  of  the  peace  treaty 
that  closed  the  War  of  1812.     Hannah  Starr  died  in  1839. 

William  Starr,  who  bought  the  Captain  Samuel  Lee  place, 
died  in  1816  and  was  one  of  the  last  of  Guilford's  people  to 
be  buried  in  the  Green.  The  house  on  the  opposite  corner  was 
built  for  his  son,  William  Starr,  Jr.,  but  it  passed  from  the  Starr 
name  in  1838.  A  later  owner,  Captain  Reuben  Fowler,  enlarged 
to  its  present  size  the  original  story-and-a-half  house.  Later  it 
was  purchased  by  the  late  Elbert  B.  Potter.  The  Samuel  Lee 
house  continued  in  the  Starr  family,  being  owned  by  William 
Starr's  son,  Comfort  Starr,  and  his  grandson,  John  Shipman 
Starr.  After  the  latter 's  death  it  was  sold  to  Edgar  Wilcox. 
From  this  house  went  forth,  as  a  missionary  to  Japan,  Elizabeth 
Starr,  wife  of  John  H.  DeForest,  who  died  in  that  country,  an 
aged  woman,  in  the  winter  of  1915-16. 

31 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

A  daughter  of  the  tailor,  Comfort  Starr,  named  Elizabeth, 
married  in  1718  Ebenezer  Fowler,  son  of  Abraham  Fowler  and 
Elizabeth  Bartlett.  They  built  a  house  just  off  the  southeast 
corner  of  the  Green,  the  site  of  which  was  about  in  front  of  the 
present  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Frederick  T.  Dudley.  Eight 
children  were  born  to  them,  one  daughter,  Elizabeth,  remaining 
single.  Huldah  became  the  third  wife  of  Samuel  Chittenden, 
owner  of  the  Acadian  Flouse.  Lucy  married  Joseph  Weld. 
Ebenezer,  Jr.,  married  Desire  Bristol,  daughter  of  Bezaleel  Bris- 
tol who  later  settled  in  North  Madison,  first  called  North 
Bristol,  being  named  for  him. 

Now  Ebenezer  Fowler,  Sr.,  had  been  allotted  land  at  Sugar 
Loaf  Hills  (so-named  as  early  as  1706)  in  North  Guilford  in  a 
division  of  land.  There  he  built  a  house  in  1743  and  deeded  it 
to  his  son,  Ebenezer  Fowler,  Jr.,  but  reserved  to  himself  and 
wife,  Elizabeth  Starr,  the  use  of  one-half  the  house  for  life.  It 
is  recorded  that  Jonathan  Starr's  elder  son.  Comfort,  who  died 
in  1751  at  the  age  of  20,  and  Jonathan  Starr,  himself,  in  1765, 
both  died  in  this  house  at  Sugar  Loaf,  doubtless  in  that  part 
which  had  been  reserved  for  the  use  of  Jonathan's  brother-in- 
law  and  sister. 

This  house  was  the  birthplace  of  the  writer,  a  descendant, 
in  the  seventh  generation,  from  Ebenezer  and  Elizabeth  Fowler. 


32 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


The  Acadian  House 


O 


NCE  known  as  the  Kimberly  house,  it  is  now  called  the 
Acadian  House  because  tradition  relates  that  this  roof  sheltered 
for  a  time,  the  homeless,  penniless  refugees  from  Grand  Pre, 
Nova  Scotia,  set  ashore  at  Guilford  Point  by  a  British  ship  late 
in  the  autumn  of  1755. 

It  was  in  1670  that  Joseph  Clay  and  his  bride  of  that  year, 
Mary  Lord  (anciently  Laud)  came  from  Saybrook  to  Guilford. 
Joseph  Clay's  home  lot  contained  one  acre  and  was  located  "on 
the  hiway  that  passeth  down  to  Richard  Bristow's  house".  To 
the  east  were  the  common  or  undivided  lands.  Richard  Bristow 
or  Bristol's  home  lot  was  on  the  corner  of  State  and  Union 
Streets  and  he  was  a  great  uncle  of  Bezaleel  Bristol  who,  a  few 
generations  later,  was  a  pioneer  settler  in  North  Madison,  early 
called  North  Bristol. 

There  was  no  house  on  the  land  when  Joseph  Clay's  "ter- 
rier" was  described  in  the  town  records  so  that  he  must  have 
built  it  for  his  bride  that  year,  1670.  It  faces  the  west,  frankly 
independent  of  the  curves  in  the  highway.  The  front  door 
now  is  restored  to  its  rightful  place.  Abraham  Kimberly,  in 
1815  or  thereafter,  moved  the  front  door  to  the  north  side, 
substituting  a  window  in  the  center  front.  This  later  side 
entrance  is  seen  in  some  pictures  of  the  house,  taken  before  the 
recent  restoration. 

Four  daughters  were  born  to  Joseph  and  Mary  Clay,  two 
dying  in  infancy  and  two  living  to  mature  years.  Mary  mar- 
ried John  Mason  and  passes  from  the  story.  Sarah  married 
John  Chittenden  in  1701,  when  she  was  27  years  old.  She  had 
been  an  orphan  for  several  years,  Joseph  Clay  having  died  in 
1695,  his  wife  in  1692.     To  Sarah  Clay  passed  the  title  to  the 

33 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

homestead  for  beneath  Joseph  Clay's  terrier  is  written  "A  record 
of  two  parcels  of  land  to  Sarah  Clay,  alias  Sarah  Chittenden,  by 
consent  of  her  husband,  John  Chittenden". 

The  property  remained  in  the  Chittenden  name  for  144 
years.  John  Chittenden  was  a  grandson  of  William  Chittenden 
of  Cranbrook.  Both  John  and  Sarah  died  in  the  prime  of  life, 
the  latter  in  1717,  leaving  15 -year-old  John  and  13 -year-old 
Samuel  double  orphans.  Their  paternal  grandfather  took  care 
of  them.  Young  John  Chittenden  married  Bathsheba  Crutten- 
den  and  settled  in  North  Guilford,  deeding  to  his  younger 
brother,  Samuel  Chittenden,  the  homestead  of  the  Clays,  their 
grandparents. 

In  the  same  year,  1726,  Samuel  Chittenden  married  Susan- 
nah Bishop.  Five  children  were  born  to  them,  then  Susannah 
died  and  Phyllis  Burgis,  widow  of  Nathaniel  Johnson  and 
daughter  of  Thomas  Burgis,  married  Samuel  Chittenden.  One 
child,  Benjamin,  was  born,  then  Phyllis  also  died.  Huldah  Fow- 
ler, daughter  of  Ebenezer  Fowler  at  the  southeast  corner  of  the 
Green,  was  Samuel  Chittenden's  third  wife  and  she  outlived 
him  for  he  died  in  1783. 

The  Chittenden  family  since  early  days  had  owned  land 
in  what  is  now  East  River  although  it  was  part  of  Guilford 
rather  than  East  Guilford  (now  Madison)  until  the  latter  was 
made  a  separate  town  in  1826.  Here  Samuel  Chittenden  owned 
a  more  modern  house  in  which  he  was  living  doubtless  at  the 
time  the  Acadians  arrived  here,  so  that  the  house  of  this  story 
could  have  been  vacant  and  available  for  occupancy  by  these 
destitute  French  people. 

In  the  division  of  Samuel  Chittenden's  property  there  was 
"set  to  Widow  Huldah  Chittenden  one-third  part  of  either  of 
the  houses  that  belonged  to  said  deceased  for  her  own  use  but 
not  to  hire  out  the  same  or  bring  into  said  house  any  other 
family  to  dwell  therein". 

This  stipulation  regarding  an  outside  family  may  have  had 
reference  to  the  presence  for  a  time  beneath  this  roof  of  the 
Acadian  people.     If  so,  it  is  the  only  evidence  to  be  found  in 

34 


Comfort  Starr's  House,  Originally  Henry  Kingsnorth's, 

About  1645 


The  Acadian  House,  Originally  Joseph  Clay's,  1670 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

the  land  records  that  the  Acadians  found  shelter  beneath  this 
roof. 

To  a  son,  Noah  Chittenden,  passed  the  homestead  "where 
he  dwells".  Noah  had  married  Elizabeth  Crampton  and  here  he 
spent  his  life.  A  daughter,  Mindwell  Chittenden,  married 
Curtiss  Blatchley,  and  to  them  the  other  children  quitclaimed 
the  homestead  after  the  death  of  Noah  Chittenden  in  1802, 
specifying  that  this  was  "the  residence  of  our  honored  father 
while  in  life  and  the  place  where  he  died". 

Five  generations  had  owned  this  house  for  144  years  when 
the  Blatchleys  sold  it  on  November  3,  1814,  to  Leonard  Cham- 
berlain. He,  three  months  later,  in  February,  1815,  sold  it  to 
Abraham  Kimberly.  In  that  family  it  remained  until  within 
the  memory  of  the  present  generation.  It  is  now  the  property 
of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Kenneth  Greene  of  New  Jersey,  who  occupy 
it  as  a  summer  home. 

So  much  for  the  history  of  the  house.  The  tradition  that 
it  sheltered  for  a  time  the  unhappy  refugees  from  Nova  Scotia 
was  handed  down  in  the  family  of  Colonel  George  Foote  and 
a  bit  of  lace,  said  to  have  been  made  by  one  of  the  Acadian 
women,  was  preserved  in  that  family  until  placed  in  the  Henry 
Whitfield  State  Historical  Museum.  History  records  the  story 
of  these  refugees  as  follows: 

In  the  summer  of  175  5,  when  Guilford  was  a  loyal  colony 
of  England,  British  troops  were  engaged  in  reducing  the  French 
colony  of  Nova  Scotia,  assisted  by  the  militia  of  the  New  Eng- 
land colonies. 

The  tragic  story  of  the  fate  of  the  people  of  Grand  Pre,  as 
told  in  Longfellow's  "Evangeline",  is  founded  on  fact.  The 
British  took  the  French  inhabitants  prisoners,  put  them  aboard 
a  ship  which  sailed  down  the  coast  and  left  small  groups  of 
refugees  in  the  various  coastwise  settlements.  It  was  late  au- 
tumn when  Guilford  was  reached  and  the  "French  family"  was 
set  ashore  here. 

The  problem  of  taking  care  of  these  helpless  and  destitute 
strangers  did  not  come  up  in  town  meeting  until  the  following 

35 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

spring,  and  somewhere  they  must  have  found  shelter  and  sus- 
tenance during  the  long,  hard  winter.  It  seems  probable  that 
Samuel  Chittenden  took  pity  on  them  and  gave  them  shelter 
at  this  time,  but  there  is  no  recorded  evidence  as  to  where  they 
were  housed  that  winter. 

On  April  12,  1756,  it  was  voted  in  Guilford  town  meeting 
"That  the  selectmen  shall,  with  convenient  speed,  put  out  to 
service  so  many  of  the  French  family  which  is  amongst  us  as 
they  can  dispose  of  without  cost  to  the  best  advantage  to  free 
the  town  from  charge".  To  the  Legislature  of  Connecticut  it 
was  reported  that  eleven  refugees  were  quartered  in  Guilford. 
The  Legislature  ruled  that  the  refugees  should  not  leave  those 
Connecticut  towns  in  which  they  were  quartered. 

Twice  during  the  next  sixteen  years  do  the  town  records 
lift  the  curtain  that  conceals  these  strangers  from  view.  On 
December  27,  1768,  Guilford  town  meeting  voted  to  pay  the 
old  Frenchman's  house  rent  out  of  the  town  treasury  to  Eliph- 
alet  Hall.  And  on  April  13,  1772,  "Upon  the  petition  of  the 
old  Frenchman  praying  for  the  assistance  of  the  town  in  de- 
fraying his  charges  of  his  passage  to  Canada,  Voted  that  the 
selectmen  of  the  town  furnish  the  said  Frenchman  with  twenty- 
five  dollars  (the  first  mention  on  these  records  of  the  dollar) 
to  be  disposed  at  their  discretion  to  the  person  who  appears  to 
carry  the  said  Frenchman  and  his  family  to  Albany." 

The  word  "passage"  indicates  that  the  journey  to  Albany 
was  to  be  by  boat  and  there  was  a  constant  procession  of  packets 
plying  down  Long  Island  Sound  to  New  York  and  on  up  the 
Hudson  River.  It  is  probable  that  some  thrifty  sea  captain 
earned  the  twenty-five  dollars  and  set  the  French  people  ashore 
at  Albany. 

On  up  to  Montreal  went  the  main  traveled  trail  and  doubt- 
less these  exiles  followed  it,  glad  to  hear  again  their  own  familiar 
tongue  and  to  dwell  again  among  those  of  their  own  nation. 
Somewhere  in  Canada  there  may  be  living  today  the  descend- 
ants of  these  Acadian  exiles  who  hold  the  family  tradition  of 

36 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

the  years  spent  by  their  ancestors  in  that  distant  town  by  the 
sea,  called  by  the  English,  Guilford. 

At  Albany,  these  French  people  passed  into  the  silence. 
Now  came  on  the  strenuous  and  fateful  days  that  ushered  in 
the  War  of  the  Revolution.  Only  a  few  years  later  the  French 
were  the  allies  and  the  British  the  enemies  of  New  England, 
their  positions  being  reversed  by  "the  fortunes  of  war." 


37 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


The  Leete  Corner 

v^  HE  early  name  of  Fair  Street  was  Petticoat  Lane.  Three 
men  had  their  home  lots  on  the  west  side  of  the  street.  Robert 
Kitchell's  lot  extended  from  Broad  Street  to  the  present  north 
line  of  Samuel  Spencer's  property.  Then  came  the  lot  of  Francis 
Bushnell,  Jr.,  afterward  the  lot  of  William  Johnson  who  came 
to  Guilford  in  1653.  The  corner  lot  at  Fair  and  York  Streets, 
extending  to  River  Street,  belonged  to  John  Caffinch  or  Caf- 
finge.  The  western  part  of  the  Caffinge  lot  later  became  Robin- 
son property. 

In  1652  the  Town  of  Guilford  had  become  the  owner  of 
the  corner  lot  at  Fair  and  York  Streets.  (Until  1840  York 
Street  went  no  farther  east  than  Fair  Street).  This  corner  lot 
extended  west  to  the  Robinson  line  and  south  to  Dr.  Evans's 
south  line.  The  octagon  house  stands  on  land  once  part  of 
William  Johnson's  home  lot. 

Guilford  had  been  in  need  of  a  blacksmith  and,  in  1652, 
induced  Thomas  Smith  to  come  from  Fairfield  in  that  capacity, 
giving  him  this  corner  lot  on  condition  that  he  would  ply  his 
trade  in  Guilford.  But  he  removed  to  Clinton  (then  called 
Killingworth)  after  deeding  his  home  lot  to  Thomas  Cooke  on 
October  9,  1660.  The  Town  of  Guilford  acquired  the  lot  again 
on  September  27,  1695,  and  presented  it  again,  this  time  to  the 
Rev.  Thomas  Ruggles,  Sr.,  as  part  of  his  settlement.  It  was 
voted  to  build  thereon  a  "suitable  house  which  shall  be  for  the 
ministers  that  settle  with  us  here  in  Guilford".  On  January  22, 
1696,  the  house  was  ordered  to  be  46  x  llYz  feet,  15  feet  be- 
tween joists,  and  on  February  26  it  was  voted  to  add  a  porch 
thereto  and  a  tax  was  laid  to  cover  the  expense  incurred. 

This  house  was  never  built.  The  land  records  reveal  the 
reason.    The  Rev.  Thomas  Ruggles  exchanged  lots  with  Daniel 

38 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

Bishop,  as  told  in  the  story  of  the  Woodward  Tavern,  and  lo- 
cated on  the  west  side  of  the  Green,  within  sight  of  the  meeting 
house. 

Daniel  Bishop  died  in  1751.  His  son,  Daniel  Bishop,  Jr., 
sold  the  homestead  in  Fair  Street  to  Daniel  Stone  on  May  30, 
1757,  describing  it  as  "1  messauge  or  tenement  where  I  now 
live",  with  dwelling  house  and  barn,  bounded  south  by  Cap- 
tain Johnson  and  Captain  Leete  (Reuben  Leete,  site  of  octagon 
house)  west  by  Esquire  Johnson,  north  and  east  by  highway. 

This  home  lot  remained  intact  until  1774.  In  that  year 
Daniel  Stone  sold  to  Rufus  Graves  the  corner  lot,  where  the 
house  of  Mrs.  Eva  B.  Leete  now  stands.  Here  Rufus  Graves 
built  a  house  which  he  sold  to  Rosewell  Woodward  in  1777. 
The  latter  sold  it,  in  1782,  to  David  Hull,  who,  on  August  21, 
1783,  sold  this  house  on  the  corner  to  Thomas  Woodger.  On 
May  4,  1784,  Thomas  Woodger  bought  an  adjoining  strip  of 
land  on  the  south  from  Benjamin  Stone,  son  of  Daniel  Stone, 
who  was  living  in  the  old  Daniel  Bishop-Daniel  Stone  house 
on  the  site  of  the  present  house  of  Dr.  J.  H.  Evans. 

By  this  second  purchase  by  Thomas  Woodger  the  tiny  house 
lot  of  Rufus  Graves  and  three-fourths  of  an  acre  of  Benjamin 
Stone's  land  were  thrown  together.  But  Woodger  soon  sold  the 
southern  portion  to  Joseph  Green  who  acquired  also  the  corner 
and  the  old  Rufus  Graves  house.  On  September  3,  1785,  Joseph 
Green  sold  the  southern  portion  of  land  to  Abraham  Woodward 
who  built  thereon  the  house  now  owned  by  Earle  B.  Leete.  On 
April  4,  1791,  Joseph  Green  sold  the  Rufus  Graves  house  on  the 
corner  to  Colonel  Noah  Fowler  of  Moose  Hill,  father-in-law  of 
Abraham  Woodward,  who  was  a  brother  of  Rosewell  Wood- 
ward of  Woodward's  Tavern  on  the  present  site  of  Douden's 
Drug  Store. 

In  the  summer  of  the  same  year.  Colonel  Noah  Fowler  sold 
the  Rufus  Graves  house  on  the  corner  and  an  eight-rod  garden 
patch  to  Widow  Rebekah  Ackerly.  The  south  line  was  to  cross 
the  well  of  water  on  the  premises  lately  bought  of  Joseph  Green. 

Abraham  Woodward's  house  was  sold  January  26,  1797, 

39 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

to  Solomon  Stone,  Jr.,  across  the  street  who,  four  years  later, 
sold  the  place  to  James  Wheadon  of  Guilford.  He,  thirteen 
days  later,  April  17,  1801,  bought  from  John  Starr,  administra- 
tor, the  late  residence  of  Widow  Rebekah  Ackerly.  During  his 
five  years  of  ownership  James  Wheadon  took  down  the  old 
house  on  the  corner  built  by  Rufus  Graves.  Writing  in  the 
New  Haven  Palladium  in  1879,  the  late  Henry  P.  Robinson 
stated  "Not  twenty  years  ago  this  corner  ....  was  the  stone 
wall  end  of  a  lot  with  a  broken  tin  and  pewter  pile,  gone  the 
way  of  all  the  earth".  The  old  cellar  place  of  Rufus  Graves 
had  become  a  junk  pile.  But  here,  in  1869-70,  Edwin  A.  Leete 
built  the  large  house  on  the  corner  which  is  now  the  home  of 
his  daughter-in-law,  Mrs.  Eva  B.  Leete. 

Where  the  octagon  house  now  stands.  Captain  Reuben 
Leete  had  built  a  house,  about  1744,  on  land  bought  by  him 
from  Noah  Hodgkin  who  had  lately  bought  it  from  Sergeant 
Nathaniel  Johnson  of  whose  home  lot  it  had  been  a  part.  Jona- 
than Vaill  owned  it  in  1801  and  Lydia  and  Hannah  Vaill  were 
the  last  occupants.  This  house  disappeared  and  on  its  site 
Edwin  A.  Leete,  in  1856,  built  the  octagon  house  now  owned 
by  Mrs.  Claude  A.  Griswold,  and  occupied  it  until  1870,  when 
he  built  the  corner  house. 

James  Wheadon,  then  of  Branford,  on  September  4,  1806, 
sold  the  Abraham  Woodward  house  (Earle  B.  Leete's)  to  John 
Hall,  who,  in  1815,  bought  from  Joel  Griff ing,  for  $425,  the 
old  house  on  the  south,  the  Daniel  Bishop-Daniel  Stone  house, 
last  occupied  by  Aaron  Hinman,  on  the  site  of  Dr.  J.  H.  Evans's 
house. 

But  John  Hall  soon  fell  on  evil  days  for  on  August  14, 
1818,  he  deeded  the  whole  corner  lot,  down  to  the  present  site 
of  the  octagon  house,  to  Maltby  &  Field,  merchants,  and  Simeon 
Hyde,  all  of  New  York. 

These  New  York  men  held  the  title  to  the  place  until 
January  14,  1822,  when  they  indentured  it  to  Benjamin  and 
Alfred  DeForest,  also  merchants  of  New  York.  From  them, 
on  March  27,  1822,  Amanda  Scranton,  wife  of  William  Stewart 

40 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

Frisbie,  bought  the  house  now  owned  by  Earle  B.  Leete.  Here 
was  born,  August  27,  1830,  Charles  Henry  Frisbie,  who,  thirty- 
two  years  later  gained  national  fame  as  the  "Hero  of  the 
Thirty-Seventh  Psalm".  As  captain  of  the  "Jacob  Bell",  he  was 
returning  from  China  with  a  cargo  valued  at  one  and  one-half 
million  dollars,  when  his  ship  was  captured,  on  February  12, 
1863,  by  the  privateer,  "Florida",  two  or  three  days  out  of  New 
York.  The  cargo  was  seized,  the  crew  taken  prisoners  and  the 
"Jacob  Bell"  was  set  on  fire.  Captain  Frisbie  opened  his  Bible 
and,  while  his  ship  burned,  read  to  Captain  Moffit  of  the 
privateer  those  inspired  words,  "I  have  seen  the  wicked  in  great 
power  ....  yet  he  passed  away  and,  lo,  he  was  not." 

Amanda  Frisbie  died  in  1870.  She  had  sold  to  George  C. 
Leete,  in  1856,  the  lot  on  which  was  built  the  present  home  of 
his  daughter,  Mrs.  Annie  Leete  White,  and,  in  1868,  to  Edwin 
A.  Leete  the  lot  on  which  he  built  the  corner  house.  After 
Mrs.  Frisbie's  death  Edwin  A.  Leete  bought  the  house  where 
his  grandson  now  lives  but  sold  it  in  1871  to  Charles  F.  Leete, 
trustee  for  the  widow  of  Medad  Holcomb,  as  her  home.  After 
Mrs.  Holcomb's  death,  Edward  M.  Leete,  son  of  Edwin  A.  Leete, 
bought  the  house  on  September  6,  1889,  and  lived  there  many 
years.  His  son,  Earle  B.  Leete,  is  the  present  occupant  and 
owner. 

No  property  in  the  residence  section  of  Guilford  has  passed 
through  so  many  changes  of  ownership  nor  had  so  diversified 
a  history  as  the  section  here  described. 


41 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Ephraim  Darwin^s  Place 

vl^  HE  homestead  lying  between  Church  and  North  Fair 
Streets  and  bounded  on  the  south  by  York  Street  was  sold  in 
1936  by  Robert  Stone  of  Kansas  City,  Mo.,  to  Mrs.  Katherine  P. 
Norton  of  Madison.  She  immediately  sold  the  house  and  home 
lot  to  the  Misses  Ethel  L.  Harwood  and  Edith  S.  Blake,  both  of 
Melrose,  Mass. 

Until  the  day  of  these  transactions  the  property  had  been 
owned  by  only  two  families  since  the  settlement  of  Guilford. 
Ephraim  Darwin,  who  came  to  Guilford  about  1670,  left  his 
name  in  the  neighborhood  for  the  rocks  on  the  hill  beyond 
were  always  known  as  "Ephraim's  Rocks."  He,  in  1719,  deed- 
ed "the  messauge  where  I  now  dwell"  to  his  son,  Daniel  Darwin, 
who,  in  turn,  deeded  the  property,  in  1743,  to  his  two  sons, 
Stephen  and  Ebenezer  Darwin.  They  sold  it  in  two  parcels  in 
1764-5  to  Caleb  and  Daniel  Stone.  Caleb's  son,  Solomon, 
married  Daniel's  daughter.  Thankful,  and  to  Solomon  Stone,  in 
1772,  this  place  was  deeded.  The  present  house  is  said  to  have 
been  built  in  1766.  Robert  Stone,  who  lately  sold  the  place, 
is  a  descendant  of  Solomon  Stone. 


42 


Tester  -Years  of  Guilford 


CoL  Samuel  Hill 

VwX  HE  name  of  "Sam  Hill"  is  heard  wherever  the  English 
language  is  spoken.  To  "run  like  Sam  Hill",  is  a  common 
expression.     Who  was  this  familiar  paragon  of  so  many  skills? 

Colonel  Samuel  Hill  was  born  in  Guilford,  February  21, 
1678,  a  son  of  John  Hill  and  his  wife,  Thankful  Stow,  and  a 
grandson  of  the  settler,  John  Hill,  carpenter,  who  came  from 
Northamptonshire,  England,  and  settled  in  Guilford  in  1654, 
and  whose  "stack  of  chimneys",  "now"  dwelling,  home  lot  and 
orchards  were  at  the  northeast  corner  of  Guilford  Green,  cover- 
ing ground  now  the  home  lot  of  Mrs.  Frederick  C.  Spencer  and 
extending  well  up  State  Street. 

In  youth  Samuel  Hill  learned  the  trade  of  "feltmaker", 
or,  in  modern  parlance,  hat  maker.  At  the  age  of  3 1  he  married 
Huldah  Ruggles,  a  daughter  of  Samuel  Ruggles  and  his  wife, 
Ann  Bight,  of  Roxbury,  Mass.,  a  granddaughter  of  the  settler, 
Thomas  Ruggles  from  Nazing,  England,  and  a  sister  of  the 
Rev.  Thomas  Ruggles  who  was  called  in  1695  to  the  pastorate 
of  the  Congregational  Church  in  Guilford  to  succeed  the  Rev. 
Joseph  Eliot,  deceased.  The  children  of  Colonel  Samuel  Hill 
and  his  good  wife  were  four:  Samuel,  Huldah,  Henry  and 
Nathaniel. 

Col.  Samuel  Hill  was  a  brother  of  John  Hill  who  had 
married  Hannah  Hyland,  daughter  of  George  Hyland  of  the 
Hyland  House,  and  who,  as  one  of  the  four  sons-in-law  of  the 
Widow  Hyland,  had  participated  in  that  famous  lottery  by 
which  the  widow  parcelled  out  the  Hyland  homestead  to  the 
husbands  of  her  four  daughters.  In  1702  Samuel  Hill  bought 
the  Hyland  land  of  his  brother,  John  Hill,  who  lived  at  the 
northeast  corner  of  the  Green.     The  remaining  parcels  of  land 

43 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

he  purchased  one  by  one  from  his  brother's  brothers-in-law, 
exchanging  other  pieces  of  land  for  them  as  was  the  primitive 
custom,  until  he  owned  all  of  George  Hyland's  acres.  The 
lot  farthest  west,  which  contained  the  dwelling,  he  exchanged 
with  Isaac  Parmelee  and  his  wife,  Elizabeth  Hyland,  for  the  lot 
which  Isaac  Parmelee  had  drawn  in  the  family  lottery.  Col. 
Samuel  Hill  was  then  the  owner  of  all  the  land  on  the  north 
side  of  Boston  Post  Road  from  the  present  western  boundary 
of  William  Rolf  to  the  western  boundary  of  the  Griswold 
homestead  lot,  and  extending  north  to  Union  Street.  His 
dwelling,  built  about  1709  and  torn  down  in  1849,  was  on  the 
site  now  occupied  by  the  house  owned  and  formerly  occupied 
by  William  Rolf. 

The  house  of  Colonel  Samuel  Hill  was  something  unique 
in  Guilford  architecture  of  that  period  and  was  remembered 
a  generation  ago  as  having  had  a  three-story  front.  It  sheltered 
four  generations.  The  present  house,  owned  by  William  Rolf, 
or  its  nucleus,  was  built  for  the  great  grandchildren  of  Colonel 
Samuel  Hill,  Samuel  and  Anna  Hill,  by  their  conservator, 
Deacon  Hull.  They  died  in  1877,  aged  93  and  90  years  re- 
spectively. 

In  public  life  Colonel  Samuel  Hill  was  a  man  of  affairs. 
He  was  chosen  town  clerk  in  1717  and  afterwards  served  as 
clerk  of  the  proprietors  of  the  town  until  his  death.  When 
the  Probate  Court  for  Guilford  District  was  formed  in  1720, 
he  was  chosen  clerk  and  later  judge  of  the  court,  holding  the 
latter  position  for  the  remainder  of  his  life.  He  was  one  of 
the  principal  magistrates  of  Guilford  and  justice  of  the  County 
Court  of  New  Haven.  He  represented  Guilford  in  the  General 
Assembly  with  such  regularity  that  the  story  goes  that  the 
moderator  of  town  meeting  would  rise  and  say: 

"We  are  here  to  elect  Colonel  Sam  Hill  and  someone  to  go 
with  him  to  the  next  General  Court." 

Col.  Samuel  Hill's  mantle  fell,  not  upon  his  first  born  son, 
who  was  physically  disabled,  not  upon  his  second  son,  who  died 
in  early  manhood,  but  upon  his  youngest  son,  Nathaniel  Hill. 

44 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

A  grandson,  Judge  Henry  Hill,  son  of  the  deceased  son,  Henry, 
in  later  years  upheld  the  standard  raised  by  his  grandfather 
but  with  him  ended  the  family  dynasty  in  local  politics.  Dis- 
tinction, however,  was  won  in  the  fourth  generation  by  George 
Hill,  poet,  a  friend  and  contemporary  of  Guilford's  other  poet, 
Fitz-Greene  Halleck. 

George  Hill  was  a  son  of  Judge  Henry  Hill  and  his  wife, 
Leah  Stone,  sister  of  Medad  Stone  of  the  Tavern  at  the  north- 
west corner  of  the  Green.  Their  home  at  the  south  side  of 
Guilford  Green  was  torn  down  in  193  5  to  make  place  for  a 
chain  store.  He  at  one  time  held  the  responsible  position  of 
teacher  of  mathematics  in  the  United  States  Navy.  In  1839 
he  was  appointed  consul  for  the  southern  part  of  Asia  Minor. 
Failure  of  health  caused  his  return  to  his  native  town  and  his 
last  years  were  spent  in  Guilford. 

In  the  enumeration  of  famous  descendants  of  Col.  Samuel 
Hill,  should  be  included  the  name  of  Howard  Eliot,  former 
president  of  the  New  York,  New  Haven  and  Hartford  Rail- 
road Co.,  a  son  of  Charles  Wyllys  Eliot,  a  native  of  Guilford, 
and  a  grandson  of  Andrew  Eliot  and  his  wife,  Catherine  Hill. 
The  last  named  was  a  daughter  of  Judge  Henry  Hill,  the 
grandson  of  Col.  Samuel  Hill.  Thus  Howard  Eliot  was  the 
great,  great,  great  grandson  of  Col.  Samuel  Hill. 

So  much  for  the  descendants  of  the  man.  Of  himself,  his 
character  and  temperament,  his  last  will  and  testament  is  the 
mirror  in  which  his  reflection  may  be  glimpsed  after  nearly 
two  centuries. 

The  will  is  dated  July  31,  1751,  precisely  two  weeks  after 
the  death  of  Colonel  Hill's  son,  Henry,  at  the  age  of  37.  It 
would  seem  that  the  father  reasoned,  from  the  death  of  his 
son  in  all  the  strength  of  his  young  manhood,  that  it  was  time 
to  set  his  own  house  in  order.     He  died  in  1752. 

The  son,  Henry  Hill  had  left  his  widow,  Sarah  Hart, 
daughter  of  the  Rev.  John  Hart  of  East  Guilford,  and  an  infant 
son,  Henry,  then  nine  months  of  age.  The  widow  later  married 
Dr.  Thomas  Adams.     Her  third  marriage  was  with  the  Rev. 

45 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

Amos  Fowler,  then  pastor  of  the  First  Congregational  Church 
in  Guilford,  whose  home  stood  on  the  present  site  of  the 
Town  Hall. 

After  the  usual  preliminaries  and  the  provision  that  the 
beloved  wife,  Huldah,  was  to  share  with  the  son,  Nathaniel, 
the  dwelling  house,  etc..  Col.  Samuel  Hill's  will  took  up  the 
sad  case  of  his  first-born  child,  Samuel,  in  these  words: 

"Whereas  my  eldest  son,  Samuel  Hill,  Jr.,  is  a  loving  and 
dutiful  son  but  through  weakness  of  body  is  not  able  to  labor 
and  provide  for  his  comfortable  subsistence  during  his  life, 
therefore,  in  lieu  of  a  double  portion  of  my  estate,  all  my  estate 
shall  be  security  for  his  maintenance,  if  need  be,  and  his  mother 
shall  have  the  care  of  him  so  long  as  she  and  he  shall  live:  and 
the  better  to  enable  her  to  provide  for  him  she  shall  keep  so 
much  of  my  estate  in  her  hands  as  she  shall  think  necessary  for 
that  end.  And  after  his  mother's  decease,  he,  the  said  Samuel, 
shall  be  taken  care  of  and  provided  for  by  his  brother,  Nathaniel 
Hill,  not  to  live  a  servile  life  with  said  Nathaniel,  but  to  be 
tenderly  and  kindly  used  both  in  sickness  and  in  health.  And 
I  hope  said  Samuel  will  be  willing  to  do  what  he  is  able  to  do 
with  comfort,  but  I  would  have  no  compulsion  put  upon  him 
by  his  Brother,  but  would  have  him  treat  him  as  his  elder 
brother  under  weakness;  and  if  my  said  son,  Samuel,  should 
at  any  time  choose  to  remove  his  dwelling  and  dwell  with  his 
sister,  he  shall  have  liberty  so  to  do;  and  said  Nathaniel  shall 
pay  the  cost  of  his  keeping  there,  if  desired;  and  after  my  grand- 
son, Henry  Hill,  shall  come  of  age  and  receive  his  portion  he 
shall  pay  his  proportional  part,  according  to  what  he  receives, 
toward  the  maintenance  of  said  Samuel." 

It  is  of  interest  that  this  feeble  son  attained  the  age  of  73 
years,  a  ripe  old  age  in  those  days. 

Other  helpless  ones  were  upon  the  mind  of  Col.  Samuel 
Hill.  An  unmarried  brother,  Nathaniel  Hill,  was  then  living 
in  Saybrook,  apparently  in  poor  circumstances.  The  prosperous 
Samuel  committed  the  care  of  this  brother  to  his  son,  Nathaniel, 
adding, 

46 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

"I  grant  to  my  said  brother  such  conveniences  in  my  house 
and  other  buildings  as  he  may  have  occasion  for,  in  case  he 
will  come  and  live  with  me,  or  with  my  wife  and  children  after 
my  decease,  which  I  hope  for  and  greatly  desire  for  the  com- 
fort of  my  brother,  and  also  of  my  son."  Later  "great  care 
and  tenderness  to  his  said  uncle"  were  enjoined  upon  the  son 
and  provision  made  for  the  same. 

To  the  daughter,  Huldah,  wife  of  Rosewell  Woodward, 
there  was  the  bequest  of  coin,  pieces  of  eight  sufficient  to  make 
her  portion  one  thousand  pounds,  old  tenor.  It  was  cannily 
provided  by  the  testator  that  the  bequest  should  return  to  the 
family  of  Hill,  in  case  the  daughter  died  childless,  which  proved 
to  be  the  case.  Rosewell  Woodward  lived  on  the  west  side  of 
Guilford  Green,  on  the  site  of  the  homestead  of  his  wife's  grand- 
father, the  Rev.  Thomas  Ruggles,  Sr.  This  house  stood  near 
the  site  of  Douden's  Drug  Store. 

Toward  Nathaniel  Hill,  his  youngest  child,  who  later  was 
to  uphold  the  pillars  of  the  family  temple,  the  father's  heart 
turned  with  sympathetic  understanding. 

"Whereas the  burthen  of  me,  my  wife  and  my 

Brother  Hill,  in  our  old  age,  and  my  son,  Samuel  Hill,  in  his 
weakness,  is  all  devolved  on  my  son,  Nathaniel  Hill,  the  better 
to  enable  him  to  bear  and  discharge  his  duty  herein" — then  fol- 
lows clear-sighted  provision  for  those  responsibilities. 

Last  of  all  is  taken  up  the  case  of  the  infant  grandson, 
Henry,  son  of  Henry  Hill,  deceased.  The  grandfather  ex- 
pressed himself  as — 

"Being  willing  he  should  be  so  trained  up  in  his  youth 
that  he  may  be  fitted  to  serve  God  and  his  generation  in  what- 
soever calling  his  mother  and  other  of  his  nearest  relatives  and 
friends  shall  think  is  fittest  and  best  for  him  to  be  put  to  learn; 
and  if  it  should  be  thought  best  to  give  him  a  liberal  education 
and  bring  him  up  at  colledge,  it  may  perhaps  cost  more  than 

the  moveable  estate  which  will  fall  to  his  share" Nathaniel 

Hill,  uncle  of  the  child,  is  then  empowered  to  act  to  meet  this 
possibility. 

47 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

A  codicil,  added  a  few  months  later,  provides  for  spending 
money  for  the  youth  in  his  minority,  "850  pounds  to  be  valued 
according  to  Spanish  dollars  at  3  pounds  apiece."  It  is  of  in- 
terest to  add  that  the  grandson,  Henry  Hill,  did  graduate  in 
due  time  from  "colledge",  a  member  of  the  class  of  Yale,  1772. 

A  second  codicil  of  April  25,  1752,  added  one  more 
thought  to  the  provision  with  which  the  beloved  wife,  Huldah, 
was  surrounded. 

"My  loving  wife,  Huldah,  shall  have  all  the  provisions  that 
are  already  provided  and  laid  in  for  my  family's  use,  and  also 
what  provisions  she  shall  think  needful  to  use,  provide,  and  lay 
in  the  summer  and  fall  next  ensuin  for  the  use  of  the  family 
that  she  shall  secause  to  keep." 

On  May  28,  1752,  Col.  Samuel  Hill  died.  Ebenezer 
Parmelee,  then  living  in  the  Hyland  House,  was  one  of  the 
witnesses  of  the  will. 

Somewhere  on  Guilford  Green  they  laid  Col.  Samuel  Hill 
to  rest.  "A  strong  man,  sun  crowned,  who  lived  above  the 
fog  in  public  duty  and  in  private  thinking." 


48 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Abial  Eliot  House 

V_/HE  Eliot  house  at  the  corner  of  Whitfield  and  Water 
Streets,  built  in  1726  as  the  home  of  Abial  Eliot  and  his  bride, 
Mary  Leete,  was  torn  down  in  May,  1926,  to  make  way  for  a 
one-story  building  erected  by  United  Theaters'  Inc.,  to  con- 
tain stores  and  a  moving  picture  theater. 

The  work  was  done  by  Franklin  D.  Spencer,  contractor, 
a  descendant  in  the  seventh  generation  from  Abial  and  Mary 
Eliot. 

Although  the  house  had  rounded  out  two  centuries  of 
existence,  it  was  not  the  original  house  on  this  home  lot,  owned 
by  Eliots  for  260  years.  The  original  house  was  of  stone,  one 
of  four  stone  houses  built  by  the  first  comers  to  Guilford,  of 
which  only  one,  the  Whitfield  House,  remains. 

This  early  house  on  the  Eliot  site  was  originally  the  home 
of  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Higginson,  a  son-in-law  of  the  Rev. 
Henry  Whitfield,  and  his  assistant  teacher  and  preacher.  It  is 
said  by  tradition  to  have  been  located  approximately  in  the 
rear  of  the  present  dwelling  of  Dr.  G.  Franklyn  Anderson,  a 
house  built  in  175  5  for  Abial  Eliot's  son,  Nathaniel.  The 
original  house  was  not  standing  in  1753  when  this  house  lot 
was  deeded  by  Abial  Eliot  to  Nathaniel,  and  was  probably  torn 
down  soon  after  the  erection  of  the  house  on  the  corner  which 
has  met  a  similar  fate.  The  well  which  served  the  Nathaniel 
Eliot  house  may  have  been  the  original  Higginson  well. 

The  Rev.  Nathaniel  Higginson  departed  from  Guilford 
in  1659  and  the  town  of  Guilford  purchased  his  homestead. 
When,  after  much  candidating,  the  Rev.  Joseph  Eliot,  son  of 
John  Eliot,  of  Roxbury,  Mass.,  Apostle  to  the   Indians,  was 

49 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

called  to  the  pulpit,  the  property  was  bestowed  upon  him,  as 
recorded  in  the  town  records  in  the  following  words: 

"March  15,  1664: 

"By  vote  of  the  planters  here  it  is  agreed  that  the  house 
and  lands  bought  of  Mr.  Higginson  in  order  to  be  disposed  of 
for  another  minister's  accommodation  for  our  supply  be  ten- 
dered to  Mr.  Joseph  Eliot  freely  and  absolutely,  that  upon  his 
acceptance  thereof  he  may  furthermore  be  stated  in  it,  as  his 
inheritance  amongst  us,  which  was  accordingly  tendered  to  Mr. 
Joseph  Eliot  by  Abraham  Cruttenden,  Sr.,  and  Thomas  Clark 
and  Henry  Doude,  being  a  committee  appointed  to  that  work 
by  the  town  and  according  to  Mr.  Eliot's  desire  were  kept  in 
power  till  he  secause  to  accept  of  the  town's  offer  and  take 
possession  of  the  accommodations  so  tendered  to  him,  which 
was  not  long  after." 

To  Guilford,  then,  in  1664,  came  the  Rev.  Joseph  Eliot 
with  his  first  wife,  Sarah,  daughter  of  Governor  William  Bren- 
ton  of  Rhode  Island.  After  her  death  he  married  Mary,  daugh- 
ter of  Honorable  Samuel  Wyllys  of  Hartford,  He  lived  here 
thirty  years,  until  his  death  in  1694. 

Each  wife  left  four  children,  and  of  the  eight  Abial  Eliot 
was  the  youngest.  Born  in  1692,  he  was  but  two  years  of  age 
when  his  father  died.  He  and  his  brother,  Jared,  were  the 
only  boys  in  the  ministerial  family.  Jared  became  the  reverend 
and  distinguished  minister  of  Killingworth,  now  Clinton.  A 
sister,  Mary,  married  as  her  second  husband,  Abraham  Pierson 
of  Killingworth  (Clinton),  and  as  her  third  husband,  Samuel 
Hooker  of  Kensington,  a  grandson  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Hooker. 
Another  sister,  Rebecca  Eliot,  married  in  1749,  a  third  hus- 
band. Captain  William  Dudley,  the  first  of  that  name  to  settle 
in  North  Guilford.  Her  tombstone,  with  its  inscription,  may 
yet  be  seen  in  the  cemetery  in  North  Guilford. 

Dying  in  1694,  the  Rev.  Joseph  Eliot  left  a  will.  Among 
other  provisions  he  gave  to  his  wife  his  two  Negroes,  Shem  and 
Hagar,  "the  better  to  enable  her  in  housekeeping  with  her 
young  children." 

50 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

To  his  son,  Jared,  were  left  lands  in  Roxbury  and  Cam- 
bridge, Mass.,  while  to  Abial  went  "all  houses,  lands,  divisions 
and  all  whatsoever  appertaining  to  me  in  the  town  of  Guilford 
where  I  dwell." 

If  both  sons  were  "brought  up  to  learning"  the  library  was 
to  be  divided  equally  between  them.  "But,  if  not,  he  that  is 
brought  up  have  it  all." 

Abial  became  a  farmer  of  the  ministerial  lands  in  Guil- 
ford while  Jared  qualified  for  the  entire  library.  However, 
to  Abial  passed  the  ownership  of  the  famous  court  cupboard, 
given  by  the  Rev.  John  Eliot,  "Apostle  to  the  Indians,"  to  his 
son,  Joseph,  when  he  was  "setting  out  for  the  far-off  Connec- 
ticut wilds."  This  court  cupboard  is  now  a  valued  possession 
in  the  family  of  Edward  Eliot  of  Guilford,  a  grandson  of  the 
Rev.  Joseph  Eliot  in  the  seventh  generation. 

The  pear  tree  which  the  Rev.  Joseph  Eliot  planted,  and 
which  is  said  to  have  stood  in  the  rear  of  the  Dr.  Talcott  place, 
later  the  home  of  Burton  L.  Sperry,  was  standing  until  1865 
when  a  high  wind  blew  it  down. 

The  Rev.  Joseph  Eliot  died  on  May  24,  1694.  He  was 
laid  at  rest  on  Gviilford  Green,  as  were  all  of  Guilford's  dead  in 
those  early  times,  his  grave  being  on  the  east  side  nearly  in 
front  of  the  residence  of  E.  P.  Bates. 

When  Abial  Eliot  and  his  bride,  Mary,  daughter  of  John 
Leete,  and  great  granddaughter  of  Governor  William  Leete, 
built  this  fine  new  house  in  1726,  they  elected  to  place  it  close 
by  the  street,  as  was  fashionable  at  that  period.  It  was  a  salt- 
box  house.  In  the  east  front  room,  which  was  the  parlor,  there 
were  paneled  and  wainscoted  walls,  and  a  fireplace,  with  a  tiny 
fireplace  in  the  chamber  above,  while  the  living  room  on  the 
west  side  was  similarly  treated  except  for  the  wainscoting. 

In  both  front  rooms  Franklin  fireplaces  were  later  in- 
stalled, probably  at  the  time  of  the  marriage  of  Charles  Eliot 
to  Chloe  Pardee  of  East  Haven  in  1815,  for  the  fireplaces  bore 
the  eagle,  which  emblem  was  not  in  use  at  the  time  of  the 
wedding  of  his  parents. 

51 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

Dr.  Benjamin  Franklin,  who  invented  the  Franklin  fire- 
place and  stove,  was  a  friend  of  Abial's  brother,  Dr.  Jared  Eliot, 
frequently  visiting  him  at  his  home  in  Killing  worth  (Clinton) 
so  that  the  installation  of  these  (then)  modern  fireplaces  was 
not  strange. 

Abial  and  Mary  Eliot  had  six  children,  four  sons  and  two 
daughters.  Levi  died  in  early  manhood.  For  Nathaniel  and 
his  bride  was  built  the  house  already  mentioned,  now  Dr.  G. 
Franklyn  Anderson's,  next  south  of  the  paternal  mansion.  The 
house  in  Water  Street,  known  for  years  as  the  Leverett  Gris- 
wold  house,  was  the  home  of  Wyllys  Eliot,  son  of  Abial.  The 
remaining  son,  Timothy,  settled  in  North  Guilford,  the  home- 
stead there  being  long  occupied  by  the  great,  great  grand- 
children of  Abial  Eliot. 

Nathaniel  Eliot's  children,  reared  in  the  southerly  house 
on  the  corner  home  lot,  were  William  and  Mary.  William  suc- 
ceeded to  the  title  of  the  entire  property.  Mary  married  Israel 
Halleck  and  was  the  mother  of  the  distinguished  poet,  Fitz- 
Greene  Halleck,  and  his  splendid  sister,  Maria  Halleck. 

William  Eliot  married  Ruth  Rossiter  and  three  sons  were 
born  to  them:  William  Horace  settled  in  New  Haven;  George 
Augustus  migrated  to  Erie,  Penn.;  Charles  remained  at  the 
homestead  in  Guilford  where  he  died  in  1870. 

To  Charles  and  his  wife,  Chloe  Pardee,  were  born  six 
children.  Of  those  whose  descendants  yet  live  in  Guilford 
were  Adeline,  wife  of  Leverett  C.  Stone  and  mother  of  William 
L.  Stone;  Sarah  Ann,  wife  of  Henry  Reeves  Spencer  and  mother 
of  the  late  Daniel  R.  Spencer  and  Robert  T.  Spencer;  Lewis  R. 
Eliot,  father  of  Edward  Eliot,  late  owner  of  the  homestead. 


52 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Abel  Chittenden  House 


Nc 


ONE  of  the  early  houses  of  Guilford  has  been  more  com- 
pletely forgotten,  as  to  its  early  history,  than  the  one  in  State 
Street  now  owned  and  occupied  by  Mrs.  Ralph  L.  Parker,  and 
which,  for  forty  years  or  more,  was  the  property  of  John  Ben- 
ton, formerly  of  Sachem's  Head,  who  bought  it  in  1862. 

This  house  was  once  the  home  of  Chittendens  and  re- 
mained in  that  family  for  a  century  or  more.  The  land  on 
which  it  stands  was  part  of  the  home  lot  of  Henry  Dowd, 
twenty-third  signer  of  the  Plantation  Covenant  and  so  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Whitfield  party.     He  died  in  1668. 

The  Book  of  Terrier,  Vol.  1,  Page  60,  a  book  begun  April 
10,  1648,  and  containing  a  description  of  each  man's  real  estate 
in  the  town  of  Guilford,  contains  the  following  entry: 

"Nathan  Bradley  hath  sold  and  alienated  his  house,  house 
lot  and  orchard,  2  acres,  to  John  Chittenden,  as  by  deed  of 
May  28,  1667". 

This  lot  was  bounded  south  by  John  Evarts,  originally 
John  Mepham's  home  lot,  west  by  John  Stevens  and  William 
Dudley  of  Petticoat  Lane,  now  Fair  Street,  and  north  by  Wil- 
liam Seward,  through  whose  home  lot  York  Street  later  was  cut. 

This  John  Chittenden  was  Sergeant  John  Chittenden 
(1643-1716)  son  of  William  Chittenden,  the  settler,  whose 
home  was  Cranbrook,  corner  of  Broad  and  River  Streets.  Ser- 
geant John  deeded  the  place  in  1712,  four  years  before  his  own 
death,  to  a  son,  Abel  Chittenden,  whose  brother,  John,  was  the 
husband  of  Sarah  Clay,  owner  of  the  Acadian  house. 

Abel  was  unmarried  at  the  time  of  his  father's  death,  in 
fact  was  forty  years  old  in  1721,  when  he  married  Deborah 
Scranton,  and  this  is  circumstantial  evidence  that  this  was  the 

53 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

home  of  his  parents  from  1667  on,  as  they  were  married  in 
1665.    The  place  was  deeded  to  Abel  Chittenden  in  1712. 

Abel  Chittenden  and  his  wife,  Deborah  Scranton,  had  four 
children.  Their  only  son,  another  Abel,  died  when  four  years 
old.  The  three  daughters  never  married.  Deborah,  at  the  age 
of  63,  was  a  suicide.  Ann  died  in  1799,  aged  73,  and  Elizabeth 
in  1808,  at  the  age  of  83  years. 

Elizabeth's  will,  drawn  in  1801,  was  probated  in  1809, 
Abraham  Chittenden,  Jr.,  being  the  executor.  She  left  the 
homestead  to  the  granddaughters  of  her  cousin,  Samuel  Chit- 
tenden, half  of  it  to  Mindwell,  wife  of  Curtiss  Blatchley,  and 
half  to  Ruth,  wife  of  Elisha  Bartlett.  Immediately  the  Blatch- 
leys  sold  to  Ambrose  Benton  28  rods  off  the  north  side,  next  to 
the  home  lot  of  said  Ambrose  Benton  (Miss  Bertha  Benton's 
home  now). 

In  1814  Curtiss  and  Mindwell  Blatchley  sold  the  place  to 
Leonard  Chamberlain  and  he,  seven  months  later,  sold  it  to 
Thomas  Scranton  whose  home  was  the  so-called  Hinckley  place 
now  owned  by  Mrs.  Clifford  Lee.  He  still  owned  it  in  1828, 
according  to  a  deed  of  the  Ambrose  Benton  place  at  that  time. 

Although  the  land  records  bear  witness  to  the  sale  of  land 
farther  down  the  street  in  183  5  to  Miner  Bradley,  land  bound- 
ed on  the  north  by  Thomas  Scranton,  no  further  record  of  the 
transfer  of  Abel  Chittenden's  homestead  could  be  found  until 
1849,  when  Henry  W.  Chittenden,  executor  of  the  estate  of 
Anna  Kimberly,  quit-claimed  it  to  her  brother,  Eli  Kimberly, 
keeper  of  Faulkner's  Island  Light  Station.  He  sold  it  the  next 
spring,  1850,  to  William  Hart  and  he,  in  turn,  sold  it  that 
August  to  Richard  D.  Coan.  It  was  quit-claimed  by  Richard 
Coan  to  John  H.  Kelsey  in  1853  and  he,  in  January,  1854, 
sold  the  place  to  Gilbert  Blatchley  from  whom  John  Benton 
bought  it  on  April  21,  1862. 

It  remained  in  Mr.  Benton's  possession  until  his  death  early 
in  this  century  and  was  his  home  in  his  last  years.  He  had 
bought  Samuel  Johnson's  house  at  the  northeast  corner  of  the 
Green  where  Elisha  Chapman  Bishop  was  to  build  his  new  house, 

54 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

now  the  home  of  Mrs.  Frederick  C.  Spencer,  and  placed  it  on 
the  south  part  of  this  home  lot.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Benton  lived 
in  the  Johnson  house  and  kept  boarders  for  many  years  while 
the  old  house  was  given  over  to  tenants.  The  latter  was  reno- 
vated and  repaired  when  he  returned  to  the  old  house  to  spend 
his  last  years. 

Other  owners  were  Darwell  Stone  and  Eliot  W.  Stone  be- 
fore Mrs.  Parker  bought  it. 

The  deed  of  1667  mentions  a  house  on  the  lot  when  Ser- 
geant John  Chittenden  bought  it  from  Nathan  Bradley.  The 
external  appearance  of  the  house,  as  remembered  in  the  1890's 
is  convincing  evidence  that  it  was  more  than  two  centuries 
old  then. 


55 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


The  Burgis  Houses 

vlxHE  house,  standing  opposite  the  Hyland  House  in  Boston 
Street,  is  one  of  the  early  houses  of  the  town.  It  was  built  in 
173  5  as  the  home  of  Thomas  Burgis,  2nd.,  who,  that  year,  mar- 
ried Hannah  Dodd  of  East  Creek  and  brought  his  bride  to  this 
fine  new  mansion.  The  story  of  it  begins  with  Thomas  Wright, 
who  came  to  Guilford  in  1670  and  lived  in  town  until  he  died 
in  1692. 

Thomas  Wright  came  from  Wethersfield,  married  Sarah, 
daughter  of  Edward  Benton  whose  house  stood  on  the  north- 
west corner  of  the  Green,  and  died  leaving  no  sons,  but  three 
daughters,  Mary,  Mercy  and  Mehitable  Wright.  He  was  the 
town  shepherd,  a  far  cry  from  the  rank  of  his  father,  Thomas 
Wright  of  England,  who  was  an  ambassador  to  the  Court  of 
Spain,  there  marrying,  according  to  genealogists,  a  daughter  of 
the  House  of  Toledo.  It  is  a  fact  that  Frank  Chapman  Leete, 
a  descendant  of  Thomas  Wright,  ten  generations  later,  was 
mistaken  for  Alfonso,  king  of  Spain,  traveling  incognito,  when 
Mr.  Leete  was  in  Europe  as  a  young  man. 

The  home  lot  of  Thomas  Wright  was  on  the  south  side 
of  Boston  Street,  approximately  the  present  site  of  the  Boston 
Street  Schoolhouse.  After  his  death  in  1692  two  daughters 
inherited  the  homestead.  Mary  Wright  in  1698  married  Gideon 
Allin  who  had  come  to  Guilford  from  Swansea,  Mass.  He 
deserted  his  family  and  went  to  Killingworth  (the  present 
Clinton).  Mary  Wright  Allin  died  about  1729  and  her  share 
of  the  estate  of  her  father,  Thomas  Wright,  went  to  her  three 
sons,  Joseph,  Ebenezer  and  Gideon  Allin. 

Her  sister,  Mercy  Wright,  married,  in  1707,  Thomas  Bur- 
gis, shoemaker  and  tanner,  who  had  lately  arrived  in  Guilford 

56 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

after  various  adventures.  A  native  of  Yorkshire,  England,  he 
was  compelled  to  serve  for  several  years  aboard  a  British  man- 
of-war.  While  the  vessel  was  cruising  in  the  vicinity  of  New 
York  Thomas  Burgis  and  one  or  two  others  made  their  escape. 
Being  overtaken  and  captured  near  Newtown,  Conn.,  he  re- 
ceived a  sabre  cut  on  his  face,  the  scar  of  which  he  always  car- 
ried. He  escaped  again,  this  time  near  Boston,  and  made  his 
way  along  the  shore  to  Guilford.  Marrying  Mercy  Wright, 
he  occupied  the  homestead  of  her  father,  Thomas  Wright,  and 
founded  the  Burgis  family  in  Guilford. 

Thomas  Burgis  bought  from  the  Allin  brothers,  nephews 
of  his  wife,  their  share  of  the  homestead,  which  then  extended 
from  the  Caldwell  property  at  the  corner  of  Lovers'  Lane  on 
the  east  to  the  Hopson  homestead  (the  Whedon  place,  later  Mrs. 
George  Wingood's)  on  the  west. 

Thomas  and  Mercy  Burgis  had  five  children.  The  sons, 
Thomas  Burgis,  2nd.,  and  John  Burgis,  married  sisters,  Hannah 
and  Sarah  Dodd  of  East  Creek.  John  Burgis  and  Sarah,  his 
wife,  went  to  live  in  the  West  Pond  district,  where  the  family 
had  owned  land  for  some  years,  and  the  old  house  place,  on  the 
old  road  from  Moose  Hill  to  North  Branford,  was  not  for- 
gotten a  generation  ago.  They  died  childless  but  Deacon  John 
Burgis  attained  fame  by  his  "Bill  of  Mortality",  a  record  of 
deaths  in  Guilford,  begun  in  1746  and  continued  until  he  died 
in  1800,  when  others  took  up  the  pen  he  had  laid  down.  One  of 
the  first  deaths  he  recorded  was  that  of  his  own  mother,  Mercy 
Wright  Burgis.  On  the  first  page  he  made  the  entry  "Was  a 
great  earthquake". 

Thomas  Burgis,  2nd,  and  Hannah,  his  wife,  built  and 
lived  in  the  house  next  west  of  the  old  homestead,  the  house 
which  is  the  subject  of  this  sketch. 

As  to  the  daughters  of  Thomas  and  Mercy  Burgis,  Phyllis 
married  Nathaniel  Johnson  of  Fair  Street,  whose  house  is  now 
the  home  of  Captain  and  Mrs.  Leonidas  Seward.     Her  second 

57 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

husband  was  Samuel  Chittenden,  owner  of  the  Acadian  House. 
Abigail  married  Enos  Bishop.  Mercy,  the  third  sister,  married 
Abraham  Chittenden  and  remained  in  the  house  of  her  father 
and  grandfather. 

Their  son,  Deacon  Abraham  Chittenden,  married  Diana, 
daughter  of  General  Andrew  Ward  of  Nut  Plains.  She  died 
in  1784.  Her  daughter,  Betsy  Chittenden,  who  was  only  seven 
when  she  died,  lived  in  the  grandfather's  home  in  Nut  Plains 
and  there  Benjamin  Baldwin  courted  her  while  Lyman  Beecher 
was  courting  her  cousin,  Roxana  Foote. 

Deacon  Abraham  Chittenden  married,  after  a  year  of 
widowerhood,  Lydia  Rose  of  North  Branford.  He  lived  to  be 
96  years  old,  dying  in  1848.  Of  his  three  sons,  two  went  West, 
Abraham  I,  to  Warsaw,  111.,  and  John  B.  to  Mendon,  111.,  the 
latter  about  1830.  At  the  time  of  his  marriage  to  Eliza  Robin- 
son in  1814,  Deacon  John  B.  Chittenden  had  built  the  house 
which  stands  now,  the  second  one  east  of  the  Boston  Street 
School.  In  a  closet  opening  out  of  the  east  front  chamber  is 
a  secret  compartment  beneath  the  floor,  found  by  lifting  up  a 
floor  board,  the  reason  for  which  can  be  conjectured  only.  The 
third  son,  Henry  Ward  Chittenden,  lived  on  the  west  side  of 
the  Green,  where  now  Mrs.  Bonzano  lives.  Deacon  Abraham 
Chittenden  died  in  1848  at  the  age  of  96  years. 

The  old  house  of  Thomas  Wright  and  his  descendants 
was  torn  down  in  1860.  The  last  occupant  was  Stephen  Robin- 
son who  lived  there  while  building  his  new  house,  now  the 
home  of  his  son-in-law  and  daughter,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dwight 
Potter. 

So  much  for  the  history  of  the  Thomas  Wright  house.  In 
their  new  home  next  west  from  the  paternal  residence,  now 
owned  by  Miss  Elizabeth  Munger,  Thomas  Burgis,  2nd,  and 
Hannah,  his  wife,  brought  up  their  family.  Of  all  their  child- 
ren this  story  follows  only  the  life  of  one  son,  Thomas  Burgis, 
3rd. 

This  young  man  was  graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1758 
and  became  the  school  master  of  North  Guilford.     According 

58 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

to  the  custom  of  that  time,  the  school  master  "boarded  around". 
In  due  season  Thomas  Burgis  became  an  inmate  of  the  home  of 
Ohver  Dudley,  near  the  site  of  the  present  home  of  Herman 
W.  Kiesel.  He  courted  the  daughter  of  the  house,  Olive  Dudley, 
and  they  were  married  in  1769. 

The  story  of  that  wedding  has  been  preserved  in  the  hand- 
writing of  a  granddaughter,  Mrs.  H.  W.  Noyes.  It  was  an 
out-door  wedding,  a  novelty  in  those  days.  The  bride  was 
beautiful,  her  auburn  hair  falling  to  her  knees.  Her  wedding 
gown  was  of  dove-hued  silk,  elbow  sleeves  trimmed  with  frills 
of  lace,  the  open  skirt,  rounded  in  a  graceful  train,  revealing 
a  richly-embroidered  petticoat  and  spangled  kid  slippers.  The 
Rev.  Thomas  Wells  Bray  united  the  couple  in  holy  wedlock 
beneath  a  beech  tree  in  the  dooryard.  Later  in  the  day  the 
bride  and  bridegroom  set  out  on  horseback  for  their  home  in 
Guilford,  followed  by  a  procession  of  friends  on  horseback,  the 
procession  extending  over  a  quarter-mile. 

So  Olive  Dudley  Burgis  came  to  her  new  home  in  the  house 
of  this  story.  She  had  been  educated  in  the  domestic  virtues 
and  accomplishments  by  a  mother  of  sweet  and  gentle  piety, 
whose  temper  was  so  mild  that  none  of  the  ills  of  life  could  dis- 
turb its  equanimity.  Olive  was  skilled  with  the  spinning  wheel 
and  with  the  needle.  Linen  of  finest  texture  and  rich  em- 
broidery of  birds  and  flowers  made  up  her  curtains  for  win- 
dows and  testers.  Thomas  and  Olive  lived  long  and  useful 
lives  in  the  community. 

When  Thomas  Burgis,  3rd.  died  in  1799  he  was  the  owner 
of  two  houses,  this  one  described  as  "the  house  at  home",  an- 
other, "the  house  at  East  Creek".  The  latter  had  been  the  home 
of  his  grandfather,  Ebenezer  Dodd,  and  stood  where  now  stands 
the  home  of  Henry  S.  Davis,  built  by  the  late  Deacon  John  W. 
Norton. 

The  house  at  East  Creek  was  left  by  the  father  jointly  to 
two  sons,  Samuel  and  Thomas  Burgis,  4th.  The  latter  married 
Sarah  Deshon,  younger  sister  of  Ruth  Deshon,  wife  of  Nicholas 

59 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

Loyselle  at  the  Black  House,  and  of  Lydia  Deshon,  wife  of  James 
Cezanne,  another  Frenchman  from  Guadaloupe,  who  then 
owned  the  house  west  side  of  Guilford  Green,  later  Amos 
Seward's.  In  1798  Thomas  Burgis,  4th,  purchased  the  Black 
House  and  thereafter,  for  many  years,  it  was  known  as  the 
Burgis  place. 

The  "house  at  home"  was  left  by  Thomas  Burgis,  3rd., 
jointly  to  his  widow  and  his  three  daughters,  Olive,  wife  of 
Ozias  Whedon,  and  Elizabeth  and  Hannah  Burgis  who  never 
married.  A  third  son,  Eliab  Burgis,  a  sailor,  died  in  1808  aged 
29  years,  presumably  lost  at  sea.  In  1824  Elizabeth  and  Hannah 
Burgis,  joint  owners,  were  living  in  their  father's  house.  Eliza- 
beth dying,  Hannah  became  sole  owner  in  1844.  Before  that 
year  the  sisters  had  removed  to  New  Haven  where  Olive  Whe- 
don  was  living.  In  1846  Hannah  Burgis  sold  the  homestead, 
then  111  years  old,  to  William  Hart. 

Two  months  later  it  was  sold  again,  this  time  to  Jason 
Seward,  then  of  Madison.  Jason  Seward  was  a  son  of  Timothy 
Seward  and  Rebecca  Lee.  He  married  Amelia  Judson  in  1804. 
Their  daughter,  Eliza  Seward,  married  in  1828  Walter  P.  Mun- 
ger  who  died  while  on  a  visit  to  Ohio  in  18  59.  As  she  was  a 
widow  her  father  deeded  the  place  to  her.  From  her  it  passed 
to  a  son,  George  Wyllys  Hunger,  who  married  Susan  C.  Dudley. 
They  were  the  parents  of  Miss  Elizabeth  Munger,  now  owner 
of  the  house  built  in  1735  for  Thomas  Burgis  2nd. 

The  present  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bradford  Monroe  was 
another  Burgis  hom-e.  It  was  bought  by  Nathan  Meigs,  father 
of  Isaac  Meigs,  from  Elizabeth  Ward  in  1787.  The  site  had  an 
earlier  house  built  by  a  grandson  of  the  settler.  Lieutenant  Wil- 
liam Seward,  and  owned  for  years  by  people  living  in  Durham. 
In  1820  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Leverett  Parmelee  bought  it,  then  sold 
it,  in  1829,  to  Colonel  John  Burgis,  a  son  of  Samuel  Burgis  at 
Grandfather  Dodd's  place  at  East  Creek.  Here  Colonel  John 
Burgis  brought  up  a  family  of  eleven  children,  the  last  of  whom, 
another  Thomas  Burgis,  died  in  Pittsburgh,  Penn.,  in    1909. 

60 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

Colonel  Burgis  was  a  seedsman  and  had  one  or  two  shops  nearby 
where  seeds  were  stored  and  prepared  by  workmen.  One  of 
these  buildings  was  moved  to  the  premises  of  William  Bartlett 
at  East  Creek. 

The  house  stands  on  a  ledge  of  rock,  to  avoid  which  the 
early  road  made  a  sweeping  curve.  The  place  remained  in  the 
Burgis  family  until  1882,  when  Miss  Fanny  Burgis,  a  daughter 
of  Colonel  John  Burgis,  died. 


61 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


The  Philo  Bishop  House 


O 


NE  of  the  fine  examples  of  early  eighteenth  century  archi- 
tecture in  Guilford  is  the  Philo  Bishop  house  in  upper  State 
Street.  It  was  built  in  1707  for  John  Collins,  Jr.,  when  this 
section  of  the  town  was  known  as  Norton's  Quarter.  The  home 
lot,  containing  thirty-three  acres,  ran  back  to  Alder  Swamp. 

In  1723  John  Collins,  "in  consideration  of  fatherly  love 
and  endeared  affection",  deeded  this  place  to  his  son,  the  third 
John  Collins,  "reserving  to  myself  and  wife,  Ann  Collins,  use 
and  improvement  of  half  the  lands  for  life".  Ann  Collins, 
formerly  Ann  Leete,  died  the  next  year  but  her  husband  lived 
until  1751. 

John  Collins  III,  in  1732,  sold  the  homestead  to  David 
Bishop,  Sr.,  who  had  married,  in  1724,  Deborah,  widow  of 
Timothy  Stanley  of  Durham  and  daughter  of  Captain  John 
Seward  whose  property  adjoined  this  place  on  the  south. 
Deborah's  sister,  Judith  Seward,  was  the  wife  of  Ithamar  Hall, 
next  door  on  the  north. 

David  Bishop,  Sr.,  willed  the  whole  of  the  homestead  to 
his  son,  David  Bishop,  Jr.,  and  died  in  1773.  The  son  married 
Audrea  Fowler.  They  had  two  sons,  Jared  and  Jonathan,  be- 
tween whom  David  Bishop,  Jr.,  divided  his  homestead.  He 
died  in  1792.  Jared  Bishop  lived  on  in  the  old  house  while 
Jonathan  built  a  new  house  on  the  south  part  of  the  home  lot. 

Jared  Bishop  was  the  father  of  Philo  Bishop.  By  his  will, 
in  1839,  he  caused  an  imaginary  boundary  line  to  be  drawn 
through  the  center  of  the  old  house,  his  widow,  the  former 
Mary  Munson,  to  have  the  south  half  of  the  place,  the  son, 
Philo  Bishop,  the  north  half. 

62 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

The  place  remained  in  the  Bishop  family  185  years,  or 
until  1917,  when  the  late  George  Hull  sold  it  to  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
William  Whiteman.  Afterward  Francis  Langdon  owned  it. 
In  1929  WiUiam  Hoppock  sold  it  to  Mrs.  Alice  Deaton  of  New 
York,  the  present  owner,  and  removed  to  Taunton,  Mass. 

The  house  next  south,  built  in  1787  for  Jonathan  Bishop, 
Sr.,  is  the  home  now  of  William  Pinchbeck.  Here  Jonathan 
Bishop,  Sr.,  and  Jonathan  Bishop,  Jr.,  raised  their  families.  Later 
owners.  Captain  George  Erskine  and  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Meadow- 
croft,  altered  and  built  on  to  the  original  house.  In  the  rear 
are  the  extensive  houses  of  glass  in  which  the  celebrated  Pinch- 
beck roses  are  grown. 


63 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


House  Madison  Once  Owned 


cA 


HOUSE  in  Fair  Street,  in  the  center  of  Guilford,  has  the 
unique  record  of  having  been  owned  for  six  years  by  the  town 
of  Madison.  It  is  the  former  Henry  Hotchkiss  house,  now 
owned  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  F.  TurnbuU. 

On  April  7,  1814,  the  town  of  Guilford  bought  the  house 
from  Deacon  Peter  Spencer  who  had  come  here  from  Saybrook 
in  1805  and  went  from  Guilford  to  Mount  Pleasant,  Penn. 
Here  the  town  poor  were  sheltered  until  East  Guilford  was  set 
off  as  the  town  of  Madison.  The  division  of  the  town  meant 
the  division  of  property  and  this  house,  then  the  almshouse, 
valued  at  $900,  was  set  to  Madison  on  October  19,  1826.  By 
virtue  of  a  vote  of  the  town  of  Madison  on  October  3,  1831,  to 
sell  the  property,  it  was  sold  to  William  H.  Stevens  on  August 
13,  1832,  for  $550. 

An  earlier  Stevens  was  the  first  owner  of  this  home  lot. 
John  Stevens  although  not  one  of  the  Plantation  Covenanters, 
was  probably  here  at  the  first  allotment  of  lands.  At  any  rate 
he  was  located  next  north  of  William  Dudley,  one  of  the  Whit- 
field group.  A  town  meeting  of  February  13,  1670,  granted 
liberty  to  "Mr.  John  Collins  to  buy  John  Stevens,  his  house 
and  land  and  so  is  a  planter  here". 

John  Collins,  who  came  to  Guilford  in  1669,  married  Mary, 
sister  of  Henry  Kingsnorth  who  was  the  first  owner  of  the 
Comfort  Starr  homestead.  John  Collins  sold  this  Petticoat  Lane 
property  to  Benjamin  Gould  in  1707,  it  then  being  sandwiched 
between  Joseph  Dudley  on  the  south  and  Miles  Dudley  on  the 
north.  Joseph  Dudley  and  Benjamin  Gould  married  sisters, 
respectively  Ann  and  Elizabeth  Robinson.  The  Widow  Eliza- 
beth Gould  and  her  son,  David,  in  1726,  sold  the  place  to 
Stephen  Spencer,  blacksmith,  who  had  arrived  in  Guilford  two 

64 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

years  earlier  and  married  Obedience  Bradley,  daughter  of  Abra- 
ham Bradley.  Stephen  Spencer  owned  the  place  eleven  years, 
then  sold  it,  in  1737,  to  Caleb  Stone,  Sr.,  a  son  of  Lieutenant 
Nathaniel  Stone  at  the  northwest  corner  of  Guilford  Green. 
Caleb  Stone,  Sr.,  soon  deeded  the  place,  'for  parental  love  and 
affection",  to  Caleb  Stone,  Jr.,  whose  home  it  was  thereafter. 

Deacon  Peter  Spencer  bought  the  place  from  the  Stones 
in  1805  and  his  sale  to  the  town  of  Guilford  already  has  been 
described.  When  this  town  bought  the  place  it  backed  up  on 
the  east  against  the  home  lots  in  Crooked  Lane  or  State  Street 
but  when  the  town  of  Madison  sold  it  the  eastern  boundary 
was  the  turnpike,  or  Church  Street  as  it  is  now  called,  which 
had  been  opened  in  that  period. 

The  front  part  of  the  house  now  owned  by  the  Misses 
Martin,  once  the  home  of  J.  D.  Loper,  was  a  wing  of  this  house, 
moved  onto  the  north  part  of  his  lot  by  William  H.  Stevens, 
owner  from  1832  to  1834,  when  he  went  to  Illinois.  Later 
owners  were  Samuel  Davis,  1834-183  5;  William  A.  Hull,  183  5- 
1839;  William  Hart,  1839-1840;  James  Austin  Norton,  1840- 
1856. 

It  was  James  A.  Norton  who  sold  to  the  North  West 
School  District,  on  January  22,  1848,  one-quarter  acre  of  land 
on  which  the  Fair  Street  School  was  built.  The  building  was 
set  well  back  from  the  street  for  in  front  of  it  was  a  pond  hole 
which  was  said  to  be  bottomless,  so  that  people  could  not  under- 
stand how  a  schoolhouse  could  be  built  on  the  lot. 

On  the  south  side  of  his  home  lot  James  A.  Norton  built 
a  new  house  (John  Pitts 's),  selling  the  old  house  to  John  A. 
Richardson  of  New  Milford  on  April  4,  1856.  Later  he  moved 
to  Bristol. 

John  A.  Richardson  was  for  many  years  cashier  of  Yale 
National  Bank,  New  Haven.  His  father,  Gilbert  Richardson, 
and  step-mother,  Rhoda,  made  their  home  here.  Rhoda  Rich- 
ardson sold  the  place  to  Mrs.  Henry  Hotchkiss  (Anna  P.)  on 
June  29,  1900.  From  her  heirs,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  F.  Turn- 
bull  bought  it  in  1933. 

65 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


The  Fowlers  Of  Moose  Hill 


O 


N  a  bank  beside  the  post  road  on  Moose  Hill  stands  a 
granite  boulder,  on  which,  in  the  summer  of  1917,  a  bronze 
tablet  was  set,  a  monument  to  the  memory  of  Sophia  Fowler 
Gallaudet,  near  whose  birthplace  it  stands.  The  boulder  was 
the  gift  of  Wallace  Gallaudet  Fowler,  a  nephew  of  Mrs.  Gallau- 
det, past  eighty  years  of  age,  and  the  bronze  plate  was  the  gift 
of  the  girls  of  the  American  School  for  the  Deaf  in  Hartford. 
The  whole  was  a  memorial  to  a  benefactor,  herself  born  deaf 
and  dumb,  but  nevertheless  able  to  render  inestimable  aid  and 
encouragement  to  her  husband.  Dr.  Thomas  H.  Gallaudet,  whose 
school  in  Hartford  for  deaf  mutes  was  the  first  attempt  in  this 
country  to  educate  these  hitherto  unfortunate  people. 

In  April,  1923,  the  Highway  Department  of  Connecticut 
caused  thirteen  handsome  maple  trees  in  front  of  the  house 
nearby  to  be  cut  down  and  the  memorial  itself  was  moved 
far  back  on  the  bank  to  permit  the  road  to  be  widened  and 
straightened. 

The  story  of  Sophia  Fowler  Gallaudet  is  the  story  of  the 
Fowlers  of  Moose  Hill,  that  section  of  Guilford  which  adjoins 
the  towns  of  North  Branford  and  Branford.  The  Fowlers  and 
the  Nortons  were  the  first  families  from  Guilford  Center  to 
locate  here. 

Abraham  Fowler,  grandson  of  the  Guilford  settler.  Deacon 
John  Fowler,  was  the  first  of  that  name  to  have  title  to  Moose 
Hill  land.  Living  in  Guilford  Center,  he  made  his  will  in  1753 
and  gave  "to  my  beloved  son,  Noah  Fowler,  all  my  land  at 
Moose  Hill,  running  from  the  Country  Road  to  Roland  Leete's". 
A  further  bequest  was  the  southwest  corner  of  the  paternal 

66 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

home  lot  at  the  corner  of  Fair  and  Broad  Streets  (now  George 
F.  Walter's  property)  for  the  site  of  a  "Sabba'  Day"  house,  a 
place  of  shelter  for  family  and  horses  on  Sundays  when  out- 
dwellers  came  in  town  to  attend  all-day  meetings  in  the  heat- 
less  Meeting  House. 

Noah  Fowler  married  in  1752  Deborah  Pendleton  of  Ston- 
ington,  daughter  of  Josiah  Pendleton,  and  settled  on  Moose 
Hill.  He  prospered  greatly  and  before  his  death  in  1815  could 
ride  to  the  westward  on  the  old  stage  road  with  his  own 
fields  and  pastures  on  either  hand.  His  property  even  crossed 
the  town  line  for  he  settled  his  son,  Eli,  on  the  Branford  side 
of  his  land,  the  house  site  being  a  bit  east  of  the  present  home 
of  Rudolph  Kneuer.  For  his  son,  Noah  Fowler,  Jr.,  he  built 
the  house  which  has  been  for  many  years  the  property  of  the 
family  of  Richard  Kelsey.  For  his  son.  Miner  Fowler,  he 
built  the  house  across  the  street  from  his  own  home,  later  the 
Moose  Hill  Inn.  Bildad,  the  youngest  son,  remained  in  his 
father's  house,  for  the  patriarch's  house  stood  on  the  site  of  a 
later  one,  also  built  by  Fowlers,  which  now  is  the  home  of  Eber 
Fisher. 

Captain  Noah  Fowler  he  was  when  he  led  forty-three  men 
to  Lexington  with  the  Seventh  Regiment  of  the  Connecticut 
Line.  Later  in  the  War  of  the  Revolution  he  was  made  lieu- 
tenant colonel  of  the  Twenty-Eighth  Militia  Regiment.  Thus 
he  had  his  "best  silver-hilted  sword  and  belt  belonging  to  the 
same"  and  his  "other  silver-hilted  sword"  to  leave  to  his  sons. 

In  front  of  the  Kelsey  house,  which  was  the  home  of  Noah 
Fowler,  Jr.,  there  stood,  until  a  few  years  ago,  a  clump  of  box- 
wood grown  so  tall  and  thick  that  it  hid  the  window  and  a  hole 
had  to  be  cut  through  the  center  of  the  shrub  to  admit  light 
to  the  room.  Tradition  was  that  the  Marquis  de  la  Fayette, 
passing  through  Guilford  in  1824,  was  entertained  by  Noah 
Fowler,  Jr.,  and  his  wife,  he  having  known  the  father.  Colonel 
Noah  Fowler,  during  his  war  service;  that  the  Frenchman 
courteously  presented  to  his  hostess  the  sprig  of  boxwood  which 

67 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

he  was  wearing  as  a  boutonierre  and  she  rooted  it  and  planted 
it  beneath  the  window  as  a  memento  of  that  red  letter  day. 

Colonel  Noah  Fowler  by  his  will  gave  to  each  son  a  home- 
stead and  also  set  apart  a  burial  place  in  the  rear  of  his  house, 
where  doubtless  his  own  dust  reposes.  A  monument  there 
bore  the  names  of  his  grandsons,  Captain  Harry  Fowler,  Ward 
Fowler  and  others. 

Miner  Fowler,  third  son  of  Colonel  Noah  Fowler,  married 
Rachel  Hall  in  1787.  She  was  a  daughter  of  Captain  Stephen 
Hall  and  a  descendant  of  George  Hyland  of  Guilford.  Six 
children  here  were  born  to  them.  The  first  one,  Parnel,  proved 
to  be  deaf  and  dumb.  Two  sons  came  next,  each  with  normal 
speech  and  hearing.  Ten  years  after  the  birth  of  Parnel  an- 
other daughter,  Sophia,  was  born  and  she,  too,  was  deaf  and 
dumb.  Two  years  after  Sophia's  birth  a  cousin  of  hers  was 
born  across  the  street,  Ward  Fowler,  son  of  Bildad  Fowler  and 
Sarah  Bartlett,  and  he  also,  was  deaf  and  dumb. 

Here  then  were  three  children  in  these  two  families,  cut 
off  from  all  communication  with  their  kind  except  such  as 
could  be  established  in  the  family.    It  was  a  heavy  affliction. 

But  while  these  three  deaf  mutes  were  young,  life  opened 
up  for  them.  Dr.  Thomas  H.  Gallaudet  of  Hartford  had  taken 
up  as  his  life  work  the  instruction  of  the  deaf  and  dumb,  had 
studied  in  Paris  and  now  had  opened,  in  Hartford,  a  school  for 
deaf  mutes.  Cheerfully  the  parents  sent  their  children  to  this 
school,  sparing  no  expense  to  educate  them. 

Parnel  presently  came  home  again  and  passed  her  life  in 
her  father's  house  with  her  brother,  Miner  Fowler,  Jr.  But 
Sophia  Fowler  married  her  teacher,  Dr.  Thomas  H.  Gallaudet, 
on  August  29,  1821,  and  passed  her  life  in  Hartford.  Her 
assistance  to  Dr.  Gallaudet  was  beyond  measure. 

Miner  Fowler,  Jr.,  in  1827  brought  his  bride  to  his  father's 
homestead.  She  was  the  Widow  Charry  Ives  of  Waterbury, 
young,  beautiful,  accomplished  and  with  much  social  prestige. 

68 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

The  property  owned  by  her  in  Waterbury  is  now  in  the  heart 
of  the  city.  While  she  was  mistress,  the  house  on  Moose  Hill 
entertained  many  guests.  Their  son,  Wallace  Gallaudet  Fowler, 
was  the  last  of  the  name  to  make  the  place  his  home.  He  was 
the  father  of  the  late  Mrs.  Chester  Kingman,  who  inherited  her 
grandmother's  beauty  and  charm  and  who  lately  died  in  Eng- 
land, and  of  Dr.  Ernest  Fowler,  now  in  California. 


69 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


The  Black  House 


'ESIDE  the  old  Boston  Post  Road  in  Guilford  there  stands 
a  dwelling  with  a  history  which  sets  it  apart  from  other  houses, 
old  or  new.  It  is  called  the  Black  House  because  once  it  bore  a 
coat  of  sable  paint.  The  story  of  that  coat  of  paint  is  the  story 
which  links  for  all  time  the  history  of  little  Guilford  with  the 
history  of  England,  of  France  and  of  Guadaloupe  in  the  West 
Indies. 

The  house  was  built  in  1761  for  Levi  Hubbard  and  his 
wife,  Anna  Gould.  Levi  Hubbard  belonged  to  an  early  Guil- 
ford family,  and  was  a  brother  of  the  Rev.  Bela  Hubbard,  that 
pioneer  priest  of  the  Church  of  England  who  had  taken  the 
long,  perilous  voyage  to  England  to  receive  ordination  in  1763. 
Returning  to  his  native  town  the  young  rector  was  in  charge 
of  the  little  mission  churches  in  Guilford  and  two  neighboring 
towns  until  1767,  when  he  was  transferred  to  New  Haven. 

The  fact  that  this  brother,  Bela,  lived  in  New  Haven  may 
have  influenced  Levi  and  Anna  Hubbard  to  remove  there.  They 
sold  their  homestead  in  Guilford,  March  24,  1787,  to  Nicholas 
Loyselle,  late  of  the  Island  of  Guadaloupe,  and  removed  to  New 
Haven. 

Nicholas  Loyselle,  a  Frenchman,  had  married  Ruth  Deshon 
of  New  London,  Conn.,  who  was  of  Huguenot  descent.  Their 
household  included  slaves,  "one  Negro  man  named  John,  and 
one  named  Joe",  who  were  sold  in  1794  to  Dr.  Thomas  R. 
Pynchon,  the  local  physician.  A  few  years  later  slavery  be- 
came extinct  in  Connecticut. 

What  had  brought  to  Guilford  Nicholas  Loyselle,  late  of 
the  Island  of  Guadaloupe? 

70 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

It  was  the  time  of  the  racial  struggle  going  on  in  the 
French  islands  of  the  West  Indies,  a  struggle  which  culminated, 
between  1794  and  1797,  in  the  uprising  of  the  black  race  and 
the  flight  of  the  Frenchmen  to  safety  in  other  countries. 

Warned  in  season,  Nicholas  Loyselle  had  departed  from  the 
unhappy  island  before  the  uprising  and  had  come  to  New  Lon- 
don, Conn.,  a  natural  refuge  for  fugitives  from  the  West  Indies. 
Between  New  London  and  the  West  Indies  vessels  were  con- 
stantly plying,  carrying  down  cargoes  of  New  England  pro- 
ducts and  bringing  back  tropical  merchandise.  These  vessels, 
when  the  uprising  of  the  blacks  had  really  begun,  came  back 
crowded  with  refugees  and  the  hostelries  of  New  London  were 
full  to  overflowing  for  a  time  until  the  refugees  could  scatter 
to  new  and  more  secure  homes  in  this  northern  land. 

Another  potent  influence  operated  to  bring  a  Frenchman 
of  the  station  of  Nicholas  Loyselle  to  New  London.  The  French 
government  had  stationed  there,  in  1786,  a  naval  agent,  one 
Philip  dejean,  whose  interest  in  the  welfare  of  a  fellow  country- 
man would  have  been  instinctive.  It  was  doubtless  through 
dejean  that  Loyselle  met  in  New  London  Ruth  Deshon,  whom 
he  soon  married.  It  is  not  known  what  influence  caused  the 
Loyselles  to  choose  Guilford  as  their  place  of  residence  but  here 
they  came  in  1787. 

The  family  of  Ruth  Deshon,  wife  of  Nicholas  Loyselle, 
was  a  distinguished  one.  The  name,  Deshon,  is  said  to  have 
been  a  derivation  from  the  old  French  name,  Des  Champs.  The 
story  runs  back  into  the  preceding  century. 

In  1686,  the  year  after  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  thirty  Huguenots  and  their  families  had  emigrated 
from  France  to  Oxford,  Mass.  Indians  soon  broke  up  the 
settlement  and  the  Huguenots  were  dispersed  to  other  parts 
of  New  England. 

One  of  these  men  had  a  son,  Daniel  Deshon,  who  was 
brought  up  in  the  home  of  Rene  Guignon,  a  Huguenot  of  some 
note.     He  settled  in  Norwich,  Conn.,  and  died  there  in  1715. 

71 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

Young  Deshon,  having  received  provision  by  the  will  of  his 
benefactor,  soon  removed  to  New  London. 

There,  on  October  4,  1724,  Daniel  Deshon  married  Ruth 
Christophers,  daughter  of  the  Honorable  Christopher  Christ- 
ophers, a  Harvard  man  of  1702.  Ruth  Christophers  was  a 
descendant,  in  the  fifth  generation,  of  Elder  William  Brewster. 

A  son  of  Daniel  Deshon  and  Ruth  Christophers  was  Henry 
Deshon,  who  married  Bathsheeba  Rogers.  Their  children,  es- 
pecially the  daughters,  Ruth,  Lydia  and  Sarah  Deshon,  are  the 
Deshons  of  this  story. 

There  were  sons,  also,  born  to  Henry  and  Bathsheeba 
Deshon,  illustrious  sons  who  acquitted  themselves  as  men  in 
the  War  of  the  Revolution.  Daniel  Deshon,  the  oldest  son,  was 
commissioned  by  the  State  to  command  the  armed  brig,  "Old 
Defense"  which  was  captured  by  the  British  in  1778.  Richard 
Deshon  was  captain  of  a  volunteer  company.  John  Deshon, 
one  of  the  leading  members  of  the  Council  of  Safety,  was 
commissioned  by  the  State  to  lay  out  the  forts,  Trumbull  and 
Griswold,  for  the  defense  of  New  London,  and  to  impress  all 
vessels  in  New  London  Harbor  for  coast  defense.  John  Deshon 
was  a  warden  of  St.  James's  Episcopal  Church,  thus  managing 
that  difficult  combination  of  patriot  and  churchman.  He  held 
that  office  in  1778  when  the  rector,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Graves,  was 
mobbed  and  locked  out  of  the  church  because  he  could  not 
conscientiously  refrain  from  reading  prayers  for  the  King  and 
royal  family  of  England. 

When  the  British  invaded  New  London  in  1781,  Sarah 
Deshon,  the  youngest  of  the  family,  was  but  a  child.  Family 
tradition  recounts  that  Sarah  met  the  "Red  Coats"  on  the 
bridge  over  Shaw's  Cove,  near  her  home,  and  that  she  made 
them  a  low  courtesy  before  scampering  homeward.  The  soldiers 
followed  her  to  the  fine  new  house,  which  stood  close  by  the 
Shaw  Mansion,  now  famous  because  Washington  once  slept 
there,  set  fire  to  the  house  of  the  Deshons  and  burned  all  the 
family  possessions.     Soon  after  the  parents  died. 

72 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

It  is  probable  that  the  sisters,  orphaned  and  homeless,  found 
homes  with  their  older,  married  brothers,  and  that  thus  they 
met  the  Frenchmen,  Nicholas  Loyselle  and  James  Cezanne. 

As  has  been  stated,  Nicholas  Loyselle  brought  his  wife, 
Ruth,  to  Guilford  in  1787.  On  September  10,  1789,  Lydia 
Deshon  was  married  to  James  Cezanne  in  New  London  by 
"William  Henry  Channing,  minister,  as  attested  by  the  records. 
Three  years  later  the  Cezannes  followed  the  Loyselles  to  Guil- 
ford, purchasing  the  homestead  of  Joseph  Griffing  on  the  west 
side  of  Guilford  Green,  later  known  as  the  Amos  Seward  house. 

There  were  three  Cezanne  children,  Lydia,  James  and 
Henry.  The  name  of  Lydia  Cezanne  echoes  to  this  day  for 
she  was  a  charming  girl  and  a  social  favorite,  counting  among 
her  admirers  the  poet,  Fitz-Greene  Halleck.  She  died  when 
about  twenty  years  of  age. 

A  third  Frenchman,  Michael  Guimar,  moves  dimly  through 
the  story.  The  records  reveal  him  as  taking  a  mortgage  on 
the  property  of  Nicholas  Loyselle  so  that  he  must  have  been 
a  man  of  some  means.  That  he  also  was  from  the  Island  of 
Guadaloupe  is  certain,  but  where  he  lived  or  if  he  had  a  family 
is  unknown. 

In  the  spring  of  1793  Nicholas  Loyselle  was  having  his 
house  painted.  He  was  superintending  the  work  of  the  painter 
when  news  reached  him  that  Louis  XVI,  King  of  France,  had 
been  executed  on  January  21,  three  months  earlier.  They  were 
loyal  Frenchmen,  these  men  from  Guadaloupe,  and  the  soul 
of  Nicholas  Loyselle  was  filled  with  grief. 

"No  more  work  to-day",  he  told  the  workmen.  "It  is  like 
a  funeral." 

When  the  work  of  painting  the  house  was  resumed,  the 
paint  was  black.  And  black  the  house  remained,  a  symbol  of 
mourning  for  the  King  of  France,  long  after  Nicholas  Loyselle 
himself  had  followed  Louis  XVI  out  of  this  life.  Traces  of  the 
black  paint  remained  in  sheltered  spots  long  after  later  coats 
of  paint  had  succumbed  to  time  and  weather. 

71> 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

One  more  claim  to  remembrance  in  Guilford  annals  be- 
longs to  Nicholas  Loyselle  before  he  passes  into  the  silence.  He 
was  a  friend  of  Eli  Foote,  the  lawyer-merchant  who  died  in 
the  South  of  yellow  fever  in  1792,  leaving  ten  young  children. 
To  the  oldest  of  these,  Roxana,  Monsieur  Loyselle  taught  the 
French  language.  She  became  so  proficient,  both  in  speaking 
and  writing  French,  that  afterward,  when  she  was  the  wife  of 
the  Rev.  Lyman  Beecher  and  the  salary  of  the  pulpit  in  East 
Hampton,  Long  Island,  must  be  eked  out,  she  was  able  to  teach 
French  to  the  young  ladies  who  were  her  husband's  pupils  in 
other  branches  of  education. 

The  records  are  silent  concerning  the  fate  of  Nicholas 
Loyselle  but  a  faint  tradition  has  survived  the  years.  It  runs 
that  he  took  ship  for  his  former  home,  the  Island  of  Guadaloupe, 
to  transact  some  business  or,  in  local  phrase,  to  "bring  back  a 
barrel  of  money."  The  transaction  was  completed  and  the 
ship  was  to  sail  at  dawn,  for  which  reason  Monsieur  Loyselle 
slept  on  board.  In  the  morning  he  was  found  dead  in  his  berth, 
slain  by  an  unknown  hand. 

That  Madame  Loyselle  was  left  with  limited  means  seems 
probable.  On  March  14,  1798,  her  brother-in-law,  James 
Cezanne,  deeded  the  Loyselle  homestead  to  Thomas  Burgis,  the 
fourth  of  that  name,  who  had  married  Sarah  Deshon,  sister  of 
Mrs.  Loyselle.  The  Black  House  was  thereafter  the  Burgis 
homestead  for  many  years. 

It  is  probable  that  Madame  Loyselle  continued  to  live  in 
the  house  as  a  member  of  the  Burgis  household.  She  died  May 
18,  1824,  at  the  age  of  65  years,  leaving  a  legacy  of  $50  to  the 
Episcopal  Church  of  Guilford. 

The  surnames  of  Loyselle,  Cezanne  and  Burgis  passed  long 
ago  from  Guilford  except  as  carved  on  tombstones  now  and 
again.  The  story,  as  told  here,  was  searched  out  of  the  records 
of  New  London  and  Guilford.  A  marker  has  been  placed  on 
The  Black  House  by  the  Dorothy  Whitfield  Historical  Society, 
Inc.,  its  history  having  been  pieced  together  after  a  century 
had  passed. 

74 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


The  Amos  Seward  House 


O 


N  the  west  side  of  Guilford  Green,  its  door  step  hard 
against  the  sidewalk,  is  one  of  Guilford's  remaining  Colonial 
houses,  yet  known  as  the  Amos  Seward  house,  although  owned 
in  that  family  only  eighty-five  years. 

It  was  built  in  1772,  in  the  reign  of  George  III,  by  Dan 
Collins,  a  son  of  Oliver  Collins  of  the  West  Pond  road,  on 
Moose  Hill,  and  a  brother  of  Darius  Collins  of  Back  Lane,  now 
Union  Street.  He  married  Amy,  daughter  of  Bezaleel  Bristol. 
Ten  years  after  building  the  house,  he  moved  with  his  family 
to  Richmond,  Mass. 

The  land  on  which  this  house  stands  was  originally  a  part 
of  the  two-acre  home  lot  of  Edward  Benton  at  the  northwest 
corner  of  the  Green,  which  home  lot  passed  later  into  the  own- 
ership of  the  Stone  family.  In  1724  the  five  sons  of  Lieutenant 
Nathaniel  Stone  divided  the  property  of  their  deceased  father 
and  the  corner  lot  was  set  to  Joseph  Stone. 

Joseph  Stone  died  in  1733.  His  daughter,  Mary  Stone, 
"singlewoman",  inherited  the  corner  lot  and  sold  half  of  it  to 
her  brother,  Joseph,  in  1736.  That  same  year  she  married 
Samuel  Evarts,  who  died  four  years  later.  In  1741  she  mar- 
ried Samuel  Dodd  of  East  Creek,  who  died  in  1757.  Until 
her  death  in  1790  she  was  known  as  Widow  Mary  Dodd. 

Ephraim  Pierson  had  come  to  Guilford,  whence  is  not  de- 
termined. Little  is  known  of  him  except  that  he  married 
Dorothy  Bishop  in  1710  and  died  in  1761.  Two  years  before 
his  death  he  bought  of  the  Widow  Dodd  the  last  quarter-acre 
of  her  inherited  land  "at  or  near  ye  town  plot  or  Great  Market 
Place". 

75 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

In  1763  Submit  Pierson  memorialized  the  General  As- 
sembly for  permission  to  sell  this  land  on  the  west  side  of  the 
Green  and  it  was  sold  to  Jasper  Griffing,  who,  later,  was  to 
purchase  the  Old  Stone  House.  Up  to  this  time  there  was  no 
building  on  the  lot  but,  when  Jasper  Griffing  sold  the  land 
to  Dan  Collins  on  March  8,  1772,  a  shop  was  standing  thereon, 
perhaps  for  the  sale  of  goods  brought  in  by  coasting  vessels  of 
the  "Old  Commodore". 

After  building  his  house,  Dan  Collins  bought,  in  1775,  a 
bit  more  land  on  the  north  from  Bilious  Ward,  bringing  his 
north  line  up  to  the  shop  where  Bilious  "Ward  plied  the  trade 
of  silversmith.  This  shop  may  be  the  same  shop  in  which  the 
Dorothy  Beauty  Shop  is  housed  today. 

Dan  Collins  sold  the  place  on  October  2,  1781,  to  Joseph 
Griffing  from  Long  Island,  second  cousin  of  Jasper  Griffing, 
who  lately  had  arrived  in  Guilford  with  his  bride,  Ruth  Hart, 
of  Huntington,  L.  I.  For  a  time  Griffing  ran  a  coasting  vessel 
to  and  from  New  York.  From  1801  to  1808  he  was  keeper 
of  Faulkner's  Island  Light  Station,  its  first  keeper.  On  January 
3,  1783,  he  sold  the  house  to  a  brother,  Nathaniel  Griffing  of 
Southold,  L.  I.  The  house  now  owned  by  Frank  Cianciolo 
and  used  as  a  fruit  store  was  the  later  home  of  "Uncle  Joe  and 
Aunt  Ruth"  Griffing. 

The  title  to  the  Amos  Seward  house  remained  with  the 
Southold  owner  for  nine  years.  On  January  17,  1792,  Joseph 
Griffing  resumed  ownership,  selling  immediately,  February  9. 
1792,  to  James  Cezanne. 

Cezanne,  like  his  brother-in-law,  Nicholas  Loyselle  of  the 
Black  House,  was  a  Frenchman  from  the  Island  of  Guadaloupe, 
as  told  in  the  story  of  the  Black  House. 

Twelve  years  the  Cezannes  lived  in  this  house,  then  sold 
it,  July  23,  1804,  to  the  Rev.  Israel  Brainard,  and  moved  to  the 
Samuel  Bradley  place,  west  of  Jones's  Bridge.  The  house  was 
the  home  of  the  minister  only  two  years  for  the  Rev.  Israel 
Brainard  was  dismissed  from  the  pastorate  of  the  First  Congre- 
gational Church  and  sold  the  place  back  to  James  Cezanne  on 

76 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

September  12,  1806.  Going  as  a  missionary  to  the  frontier, 
Oneida  County,  N.  Y.,  he  died  in  Syracuse  on  September  5, 
1852. 

Amos  Seward  bought  the  house  on  August  8,  1814,  and 
here  brought  his  wife,  Sarah  Hubbard.  They  passed  their  lives 
here  and  it  was  the  home  of  their  children  after  them.  In  the 
winter  of  1871-2,  the  house  narrowly  escaped  destruction  by 
fire.  The  Hale  store  and  two  houses,  next  south,  burned  to 
the  ground.  The  Seward  house  was  saved  by  desperate  work^ 
the  firemen  holding  upright,  by  pikes,  the  north  wall  of  the 
burning  house,  only  four  feet  distant,  until  it  was  ready  to  fall 
when  they  pushed  it  over  and  away  from  the  Seward  house  and 
so  saved  the  latter. 

On  January  30,  1899,  Mrs.  Fannie  Seward  Baylies,  trustee 
of  the  estate  of  Amos  Seward,  sold  the  place  to  Edward  M, 
Leete.    It  is  owned  yet  by  the  Leete  family. 


77 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


The  Great  Ox  Pasture 


^ 


ROM  the  time  of  Guilford's  settlement  in  1639  until  as 
late  as  1830,  Sachem's  Head  was  known  as  the  Great  Ox  Pasture, 
the  name  of  Sachem's  Head  being  applied  only  to  the  land 
bordering  on  the  harbor  of  that  name.  On  the  bluff  to  the 
westward,  when  Whitfield's  company  arrived,  stood  an  oak 
tree  bearing  in  its  fork  the  gruesome  burden  which  gave  name 
to  the  neighborhood.  The  story  of  the  Indian  Sachem  and  his 
head  is  too  well  known  to  need  repetition.  The  late  Charles 
L.  Benton  told  the  writer  that  he  remembered  his  father  point- 
ing out  to  him,  a  small  boy,  the  stump  of  the  oak  tree  which 
had  borne  in  its  fork  the  head  of  the  Indian  chief.  That  tree 
stood  on  a  bluff  west  of  the  Pope  cottage,  a  bluff  that  has  dis- 
appeared since  as  a  result  of  quarry  operations. 

The  history  of  The  Great  Ox  Pasture  falls  naturally  into 
three  periods,  the  first  beginning  in  1728.  The  Great  Ox 
Pasture  was  divided  into  260  lots,  each  patentee  receiving  20^ 
acres  and  3  5  rods.  Those  who  preferred  undivided  land  else- 
where could  take  that  instead.  Many  records  of  exchanges  of 
land  filled  the  years  immediately  following.  The  boundaries 
of  The  Great  Ox  Pasture  were  thought  by  the  late  Deacon 
John  W.  Norton,  an  expert  in  terrier  matters,  to  have  been 
Long  Cove  on  the  east,  Great  Harbor  on  the  west.  Long  Island 
Sound,  of  course,  on  the  south  and  on  the  north  a  fence  run- 
ning from  the  head  of  Long  Cove  to  Great  Harbor. 

^      ^      # 

When  the  fifth  division  of  land  took  place  William  Leete 
II  lived  near  Guilford  Green.  He  was  a  son  of  the  Honorable 
Andrew  Leete  and  a  grandson  of  Governor  William  Leete.  His 
homestead  was  on  the  south  side  of  Broad  Street,  west  of  Mrs. 

78 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

Sophia  Bishop's  present  home  and  across  the  street  from  the 
home  lot  of  his  father,  Andrew  Leete.  The  latter  had  occupied 
the  land  and  house  vacated  by  his  father-in-law,  Thomas  Jor- 
dan, who  had  returned  to  England  in  1660. 

Dying  in  1736,  William  Leete  II  left  all  of  his  acres  in  The 
Great  Ox  Pasture  to  a  son,  Jordan  Leete.  Another  son,  Solo-* 
mon  Leete,  succeeded  to  the  ownership  of  the  homestead  just 
off  the  Market  Place  or  Green.  A  third  son,  Roland  Leete, 
lived  in  that  section  of  the  town  approached  by  the  "country 
road"  which  leaves  the  state  road  at  Eber  Fisher's,  Moose  Hill. 

No  sooner  had  Jordan  Leete  become  "well  seized"  of  his 
paternal  acreage  than  he  began  to  enlarge  his  boundaries  by 
purchase  and  exchange  of  land  until  he  owned  a  farm  of  100 
acres  in  The  Great  Ox  Pasture.  His  marriage  to  Rebecca  Wat- 
rous  took  place  in  1746  and  he  seems  to  have  settled  at  The 
Great  Ox  Pasture  then,  since  all  his  interests  and  activities  were 
centered  there.  The  first  documentary  evidence  of  Jordan 
Leete's  residence  at  The  Great  Ox  Pasture  is  found  in  a  quit- 
claim deed  of  1764  and,  on  the  same  day  and  date  he  deeded 
several  acres  to  his  brother,  Solomon  Leete,  stating  that  they 
were  part  of  his  homestead. 

Just  before  this,  on  March  28,  1762,  the  Rev.  Edmund 
Ward  of  Guilford  had  bought  of  Seth  Stone  three-quarters 
of  an  acre  at  the  Harbor  of  Sachem's  Head  in  The  Great  Ox' 
Pasture.  A  document  of  January,  1763,  describes  this  land, 
"with  the  house  now  in  building",  and  a  deed  of  1765  states 
that  the  Wards  were  living  there.  The  home  of  the  Rev.  Ed- 
mund Ward  was  the  nucleus  of  the  present  residence  of  Edward 
Eliot,  the  early  house  having  been  much  smaller  than  the  present 
one.  These  dates  prove  the  Eliot  house  to  be  the  oldest  one 
now  standing  at  Sachem's  Head  and  the  second  one  erected 

there. 

*     *     * 

The  story  of  the  Rev.  Edmund  Ward  is  a  tragical  one.  He 
was  a  native  of  Guilford,  a  son  of  Capt.  Andrew  Ward,  Jr., 
and  his  wife,  Deborah  Joy,  the  latter  of  Fairfield  and  Killing- 

79 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

worth.  He  was  graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1727,  studied 
divinity  for  a  few  months  and  was  in  readiness  to  preach  just 
as  the  Fourth  Church  was  separating  from  the  First  Congre- 
gational Church  over  the  dispute  about  the  settlement  of 
Thomas  Ruggles  the  younger,  in  place  of  his  deceased  father, 
in  the  First  Church  pulpit.  In  1733  the  Rev.  Edmund  Ward 
was  ordained  over  the  Fourth  Church.  His  ministerial  career 
was  short,  however,  for  in  173  5  he  was  dismissed  from  the 
church  and  silenced  from  the  ministry  on  charges  of  unbe- 
coming conduct.  During  the  early  days  of  the  little  Episcopal 
mission  on  the  Green  Mr.  Ward  shared  with  laymen  the  duty 
of  reading  service  when  no  priest  was  available.  His  wife  was 
Mehitable,  daughter  of  Thomas  Robinson,  Jr.  History  states 
that  Mr.  Ward  remained  in  Guilford  but  lived  in  seclusion.  In 
1763  the  Wards  sold  their  homestead  on  the  east  side  of  Guil- 
ford Green  and  retired  to  the  greater  seclusion  of  the  new  house 
beside  Sachem's  Head  Harbor.  A  daughter,  Clarinda  Ward, 
married  Nathaniel  Caldwell  "and  later  the  Ward  house  by  the 
sea  was  referred  to  as  the  Caldwell  place. 

Jordan  Leete,  the  pioneer,  came  to  the  end  of  his  days 
on  April  8,  1773.  His  property  was  divided  among  his  heirs, 
his  widow  and  children,  who  disappeared  from  The  Great  Ox 
Pasture.  His  name  remains  at  Sachem's  Head  only  as  it  is  at- 
tached to  Jordan's  Channel.  Tradition  relates  that  a  vessel  lay 
to  outside  and  called  for  a  pilot  into  Sachem's  Head  Harbor. 
There  was  no  one  to  act  as  pilot  but  Jordan  Leete  and  he  knew 
more  of  ploughing  the  land  than  of  ploughing  the  deep.  But 
he  went  aboard  and  brought  the  ship  in  by  the  most  direct 
route,  over  top  of  rocks  and  reefs  on  which  the  craft  bumped 
considerably,  as  the  captain  remarked.  This  was  "Jordan's 
Channel"  thereafter. 

Solomon  Leete,  brother  of  Jordan  Leete,  sold  his  father's 
homestead  west  of  Guilford  Green,  about  1776,  removed  to 
The  Great  Ox  Pasture  and  located  upon  the  bluff  above  Sa- 

SO 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

chem's  Head  Harbor  where  soon  British  vengeance  was  wrecked 
upon  his  property.  On  June  17,  1777,  a  party  of  the  British 
landed  on  the  beach  near  by  under  cover  of  fog  and  burned 
his  house  with  most  of  its  contents,  also  two  barns.  This  was 
doubtless  an  act  of  reprisal  as  only  a  month  before,  from  this 
same  harbor,  had  gone  out  the  little  expedition,  under  Colonel 
Return  Jonathan  Meigs,  which  had  accomplished  one  of  the 
most  successful  raids  of  the  Revolution.  In  little  more  than 
twenty- four  hours  it  had  traveled  ninety  miles  to  Sag  Harbor, 
Long  Island,  captured  ninety-six  prisoners,  destroyed  a  fleet 
and  taken  large  quantities  of  supplies,  all  without  the  loss  of 
a  man. 

Being  a  thrifty  man,  Solomon  Leete  immediately  prepared 
a  list  of  his  losses  at  the  hands  of  the  British  and  applied  to  the 
General  Assembly  for  reimbursement,  being  "satisfied  that  the 
sum  of  1,044  pounds,  15  shillings  and  2  pence  would  not  at  this 
day  replace  said  articles."  The  General  Assembly  saw  fit  to 
grant  him  fifty  per  cent  of  his  estimate.  The  list  of  quaint 
articles  is  yet  on  file  in  the  State  records. 

In  1803,  shortly  before  the  death  of  Solomon  Leete,  there 
were  five  homesteads  in  The  Great  Ox  Pasture,  of  which  four 
were  homes  of  Leetes.  The  fifth  was  the  Ward  or  Caldwell 
house  before  mentioned.  The  children  of  Solomon  Leete  and 
his  wife,  Zipporah,  were  five  sons  and  two  daughters.  Solomon 
Leete,  Jr.,  moved  with  his  family  to  New  York  State.  Thomas 
Leete  married  Anna  Norton,  built  the  house  now  the  home  of 
Daniel  Walden  and  became  "Uncle  Tommie  Leete"  of  whom 
more  anon.  James  Leete  located  at  Jones's  Bridge,  engaged  in 
ship  building  there  and  was  drowned  in  the  river  near  his  home. 
Pharez  Leete  dwelt  with  his  father  in  the  house  which  Solomon 
Leete  had  built  on  the  old  site  to  replace  that  burned  by  the 
British.  After  the  father's  death,  Pharez  sold  the  homestead 
to  Charles  Faulkner  and  removed  to  North  Haven  where  his 
descendants  yet  live.  Elijah  Leete's  house,  long  gone,  was  built 
near  the  cottage  of  the  late  Misses  Newhall,  his  descendants. 
He  was  the  father  of  Daniel  Brown  Leete,  the  story  of  whose 

81 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

home,  now  called  "Shaumpishuh",  is  told  elsewhere  in  this 
volume. 

The  dust  of  Solomon  Leete  and  many  of  his  descendants 
remains  at  The  Great  Ox  Pasture.  A  little  cemetery,  33  feet 
square,  yet  can  be  discerned  on  the  hill  back  of  the  present 
Sachem's  Head  Hotel.  A  fence  once  enclosed  it  but  the  forest 
now  has  possession.  A  grassy  mound,  a  rude  footstone  here 
and  there  mark  the  place  but  the  headstones  were  removed  to 
Alderbrook  Cemetery  when  Samuel  Leete,  the  last  of  the  family 
there,  departed  from  The  Great  Ox  Pasture  a  half -century  or 
more  ago. 

Thomas  Leete  and  Anna,  his  wife,  married  June  30,  1773, 
were  a  childless  couple.  As  the  former  advanced  in  years  he 
developed  eccentric  ways  and  peculiar  lines  of  thought  and  was 
known  through  the  town  as  "Uncle  Tommie  Leete".  He  called 
people  by  their  first  names,  without  prefix,  and  the  Rev.  Aaron 
Dutton,  the  minister,  was  no  exception.  Ceasing  to  attend 
public  worship.  Uncle  Tommie  in  his  own  home,  went  through 
the  forms  of  praying,  preaching  and  singing  each  Sunday 
morning.  Next  day  he  would  allude  to  his  interview  with 
Luke,  John  or  Paul. 

The  late  Mrs.  Kate  Foote  Coe,  writing  in  The  Independent, 
related  these  anecdotes  about  Uncle  Tommie  Leete: 

"In  an  evil  hour  he  sold  some  of  his  many  acres  in  The 
Great  Ox  Pasture  to  a  neighbor.  The  deeds  were  drawn  and 
the  money  paid  but  Uncle  Tommie  never  got  over  the  feeling 
that  those  acres,  once  his,  were  yet  his  by  inalienable  right  and 
he  turned  in  his  red  Devon  cattle  whenever  he  saw  fit.  The 
new  owner  remonstrated.  'I  own  that  land.  It's  against  the 
law  to  put  your  cattle  on  my  land'. 

"  'I  dunno  about  your  laws  uptown  there — I've  nothin'  to 
do  with  'em',  said  Uncle  Tommie,  bland  and  firm.  'This  is  ox 
pasture  law,  and  the  matter  is,  Sammy,  that  those  cattle  have 
got  to  go  on  that  land'.  Ox  pasture  law  prevailed.  Old  Tommie 
put  his  cattle  where  he  saw  fit,  and  then,  mounting  his  old  horse, 
he  rode  up  town  in  his  three-cornered  hat  and  cutaway  coat. 

82 


Yester  -Years  of  Guelford 

There  he  stopped  at  any  house  where  the  spirit  moved  him 
to  tarry  and,  entering  in,  held  an  extempore  prayer  meeting 
with  whatsoever  people  he  found  therein,  exhorting  the  family 
to  lead  honest  lives  in  the  fear  of  God.  Nobody  was  unkind 
enough  to  refuse  a  prayer  meeting  thus  brought  to  their  doors 
and  nobody  ever  made  practical  application  of  Tommie's  own 
method  of  life  to  his  theory  and  so  bring  him  to  confusion 
of  face. 

"In  the  time  of  the  elder  Adams  a  heavy  land  tax  was 
laid  to  support  the  standing  army  and  the  unequal  arrange- 
ment fell  upon  farmers  horny-handed  and  hard-fisted  already 
and  destined  to  become  more  so  if  that  sort  of  oppression  went 
on.     Tommie  was  one  of  those  who  felt  it  deeply. 

"  'Gusty  Collins  and  Abra'm  Fowler,  you're  the  under- 
strappers of  Johnny  Adams',  said  he  to  the  assessors.  'And  the 
matter  is,  I  shall  tell  him  so.  I  shall  say,  Johnny,  Johnny,  you 
can't  do  it'.  And  he  would  have  jogged  on  his  old  horse  all 
the  way  to  Washington  to  see  the  President  if  the  strong  hand 
of  death  had  not  intervened  and  laid  low  this  expositor  of  Ox 
Pasture  Law." 

Thus  Mrs.  Coe.  One  more  story  about  Uncle  Tommie 
Leete.  The  fire  in  the  kitchen  fireplace  was  out  one  morning 
and  Uncle  Tommie  had  to  kindle  it.  He  hung  a  bunch  of 
"top-tow",  the  refuse  of  flax,  from  the  trammel  hook  on  the 
crane,  intending  to  flash  the  powder  in  the  pan  of  his  gun, 
ignite  the  top-tow  and  drop  the  blazing  mass  into  the  waiting 
shavings,  this  process  being  quicker  than  the  use  of  flint,  steel 
and  tinder.  Uncle  Tommie  pulled  the  trigger  and  a  bullet 
bored  a  hole  through  the  bedroom  door  beyond  which  Aunt 
Anna  was  taking  her  morning  nap.  "Upon  that",  said  Uncle 
Tommie,  (his  favorite  expression)  "Upon  that,  I'd  forgot  I'd 
loaded  that  gun  for  a  hawk.     Lucky  your  aunt  wa'n't  up". 

*      *      * 

The  house  on  the  shore,  built  for  Edmund  Ward,  passed  at 
his  death  to  the  possession  of  his  son-in-law,  Nathaniel  Cald- 

83 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

well,  a  merchant  of  Guilford.  Nathaniel  Caldwell  was  a  Loyal- 
ist during  the  Revolutionary  War  and  had  his  troubles  then. 
His  dwelling  and  store  were  on  the  east  side  of  Guilford  Green, 
probably  the  same  house  as  that  formerly  occupied  by  his 
father-in-law,  the  Rev.  Edmund  Ward.  By  the  fortune  of  the 
time  the  property  was  seized  by  Watson  &  Murray  of  New 
York  on  June  8,  1774,  to  cancel  a  debt  of  81  pounds.  In  1782, 
at  the  close  of  the  war,  the  homestead  was  in  the  possession  of 
the  State  of  Connecticut  and  the  treasurer  of  the  State,  John 
Lawrence,  was  selling  it  to  Eli  Foote  and  Asher  Fairchild  with 
the  statement  that  Watson  &  Murray,  merchants  in  New  York, 
had  their  property  adjudged  forfeit  to  the  use  of  the  State. 
Two  years  later,  1784,  Eli  Foote  and  Asher  Fairchild  deeded 
this  homestead  back  to  Nathaniel  Caldwell  who  was  then  oc- 
cupying it.  Probably  this  is  the  only  instance  of  seizure  of 
property  in  Guilford  by  the  State  in  the  history  of  the  town. 
In  1796  Nathaniel  Caldwell  sold  the  homestead  to  Jedidiah 
Lathrop,  the  Major  Lathrop  of  La  Fayette's  acquaintance,  who 
built  the  present  handsome  residence,  now  the  home  of  Dr. 
F.  D.  Smith.  Nathaniel  Caldwell  went  to  reside  in  the  house 
built  by  his  father-in-law  at  "Sachem's  Head  Harbor  in  The 
Great  Ox  Pasture",  the  Rev.  Mr.  Ward  having  died  in  1779. 

Yet  remembered  is  the  tiny  graveyard  on  the  former  blufif 
near  this  house  and  the  tombstone  with  its  half-obliterated  in- 
scription in  memory  of  one,  " — ard  Godfrey  of  Taunton,  who 
died  August  ye  8,  1795,  in  ye  42nd  year  of  his  age."  It  is  said 
that  he  was  a  sailor  who  died  of  yellow  fever  when  his  ship  was 
passing  through  Long  Island  Sound  and  was  brought  ashore 
and  buried  here,  denoting  that  this  burying  ground  was  then  in 
use.  The  stone,  saved  from  destruction,  now  stands  in  the 
home  lot  of  Edward  Eliot,  the  former  Caldwell  place.  No 
doubt  the  Rev.  Edmund  Ward  was  the  first  to  be  buried  here. 
Older  people  remembered  Caldwell  gravestones  and  possibly 
there  were  slaves  laid  beside  their  master  and  mistress. 

Aftr  the  death  of  Nathaniel  Caldwell  and  his  wife  the 
homestead  passed  into  the  possession  of  their  son,  Harry  Cald- 

84 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

well,  a  business  man  in  New  York  who  was  unfortunate  in  his 
transactions  and  lost  the  place.  It  knew  many  owners  until 
1850,  approximately,  when  it  became  Benton  property. 


In  the  summer  of  1846,  when  the  big  shore  hotel  on  the 
hill  was  popular  with  Hartford  people,  John  Olmstead,  a  suc- 
cessful business  man  of  that  city,  sat  upon  the  hotel's  broad 
verandah  and  looked  down  upon  the  little  gambrel-roof  house, 
a  story  and  a  half,  that  nestled  among  the  trees.  His  mind 
was  busy  with  the  problem  of  his  son,  Frederick  Law  Olmstead, 
a  young  man  whose  fancy  seemed  turning  toward  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  land.  The  father  bought  the  little  farmstead  for 
his  son  but  Sachem's  Head  held  Frederick  Law  Olmstead  only 
a  year.  The  whole  United  States  was  to  become  his  garden. 
The  grounds  of  Central  Park,  New  York,  and  of  Leland  Stan- 
ford University,  California,  attest  to  the  national  fame  of  the 
great  landscape  gardener  of  whom  Sachem's  Head  neighbors 
once  said  pityingly,  "Poor  fellow!  He  will  never  make  a  living. 
Why,  he  is  actually  setting  out  bushes!" 

One  more  Leete  homestead  awaits  mention.  On  the  brow 
of  the  hill  overlooking  Great  Harbor,  deserted  for  sixty  years, 
is  the  old  house  place  of  the  Benton  family.  It  was  a  Leete 
homestead  originally  and  old  inhabitants  said  that  here  once 
lived  "Widow  'Viah  Leete";  that  her  husband,  Simeon  Leete, 
had  the  timber  cut  and  piled  for  the  erection  of  this  house 
when  he  was  called  to  fight  the  British  who  had  landed  at 
Leete's  Island  and  was  killed.  The  neighbors  finished  the  house. 
His  tombstone,  originally  erected  on  Guilford  Green,  now 
stands  beside  the  highway  in  Leete's  Island.  He  was  the  hus- 
band of  Zerviah  Leete,  later  "Widow  'Viah",  who,  with  her 
children,  removed  to  New  York  State  in  1802.  One  son,  An- 
son Leete,  bought  the  land  now  known  as  Chatauqua  Point 
for  $4.50  per  acre  and  it  bore  the  name  of  Leete's  Point  until 
1875. 

85 


Tester  -Years  of  Guilford 

New  names  were  coming  into  the  land  records  of  The 
Great  Ox  Pasture.  In  1805  George  Kimberly  bought  land  of 
the  heirs  of  Solomon  Leete  and  built  the  house  by  the  sea,  later 
known  as  the  Roberts  place.  George  Kimberly 's  son,  Captain 
Eli  Kimberly,  was  keeper  of  Faulkner's  Island  Light  Station 
from  1818  to  1851.  A  nephew  of  George  Kimberly 's  wife, 
Charles  Faulkner,  in  1806,  bought  the  Solomon  Leete  house 
on  the  bluff  from  Pharez  Leete.  Eli  Kirkham  (Kircum)  lived 
in  the  little  house  opposite  the  former  Charles  Benton  place 
and  there  kept  toll  gate  after  the  tuilding  of  the  Hartford 
turnpike. 

Three  prominent  men  of  Guilford,  Joel  Tuttle,  Frederick 
Griffing  and  Samuel  Eliot,  envisioned  a  line  of  steamers  to  run 
from  New  York  to  Sachem's  Head  when  ice  made  impossible 
the  navigation  of  the  Connecticut  River;  these  steamers  to  be 
met  by  stage  coaches  running  between  Hartford  and  Sachem's 
Head.  So  the  Hartford  turnpike  was  built  about  1825,  laid 
out,  not  by  the  towns,  but  by  the  State  Legislature.  It  began 
at  a  rock  in  Sachem's  Head  Harbor  and  continued,  sometimes 
over  a  new  lay-out,  sometimes  over  the  old  one,  until  it  joined 
the  New  Haven  and  Durham  turnpike  in  Durham.  The  new 
lay-out  avoided  the  original  Ox  Pasture  road  from  the  Edward 
Eliot  house  to  the  foot  of  Lindley  Benton's  hill  and  built  the 
present  road,  except  that  the  section  through  Long  Cove  was 
made  in  1888.  From  Mulberry  Bridge  to  the  next  corner  east 
is  not  original.  Wild  Rose  Avenue  having  been  the  early  road. 

After  the  stage  coach,  the  hotel.  The  house  on  the  hill, 
which  Solomon  Leete  had  built  to  replace  the  one  burned  by  the 
British  and  which  his  son,  Pharez  Leete,  had  sold  to  Charles 
Faulkner,  was  owned  now  by  the  Griffing  family.  Here  was 
the  nucleus  of  the  summer  hotel,  the  early  Sachem's  Head  Hotel, 
which  the  manager,  Agar  Wildman,  advertised  in  the  Hartford 
Courant  in  1835  as  being  accessible  by  steamers  of  the  New 
Haven  and  Norwich  Line  and  of  the  New  York  and  Hartford 
Line  while  stages  would  meet  the  New  York  boats  at  New 
Haven.     "In  short",  said  Mr.  Wildman,  "This  place  presents 

86 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

so  many  attractions  and  is  so  easy  of  access  that  it  is  surpassed 
by  no  other  summer  resort".  Mr.  Wildman  went  on  to  pledge 
himself  "that  no  exertion  will  be  spared  by  him  to  make  it 
agreeable  to  those  who  may  favor  him  with  their  company". 
Sachem's  Head  became  a  popular  seashore  resort  for  the  elite 
of  Hartford  society.  The  poetess,  Lydia  H.  Sigourney,  extolled 
thus  its  glories  in  the  Hartford  Courant  of  July  2,  1848: 
"Along  the  whole  beautiful  extent  of  coast,  where  Connecticut 
holds  dalliance  with  the  sea,  there  is  no  more  desirable  spot 
for  a  summer  visit  than  this  long  favored  locality  of  Sachem's 
Head". 

In  the  early  '60's,  H.  L.  Scranton,  formerly  of  Madison, 
became  the  proprietor  and  he,  too,  spared  no  effort  to  make 
the  hotel  property  unsurpassed.  Additions  were  built  so  that 
it  became  "the  largest  hotel  between  New  York  and  Newport". 
More  barns  and  bowling  alleys  were  built,  the  grounds  were 
laid  out,  and  trees  were  transplanted  from  the  forest,  forming 
the  grove  which  is  there  yet.  Gay  and  fashionable  society 
rode,  drove,  promenaded  or  sailed  at  Sachem's  Head  during 
the  season.  Then  one  night  in  June,  1865,  the  original  Sa- 
chem's Head  Hotel  was  burned  and  was  not  rebuilt. 


87 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


The  Tragedy  Of  The  Daniel  Brown  Leete  House 

t_)  MALL  thought  of  tragedy  had  Daniel  Brown  Leete  when, 
in  1816,  he  built  "Shaumpishuh",  the  house  by  the  sea,  for  his 
bride.  Electa  Fowler,  daughter  of  James  Fowler  of  North  Guil- 
ford. 

Daniel  Brown  Leete  was  a  son  of  Elijah  Leete,  whose  home- 
stead was  later  the  Newhall  property  at  Sachem's  Head.  He  was 
a  grandson  of  Solomon  Leete,  one  of  the  pioneers  at  Sachem's 
Head. 

Seven  children  were  born  to  Daniel  Brown  Leete  and  his 
wife,  Electa,  and  five  lived  to  mature  years;  Jonathan,  Elijah, 
Susan  who  became  Mrs.  Bottsford,  Tempa  whose  married  name 
was  Wheeler,  and  Elizabeth,  later  Mrs.  George  Bowen  of 
Guilford. 

Jonathan  and  Elijah  were  diametrically  opposite  in  tem- 
perament, Jonathan,  ten  years  older  than  his  brother,  being 
quiet,  methodical  and  a  home-stayer  while  Elijah  was  gay,  much 
in  society  and  a  favorite,  especially  with  older  people  whom  he 
was  given  to  visiting.  Jonathan  followed  the  sea  while  Elijah 
worked  the  farm  with  his  father  and  sang  bass  in  the  choir  of 
the  Episcopal  Church  in  Guilford,  his  intimate  friend,  Spencer 
Foote,  also  being  a  member. 

Captain  Jonathan  Leete  was  in  the  oyster  trade  for  several 
years,  sailing  a  schooner,  "Reaper",  built  at  West  River  bridge 
and  owned  by  Captain  James  Frisbie  whose  home  near  the  rail- 
road in  Guilford  is  now  occupied  by  Harry  L.  Page  and  family. 
Captain  Jonathan  had  difficulty  in  finding  a  deck  hand  of 
neatness  to  suit  but  at  last  picked  up  in  New  York  a  Lascar 
named  John  Lord,  or  Jackalow,  who  filled  the  position  well. 
When  he  gave  up  command  of  the  "Reaper"  and  returned  to 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

his  father's  farm,  Captain  Jonathan  brought  Jackalow  with 
him.  The  deck  hand  soon  learned  the  ways  of  the  household 
and  was  regarded  as  a  member  of  the  family. 

Jackalow's  great  fault  was  the  love  of  gold.  Paper  money 
had  no  charm  for  him  but  the  glitter  and  clink  of  gold  he 
could  not  resist.  Once  in  New  York  he  had  stolen  $100  from 
Captain  Jonathan  and  had  escaped  to  New  Haven  before  he 
was  captured.  He  shed  tears  and  begged  forgiveness  so  Cap- 
tain Jonathan  refused  to  appear  against  him  and  took  him  back 
into  his  service. 

Captain  Jonathan  and  Elijah  Leete  joined  in  the  purchase 
of  the  30-ton  sloop,  "Spray",  in  which  to  engage  in  the  coast- 
ing trade,  and  Daniel  Brown  Leete  mortgaged  his  farm  to  assist 
his  sons  in  this  enterprise.  The  "Spray"  was  painted  flesh-color 
outside  with  yellow  and  red  streaks,  the  inside  bulwarks  were 
green  and  the  deck  light  lead  color.  She  had  a  flush  deck  with 
centerboard  and  her  port  quarter  had  been  stove  and  patched. 
Coasting  vessels  in  those  days  did  a  flourishing  trade,  carrying 
to  New  York  passengers  and  farm  products  and  returning 
laden  with  city  merchandise. 

For  two  or  three  years  the  Leete  brothers  worked  the 
"Spray",  with  Jackalow  aboard  as  cook  and  deck  hand.  Several 
times  Captain  Jonathan  was  warned  by  friends  to  beware  of 
Jackalow  but  his  confidence  in  the  Lascar  remained  unshaken. 

In  the  spring  of  1860  the  Leete  brothers  were  to  be  mar- 
red, Jonathan  being  engaged  to  Miss  Delia  Hale  and  Elijah  to 
Miss  Josephine  Hall.  One  more  trip  to  New  York  was  planned, 
then  the  double  wedding  was  to  take  place. 

The  "Spray"  was  laden  with  hay  and  potatoes,  David 
Benton  of  Sachem's  Head  being  an  important  consignor,  and 
the  day  set  for  sailing  was  Wednesday,  March  14,  1860.  An- 
drew Foote  of  Nut  Plains  was  to  go  along  as  a  passenger  and 
came  down  on  Tuesday  evening  to  spend  the  night  and  be 
ready  for  an  early  start  on  the  morning  tide.  Elijah  owned  a 
melodeon  and  the  young  people  passed  the  evening  singing 
hymns.     Then  Elijah  turned  to  his    sister    and    said,    "There 

89 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

Elizabeth,  you  can  have  the  melodeon".  Mrs.  Bowen  kept  that 
melodeon  as  long  as  she  lived. 

The  "Spray",  with  its  crew  and  passenger,  sailed  for  New 
York  next  morning.  Andrew  Foote  came  home  another  way 
but  a  week  passed  and  the  "Spray"  did  not  return.  Daniel 
Brown  Leete  became  anxious. 

"It's  time  the  boys  were  home",  he  said  anxiously  but  the 
mother,  of  a  calmer  temperament,  replied,  "Don't  worry  about 
the  boys,  they  are  all  right  somewhere." 

Still  the  father  kept  up  his  vigil  and  the  days  went  by 
until  Sunday,  March  25,  1860.  On  that  day  the  news  came, 
not  by  telegraph,  nor  telephone,  Sunday  newspapers  nor  radio, 
for  of  those  Guilford  knew  nothing.  It  was  brought  by  a 
Madison  captain  just  back  from  a  trip  up  the  Sound. 

The  church  bells  had  ceased  ringing  and  the  four  churches 
about  Guilford  Green  held  each  its  worshipping  congregation 
when  a  messenger  ran  in  the  door  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  up 
the  stairs  to  the  choir  loft  aild  whispered  in  the  ear  of  Spencer 
Foote.  He,  white  and  agitated,  sprang  up  and  rushed  from  the 
church.  Like  magic  the  whisper  ran  through  congregation 
and  town,  "The  Leete  boys  have  been  murdered  by  Jackalow". 

Within  ten  minutes  the  churches  were  deserted  and  an 
angry,  vengeful  crowd  assembled  on  Guilford  Green.  Threats 
of  vengeance  were  uttered  until  the  more  immediate  question 
arose,  "Who  will  tell  the  family?"  Franklin  Phelps  and  John 
Benton  finally  consented  to  bear  the  ill  tidings.  They  went 
down  to  the  farmhouse  by  the  sea  but  had  no  need  to  speak. 
Daniel  Brown  Leete  saw  them  coming  and  knew  why  they 
came.  That  day  and  for  many  days  the  farmhouse  was  filled 
with  friends,  a  hundred  at  a  time,  lamenting,  comforting, 
questioning. 

For  days  went  on  the  piecing  together  of  the  details  of 
the  tragedy.  On  Tuesday,  March  27,  six  days  after  the  dis- 
covery of  the  murder,  the  New  Haven  Register  carried  an 
account,  copied  from  the  New  York  Tribune,  of  the  affair. 
This  paper  could  be  obtained  only  from  the  newsboy  on  the 

90 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

train  so  the  entire  town  met  that  train.  The  time  of  the  train 
stop  was  short,  papers  were  snatched  and  some  were  paid  for, 
some  not.    The  important  thing  was  to  get  the  news. 

It  was  learned  that  the  "Spray's"  run  to  New  York  was 
made  safely,  as  Andrew  Foote  could  testify.  The  cargo  was 
sold  and  about  $500  in  gold  and  bills  was  stowed  in  the  cabin. 
The  "Spray"  turned  homeward,  was  seen  at  various  points 
along  the  course  by  other  craft.  On  a  dark,  foggy  night  the 
"Spray"  anchored  off  Norwalk,  as  did  other  coasting  vessels. 
Cries  of  "Murder!"  and  "Open  the  cabin  door!"  were  heard 
coming  from  the  "Spray". 

The  next  news  obtained  was  that  the  "Spray"  was  in 
collision  with  the  "Lucinda"  of  Rockaway,  about  four  miles 
north  of  Barnegat,  N.  J.  on  Wednesday,  March  21,  at  2  P.  M. 
Later  in  the  day  the  schooner,  "  Thomas  E.  French",  out  of 
Suffolk,  Va.,  passed  and  Captain  Webb  saw  the  "Spray"  on 
her  beam  ends  while  a  short  distance  away  to  windward  lay 
at  anchor  a  yawl  boat  with  an  Oriental  aboard.  Although  the 
sea  was  rough  the  Oriental  asked  no  assistance  but  Captain 
Webb  motioned  to  him  to  cut  the  painter.  He  did  so  and 
was  taken  aboard.  He  pretended  not  to  understand  English 
and,  when  asked  what  had  become  of  his  captain,  made  signs 
that  he  was  drowned  .  When  the  seamen  began  to  joke  him 
he  became  more  communicative  and  told  a  confused  story. 

He  said  the  "Spray"  had  sunk,  after  the  collision  with 
the  "Lucinda",  carrying  down  the  captain  and  his  brother. 
Afterward  he  said  the  main  sheet  struck  the  captain  and 
knocked  him  overboard;  again  that  the  captain  was  on  the 
bow  at  the  time  of  the  collision  and  was  thrown  overboard  by 
the  impact;  lastly  that  the  captain  was  sick  in  the  cabin  and 
so  went  down  with  the  sloop. 

Captain  Webb  had  occasion  to  run  into  Little  Egg  Harbor 
and  there  lay  the  "Lucinda",  whose  captain  distinctly  stated 
that  no  one  but  the  Oriental  was  aboard  the  "Spray"  at  the 
time  of  the  collision,  that  the  deck  of  the  sloop  was  strewn 

91 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

with  furniture  and  bedding  as  if  the  cabin  had  been  searched 
for  plunder. 

In  spite  of  the  circumstantial  evidence  against  Jackalow, 
Captain  Webb  made  no  effort  to  detain  him  for  delivery  to 
officials  in  New  York,  but  allowed  him  to  accompany  him 
ashore  unguarded,  in  the  small  boat.  When  the  boat  landed 
Jackalow  made  one  bound  and  disappeared  in  the  crowd. 

The  "Spray",  lying  on  her  beam  ends,  was  found  by  a 
pilot  boat  and  towed  into  New  York.  The  name  was  found 
on  a  burgee,  the  sloop  having  been  completely  stripped  of  sails 
and  rigging.  Then  in  New  York  Harbor,  the  cabin  of  the 
sloop  was  examined  and  signs  of  murder  were  there — a  portion 
of  a  man's  shirt  stained  with  what  appeared  to  be  blood,  other 
blood  stains  spattered  about  the  cabin. 

Descriptions  of  Jackalow  were  sown  broadcast.  A  Phila- 
delphia train,  running  into  Jersey  City,  passed  on  the  road  bed 
an  Oriental,  recognized  by  engineer  and  brakeman  as  answering 
the  newspaper  description.  Jersey  City  police  were  notified 
and  started  out  but  Jackalow  had  already  been  arrested  at 
Hackensack  Bridge,  by  another  party.  At  first  he  gave  a 
fictitious  name  but  later  admitted  he  was  Jackalow  and  repeated 
his  story  of  the  wreck.  He  was  found  to  have  $3  89  in  cash 
on  him  and  several  articles  that  had  been  the  property  of  the 
Leete  brothers. 

A  few  weeks  later  two  bodies  were  washed  ashore  on  Long 
Island  and  members  of  the  Leete  family  went  across  the  Sound 
but  could  not  surely  identify  them.  If  these  were  not  the 
bodies  of  Jonathan  and  Elijah  Leete,  no  other  trace  of  them 
was  ever  found  though  the  shores  were  closely  watched. 

Jackalow  was  brought  before  Commissioner  Vroom  of 
Jersey  City.  He  was  calm  until  Mrs.  Leete  and  her  daughter, 
Elizabeth,  appeared  in  court.  Seeing  them  he  wept  violently 
and  asked  to  speak  with  them  but  was  not  permitted  to  do  so 
by  his  counsel. 

Positive  evidence  of  the  identity  of  the  bodies  was  lacking, 
so  Jackalow's  $3  89  went  to  the  lawyers  and  Jackalow  was  set 

32 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

free  on  condition  that  he  leave  the  country  forever,  which  he 
was  doubtless  only  too  glad  to  do.  The  only  point  proved 
concerning  him  was  announced  by  the  New  Haven  Register  of 
April  9,  1860,  "Jackalow  proves  to  be  not  Chinese  but  Japanese. 
He  was  brought  to  this  country  in  Commodore  Perry's  flag- 
ship, 'Mississippi'  ". 

There  were  no  witnesses  to  the  actual  crime  but  it  was 
believed  by  all  that,  while  the  "Spray"  lay  at  anchor  off  Nor- 
walk  that  foggy  night,  Jackalow  bided  his  time  until  one 
brother  was  asleep  in  the  cabin,  the  other  standing  watch  on 
deck,  then  locked  the  cabin  door,  thus  effectually  preventing 
the  brothers  from  united  action;  that  he  crept  upon  the  man 
on  deck  in  the  dense  fog  and  felled  him,  though  not  before 
the  latter  had  time  to  cry  out  "Murder!";  that,  awakened  by 
his  brother's  voice,  the  man  in  the  cabin  shouted  "Open  the 
cabin  door!"  whereupon  Jackalow  opened  a  skylight  and  shot 
him,  spattering  the  cabin  walls  with  blood;  that  he  then  threw 
the  bodies  overboard,  ransacked  the  cabin  until  he  found  the 
money,  then  got  the  sloop  underway. 

By  good  luck  rather  than  good  seamanship  Jackalow 
worked  the  sloop  to  South  Brooklyn,  provisioned  it  with  a 
tierce  of  rice  and  a  cask  of  kerosene  oil  and  was  in  the  Atlantic, 
off  Barnegat,  bound  south,  when  the  collision  occurred.  Was 
he  sailing  for  his  native  land  with  his  stolen  wealth?  The  men 
of  Guilford  thought  so. 

Daniel  Brown  Leete  had  mortgaged  his  farm  by  the  sea 
to  buy  the  "Spray".  With  sons  and  sloop  lost,  all  was  lost. 
Though  he  and  his  wife  made  their  home  to  the  last  in  the 
farmhouse  by  the  sea  the  portion  of  their  old  age  was  sorrow 
and  mourning. 

The  house  now  bears  the  name  of  "Shaumpishuh"  yet  seems 
ever  looking  out  across  the  sea,  watching  for  those  young  men 
who,  all  unwittingly,  sailed  away  forever  on  that  March  morn- 
ing in  1860. 


93 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Nathaniel  Johnson  Homestead 

(Elizabeth  G.  Davis,  Collaborator) 


Is) 


ILLIAM  JOHNSON,  who  came  from  New  Haven  to 
Guilford  as  early  as  1653,  had  his  home  lot  on  the  west  side  of 
Petticoat  Lane  (Fair  Street)  extending  from  Samuel  Spencer's 
north  line  to  Dr.  Evans's  south  line.  He  married  Francis  Bush- 
nell's  daughter,  Elizabeth,  and  they  were  parents  of  ten  children. 
The  ninth.  Deacon  Samuel  Johnson,  (1670-1727)  succeeded 
to  the  ownership  of  the  homestead. 

Deacon  Samuel  Johnson  married  Mary  Sage  of  Middle- 
town.  They  were  the  parents  of  eleven  children,  the  second  of 
whom  was  later  the  renowned  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson,  first  pres- 
ident of  King's  College,  now  Columbia  University.  Their  sixth 
child  was  Nathaniel  Johnson,  with  whom  this  story  is  con- 
cerned. Four  years  younger  than  Nathaniel  was  William  John- 
son, only  18  years  old  when  their  father  died  in  1727. 

In  the  inventory  of  Deacon  Samuel  Johnson's  estate  was 
the  item;  "Guilford  home  lot,  6^/2  acres,  22  rods,  with  house, 
barn  and  workshop".  Set  to  Nathaniel  in  the  division  of  1728 
was  the  north  part  with  dwelling  house  and  barn;  to  William, 
the  south  part  with  workshop.  When  William  Johnson,  then 
living  in  Durham,  became  21  in  1730  he  deeded  the  south 
part  of  the  homestead  to  his  brother,  Nathaniel  Johnson,  who 
then  owned  it  all. 

In  1727  Nathaniel  Johnson  married  Margery  Morgan, 
granddaughter  of  Governor  William  Jones  and  great  grand- 
daughter of  Governor  Theophilus  Eaton  of  the  New  Haven 
Colony.  It  is  believed  that  Nathaniel  Johnson  built  for  his 
wife,  more  than  200  years  ago,  the  substantial  house  that  is 
now  the  home  of  Captain  and  Mrs.  Leonidas  Seward. 

94 


Yester  -Years   of  Guilford 

The  title  of  Captain  Nathaniel  Johnson  resulted  from  his 
captaincy  of  a  Guilford  company  on  the  expedition  to  Fort 
William  Henry  in  1757. 

Margery  Morgan  Johnson  died  in  1752.  Nathaniel's 
second  wife  was  Diana  Ward  Hubbard,  widow  of  Daniel  Hub- 
bard and  mother  of  Levi  Hubbard,  builder  of  the  Black  House, 
and  of  Dr.  Bela  Hubbard  who  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  be  or- 
dained as  a  priest  of  the  Church  of  England  in  1764  and  who 
was  the  first  minister  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Guilford 
until  1767,  when  he  was  transferred  to  New  Haven.  Nathan- 
iel Johnson  was  a  warden  of  this  church  at  its  organization  in 
1744  and  some  of  the  church  services  were  held  in  his  house 
up  to  1751  when  the  little  wooden  church  was  built  on  the 
Green. 

Nathaniel  Johnson  occupied  the  homestead  until  his  death 
in  1793.  To  his  unmarried  daughter,  Rachel  Johnson,  he  deed- 
ed, in  1787,  "In  consideration  of  her  long  continuance  of  faith- 
ful services  in  my  family,  the  south  part  of  my  dwelling  house, 
where  I  now  live,  containing  large  south  room  and  bedroom 
adjoining,  with  chamber  over  said  large  room,  half  of  kitchen 
and  east  division  of  cellar". 

In  1793,  the  year  of  his  death,  he  deeded  to  his  son,  Samuel 
Johnson,  "for  50  pounds,  for  services  rendered  and  for  primo- 
geniture, the  north  half  of  the  house  I  now  live  in,  with  land 
on  which  it  stands." 

In  his  deed  to  Rachel,  the  father  had  not  mentioned  the 
south  half  of  the  attic  nor  the  kitchen  chamber,  so  these  re- 
mote parts  of  his  dwelling  were  included  in  the  inventory  of 
his  estate,  the  remainder  of  the  house  having  been  disposed 
of  by  the  above  deeds. 

After  Rachel  Johnson's  death  her  heirs  deeded  her  part 
of  the  house  to  her  brother,  Samuel  Johnson,  whose  wife  was 
Margaret  Collins.  They  lived  in  the  family  homestead  and 
here,  in  1757,  was  born  their  son,  Samuel  Johnson,  Jr. 

For  generations  teaching  had  been  hereditary  in  the  John- 
son family,  stated  the  scholarly  Henry  Robinson,  who  wrote, 

95 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

"Possibly  for  the  greater  period  from  1750  to  1805-10,  Samuel 
Johnson,  Sr.,  and  his  son,  Samuel  Johnson,  Jr.,  taught  the 
academy  on  Guilford  Green." 

Unlike  his  father,  Samuel  Johnson,  Jr.  did  not  spend  all 
his  life  in  the  family  homestead,  as  the  family  Bible  contains 
the  record  of  his  removal  to  Bethlehem  in  1786,  when  29  years 
old.  Later  he  returned  to  Guilford.  He  was  the  author  of 
the  little  198-page  school  dictionary  published  in  1789  by 
Edward  O'Brien  in  New  Haven.  The  late  Henry  Robinson 
stated  that  the  British  Museum  and  Yale  University  Library 
each  had  a  copy  of  this  dictionary.  In  1800  Samuel  Johnson 
collaborated  with  the  Rev.  John  Eliot  of  East  Guilford  in 
putting  out  another  dictionary  of  223  pages  and  nearly  9,000 
words. 

In  1780  Samuel  Johnson,  Jr.,  married  Huldah  Hill  whose 
people  lived  on  the  northwest  corner  of  Guilford  Green  (Mrs. 
F.  C.  Spencer's  home  lot).  At  the  death  of  his  father  in  1808 
he  became  the  owner  of  the  homestead  formerly  the  home  of  his 
grandfather.  Captain  Nathaniel  Johnson. 

One  of  the  four  sons  of  Samuel  and  Huldah  Johnson  was 
Samuel  Collins  Johnson  (1792-1872).  He  married,  in  1824, 
Clarissa  Frances  Baldwin.  His  second  wife  was  Olive  Spencer, 
daughter  of  Samuel  Spencer  and  sister  of  James  Spencer.  To 
James  Spencer,  in  1868,  Samuel  C.  Johnson  sold  the  Johnson 
homestead  in  Fair  Street,  property  that  had  been  in  the  John- 
son family  more  than  two  centuries. 

The  new  owner  was  a  brother  of  Isaac  Stow  Spencer, 
founder  of  I.  S.  Spencer's  Sons,  and  had  been  living  at  Long 
Hill  in  the  house  later  occupied  by  Horace  Wall's  family.  He 
died  in  1874,  his  wife,  Emmeline  Butler,  in  1875.  From  that 
estate  Edward  Long  bought  the  former  Johnson  homestead  in 
1879.  His  nephew  and  administrator,  Vincent  Scully,  sold  it 
to  the  Seward  family  in  1913. 

The  house  stands  at  a  slight  angle  to  the  street  and  to  the 
line  of  adjacent  houses,  all  of  later  dates.     An  unusual  feature 

96 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

in  a  wooden  house,  the  front  wall  is  thick  enough  to  permit 
deep  window  seats  in  the  front  windows.  Perhaps  Margery 
Morgan,  Nathaniel  Johnson's  bride,  remembered  such  window 
seats  in  her  grandfather's  house  in  New  Haven.  They  were  a 
feature  of  the  house  of  his  contemporary,  the  Rev.  Henry  Whit- 
field, in  Guilford. 


37 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Joseph  Chittenden  House 

\iy  HE  house  in  Fair  Street  which  the  late  Mrs.  Mary  Hubbard 
Bishop  bought  from  Mrs.  Bertha  Palmer  Ryer  of  Branford  in 
1921,  and  which  Mrs.  Ryer's  father,  A.  B.  Palmer,  had  bought 
in  1871,  was  originally  the  home  of  Joseph  Chittenden. 

He  bought,  on  May  24,  1766,  from  Nathaniel  Johnson  a 
part  of  the  latter's  home  lot  near  the  dwelling  of  Captain 
Reuben  Leete  on  the  present  site  of  the  octagon  house.  Captain 
Reuben  Leete's  house  also  stood  on  the  early  Johnson  home  lot, 
he  having  bought  the  land  in  1744  from  Noah  Hodgkin  who 
had  obtained  it  from  Sergeant  Nathaniel  Johnson. 

Joseph  Chittenden's  third  wife  was  Carine  Ward,  widow 
of  Asher  Stone.  She  had  two  sons,  John  Stone  who  lived  and 
died  in  the  house  at  the  head  of  Fair  Street,  on  the  Guilford 
Institute  lot;  William  Stone  who  had  a  farm  at  Guilford  Point. 

The  heirs  of  Joseph  and  Carine  Chittenden  sold  the  home- 
stead, August  25,  1827,  to  Julia  Scranton,  widow  of  Ira  Benton. 
Her  two  daughters,  Harriet  and  Juliana  Benton,  died  young 
a  year  or  two  later.  The  Widow  Julia  Benton  finally  married 
Martin  Seward,  father  of  George  Seward,  Sr.  She  was  a  sister 
of  Amanda  Scranton,  wife  of  William  Stewart  Frisbie,  who 
lived  in  the  house  now  owned  by  Earle  B.  Leete.  Heirs  of 
Julia  Benton  Seward  sold  the  place  to  A.  B.  Palmer,  Mrs.  Ryer's 
father,  who  came  here  from  Cornwall.  The  barn  was  struck 
by  lightning  and  burned  in  the  summer  of  1898. 


98 


Mi- 


Daniel  Brown  Leete  House,  Sachem's  Head,  Built  1816 


Nathaniel  Johnson  Homestead 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Two  Hodgkin  Houses 


^; 


HE  SEWARD  HOUSE  in  Fair  Street,  owned  now  by  Mrs. 
Ruth  Seward  Spalding,  was  built  by  Noah  Hodgkin,  Jr.,  in 
1770,  shortly  before  the  War  of  the  Revolution. 

Noah  Hodgkin,  Jr.,  was  a  son  of  Noah  Hodgkin,  Sr.,  who, 
August  15,  1761,  had  bought  a  trifle  over  a  half-acre  of  land 
of  Silas  and  Sarah  Benton  and  there  built  a  house,  the  present 
home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  E.  Selden  Clark,  Fair  Street.  On  July 
4,  1769,  the  two  Noahs,  father  and  son,  bought  each  53  rods 
of  land,  measuring  2  J/2  rods  front  and  rear,  of  Philip  and  Ann 
Man  between  the  dwelling  of  Capt.  Nathaniel  Johnson  on  the 
north  and  that  of  Noah  Hodgkin,  Sr.,  on  the  south.  Here 
Noah  Hodgkin,  Jr.,  27  years  old  and  married,  built  a  home, 
the  present  Spalding  house.  Upon  the  death  of  his  father  in 
1783  the  settlement  of  the  estate  gave  "To  Noah  Hodgkin,  Jr., 
that  part  of  the  land  of  Noah  Hodgkin,  Sr,,  formerly  bought 
of  Philip  and  Ann  Man,  with  dwelling  house  standing  partly 
thereon  and  partly  on  Noah  Hodgkin's  own  land,  together 
with  other  buildings."  So  house  and  lot  became  wholly  the 
property  of  the  son. 

The  family  under  consideration  was  descended  from  John 
Hodgkin  of  Essex,  England,  who  probably  came  to  Guilford 
about  1648,  and  who  took  the  oath  of  fidelity  May  11,  1654. 
He  married  Mary  Bishop,  April  4,  1670,  and  died  January, 
1681-2.  The  name  of  Hodgkin  was  gradually  modified  to 
Hotchkin  and  finally  to  Hotchkiss. 

On  September  11,  1786,  Huldah  Hill,  wife  of  Samuel 
Johnson,  Jr.,  bought  Noah  Hodgkin's  house  and  lot,  selling 
it  May  30,  1800,  to  Benjamin  Frisbie.  By  this  later  date  Samuel 
Johnson,  Jr.,  and  Huldah,  his  wife,  were  living  next  door,  in 

99 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

the  house  of  his  grandfather,  Nathaniel,  of  his  father,  Samuel 
Johnson,  Sr.,  and  of  his  father's  unmarried  sister,  Rachel.  The 
deed  identifies  the  property  being  sold  to  Benjamin  Frisbie  as 
"the  same  land  we  lately  bought  of  Noah  Hotchkin,  dwelling 
house,  etc.,  exempting  the  clothier's  shop  if  any  part  of  it 
should  stand  on  said  land." 

By  this  clause  of  exemption  may  have  been  sown  the  seeds 
of  the  controversy  which  later  waxed  heavy  between  Samuel 
Johnson  and  Dr.  Strong. 

May  30,  1807,  Benjamin  Frisbie  sold  the  homestead  to  his 
brother,  Russell  Frisbie,  then  26  years  of  age,  who  later  was 
the  grandfather  of  the  late  Dr.  Redfield  B.  West,  and  built 
the  house  now  occupied  by  Mrs.  West. 

On  March  31,  1813,  Russell  Frisbie  sold  the  homestead 
of  Noah  Fiodgkin  to  Dr.  Lyman  Strong  of  Hartford,  who 
took  up  his  residence  there. 

Dr.  Strong's  quarrel  with  his  neighbor,  Samuel  Johnson, 
began  immediately  for  on  July  5,  1813,  Abraham  Chittenden, 
Abraham  Stone  and  Timothy  Stone,  a  committee  appointed  by 
the  town,  rendered  their  decision  as  to  the  boundary  line.  That 
the  disputants  rejected  the  committee's  decision  is  made  ap- 
parent by  a  record  of  May  18,  1818,  when  Dr.  Strong  and 
Samuel  Johnson  were  placed  under  bonds  of  $500.00  to  accept 
the  boundary  decision  of  the  committee,  which  consisted  this 
time  of  Deacon  Thomas  Hart,  Captain  John  Caldwell  and 
Captain  Thomas  Burgis. 

That  this  final  decision  was  unfavorable  to  Dr.  Strong 
may  be  inferred.  On  June  10,  1818,  less  than  a  month  later, 
he  sold  the  homestead  to  Martin  Seward  and  removed  to  Hebron 
and  Colchester.  The  homestead  passed,  in  due  season,  to  Martin 
Seward's  son,  the  late  George  M.  Seward,  then  to  his  grand- 
daughters, the  Misses  Seward,  one  of  whom  continues  to  reside 
there,  and  finally  to  his  great  granddaughter,  Mrs.  Ruth  Seward 
Spalding. 

Noah  Hodgkin,  Sr.,  who  built  the  present  residence  of 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  E.  Selden  Clark  soon  after  1761,  was  the  father 

100 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

of  the  Rev.  Beriah  Hodgkin.  In  the  division  of  the  father's 
estate  in  1786,  the  south  part  of  house  and  land  was  set  to 
his  widow,  Hannah  Hodgkin,  as  dower,  while  the  north  half 
of  the  house  and  land  went  to  a  son,  Beriah. 

The  Rev.  C.  E.  Stowe,  in  his  address  at  the  Quarto-Mil- 
ennial Celebration,  related  that  Beriah  Hodgkin  was  consecrated 
to  the  Lord  before  his  birth  by  his  mother,  Hannah,  in  a 
moment  of  spiritual  exaltation,  she,  who  had  already  lost  four 
children  by  death,  following  the  example  of  another  Hannah, 
wife  of  Elkanah,  an  Ephrathite,  who  gave  her  son,  Samuel,  to 
the  Lord  and  to  his  service  in  the  Temple. 

Before  he  was  seven  years  of  age  Beriah  Hodgkin  had 
read  the  Bible  through.  He  was  brought  up  in  the  old 
Fourth  Church,  which  had  split  off  from  the  First  Congrega- 
tional Church  about  1729.  At  the  time  Beriah  Hodgkin,  in 
his  impressionable  years,  sat  under  the  fervent  preaching  of 
the  Rev.  James  Sproat,  the  church  was  in  its  most  flourishing 
period.  Beriah  Hodgkin  was  not  able  to  secure  a  college  educa- 
tion but  studied  for  the  ministry  with  the  Rev.  Amzi  Lewis 
in  Goshen,  N.  Y. 

In  August,  1784,  the  Rev.  Beriah  Hodgkin  was  hired  for 
six  months  to  preach  in  the  Fourth  Church.  He  remained  as 
pastor  until  1789.  He  sold  his  house  in  Fair  Street  to  Ben- 
jamin Frisbie,  September  17,  1792,  reserving  his  mother's  dower 
right  to  her,  and  in  1793  was  installed  as  pastor  in  Greenville, 
N.  Y.,  whither  some  of  his  people  had  already  removed.  There 
was  then  in  this  region,  from  the  Hudson  River  to  Oneida 
County,  no  Congregational  minister  but  himself  and  but  few 
of  any  denomination  and  the  Rev.  Beriah  Hodgkin  carried 
spiritual  comfort  and  consolation  among  these  settlers  until 
about  1825.    He  died  in  1829  in  Steuben  County,  N.  Y. 

With  the  death  of  Hannah,  widow  of  Noah  Hodgkin,  Sr., 
the  name  of  Hodgkin  ceased  in  this  neighborhood. 


101 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


David  HulVs  House 

(Elizabeth  G.  Davis,  Collaborator) 

vl/  HE  house  in  Fair  Street,  owned  by  I.  S.  Spencer's  Sons, 
Inc.,  and  occupied  by  Charles  Clore  and  family,  was  built  in 
1766  by  David  Hull,  on  land  bought  by  him  that  year  from 
Nathaniel  Johnson.  In  1791  David  Hull  sold  the  homestead 
to  Seth  Bishop,  the  home  lot  being  bounded  on  the  south  by 
Nathaniel  Johnson.  Seth  Bishop  had  married,  in  1789,  two 
years  earlier,  Hannah  Parmelee.  Their  daughter,  Polly  Maria, 
in  later  years,  married  Jonathan  Bishop  of  State  Street.  In 
1796  Seth  Bishop  sold  this  salt-box  house  to  Ambrose  Hoadley, 
a  native  of  Branford. 

Ambrose  Hoadley  was  a  son  of  James  Hoadley  of  Paved 
Street,  Branford,  and  Lydia  Buell  of  Rillingworth,  (Clinton). 
His  wife  was  Wealthy  Trueby,  a  daughter  of  Giles  Trueby 
who  was  a  charter  member  (1771)  of  St.  Alban's  Lodge  and 
who  died  east  of  Boston  after  being  a  prisoner  of  the  British 
troops.  In  1802  Ambrose  Hoadley  sold  the  place  to  Parnel 
Griffin  and  moved  to  a  house  beyond  Jones's  Bridge. 

The  identity  of  Parnel  Griffin  is  not  definitely  determined. 
She  may  have  been  Parnel  Bates,  daughter  of  Martin  Bates  of 
Hanover,  N.  J.,  who  married  her  cousin,  Timothy  Griffing  of 
Guilford,  in  1794,  as  his  second  wife,  although  they  moved  to 
Richmond,  Mass.,  in  1795.  No  deed  has  been  found  recording 
the  transfer  but  in  1808  the  place  was  owned  by  John  and 
Parnel  Hathaway,  the  recurrence  of  the  name,  Parnel,  sug- 
gesting relationship. 

In  1808  the  Hatha  ways  sold  to  Darius  and  Friend  Collins 
who  sold,  in  1811,  to  William  M.  GriflFing. 

102 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

The  ownership  changed  seven  times  from  1814  to  1830, 
several  of  these  owners  living  in  Wallingford.  In  1830  Calvin 
Norton  bought  the  place  from  Jonathan  Morse  and  in  1832 
sold  the  south  half  to  Alpha  Morse.  It  was  the  home  of 
Philander  Walker,  until  1862,  then  Robert  Sutton  lived  there. 
In  1882  the  town  of  Guilford  sold  the  place  to  Mrs.  Mary  J. 
Galvin.  She,  her  son,  William,  and  her  daughter,  Mary,  lived 
there  for  some  years.  Mother  and  daughter  died  and  the  son 
did  not  survive  many  years.  From  the  heirs  I.  S.  Spencer's 
Sons,  Inc,  bought  the  place. 


103 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


The  Griffing  Brothers 

Vl/HE  house  in  Fair  Street,  long  the  home  of  Charles  Yale 
and  the  late  Mrs.  Yale,  has  a  south  chamber  of  unusual  height. 
This  became  the  meeting  place  of  St.  Alban's  Lodge,  No.  38, 
A.  F.  &  A.  M.,  probably  about  1802,  when  its  owner.  Captain 
Joel  Griffing,  was  made  master  of  the  lodge.  Henry  W.  Chit- 
tenden, who  married  his  first  wife,  Charlotte  Griffing,  daugh- 
ter of  Captain  Joel  Griffing,  in  1820,  stated  in  after  years  that 
the  lodge  was  meeting  overhead  when  he  was  courting  Char- 
lotte, evidence  that  this  was  the  meeting  place  of  the  Masons 
for  several  years. 

The  lodge  room  extended  across  the  entire  south  side  of 
the  second  floor,  space  that  has  since  been  divided  into  three 
rooms,  and  the  ceiling  w^as  raised  about  a  foot  higher  than  that 
of  the  other  rooms.  This  resulted  in  a  raised  floor,  like  a  plat- 
form, across  the  south  side  of  the  attic,  an  arrangement  that  is 
yet  in  evidence. 

The  house  was  built  in  1796  by  Seth  Bishop,  who  had 
bought  the  land,  in  1791,  from  David  Hull.  Seth  Bishop, 
father-in-law  of  Jonathan  Bishop  of  State  Street,  lived  in  the 
David  Hull  house  from  1791  to  April,  1796,  when  he  sold  it 
to  Ambrose  Hoadley.  On  the  corner  stone  of  his  new  mansion 
he  cut  the  date,  1796.  On  October  20,  1797,  Seth  Bishop 
mortgaged  dwelling  house,  shop  and  barn  to  Joel  and  Nathaniel 
Griffing,  evidence  that  the  present  house  was  built  already. 
Seth  Bishop  sold  the  house,  August  11,  1801,  to  Captain  Joel 
Griffing,  whose  home  it  was  until  he  died.  May  8,  1826. 

After  Captain  Griffing  died.  Captain  Richard  Fowler  and 
family  moved  in  to  take  care  of  the  Widow  Griffing,  the  for- 
mer Mary  Starr  and  second  wife  of  Joel  Griffing.  She  lived 
until  April  3,  1858.    Captain  Richard  Fowler  took  title  to  the 

104 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

property  in  1852.  A  few  years  later  the  place  was  bought  by 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ruggles  Loper,  parents  of  the  late  Mrs.  Yale. 

Joel  Griffing's  house  was  copied,  with  some  elaboration,  by 
his  brother,  Judge  Nathaniel  Griffing,  who  built  the  house 
at  the  foot  of  Fair  Street  which  was  the  home  in  later  years, 
of  Mrs.  Hannah  Brown  and  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Henry  E. 
Fowler,  and  is  now  owned  by  Dr.  Carlyle  S.  White.  Owing 
to  the  fact  that  both  houses  were  the  homes  of  Griffings,  the 
Nathaniel  Griffing  house  has,  not  unnaturally,  been  confused 
with  the  Joel  Griffing  house  as  the  early  meeting  place  of  St. 
Alban's  Lodge. 

The  land  upon  which  the  Nathaniel  Griffing  house  stands 
is  a  small  section  of  the  original  home  lot  set  out  to  Robert 
Kitchell,  one  of  the  Whitfield  Company  and  a  signer  of  the 
Plantation  Covenant,  who  removed  to  New  Jersey  in  1666, 
selling  his  homestead  to  John  Norton.  Thereafter  it  was  the 
Norton  homestead  for  140  years. 

The  original  home  lot  extended  north  to  the  present  north- 
ern boundary  of  the  home  lot  of  Samuel  Spencer.  The  Norton 
family  had  a  farm  on  Moose  Hill,  and  an  early  generation  built 
there  the  ancient  Norton  house  which  was  the  childhood  home 
of  Frederick  E.  Norton  now  of  Wethersfield.  Even  the  fourth 
John  Norton  had  his  house  in  town  and  his  farm  on  Moose 
Hill  as  late  as  1785  when  he  drew  his  will,  leaving  the  farm 
to  his  son,  John  Norton,  the  fifth,  while  the  house  in  town 
was  willed  to  the  children  of  a  deceased  son,  Nathan  Norton, 
whose  home  it  already  was. 

It  was  the  early  death  of  Nathan  Norton  in  1785  at  the 
age  of  33  years,  leaving  his  widow,  Elizabeth  Roberts,  and  four 
children  of  ages  ranging  from  12  years  to  less  than  one  year, 
that  reminded  the  father,  John  Norton,  of  the  mortality  of 
man  and  the  uncertainty  of  life.  He  made  his  will.  Provision 
for  the  little  family  of  his  youngest  son,  the  deceased  Nathan, 
was  as  follows: 

"To  my  grandchildren,  heirs  of  my  son,  Nathan,  deceased, 
the  remainder  of  my  home  lot  in  town  which  I  have  not  al- 

105 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

ready  disposed  of,  with  dwelling  house  thereon,  to  be  equally 
divided  and  the  son  to  have  a  double  share,  or  two  parts." 

The  son,  Elijah,  thus  had  the  Biblical  double  portion  of  the 
elder  son.  There  had  been  another  boy,  Elisha,  born  a  year 
earlier  than  Elijah,  who  had  been  killed  by  a  cartwheel  when 
a  year  old.  Thus  Elisha's  mantle  of  birthright  fell  upon  Elijah, 
reversing  Biblical  precedent. 

The  other  children  were  Elizabeth,  nine  years  old  when 
her  grandfather  made  his  will,  who  married  later  John  Hodgkin; 
Lydia,  two  years  old,  and  Amanda,  an  infant  of  a  few  months. 

The  negotiations  by  which  Nathaniel  Griffing  bought  the 
Norton  homestead  covered  a  period  of  14  years.  In  1792  Elijah 
Norton,  then  19  years  old,  his  sister,  Elizabeth,  16  years  old  and 
the  wife  of  John  Hodgkin,  and  their  mother,  the  Widow 
Elizabeth  Norton,  deeded  this  homestead  to  Nathaniel  Griffing. 

Judge  Griffing  was  an  astute  and  experienced  business  man 
and  he  appears  not  to  have  been  fully  satisfied  with  this  deed. 
Seven  years  later,  January  23,  1799,  Elijah  Norton  signed  a 
paper  which  bound  him  to  Nathaniel  Griffing  in  the  sum  of 
$500.00,  the  condition  being  that  his  minor  sisters,  Lydia,  aged 
16,  and  Amanda,  aged  14,  should  make  a  good  and  legal  deed 
to  the  said  Griffing,  within  one  year  after  arriving  at  the  age 
of  21  years,  of  their  right  and  title  in  the  south  part  of  the 
home  lot  where  their  father,  Nathan  Norton,  had  lived,  with 
the  house  thereon  standing.  Upon  their  giving  such  deed 
Elijah's  obligation  would  become  void,  otherwise  to  remain 
in  force. 

The  deeds  were  forthcoming  in  due  season,  but  the  sisters, 
when  they  arrived  at  legal  age,  were  living  in  New  York  State, 
where  evidently  the  entire  family  had  gone.  On  September  27, 
1803,  Lydia  Norton  of  Manlius,  "Anadorga"  Co.,  N.  Y.,  as 
Onondaga  County  was  quaintly  mis-called  by  the  legal  gentle- 
man who  drew  the  deed,  made  over  to  Nathaniel  Griffing  her 
right  and  title  in  the  property. 

Amanda  followed  suit  on  May  8,  1807,  being  at  that  time 
the  wife  of  Aaron  Wood,  Jr.,  of  Manlius.     And  so  the  last 

106 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

shred  of  Norton  title  to  the  homestead  was  disposed  of  and 
Judge  Griffing  was  secure  in  the  title  to  the  handsome  mansion 
house  which  he  had  built  and  which  is  yet  a  substantial  residence 
of  the  town. 

It  was  only  the  south  part  of  the  home  lot  of  John  Norton 
that  passed  into  Griffing  ownership. 

As  the  home  of  the  leading  man  of  Guilford  until  his 
death  in  1845,  the  house  of  Judge  Nathaniel  Griffing  was  a 
mansion  of  distinction.  It  was  the  home,  also,  of  his  son,  Fred- 
erick Redfield  Griffing,  the  first  president  of  the  New  Haven 
and  New  London  Railroad.  His  untimely  death  in  18  52, 
leaving  his  v/idowed  mother  bereaved  of  her  only  remaining 
son,  was  a  crushing  blow. 

Three  generations  of  Griffings,  Jasper,  Nathaniel  and 
Frederick,  had  been  interested  in  maritime  enterprises.  Their 
ships  sailed  the  seas  of  commerce  and  brought  home  merchan- 
dise. So  it  was  that  a  store,  for  the  sale  of  imported  wares,  was 
built  on  the  street  corner  of  the  Griffing  home  lot.  This  build- 
ing was  later  removed  to  the  Stone  House  property,  which  be- 
longed to  the  Griffing  family  from  1776  until  1900.  About 
1868  it  was  moved  again,  this  time  to  Guilford  Point,  and  now 
is  the  east  cottage  there. 

The  widow  of  Nathaniel  Griffing  lived  on  in  the  Griffing 
mansion  until  June  1,  1865,  when  she  died,  lacking  but  two 
days  of  completing  her  98th  year.  She  had  survived  her  hus- 
band and  seven  of  her  eight  children.  Notwithstanding  her 
bereavement,  Mrs.  Griffing  gave  much  time,  money  and  thought 
for  the  benefaction  of  others.  She  planned  for  the  youth  of 
the  town  a  seminary  and  the  Guilford  Institute  thus  took  form 
and  shape.     Church  enterprises  found  a  firm  friend  in  her. 

Mrs.  Griffing  was  eleven  years  of  age  when,  in  1778,  Gen- 
eral Lafayette  passed  through  Guilford.  He  and  his  staff  were 
entertained  at  the  house  of  her  father,  Samuel  Brown,  Esquire, 
on  the  site  of  the  Eliot  Davis  Building,  and  she  recalled  every 
detail  of  the  great  Frenchman's  first  visit  to  Guilford. 


107 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


The  Fosdick  Place 


I 


N  1719  there  came  to  Guilford  from  New  London,  John 
Fosdick,  a  shipwright,  who  married  Jane  Bradley  of  Guilford 
in  that  year  and  for  her  built  a  house  hard  by  Jones's  Bridge. 
It  was  a  "Mansion  House",  as  described  in  the  deed  of  the  land 
given  by  Jonathan  Rossiter  to  John  Fosdick  on  March  11,  1721. 
The  boundary  line  began  at  a  rock  on  the  river  bank.  The 
northern  boundary  is  described  as  being  "the  street  leading  over 
the  bridge  called  Jones." 

Jones's  Bridge  was  named  for  Caleb  Jones  whose  home, 
near  the  site  of  Mrs.  Louise  Hall's  house,  was  probably  the 
nearest  residence  in  1719. 

It  is  probable  that  John  Fosdick  brought  his  trade  of  ship- 
wright with  him,  for  this  was  an  ideal  location  for  the  ship 
building  industry.  The  records  show  John  Fosdick,  in  1744, 
three  years  before  his  death,  as  being  one  of  four  men  who 
built  a  wharf  near  Jones's  Bridge  "for  ye  free  use  of  all  the 
Inhabitants  of  this  Town  as  they  may  have  ocation  for  the 
same  in  a  Regular  Manner  without  Unnecessarily  Incumbering 
the  Same  to  ye  Detriment  of  other  Inhabitants  of  ye  Town." 

This  John  Fosdick  had  a  brother,  Samuel  Fosdick,  who 
was  the  ancestor  of  Dr.  Harry  Emerson  Fosdick. 

Elizabeth  Fosdick,  a  daughter  of  the  shipwright,  became 
the  wife  of  William  Chittenden,  who  died,  leaving  his  widow 
with  several  children.  Then  she  married  Reuben  Stone,  as  his 
second  wife,  and  was  the  mother  of  three  more  children.  One 
of  her  sons,  Luther  Chittenden,  perished  of  small  pox  in  the 
army  in  1777.  She,  herself,  died  in  1787  and  in  1789  all  her 
children,  Chittendens  and  Stones,  joined  in  selling  the  home- 

108 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

stead  of  their  honored  mother,  Elizabeth  Stone,  to  James  Leete. 

Now  James  Leete  was  a  son  of  Solomon  Leete,  a  settler  in 
"The  Great  Ox  Pasture".  James  Leete  also  followed  the  busi- 
ness of  ship  building,  until  his  death,  by  drowning,  in  the  river 
near  his  home.  His  brother.  Captain  Thomas  Leete,  settled 
the  estate  and  deeded  the  homestead  to  a  son,  James  Leete,  Jr., 
in  1796.  This  son  married  Zibiah  Miller  and  lived  here  until 
his  own  death  in  1838. 

Joel  and  Nathaniel  Griffing,  who  were  builders  and  own- 
ers of  ships  which,  launched  from  their  shipyard  near  by,  sailed 
the  high  seas  and  engaged  in  the  West  India  trade,  had  some 
interest  in  the  Leete  property  as  evidenced  by  a  deed  of  1814 
from  them  to  Zibiah  Leete  of  the  homestead.  After  her  hus- 
band's death,  the  Widow  Leete  lived  on  in  the  homestead.  A 
son,  James  T.  Leete,  was  located  in  Philadelphia  and  to  him 
she  deeded  the  homestead  in  1846,  he,  in  return,  guaranteeing 
to  her  the  life  use  of  the  property.  The  next  year,  however, 
James  T.  Leete  sold  the  property  to  three  men,  William  B. 
Baldwin,  Alvah  B.  Goldsmith  and  George  A.  Graves  and  to 
them,  in  1849,  the  Widow  Zibiah  signed  over  her  life  interest. 

And  now  the  old  Fosdick  homestead  became  the  scene  of 
busy  industry.  The  Guilford  Manufacturing  Company,  a  joint 
stock  corporation  capitalized  at  $20,000,  bought  "the  James 
Leete  place"  and  the  old  mansion  house  had  as  close  companions 
a  foundry,  machine  shops  and  all  the  equipment  of  a  manu- 
factory of  steam  engines,  iron  castings  and  machinery.  But 
by  1856  the  molten  iron  had  ceased  to  flow,  the  chimneys  no 
longer  flaunted  to  the  wind  their  banners  of  smoke  and  silence 
fell  upon  the  factory  on  the  river  bank.  Coasting  vessels  sought 
elsewhere  for  their  cargoes.  The  buildings  were  sold,  one  por- 
tion being  moved  and  becoming  the  Music  Hall  building  on 
the  west  side  of  Guilford  Green;  another,  removed  to  the 
corner  of  Meadow  Street,  was  made  into  a  house,  afterward 
burned;  two  sections  of  the  old  building  remain  on  the  ground 
today,  having  been  built  over  into  dwellings. 

109 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

After  passing  through  various  transactions  involved  in  the 
settlement  of  the  affairs  of  the  Guilford  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany, the  old  homestead  was  purchased  by  George  Parmelee  in 
1860.  His  widow,  in  1868,  sold  the  house  to  the  town  of  Guil- 
ford for  an  almshouse. 


110 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Isaac  Stow^s  Property 


*UILT  in  1743  by  Isaac  Stow  for  his  bride,  Hepzibah 
Collins,  daughter  of  John  Collins  of  New  Haven,  this  house 
in  Broad  Street,  now  the  home  of  Mrs.  Sophia  Bishop,  is  a  fine 
example  of  the  third-period  houses  in  Guilford. 

Isaac  Stow,  from  Middletown,  bought  the  land,  a  quarter- 
acre,  from  Mindwell  Stone,  part  of  the  home  lot  of  her  father, 
Joseph  Stone,  on  April  6,  1743.  The  Stones  owned  the  land 
east  and  south  of  him,  while  on  the  west  was  the  home  lot 
formerly  the  second  William  Leete's,  then  occupied  by  his  son, 
Solomon  Leete,  who  later  lived  at  Sachem's  Head. 

Isaac  Stow  built  not  only  a  house  and  barn  but  a  smith 
shop.  Such  a  shop  then  was  more  than  a  place  for  shoeing 
horses  and  cattle.  It  was  a  hardware  manufactory,  where 
hinges,  andirons  and  other  house  hardware  were  made. 

His  oldest  daughter,  Olive  Stow,  in  1768,  married  Christo- 
pher Spencer,  son  of  Stephen  Spencer,  who  lived  on  the  east 
side  of  Guilford  Green.  Stephen  Spencer,  too,  was  a  blacksmith. 
Ashes  of  his  forge  have  been  unearthed  in  the  yard  of  Charles 
D.  Hubbard's  house,  a  later  structure.  Olive  Spencer  died 
in  1783. 

Meantime  Isaac  Stow,  Jr.,  brother  of  Olive,  who  had  been 
living  in  Richmond,  Mass.,  in  1777,  and  in  Ballstown,  N.  Y., 
in  1778,  was  killed  by  Indians  in  1780.  His  widow,  Mary 
Pierson  Stow,  returning  to  Guilford,  became  the  second  wife 
of  Christopher  Spencer  and  lived  in  this  house  which  Isaac 
Stow  had  sold  to  Christopher  Spencer  in  1772,  a  year  before 
his  own  death. 

Christopher  Spencer,  who  died  in  1796,  provided  in  his 
will  that  Widow  Mary  Pierson  Spencer  should  have  the  life 

111 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

use  of  this  house  and,  after  her  death,  title  should  pass  to  her 
sons,  Stephen,  Alanson  and  Harvey  Spencer.  But  when  the 
Widow  Mary  died  in  1846,  none  of  her  sons  was  living  and  the 
property  passed  to  the  grandchildren.  All  the  other  heirs  re- 
linquished their  rights  in  the  property  and  the  title  was  ac- 
quired by  Elizabeth  Patten  Bloom  Spencer,  daughter  of  Alan- 
son  Spencer,  deceased  in  1847.  She  made  her  home  here  until 
1854,  when  she  sold  the  place  to  Madame  Abigail  Gregory. 

Abigail  Gregory  was  a  daughter  of  Wyllys  Eliot,  whose 
home  was  the  present  Four  Elms  House,  and  a  granddaughter 
of  Colonel  Andrew  Ward,  east  side  of  the  Green.  Her  sister, 
Ruth  Eliot,  was  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  David  Baldwin,  Episcopal 
clergyman,  whose  home  was  the  present  Nelson  Griswold  house. 
She  had  married  Levi  Gregory  of  Wilton,  Conn.,  and  had  one 
son,  Eliot  Gregory. 

Two  years  later,  in  1856,  Eliot  Gregory  bought  Gablehurst 
from  the  Rev.  E.  Edwin  Hall  and  made  his  home  there.  He 
died  in  1863,  a  half-year  before  his  mother  died.  Her  will, 
drawn  while  both  were  living,  left  the  house  in  Broad  Street 
to  Eliot  Gregory  and  provided  that,  after  his  death,  it  should 
pass  to  Henry  W.  Baldwin,  son  of  her  nephew,  William  W. 
Baldwin.  In  case  Henry  did  not  live  to  the  age  of  21  years, 
it  was  to  go  to  William  W.  Baldwin. 

Henry  W.  Baldwin,  grandson  of  the  Rev.  David  and  Ruth 
Baldwin,  was  18  years  old  in  1866,  when  his  father,  William 
Ward  Baldwin,  quit-claimed  the  house  of  Madame  Gregory 
to  Benjamin  Corbin  of  Guilford. 

Corbin  sold  the  house  next  year  to  William  Fuller  of 
New  Haven,  who,  in  1869,  sold  to  Diodate  J.  Spencer. 

The  new  owner  was  not  a  member  of  the  Spencer  family 
that  had  owned  this  house  in  earlier  years.  He  was  a  son  of 
Reuben  Spencer  of  Hebron,  Conn.,  and  had  married,  in  the 
Episcopal  Church  in  Guilford,  Leah,  daughter  of  David  Rossi- 
ter  of  North  Guilford.    These  were  the  parents  of  Mrs.  Sophia 

112 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

Bishop,  the  present  occupant,  and  her  brother,  the  late  George 
V.  Spencer. 

The  name  of  Isaac  Stow,  who  built  this  house,  is  perpet- 
uated in  the  name  of  I.  S.  Spencer's  Sons,  Inc.,  whose  iron 
foundry  was  founded  by  Isaac  Stow  Spencer,  a  grandson,  in 
1857. 


113 


Yester  -Years   of  Guilford 


A  Widow  In  1759 


In) 


HEN  the  old  family  desk,  that  had  belonged  to  the  late 
William  Henry  Eliot,  and  to  his  father  and  grandfather  before 
him,  was  sent  by  its  present  owner,  Harry  W.  Parmelee,  to  the 
cabinet-maker  a  few  years  ago  to  be  restored,  no  one  knew 
that  the  desk  contained  a  secret  compartment.  Yet  a  secret 
compartment  the  cabinet-maker  discovered,  cleverly  contrived 
and  controlled  by  a  spring,  and  its  spaces  were  filled  with  papers, 
yellow  and  brittle  with  age,  that  had  not  seen  the  light  of  day 
for  a  century  and  a  half.  William  Henry  Eliot,  it  was  evident, 
had  not  known  of  the  secret  compartment,  nor  had  his  father, 
Samuel  Eliot,  1764-1843.  It  was  the  secret  of  the  generation 
before  him. 

The  desk  belonged  originally  to  Wyllys  Eliot,  who  lived 
from  1731  to  1777  and  whose  home  was  the  house  in  Water 
Street  now  known  as  the  Four  Elms,  which  his  son,  Samuel 
Eliot  sold  to  Peletiah  Leete  in  1796.  Wyllys  Eliot  was  a  leading 
business  man  in  Guilford,  dealing  much  in  real  estate.  In  1772 
he  bought  the  Old  Stone  House  from  the  heirs  of  Major  Robert 
Thompson  of  London,  England,  through  the  agency  of  An- 
drew Oliver,  Esq.,  of  Boston,  attorney  for  the  Thompson  heirs. 
This  transaction  involved  a  voluminous  correspondence,  the 
letters  of  which  Wyllys  Eliot  put  carefully  away  in  this  secret 
compartment  of  his  desk,  thus  preserving  them  until  the  present 
time. 

But  interest  centers  chiefly  in  two  older  and  even  more 
tattered  letters,  dated  August  16,  1759,  at  Ticonderoga,  which 
must  have  been  placed  in  this  compartment  by  Mrs.  Wyllys 
Eliot  herself.     Who  was  she? 

She  was  born  Abigail  Ward.  Her  father  was  Col.  Andrew 
Ward,  an  officer  in  the  French  and  Indian  War,  whose  home 

114 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

was  east  side  of  Guilford  Green.  Her  mother  was  the  aristo- 
cratic and  beautiful  Elizabeth  Fowler  who  lived  to  be  almost 
a  century  old.  Abigail  married,  about  1753,  Dr.  Giles  Hull 
who  had  come  to  Guilford  in  1753  and  whose  home  on  the 
west  side  of  Guilford  Green,  the  site  later  owned  by  Mrs.  H.  "W. 
Murlless,  was  sold  by  his  heirs  to  Nathaniel  Rossiter  in  1792. 

Dr.  Giles  Hull  enlisted  in  the  second  French  and  Indian 
War  and  went  to  the  front  as  Captain  Hull.  His  brother-in- 
law.  Captain  Andrew  Ward,  afterwards  General  Andrew  Ward 
whose  home  was  the  Foote  farm  in  Nut  Plains,  was  in  the  same 
expedition.  Capt.  Hull  died  at  Ticonderoga  but  not  in  battle. 
He  died  of  measles,  an  ailment  bound  to  be  fatal  in  the  exposure 
and  privation  of  an  ancient  army  camp. 

The  letter,  written  by  Cornelius  Hull,  probably  a  brother 
of  the  dead  man,  bringing  to  Mrs.  Abigail  Hull  the  news  of 
her  husband's  death,  and  a  companion  letter  of  consolation 
from  her  brother.  Captain  Ward,  were  hidden  away  in  the 
secret  compartment  of  Wyllys  Eliot's  desk.  For  Abigail, 
widowed  at  the  age  of  28,  later  married  Wyllys  Eliot  and  surely 
must  have  placed  these  cherished  letters  here  with  her  own 
hands.  After  the  death  of  Wyllys  Eliot  in  1777  she  married 
a  third  husband,  Samuel  Parmelee,  and  doubtless  forgot  the 
letters  as  the  sorrow  they  commemorated  became  dim  with  the 
passing  years. 

The  two  letters  of  1759  were  brought  from  Ticonderoga 
by  the  same  messenger.  After  the  fashion  of  that  time  the 
sheet  of  paper  was  folded  skillfully  and  became  its  own  en- 
velope. The  address  on  the  outside  which  left  no  doubt  of  the 
news  within,  follows: 

"Mrs.  Abigail  Hull  at  Guilford,  widow  of  Capt.  Giles 
Hull,  late  deceased  at  Ticonderoga,  these  with  care  and  speed 
by  Mr.  Thompson  from  the  army". 

The  body  of  the  letter,  edited  to  conform  with  modern 
spelling,  but  with  a  few  portions  missing,  reads  as  follows: 

115 


Yester  -Years   of  Guilford 

Camp  At  Ticonderoga,  Aug.  ye  16th,  1759. 

For  Mrs.  Abigail  Hull.  After  my  tender  regards,  these 
lines  may  inform  you  that  it  is  with  the  greatest  reluctance 
and  dread  of  heart  to  me  to  write  to  you  in  this  manner.  But 
since  it  is  the  will  of  God  who  will  do  right  and  not  do  any  of 
his  creatures  the  least  injury  and  I  hope  you  will  be  enabled 
to  receive  this  afflictive  dispensation  of  Divine  Providence  as 
coming  from  God  who  perfectly  knoweth  all  things  that  are 
best  for  his  creatures  and  hath  a  sovereign  right  to  dispose  of 
his  creatures  as  seemeth  right  to  him,  I  earnestly  pray  that  God 
would  sanctify  his  holy  hand  to  you  for  your  spiritual  good. 

A  Wednesday  ye  3rd.  I  was  with  Capt.  Hull  at  the  land- 
ing at  Lake  George.  Came  from  there  at  night  and  Capt. 
Hull  was  taken  poorly  at  night,  proved  to  be  the  "meazels" 
but  walked  about  till  ye  4th  day,  Tuesday  ye  7th,  proved  a 
rainy  day.  I  mounted  guard  at  night.  Rained  very  hard, 
proved  a  tempest  of  thunder  and  lightning.  The  wind  shifted 
about  3  in  the  morning.  Ye  wind  blew  very  hard  and  cold 
and  an  extraordinary  storm  followed  till  past  8  in  the  morning. 

Capt.  Hull's  "meazels"  came  out  some  but  upon  the  change 
of  weather  they  returned  in.  Ye  ninth  day,  Mr.  Beckwith 
made  a  prayer  with  him.  I  found  him  at  first  laboring  under 
much  concern  of  mind,  being  sensible  he  should  not  live  many 
days.  On  Saturday  he  remained  very  sick  but  was  more  easy 
in  his  mind  and  remained  rational  and  had  his  reason  to  the 
end.  Sometimes  when  awaking  out  of  sleep  he  was  something 
shattered  for  a  few  minutes.  At  night  rested  something  easy. 
Capt.  Ward  came  to  see  him  several  times.  Continued  very 
sick  until  the  14th  day,  not  with  all  the  pains  that  could  be 
taken  by  the  doctor  and  then  his  disorder  could  not  be  re- 
moved. He  was  as  well  taken  care  of  in  life  and  greatly  la- 
mented at  his  death.  Capt.  Hull  departed  this  life  ye  14th. 
at  half  after  5  in  the  afternoon.  We  provided  a  coffin  and  he 
was  decently  buried  ye  15  th.  day  half  after  5  in  the  afternoon. 
He  gave  very  satisfying  witness  of  his  good  estate.  He 
(charged)    Capt.  Ward  to  take  care  of  his    (family)    It  is  a 

116 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

heavy  stroke  to  me  and  I  earnestly  hope  therein  may  have  a 
sanctified  improvement  thereof  to  (all).  No  more  at  present 
but  I  remain  your  well  wisher  and  humble  servant, 

Cornelius  Hull. 

The  letter  by  which  the  brother,  Captain  Ward,  essayed 
to  comfort  his  widowed  sister,  reads  thus: 

Ticonderoga,  Aug.  16,  1759. 
Dear  Sister: 

Before  the  opening  and  reading  of  this,  as  well  perhaps  as 
when  you  do,  thy  heart  is  full  and  thy  eyes  brimming  with 
grief  on  the  same  account  as  mine  have  done  before  you  and 
do  now.  But  tears  also  are  trifling  things,  they  rather  increase 
than  alleviate  our  sorrows.  Then  dry  them  up,  my  sister,  tho 
thou  art  disconsolate  and  afflicted.  I  think  I  can  tell  thee 
where  there  are  cordials  and  comfort  for  you.  Thou  hast  read 
the  Scriptures — I  know  thou  hast — the  promises  the  Evangelist, 
the  one  predicting  of  that  shall  make  the  widow's  heart  sing 
for  joy,  the  other  telling  thee  of  faith  that  he  died  so.  Then 
turn  thy  heart,  thy  affections,  from  him  where  they  have  been 
lately  set,  and  perhaps  you  think  with  reason,  for  kindly  and 
friendly  offices  done  to  thee  and  thy  infant,  but  all  that  thou 
ever  found  in  him  or  any  other  mortal  that  was  lovely  was 
but  small  streams  that  run  from  that  Being  as  a  fountain  where 
I  would  have  thy  heart  center.  The  one  for  whom  thou  art 
now  sorrowing  was  (provident)  and  that  with  intention  of 
providing  comfort  for  this  life  for  you  and  yours.  But  the 
one  on  whom  I  would  have  you  lean  at  this  time  was  really 
the  provident  friend.  He  feeds  the  ravens  of  the  valley  and 
will  he  not  much  more  the  children  of  the  widow  who  hopes 
in  his  mercy  and  trusts  in  his  promises. 

How  weak  was  the  one  for  whom  you  are  now  sighing. 
Life  was  not  his  when  he  would  for  he  said  calmly,  I  can  neither 
live  nor  die.  But  the  one  where  I'd  have  thy  soul  poured  out 
has  life  and  death  in  his  hands,  and  life  he  offers.     Did  you 

117 


Yester  -Years   of  Guilford 

ever  see  the  one  for  whom  you  are  in  a  flood  of  tears,  wisely 
and  with  good  will  telling  a  pleasant  and  dutiful  child,  "ask 
for  bread  and  those  things  you  need  and  I  will  give  you."  Then 
hear  the  one,  I  advise  you  to,  say  "If  you  that  are  parents  know 
how  to  give  good  gifts  to  your  children,  much  more  will  my 
Father  give  his  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask  him."  The  good- 
ness and  tenderness  in  the  parents  is  derived  goodness  from  the 
Being  I  advise  you  to.  See  the  word,  he  does  not  say  "If  one 
that  I  own  as  a  child  asks  for  those  things  that  they  need."  but 
to  them.  See  the  promise.  "Much  more  will  my  Father  give 
the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask."  Would  not  this  be  a  com- 
fort and  consolation  to  you  in  your  or  any  other  contempla- 
tions. I  have  not  time  to  say  only  this.  You  have  a  kind 
father  and  mother  and  sisters,  have  you  experienced  them  as 
well  as  I.  And  if  I  ever  return  I  hope  you  will  find  me  a 
brother  really. 

Andrew  Ward,  Jr. 

The  tragedy  of  Abigail's  early  widowhood  must  have  been 
as  sharp  and  real  as  any  sorrow  of  this  latest  generation.  It  is 
pleasant  to  know  that  she  presently  was  comforted  and  that 
she  later  filled  an  important  place  as  a  wife  and  mother  in  the 
Guilford  of  her  time.  She  was  the  mother  of  nine  Eliot  child- 
ren among  whom  were  Abigail,  the  elder  Mrs.  Gregory,  and 
Ruth,  wife  of  Priest  Baldwin,  names  not  unfamiliar  in  Guil- 
ford a  half-century  ago. 


118 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Two  Collins  Houses 


I 


N  early  years  Union  Street  bore  the  name  of  Back  Lane.  The 
old  house  there,  long  known  as  the  Milo  Cook  house,  now 
owned  by  R.  O.  Abbott,  was  built  about  1769  as  the  home  of 
Darius  Collins,  a  son  of  Oliver  Collins  whose  farm  was  on  the 
old  Moose  Hill-North  Branford  road,  near  West  Pond.  He 
was  a  grandson  of  John  Collins  of  the  Philo  Bishop  house  and 
a  great  grandson  of  John  Collins  and  Mary  Kingsnorth  who 
had  inherited  the  Comfort  Starr  house  in  1686. 

Darius  Collins  married  Hannah  Spencer  in  1762.  She  was 
a  daughter  of  Stephen  Spencer  and  Obedience  Bradley,  the 
latter  a  daughter  of  Abraham  Bradley  at  the  corner  of  State 
and  Union  Streets.  Hannah  Collins  had  inherited  from  her 
father,  Stephen  Spencer,  land  in  Back  Lane  (probably  Abra- 
ham Bradley's  formerly)  and  on  January  6,  1769,  Obadiah  and 
Mindwell  Spencer  deeded  a  half-acre  on  the  west  of  it  to  their 
brother-in-law,  Darius  Collins,  So  Darius  and  Hannah  built 
their  house. 

Their  daughter,  Hannah,  inherited  the  homestead  "during 
time  Hannah  remains  unmarried",  which  was  her  lifetime.  Her 
will  of  December  6,  1847,  left  it  to  her  relatives,  from  whom 
Samuel  C.  Johnson  purchased  it  in  1849.  He  sold  it  in  1867 
to  Sarah  A.  Sweet  of  Milford.  James  and  Sarah  Sweet  sold  it 
to  John  Benton  in  1872  and  John  Benton  to  Lucy  J.  Cooke, 
wife  of  Milo  Cooke,  on  January  6,  1876.  Mrs.  Cooke  died  in 
1908,  in  which  year  William  Fritz  bought  the  place,  selling 
to  Miss  Eleanor  Owens  in  1927.  She  sold  the  property  to  Mr. 
Abbott  shortly  before  her  death  in  1937. 

Meantime  Hannah  Collins's  brother.  Friend  Collins,  mar- 
ried Philena  Norton  in  1785.     In  1787  Darius  Collins  bought 

119 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

land  in  State  Street,  a  portion  of  the  home  lot  of  Colonel  An- 
drew Ward,  from  the  heirs.  Colonel  Ward's  house  was  near  the 
present  site  of  Dr.  F.  DeWitt  Smith's  and  his  home  lot  extended 
north  to  Union  Street,  Broad  Street,  now  intervening,  having 
been  extended  to  Graves  Avenue  a  century  later.  A  house 
was  built  in  1787  as  the  home  of  Friend  Collins,  who  was  the 
owner  in  1796  when  he  and  his  neighbor  on  the  north,  John 
Davis,  (Mrs.  Bristol's  place)  were  agreeing  on  a  boundary  line. 

The  title  to  the  State  Street  house  passed  through  several 
names  until  1851  when  John  Jackson  bought  it.  He  placed 
on  the  south  side  of  the  house  an  old  structure  as  an  addition 
in  which  he  kept  a  meat  market,  as  did  Edmund  S.  Jillson,  who 
owned  it  from  1866  to  1869,  when  he  sold  to  Henry  N.  Cham- 
berlain. In  1890  John  S.  Norton  bought  the  place  and  his 
daughter,  Mrs.  Lillian  Jillson,  is  the  present  owner.  Her  son, 
Harry  W.  Parmelee,  moved  the  wing  mentioned  above  to  Mul- 
berry Point  and  converted  it  into  a  cottage. 

A  daughter  of  Friend  Collins,  Mary  Ann,  born  1787,  mar- 
riel  Leonard  Chamberlain  and  for  them  was  built  the  house 
next  south,  at  the  corner  of  State  and  Broad  Streets. 


120 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


The  Lees  Of  Crooked  Lane 


cA 


FEARLESS,  brave  woman  of  the  Revolution  was  Agnes 
Dickinson  Lee.  Small  wonder  that  her  name  is  reverenced  in 
a  score  of  Guilford  homes  and  in  other  and  unnumbered  homes 
from  Atlantic  to  Pacific. 

Samuel  Lee,  Jr.,  was  the  third  of  that  name  in  succession. 
He  was  the  son  of  Samuel  and  Ruth  Morse  Lee  and  was  born 
October  12,  1742,  in  a  house  standing  "one  mile  from  Guil- 
ford Green  on  the  old  Durham  road". 

Until  he  was  20  years  of  age,  Samuel  Lee,  Jr.,  led  a  care- 
free life,  his  favorite  pursuits  being  hunting  and  fishing.  On 
November  7,  1764,  when  22  years  of  age,  Samuel  Lee,  Jr., 
married  Agnes,  the  daughter  of  Azariah  Dickinson  of  Haddam, 
and  they  began  their  married  life  in  the  house  at  the  corner  of 
State  and  North  Streets. 

The  early  years  of  the  Lees's  married  life  were  eventful 
ones  in  the  nation's  history.  The  following  March  (1765)  the 
British  Parliament  passed  the  Stamp  Act.  For  a  decade  British 
misrule  continued  to  pile  up  American  grievances  until  the  in- 
evitable result  came,  war  in  1775. 

Before  the  battle  of  Lexington  three  daughters  had  been 
born  to  the  Lee  home:  Rebecca,  March  17,  1766;  Lucy,  July  3, 
1770;  Ruth,  August  13,  1773.  Another  member  of  the  family 
was  Samuel  Lee's  brother,  Levi  Lee,  a  famous  fifer  of  his  time. 

During  these  eventful  years  before  the  Revolution,  Guil- 
ford was  far  from  idle.  When  the  alarm  of  Lexington  came, 
the  town  sent  forty-three  men  at  once  to  the  front.  Later 
that  year  another  company  of  Guilford  men  was  in  service 
along  the  Lakes  George  and  Champlain.  In  1776  a  company 
of  Guilford  men  helped  garrison  Ticonderoga. 

121 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

Meantime  there  was  danger  of  attack  on  the  home  shore 
front  and  on  July  31,  1776,  Guilford  voted  in  town  meeting 
"that  the  Selectmen  are  desired  to  finish  the  Carriages  which 
are  begun  for  the  Cannon  in  this  place  and  fit  them  for  Service." 
Prominent  among  those  active  in  home  defense  appears  the 
name  of  Samuel  Lee,  Jr.  When,  in  1776,  Long  Island  fell  into 
British  hands  and  Long  Island  patriots  desired  to  take  refuge 
in  Connecticut,  Samuel  Lee,  Jr.,  was  a  member  of  a  committee 
of  five  which  chartered  the  sloop  "Polly"  to  furnish  transport- 
ation. Five  times  did  the  "Polly"  cross  the  Sound,  bringing 
to  Guilford  Long  Island  refugees  with  their  families,  house- 
hold goods  and  domestic  animals.  In  1777  the  town  voted  to 
set  up  salt  works  and  Samuel  Lee,  Jr.,  was  one  of  a  committee 
of  three  to  purchase  kettles  for  the  enterprise  which,  however, 
soon  proved  unsuccessful. 

During  the  year  1780  the  Connecticut  coast  was  patrolled 
by  three  sets  of  whaleboats,  one  from  Stonington  to  Guilford; 
one  from  Guilford  to  Housatonic;  a  third  thence  to  New  York. 
On  May  1  of  that  year  Samuel  Lee,  Jr.,  enlisted  a  company  of 
twenty-nine  men  to  act  as  a  coast  guard,  he  being  lieutenant 
in  command  and  his  brother,  Levi  Lee,  sergeant. 

The  greater  part  of  Guilford  townsmen  were  patriots,  the 
Tories  being  a  small  but  troublesome  minority.  Lieutenant 
Lee's  home  became  the  center  of  patriotic  operations  in  Guil- 
ford. There  lead  was  brought,  melted  into  bullets  and  stored, 
as  well  as  powder,  for  the  hour  of  need.  All  about  the  house, 
especially  in  the  west  bedroom,  were  hidden  confiscated  articles, 
buttons,  strings  of  which  hung  on  the  wall  behind  the  four- 
post  bedstead,  laces,  silks  and  thread.  Near  the  house,  beneath 
a  willow  tree  by  the  brook,  stood  the  alarm  gun,  a  cannon  from 
the  Canadian  wars  which  had  been  assigned  to  Guilford  in 
earlier  years.  This  gun  was  to  be  fired  as  an  alarm  in  case  of 
British  attack  along  shore. 

When,  in  1781,  the  British  did  land  at  Leete's  Island  and 
it  was  high  time  to  arouse  the  countryside,  there  was  not  a  man 
left  in  Crooked  Lane   (State  Street)     to    fire    the    signal  gun. 

122 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

Nevertheless  the  gun  was  fired,  for  Agnes  Dickinson  Lee,  to 
quote  her  own  words  which  have  come  down  through  five  gen- 
erations, "went  out  and  blazed  away."  So  the  British  were  re- 
pulsed. 

Greater  occasion  was  there  for  womanly  courage  than  the 
discharging  of  a  cannon.  Full  as  was  the  house  of  valuables, 
Lieutenant  Lee  would  scarcely  have  passed  from  sight  down 
Crooked  Lane  before  the  Tories  would  be  raiding  his  house. 
At  such  times,  clever  Agnes  Dickinson  Lee  would  swing  the 
great  kettle  onto  the  crane  of  the  kitchen  fireplace,  fill  it  with 
lace,  thread,  buttons  and  silk,  clap  on  the  cover  and  the  raiding 
Tories  would  never  dream  that  it  held  anything  but  soup. 

Lieutenant  Lee  was  out  of  town,  perhaps  in  Hartford,  at- 
tending General  Court.  He  had  left  his  home  in  care  of  his 
brother,  Levi  Lee,  with  a  neighbor,  Jared  Bishop,  to  come  in 
nights  in  case  of  a  Tory  raid.  One  evening,  while  Levi  was 
absent  for  a  brief  while,  there  came  a  knock  at  the  front  door. 
Agnes  Dickinson  Lee,  listening  inside,  heard  voices  whispering 
on  the  doorstep  and  knew  that  the  Tories  had  come. 

"Who's  there?"  she  asked.  , 

"A  friend."  was  the  reply. 

"Yes,  friends  to  King  George  and  the  traitors,"  replied  the 
spirited  woman  and  she  would  not  admit  them. 

The  Tories  proceeded  to  batter  down  the  door.  Agnes 
Dickinson  Lee  pushed  into  the  bedroom  her  little  daughters, 
Rececca,  Lucy  and  Ruth,  whose  ages  then  were  13,  9  and  6 
years,  and  locked  the  door.  As  the  Tories  forced  their  way 
into  the  house  she  held  high  her  lighted  candle  that  she  might 
recognize  her  unwelcome  visitors.  Three  times  the  Tories  blew 
out  the  candle  and  three  times  she  relighted  it  from  the  coals 
on  the  hearth.  The  Tories  advanced  toward  the  bedroom  door, 
but  the  brave  woman  placed  herself  before  it,  exclaiming  that 
her  children  were  in  there  and  that  none  should  enter  save  over 
her  dead  body.  Awed  by  her  indomitable  spirit,  the  men  paused. 
At  this  moment  Levi  Lee  returned. 

123 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

"Shoot,  Levi,"  she  exclaimed,  handing  him  a  gun.  "You 
will  not  harm  us." 

Levi  fired  and  in  the  darkness  he  might  have  been  a  dozen 
men.  The  Tories  fled,  leaving  behind  a  bullet  in  the  door  casing. 
Across  North  Street  they  went,  Levi  sending  bullets  after  them 
as  fast  as  Agnes  could  load.  Most  likely  they  thought  the  entire 
Coast  Guard  was  defending  the  house.  Next  morning  the  snow 
where  they  had  passed  was  red  with  blood  and  a  doctor  was 
called  to  North  Guilford  to  attend  a  man  with  a  bullet  in  his 
elbow. 

Nor  was  the  house  free  from  attack  when  Lieutenant  Lee 
was  at  home.  He  answered  a  rap  at  his  back  door  one  evening 
only  to  be  struck  at  with  a  cutlass.  So  quickly  did  he  close 
the  door  that  the  weapon  struck  the  door  panel,  leaving  a  gash 
which  remained  to  be  seen  there  by  his  great  grandchildren. 

Agnes  Dickinson  Lee  had  courage  in  face  of  graver  danger 
than  a  Tory  invasion.  It  has  been  said  that  ammunition  was 
kept  in  the  house  in  quantities.  One  summer  day,  when  the 
heat  had  caused  the  attic  windows  to  be  left  open,  a  powder 
keg,  nearly  full  and  uncovered,  stood  just  inside  the  west  win- 
dow. The  barn  caught  fire,  presumably  from  lightning,  and 
showers  of  sparks  were  being  carried  toward  the  open  window 
inside  of  which  the  open  powder  keg  stood.  There  was  no  one 
there  but  Agnes  Lee  to  save  the  house.  Without  a  moment's 
hesitation  she  rushed  up  to  the  attic,  past  the  powder  and  closed 
the  window,  shutting  out  the  dangerous  sparks.  She  afterward 
remarked  that  she  never  expected  to  come  down  those  stairs 
alive. 

The  Tories  carried  on  illicit  traffic  with  the  British  ships, 
which  annoyed  patriotic  Guilford.  On  December  25,  1781, 
the  town  voted  to  detect,  suppress  and  stop  the  traffic.  The 
special  charge  of  this  movement  fell  upon  Lieutenant  Lee.  It 
was  the  practice  of  the  Tories  to  load  boats  with  provisions, 
slip  down  East  or  West  River  after  nightfall  and  secretly  supply 
the  British  ships  with  food,  taking  in  return  contraband  goods 
which  they  carried  ashore  and  concealed. 

124 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

One  night  Lieutenant  Lee  was  informed  that  a  whale  boat 
was  returning  up  West  River  from  one  of  these  secret  trips. 
Gathering  a  few  men  Lieutenant  Lee  appeared  on  the  bank  of 
the  river  and  ordered  the  boat  to  come  ashore. 

A  refusal  came  back  in  the  voice  of  a  neighbor  of  Lee. 
"With  an  oath,  Lieutenant  Lee  repeated  the  command.  Now 
swearing  was  forbidden  by  the  General  Assembly,  of  which 
body  Lieutenant  Lee  was  a  member. 

"I  shall  report  you  for  swearing,  Lieutenant  Lee,"  observed 
the  man  in  the  whale  boat  in  his  smooth,  gracious  way  but 
making  no  move  to  turn  shoreward. 

"Come  ashore!"  thundered  Lieutenant  Lee  with  a  second 
oath.    "Come  ashore,  or  I'll  put  a  bullet  through  you." 

The  boat's  prow  grazed  the  river  bank  without  more  ado. 
The  cargo  was  confiscated  and  stored  in  the  Lee  house  and  the 
boat  was  placed  outside  in  the  yard,  a  chain  from  it  running 
through  the  cellar  window  and  being  fastened  in  the  cellar. 

Some  years  later,  when  the  oldest  daughter,  Rebecca,  was 
married  to  Timothy  Seward,  her  wedding  gown  was  made  of 
silk,  a  piece  taken  from  among  the  confiscated  goods.  Friends 
and  neighbors  m^ade  merry  at  the  wedding.  When  the  bride 
and  bridegroom  were  ready  to  start  for  their  new  home,  the 
saddled  horse  was  brought  to  the  door.  Timothy  Seward  sprang 
into  the  saddle  and  his  bride  was  about  to  mount  to  the  pillion 
behind  him  when  she  discovered  that  her  wedding  gown  was  in 
tatters.  It  had  been  ruined  by  ruthless  scissors,  snipping  here 
and  there,  as  opportunity  came,  in  the  hand  of  some  Tory 
guest. 

The  wedding  party  proceeded  on  horseback  to  the  Seward 
home  and  at  East  Creek  found  ropes  stretched  across  the  road 
to  trip  the  horses — another  bit  of  Tory  pleasantry. 

Near  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  "War,  Lieutenant  Lee 
received  his  commission  as  captain,  signed  by  Governor  Jona- 
than Trumbull.  This  commission  was  carefully  preserved  by 
his  great  grandson.  Captain  Charles  Griswold  of  Guilford.  An- 
other heirloom   was  Captain   Lee's  porcelain  snuff  box  which 

125 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

descended  to  his  great  granddaughter,  Miss  Annette  Fowler, 
of  Guilford,  and  by  her  was  given  to  her  niece.  Miss  Anna  Lee 
Fowler  of  Chicago,  a  great,  great  granddaughter  of  Captain  Lee. 

When  the  Marquis  de  Lafayette  visited  Guilford  and  tasted 
his  first  dish  of  succotash.  Captain  Lee  was  associated  with 
General  Ward  in  entertaining  the  distinguished  visitor.  Captain 
Lee  represented  his  town  in  the  General  Assembly  many  times, 
his  last  term  of  office  being  in  1800.  He  is  described  as  a  re- 
markable man,  and  a  typical  Puritan,  much  given  to  discussing 
Biblical  doctrine.  He  died  May  31,  1819,  at  the  age  of  seventy- 
seven  years. 

The  three  daughters  of  Captain  Lee  and  his  wife  married 
and  settled  not  far  from  their  parents.  Rebecca,  the  oldest, 
married  Timothy  Seward  and  went  to  live  at  East  Creek  in  a 
house  now  gone,  beyond  the  Carter  homestead.  Lucy  married 
Joel  Griswold,  Sr.,  and  Ruth  married  Abner  Benton.  They 
lived  in  houses  standing  side  by  side,  built  on  the  Lee  home  lot. 
Descendants  of  Samuel  Lee  long  owned  the  Joel  Griswold  house 
and  the  Henry  B.  Griswold  house,  the  latter  built  for  Captain 
Samuel  Lee  himself. 

The  three  sisters  lived  to  advanced  ages,  leaving  many  de- 
scendants. Ruth  Benton  died  March  9,  1854,  aged  81.  The 
same  month,  March  24,  1854,  Lucy  Griswold  died  at  the  age 
of  84.  Five  years  later,  December  6,  1859,  Rebecca  Seward 
died  at  the  age  of  93. 

Agnes  Dickinson  Lee,  herself,  survived  her  husband  for 
about  ten  years,  during  which  she  made  her  home  with  her 
daughter,  Lucy  Griswold.  She  died  about  1830.  Her  great 
grandson,  the  late  Henry  B.  Griswold,  remembered  her  well. 
He  described  her  as  a  little  woman,  a  white  kerchief  about  her 
throat,  knitting  as  she  sat  erect  in  her  straight-back  chair — a 
woman  of  dignity  and  charm  and  a  great  grandmother  who 
told  delightful  stories. 


126 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Fourth  Church  Parsonage 

V-^HE  pastorate  of  the  Rev.  Daniel  Brewer  with  the  Fourth 
Congregational  Church,  which  stood  approximately  on  the  site 
of  Nelson  H.  Griswold's  store,  is  outlined  in  the  story  of 
"Thomas  Jordan's  Home  Lot".  This  story  is  about  the  parson- 
age built  for  this  pastor  by  the  Fourth  Society. 

John  Norton,  the  fourth  of  that  name,  in  1772,  sold  to 
the  Fourth  Society  53  rods  of  land  oflF  the  north  side  of  his 
home  lot  in  Petticoat  Lane  which  his  great  grandfather  had 
purchased  from  Robert  Kitchell  in  1666.  The  same  day  he 
sold  to  the  Rev.  Daniel  Brewer,  himself,  a  lot  in  the  rear  of 
the  one  purchased  by  the  Fourth  Society. 

The  Fourth  Church  committee  set  about  building  a  par- 
sonage on  the  newly-acquired  home  lot.  The  dwelling  yet 
stands,  being  now  the  home  of  Samuel  Spencer  in  Fair  Street. 

The  Rev.  Daniel  Brewer  did  not  long  occupy  the  parson- 
age of  1772,  which  the  church  had  voted  in  1771  to  build  "of 
any  model."  He  had  become  a  Sandemanian  in  belief  and  in 
1775  he  was  dismissed.  The  society  instructed  the  committee 
to  "settle  with  Mr.  Brewer  the  best  way  they  can."  The  next 
year,  1776,  it  was  voted  to  rent  the  house  originally  built  for 
Mr.  Brewer.  In  1792  the  Fourth  Society  sold  the  parsonage, 
built  twenty  years  before,  with  one-half  acre  of  land,  to  Joel 
Fowler  for  100  pounds. 

In  the  same  year,  1776,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Brewer  bought 
for  himself  the  homestead  of  Nathaniel  Bishop,  2nd,  at  the 
north  side  of  the  Town  Square  and  next  west  of  the  sanctuary 
from  the  pulpit  of  which  he  had  lately  been  dismissed. 

Another  parcel  of  the  Norton  home  lot  was  sold  in  1799 
by  Elijah  Norton,  his  brother-in-law  and  sister,  John  and  Eliza- 

127 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

beth  Hodgkin,  to  Ruth  and  Nathan  Chittenden,  their  aunt  and 
uncle.  This  was  1  acre,  99  rods,  next  south  of  Joel  Fowler,  who 
now  owned  the  former  parsonage.  The  Chittendens,  in  1807, 
sold  the  land  to  Agar  Wildman,  no  house  thereon.  A  deed  of 
1808,  conveying  a  piece  of  land  from  Agar  Wildman  to  Joel 
Fowler,  reveals  Agar  Wildman's  homestead.  There  is  reason  to 
conclude  that  Agar  Wildman  built  the  house  which  was  later 
the  home  of  the  late  Christopher  Spencer.  The  house  was 
drawn  across  the  street  in  recent  years  to  make  room  for  the 
addition  to  the  plant  of  I.  S.  Spencer's  Sons,  Inc. 

The  Fourth  Church  parsonage  was  bought  by  Ebenezer 
Bartlett,  who  moved  up  from  Sachem's  Head.  He  died  in  1870, 
his  wife  in  1876.  A  few  years  later  George  B.  Spencer,  father 
of  Samuel  Spencer,  bought  the  house  and  made  his  home  there, 
as  his  son  does  now. 


128 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Caldwell  House 

v^  HE  Caldwell  house,  corner  Boston  Street  and  Lovers'  Lane, 
now  owned  by  H.  Rossiter  Snyder,  was  the  home  of  Charles 
Caldwell,  grandfather  of  Miss  Clarissa  Caldwell.  He  bought 
the  home  lot  of  Benjamin  Everest  March  3,  1726,  six  acres  with 
messauge  or  tenement,  indicating  an  earlier  house  on  the  lot. 
Extensive  alterations  are  said  to  have  been  made  to  the  present 
house  in  1815  when  two  chimneys  replaced  the  old  stone  stack 
in  the  center  and  made  possible  the  long  central  hallway. 

Miss  Clarissa  Caldwell,  the  last  of  the  name  to  occupy  the 
ancestral  home,  was  born  a  subject  of  King  George,  her  natal 
day  having  been  January  18,  1776.  She  died  April  8,  1876,  at 
the  extreme  age  of  99  years,  9  months  and  9  days.  Her  am- 
bition to  attain  a  century  was  not  realized. 

Miss  Caldwell  was  a  remarkable  woman,  both  in  mental 
and  manual  capability.  A  gentlewoman  in  the  best  sense  of 
the  word,  she  was  also  a  business  woman.  A  millinery  estab- 
lishment was  her  specialty  and  more  than  one  young  woman, 
who  came  from  afar  to  learn  the  trade  of  a  milliner  with  Miss 
Caldwell,  remained  in  Guilford  for  life,  marrying  and  settling 
down  here. 

A  devout  member  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  Miss  Cald- 
well was  a  close  friend  of  the  mother  of  the  late  Right  Rev. 
John  Williams,  Bishop  of  Connecticut.  Whenever  Bishop  Wil- 
liams visited  the  parish  he  failed  not  to  call  upon  his  mother's 
friend.  The  wit  and  repartee  of  the  conversation  between  the 
hostess  and  her  distinguished  guest  sparkle  yet,  undimmed  by 
time. 

A  brother.  Captain  John  Caldwell,  who  died  in  1843,  was 
one  of  the  numerous  seafaring  men  of  that  period  before  the 
railroad  had  ended  the  maritime  industries  of  Guilford. 

129 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

The  house  was  partially  ruined  by  fire  in  June,  1919,  when 
later  owners,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wilbur  B.  Bradley,  lost  their  lives. 
The  place  was  purchased  from  John  E.  Shelley  of  Chicago, 
brother  of  the  late  Mrs.  Jennie  Shelley  Bradley,  by  Mr.  Snyder 
in  October,  1923.  He  is  a  son  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Snyder  of 
Boston,  who  was  a  close  friend  of  the  late  Deacon  John  Rossiter 
of  Boston  Street,  and  gave  to  his  son  the  name  of  his  friend. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Snyder,  Deacon  John  Rossiter  and  the  Rev.  Mar- 
tin Lovering  were  members  of  the  class  of  1881,  Yale  Univer- 
sity, and  were  so  closely  allied  as  friends  that  they  were  known 
as  "The  Triumvirate."  Mr.  Snyder  is  a  descendant  of  the  early 
settler,  Stephen  Bradley. 


130 


Captain  Samuel  Lee's  House  In  Crooked  Lane 


Caldwell  House,  Corner  Lovers'  Lane 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Great  Guns  Of  Guilford 


N, 


EAR  the  Henry  Whitfield  House,  and  Hsted  as  one  of  the 
exhibits  of  the  Henry  Whitfield  State  Historical  Museum,  stands 
an  ancient  cannon.  Its  foundation  is  an  ancient  gravestone, 
one  of  those  removed  from  Guilford  Green  in  the  first  half 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  inscription  on  which  was  hidden 
beneath  a  coat  of  stucco. 

This  gun  was  a  ship's  cannon  of  the  War  of  1812.  It  was 
found  on  a  New  York  dock  and  brought  to  Guilford  by  a 
coasting  vessel  running  between  Guilford  and  New  York  in 
the  1830's.  Guilford  Democrats  appropriated  the  gun  and 
with  it  celebrated  Democratic  victories  when  occasion  arose. 

In  its  old  age  the  gun  was  cared  for  by  Milo  Cook  at  his 
home  in  Union  Street.  He  sheltered  it,  kept  it  painted  and 
gave  it  an  honored  place  in  the  parade  on  Fair  Day.  When  Mr. 
Cook  sold  his  homestead  and  left  Guilford,  he  transferred  the 
guardianship  of  the  ancient  piece  of  artillery  to  the  Henry 
Whitfield  House. 

There  should  be  a  companion  for  this  ancient  gun  to  stand 
beside  it  on  the  historic  grounds  of  the  Henry  Whitfield  House. 
Once,  but  not  now,  Guilford  owned  another  field  piece.  This 
gun  had  its  place  in  Guilford's  defense  of  its  coast  during  Revo- 
lutionary years  and  even  before  then  had  seen  service  in  distant 
lands. 

It  is  tradition  that  this  earlier  gun  was  landed  in  Guilford 
by  a  British  ship  in  175  5,  along  with  a  handful  of  Acadian 
peasants  who  had  been  torn  from  their  homes  in  Grand  Pre, 
Nova  Scotia,  and  landed  by  the  victorious  British  in  their  col- 
onial town  of  Guilford. 

It  is  history  (Trumbull's)  that  in  June,  175  5,  Colonel 
Monckton's  expedition    against    Nova    Scotia    had    taken    the 

131 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

French  fort,  Bausejoir,  and  with  it  twenty-six  pieces  of  mounted 
cannon.  The  Acadians,  who  had  been  assisting  the  French,  were 
disarmed  to  the  number  of  15,000  men  and  pretty  generally 
removed  from  the  country.  Great  numbers  of  them  were 
brought  to  New  England.  It  was  the  tragedy  of  this  thing 
that  caused  Longfellow  to  write  "Evangeline". 

A  little  group  of  these  Acadians  was  set  ashore  in  Guilford 
and  tradition  has  it  that  the  great  gun  was  landed  here  at  the 
same  time.  For  twenty  years  the  curtain  of  silence  hides  this 
field  piece.  The  next  glimpse  of  it  is  obtained  during  the  Revo- 
lutionary years.  The  hand,  writing  on  the  wall,  had  moved  on. 
War,  formerly  between  France  and  England,  now  was  between 
England  and  her  colonies,  with  France  aiding  the  latter.  So 
the  gun  which  the  British  had  taken  from  the  French  and  them- 
selves brought  to  Guilford  was  trained  against  them  by  that 
same  Guilford. 

In  June,  1777,  is  is  recorded  that  notice  of  any  landing 
of  the  British  should  be  given  by  the  firing  of  two  great  guns 
in  the  old  town,  answered  by  one  at  East  Guilford  (Madison) 
and  the  ringing  of  the  bell.  In  that  same  month  it  is  stated 
that  the  State  ordered  the  furnace  at  Salisbury  to  deliver  to  the 
selectmen  of  Guilford  "100  round  4-pound  shot  with  grape- 
shot  in  proportion"  and  the  owners  of  the  powder  mill  at  New 
Haven  to  deliver  150  pounds  of  cannon  powder.  A  four-pound 
shot,  unearthed  by  the  late  John  Starr  in  his  dooryard  (the 
Captain  Lee  House,  State  Street),  is  doubtless  one  of  the  above 
shipment.     It  is  now  on  exhibition  in  the  Whitfield  Museum. 

The  alarm  gun  stood  under  a  willow  tree  beside  the  brook 
west  of  the  house  of  Captain  Samuel  Lee.  The  house,  later  the 
home  of  John  Starr,  is  owned  now  by  Edgar  Wilcox.  When  the 
British  did  land  on  the  coast  and  it  was  time  to  fire  the  gun  to 
arouse  the  back  districts,  not  a  man  remained  in  Crooked  Lane. 
They  had  forgotten  to  fire  the  alarm  in  their  haste  to  meet  the 
enemy.     It  was  then  that  intrepid  Agnes  Lee  fired  the  gun. 

The  next  time  the  Revolutionary  gun  came  to  sight  it  was 
serving  as  a  fender  at  the  southeast  corner  of  Guilford  Green. 

132 


Yester  -Years   of  Guilford 

About  185  5  there  arose  a  political  party  calling  itself  the 
"Know  Nothing"  party,  with  which  many  of  the  old-line 
Whigs  united.  It  was,  in  a  way,  a  secret  organization  and  did 
not  long  survive.  However,  the  party  did  elect  a  Governor  of 
Connecticut,  William  T.  Minor,  185  5-7,  and  Guilford  young 
men  turned  out  one  night  to  celebrate  the  victory.  They  dug 
up  the  ancient  cannon,  conveyed  it  to  the  post  office,  a  small 
building  on  the  east  side  of  the  Green,  now  moved  back  of  the 
Town  Hall,  and  planted  it,  muzzle  down,  in  front  of  the  build- 
ing. 

Postmaster  Franklin  C.  Phelps  was  the  most  prominent 
Democrat  in  the  town  and  an  ardent  political  fighter,  but  he 
took  the  joke  in  a  sportsman-like  spirit  and  next  day  paid  a 
man  a  dollar  to  dig  up  the  gun  and  plant  it  muzzle-up  so  that 
it  might  serve  as  a  horse  post  in  front  of  the  post  office. 

This  did  not  suit  so  well  the  young  men  of  the  "Know 
Nothing"  party.  In  the  small  hours  of  the  next  night  they 
turned  out  again,  took  up  the  old  gun  and  mounted  it  on  cart 
wheels.  They  reamed  out  the  mud  and  rust  which  filled  the 
gun  and  arranged  to  fire  a  "Know  Nothing"  salute  on  the 
Green. 

"Charley"  Miller  kept  a  general  store  at  West  Side,  the 
store  which  was  last  conducted  by  Daniel  Sheehan  and  stood 
at  the  corner  of  York  and  River  Streets.  The  young  men  sent 
there  for  every  bit  of  powder  in  stock,  which  proved  enough 
to  fire  the  gun  a  few  times. 

Democratic  headquarters  at  that  time  were  in  the  store  of 
Horatio  Johnson,  a  building  in  Water  Street  later  used  by  A.  G. 
Sommer  as  a  barber  shop.  A  party  of  Democrats,  realizing 
that  the  "Know  Nothings"  were  celebrating  up  on  the  Green, 
sallied  forth  to  stop  the  celebration.  A  war-like  member  of 
the  "Know-Nothing"  group  drew  a  clasp  knife  from  his  pocket 
and  set  chase  to  a  prominent  Democrat,  pursuing  him  so  fierce- 
ly that  it  was  afterwards  said  checkers  could  have  been  played 
on  the  Democratic  coat-tails.  The  old  gun  was  spiked  and  that 
closed  the  incident  of  that  night. 

133 


Yester -Years  of  Guilford 

Next  day  the  "Know-Nothings"  took  the  gun  up  to  the 
blacksmith  shop  of  Morris  Leete,  grandfather  of  Henry  "W. 
Leete,  in  York  Street.  They  trumped  the  spiking  trick  by 
reaming  out  another  vent  hole.  They  sent  to  New  Haven  for 
a  full  supply  of  powder,  but  here  their  plans  were  temporarily 
thwarted  for  the  New  London  Railroad  refused  to  transport 
the  ammunition.  Then  came  to  the  rescue  Captain  "Dick" 
Fowler,  the  veteran  stage  coach  driver,  who  brought  the  powder, 
100  rounds,  from  New  Haven  for  "the  boys". 

That  night  the  "Know-Nothing"  celebration  was  on.  Led 
by  a  drum  corps,  with  flags  waving  and  drums  beating,  staid 
town  fathers  marched  in  procession  around  the  Green  while 
the  young  men  dragged  the  ancient  cannon,  afterward  firing  it 
to  their  hearts'  content. 

After  that  night  there  was  always  the  need  of  preventing 
the  precious  field-piece  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  "the 
enemy".  Joel  Griswold,  then  selectman,  gave  permission  to 
hide  the  cannon  in  the  dim  recesses  of  his  house  cellar  in  State 
Street.  The  women  of  the  household  were  not  taken  into  con- 
fidence, and  great  was  the  consternation  of  a  daughter  when 
she  stumbled  over  the  thing  while  down  cellar  to  get  vegetables 
for  dinner. 

Finally  the  hiding  place  of  the  gun  was  located  by  the 
Democrats  and  it  was  decided  that  the  gun  must  be  moved. 
So  one  dark  night  the  gun  was  carried  up  the  street  to  the 
basement  of  the  "Rock  House".  Again  the  gun  was  traced  and 
again  it  was  moved.  This  happened  repeatedly.  Reuben  Fow- 
ler's barn  and  Jonathan  Bishop's  hay  mow  were  hiding  places, 
among  others,  before  the  tide  of  enthusiasm  ebbed. 

The  last  recorded  public  appearance  of  the  old  gun  was  in 
1858,  a  century  after  its  capture  from  the  French  in  Nova 
Scotia.  Cyrus  Field  had  laid  the  Atlantic  Cable.  The  event 
must  be  celebrated  for  Cyrus  Field  was  descended  from  an 
early  East  Guilford  or  Madison  family.  A  public  demonstra- 
tion followed  the  sending  of  the  first  message  of  August  5, 
1858.     It  was  held  on  Guilford  Green.     Church  bells  rang 

134 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

merrily  during  the  day.  At  sunset  fifty  rounds  of  powder  were 
fired  and  the  church  bells  pealed  again.  Hundreds  of  people 
assembled  and  bonfires  burned  while  the  Guilford  Brass  Band 
lent  its  music  to  the  occasion.  Addresses  were  made  by  Hon. 
Ralph  D.  Smith,  the  Rev.  R.  Manning  Chipman,  Hon.  Judge 
Beebe  of  New  York  and  Joseph  R.  Hawley  of  Hartford.  Fire- 
works and  the  ascension  of  a  balloon  closed  the  program. 

But  the  occasion  was  marred  by  an  untoward  event.  The 
old  gun  had  been  placed  on  the  northern  part  of  the  Green  and 
a  crowd  assembled  there.  George  Durgin  and  George  Stevens 
were  acting  as  gunners.  Once  and  again  the  gun  was  fired. 
The  muzzle  was  pointing  southward  in  the  direction  of  the 
crowd.  Standing  in  front  of  it  George  Stevens  was  ramming 
home  a  charge.  There  came  a  premature  explosion.  The  gun- 
ner was  cruelly  burned  about  the  chest  and  arms.  The  ramrod 
was  shot  across  the  space  toward  the  spectators  and  killed  Selden 
Munger's  dog,  with  which  his  little  daughter  had  been  playing 
a  moment  before.  It  was  a  narrow  escape  for  many  in  the 
crowd.  The  gunner,  George  Stevens,  was  disabled  for  some 
time  and  a  purse  was  made  up  for  him. 

That  incident  closed  the  active  career  of  the  old  cannon. 
It  was  pronounced  unsafe  and  was  consigned  to  oblivion  in 
the  shed  of  the  town  mill.  For  several  years  it  lay  there,  then 
somehow  drifted  down  to  Warren  Lowe's  livery  stable  in  Water 
Street,  lying  there  neglected  and  unrecognized. 

There  is  no  record  of  the  final  disposition  of  the  old  gun. 
It  is  whispered  that  the  selectmen,  in  a  thrifty  moment,  some- 
time in  the  1870's,  sold  the  historic  gun,  the  ancient  war  cannon, 
to  the  Malleable  Iron  Works  in  Branford  as  scrap  iron.  Thus 
ends  the  story  of  a  gun  which  had  its  part  in  Guilford  history 
for  120  years. 


135 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


BentoTi'Beecher  House 


U 


NTIL  1829  the  Benton-Beecher  house  was  standing  at  the 
head  of  Guilford  Green.  Then  it  was  moved  to  the  foot  of 
Whitfield  Street,  about  a  mile  distant,  and  the  present  First 
Congregational  Church  was  erected  upon  the  site. 

The  house  was  built  about  1778  by  Caleb  Benton,  son  of 
Ebenezer  and  Abigail  Benton  who  had  lived  in  an  earlier  house 
on  the  same  site.  They  willed  the  homestead  to  a  son,  Caleb, 
reserving  to  a  daughter,  Rebecca,  the  right  to  a  home  there. 
When  the  new  house  was  built  Caleb,  following  his  father's 
example,  deeded  to  his  sister,  Rebecca,  January  28,  1779,  the 
lower  west  room  in  the  upright  part  of  the  house,  which  would 
be  the  east  front  room  as  the  house  now  stands.  Dying  in  1794, 
twelve  years  later  than  her  brother,  Rebecca  Benton  willed  her 
property  to  her  brother's  son,  Caleb  Benton,  Jr. 

Now  the  parents,  Ebenezer  and  Abigail  Benton,  in  1738, 
had  given  to  another  son,  Ebenezer  Benton,  Jr.,  land  in  North 
Guilford,  upon  which  he  had  built  a  home.  A  son,  Lot  Benton, 
had  succeeded  to  the  title  and  lived  in  North  Guilford  until 
1794.  He  then  purchased  his  grandfather's  homestead  at  the 
north  end  of  Guilford  Green  from  his  cousin,  Caleb  Benton, 
Jr.,  and  moved  down  town. 

Lot  Benton  and  his  wife,  who  was  Catherine  Lyman  of 
Middlefield,  had  no  children  of  their  own  but  had  adopted  an 
infant  nephew  of  Mrs.  Benton,  Lyman  Beecher.  The  child 
was  a  son  of  David  Beecher  of  New  Haven  and  his  wife,  who 
was  Esther  Lyman  of  Middlefield  and  who  died  of  consumption 
shortly  after  the  birth  of  her  son,  Lyman. 

It  was  not  strange  that  Lyman  Beecher  was  a  frail  child. 
It  is  stated  by  good  authority  that  only  the  invigorating  air  of 

136 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

the  hill  country  of  North  Guilford  carried  him  through  child- 
hood. But  he  survived  to  a  ripe  old  age.  Indeed  his  body  out- 
lasted a  splendid  mind. 

When  Lot  Benton  changed  his  residence  to  the  center  of 
the  town  in  1794,  his  foster  son  was  a  student  in  Yale  Col- 
lege, from  which  he  was  graduated  in  1797.  Uncle  Lot  had 
tried  his  best  to  train  Lyman  Beecher  in  farming  but  had  given 
up  the  task  in  despair  and  had  sent  him  to  college  as  a  last 
resort.  This  was  the  underlying  reason  for  his  retiring  from 
the  North  Guilford  farm. 

It  was,  then,  to  this  house  in  Guilford  that  Lyman  Beecher 
came  from  Yale  to  spend  his  vacations.  He  brought  with  him 
a  chum,  Ben  Baldwin,  who  was  calling  on  Betsey  Chittenden 
at  the  home  of  her  grandfather,  General  Andrew  Ward  in  Nut 
Plains,  and  who  took  young  Beecher  with  him.  It  was  thus 
that  Lyman  Beecher  met  Roxana  Foote. 

Roxana  Foote  was  the  second  of  ten  children  of  Eli  Foote 
and  his  wife,  Roxana  Ward,  who  had  been  orphaned  by  the 
sudden  death  of  Eli  Foote  while  in  the  South  on  a  business  trip. 
The  greathearted  grandfather,  General  Andrew  Ward,  had 
taken  to  his  Nut  Plains  home  his  widowed  daughter  and  her 
ten  children  and  there  brought  them  up  as  his  own. 

It  was  a  case  of  love  at  first  sight  with  Lyman  Beecher  and 
Roxana  Foote.  In  his  own  language  he  saw  that  she  was  "of 
uncommon  ability".  But  alas!  Between  the  lovers  there  was 
a  great  gulf  fixed.  She  was  an  Episcopalian,  he  a  Congrega- 
tionalist. 

Long  and  earnestly  did  Roxana  Foote  ponder  upon  the 
situation.  Then  love  and  common  sense  triumphed  and  she 
took  the  courageous  step,  becoming  the  bride  of  the  young 
Congregational  minister. 

The  wedding  took  place  on  Saturday,  September  18,  1799, 
at  the  Ward  homestead  in  Nut  Plains.  The  Rev.  Lyman 
Beecher's  first  pastorate  was  at  East  Hampton,  Long  Island. 
Thither  went  the  young  preacher  and  his  bride,  Uncle  Lot 
Benton  hiring  a  sloop  to  take  them  across  Long  Island  Sound. 

137 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

The  years  passed  on,  Uncle  Lot  died,  as  had  his  good  wife. 
Aunt  Benton,  leaving  by  his  will  his  homestead  in  Guilford 
and  land  worth  $2,000  to  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher. 

Meantime  the  Beechers  had  lived  for  ten  years  at  East 
Hampton,  conducting  a  select  school  for  young  ladies  by  which 
was  eked  out  the  slender  salary  of  the  minister.  Then  the  heavy 
salt  air  began  to  tell  upon  the  minister's  none-too-rugged  frame 
and  the  family  removed  to  the  hills  of  Litchfield,  Conn. 

There,  in  1816,  Roxana  Foote  Beecher  died,  leaving  eight 
children,  another  having  died.  It  was  her  dying  prayer  that 
her  five  sons  all  might  become  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  and  that 
wish  was  fulfilled.  Indeed  all  of  the  eight  brothers  and  sisters 
were  of  unusual  mentality,  although  the  fame  of  Harriet 
Beecher  Stowe  and  Henry  Ward  Beecher  exceeded  that  of  the 
others. 

Dr.  Beecher  married  a  second  wife  in  1817,  Miss  Harriet 
Porter  of  Portland,  Maine,  and  they  were  the  parents  of  Isabella 
Beecher  Hooker.  Being  again  bereaved  in  183  5,  Dr.  Beecher 
married  in  1836  a  third  wife,  Widow  Lydia  Jackson  of  Boston. 
In  1826  he  became  pastor  of  the  Hanover  Church  in  Boston; 
in  1832,  president  of  the  Lane  Theological  Seminary  near  Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio,  where  he  remained  for  nineteen  years,  in  the 
early  part  of  the  period  preaching  also  in  the  Second  Presby- 
terian Church  in  Cincinnati.  His  last  years  were  spent  in  his 
own  house  on  Brooklyn  Heights,  N.  Y.,  where  he  died  January 
10,  1863,  in  the  88th  year  of  his  age.  He  was  buried  in  Grove 
Street  Cemetery  in  New  Haven,  his  native  city. 

During  the  years  in  East  Hampton  and  in  Litchfield,  Dr. 
Beecher  doubtless  came  home  to  Guilford  as  often  as  the  long, 
tedious  journey  could  be  managed.  But  in  1828,  when  he  was 
living  in  Boston  and  negotiations  were  opened  with  him  to  sell 
the  Lot  Benton  house  in  Guilford  as  the  site  of  a  new  meeting 
house  to  replace  the  old  "Temple"  on  the  Green,  Dr.  Beecher 
was  not  averse  to  selling.  The  future  was  opening  out  before 
him  and  the  old  house  in  Guilford  could  never  be  his  home. 

138 


Tester  -Years  of  Guilford 

There  exists  a  little  home-made  note-book,  made  of  brown 
paper  bound  with  string,  which  is  kept  with  the  records  of  the 
First  Congregational  Church  and  which  contains  the  notes  of 
the  building  committee  of  that  time.  This  committee  was  ap- 
pointed February  18,  1828,  and  was  made  up  of  Nathaniel 
Griffing,  William  Todd,  Daniel  Loper,  George  Landon,  Amos 
Seward.  One  entry  in  the  book  reads,  "Nothing  heard  yet 
from  Dr.  Beecher". 

The  building  committee  was  authorized,  January  19,  1829, 
"to  go  on  and  make  the  contract  for  building  a  new  meeting 
house,  and  that  they  procure  the  Lot  Benton  place,  so-called, 
to  set  it  on,  provided  they  can  purchase  it  on  such  terms  as  they 
think  are  reasonable". 

The  committee  could  and  did.  The  corner  stone  of  the 
new  edifice  was  laid  June  5,  1829.  In  the  present  cellar  of  the 
church  the  well  yet  remains  that  was  dug  and  used  by  the 
early  Bentons.  The  records  are  silent  concerning  the  disposi- 
tion of  the  dwelling  house  that  Caleb  Benton  had  built  but 
tradition  takes  up  the  tale.  A  new  chapter  now  opens  in  the 
story  of  the  house. 

A  man  in  Guilford,  Rossiter  Parmelee,  bought  of  William 
Eliot,  on  May  18,  1829,  150  rods  of  land  lying  in  the  Great 
Plain,  near  Sluice  Creek.  He,  on  the  same  day,  mortgaged  the 
land,  which  held  no  building,  to  Mercy  Parmelee  for  $200.00. 

Did  the  building  committee  give  the  house  to  Rossiter 
Parmelee  if  he  would  take  it  away?  And  did  Rossiter  Parmelee 
finance  the  moving  project  with  the  proceeds  of  the  mortgage? 

At  any  rate  tradition  states  that  seventy  yoke  of  oxen  were 
required  to  move  the  mansion.  It  was  a  large  undertaking  for 
the  great  chimney  of  solid  stone  was  moved  also,  after  being 
cut  off  at  the  base  and  decapitated  in  the  attic,  facts  proved 
during  later  repairs  to  the  house.  There  were  no  overhead 
wires  and  no  wayside  trees  to  obstruct  progress,  and  no  railroad 
tracks  to  be  crossed,  in  those  early  days.  But  tradition  states 
that  the  moving  nearly  came  to  grief  opposite  the  Old  Stone 
House,  probably  in  the  mud  and  mire  of  the  early  highway  on 

139 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

a  day  in  late  May,  and  it  was  thought  for  a  time  that  the  house 
could  go  no  further.  However  it  was  finally  landed  on  the 
foundations  prepared  for  it. 

The  late  Miss  Annette  A.  Fowler  used  to  relate  a  family 
incident  in  connection  with  the  moving  of  this  house.  Her 
parents  were  living  in  it  temporarily,  while  their  own  house 
on  the  west  side  of  the  Green  was  being  built.  When  word 
came  that  the  house  was  to  be  moved  that  day,  her  mother  was 
engaged  in  the  arduous  task  of  dipping  candles.  She  could  not 
leave  the  task  and,  while  others  moved  out  the  household  fur- 
nishings and  the  dwelling  began  its  strange  journey,  she  con- 
tinued dipping  candles  until  the  procession  had  reached  the 
south  end  of  the  Green. 

In  its  new  location  beside  the  sea  the  old  house  entered 
upon  new  times.  Probably  Rossiter  Parmelee  kept  a  tavern 
there,  for  the  packets  and  coasting  vessels,  which  made  a  mari- 
time place  of  Guilford,  carried  passengers  as  well  as  merchan- 
dise. In  1840  Rossiter  Parmelee  was  licensed  to  sell  spirituous 
liquors. 

Rossiter  Parmelee  was  born  in  Guilford  in  1783,  a  son  of 
Nathaniel  Parmelee  and  his  wife,  Mercy  Chittenden.  He  mar- 
ried Clarissa,  daughter  of  Captain  Jasper  Griffing,  one  of  the 
sea  captains  of  that  period  who  adventured  to  the  West  Indies. 
In  1844,  he  sold  the  homestead  to  David  H.  Smith  of  Hartford. 

At  this  period  the  Guilford  coast  was  a  favorite  shore  re- 
sort with  Hartford  people  and  David  Smith  immediately  set 
about  enlarging  the  house  and  adapting  it  for  a  seashore  hotel. 

When  built  the  house  was  of  the  second  period  design, 
salt-box  shape,  with  a  two-story  front  and  a  roof  sloping  in 
the  rear  to  one-story  height.  David  Smith  had  the  rear  roof 
lifted  to  make  it  two  stories  high,  and  built  a  three-story  wing 
on  the  east  end,  with  a  two-story  portico  across  the  front.  The 
first  floor  of  the  new  part  contained  dining  room  and  sitting 
room.  The  second  floor  was  cut  up  into  tiny  bedrooms  with 
transoms  above  the  doors  opening  into  the  corridors.  The  third 
floor  contained  a  ballroom  with  windows  on  three  sides.     All 

140 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

about  this  great  room  ran  a  narrow  wooden  bench  against  the 
wall.  From  the  window  there  was  a  wonderful  view  of  Long 
Island  Sound  and,  as  the  balls  of  a  century  ago  began  at  six 
o'clock,  even  on  a  June  evening,  the  dancers  had  a  chance  to 
enjoy  some  glorious  sunset  views  while  they  danced. 

The  regime  of  Manager  Smith  was  short,  coming  to  a 
tragic  end  eleven  years  after  he  bought  the  house.  He  owned 
a  schooner,  "Emperor",  which  engaged  in  the  coasting  trade. 
Being  himself  no  navigator  he  employed  Lyman  Chapman  of 
Madison  as  captain.  The  crew  consisted  of  a  white  man  named 
Brown,  and  a  Negro  of  forgotten  name. 

On  March  9,  185  5,  against  the  protest  of  Captain  Lyman 
Chapman,  the  "Emperor"  started  on  a  trip  to  New  York  to 
carry  a  cargo  of  farm  produce.  David  Smith  and  the  crew 
accompanied  the  captain.  A  gale  of  wind  was  blowing  and  it 
was  a  bad  time  to  start.  The  craft  reached  the  Thimble  Islands 
but  could  not  make  further  headway  westward  so  the  captain 
headed  eastward  for  Plum  Gut  hoping  to  pass  through  in  safety 
and  find  shelter  under  the  Long  Island  shore.  Instead  the 
schooner  went  on  the  rocks  of  Rocky  Point,  near  Orient,  on  the 
north  shore  of  Long  Island.  All  on  board  were  lost  except  the 
colored  boy. 

As  a  sequel  to  this  adventure,  John  H.  Bartlett,  adminis- 
trator of  the  estate  of  David  H.  Smith,  on  November  27,  185  5, 
sold  the  homestead  to  William  Mallory  of  Norwalk.  He,  on 
April  30,  18  58,  sold  to  Elizabeth  Bullard,  a  member  of  the 
family  of  her  brother,  Joel  Bullard  of  Guilford. 

Reserving  life  use  to  himself,  Joel  Bullard  deeded  the  place 
to  his  daughter,  Mary,  wife  of  William  Church,  a  returned 
soldier,  on  June  7,  1873.  Mary  Church  later  married  Captain 
Jerry  Rackett  from  East  Marion,  Long  Island,  and  for  almost 
forty  years  it  was  the  Rackett  place. 

Captain  and  Mrs.  Jerry  Rackett  used  but  a  few  rooms  in 
the  great  house,  as  they  lived  simply.  Captain  Rackett  was  a 
genial  kindly  man,  who  was  beloved  by  all.  He  obtained  his 
living  by  oystering  in  the  river  near  the  house.     There  were  no 

141 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

children,  so  that  all  the  affection  of  Mrs.  Rackett's  nature  was 
centered  upon  her  husband  and  she  guarded  and  protected  him 
with  all  the  intensity  of  a  strong  temperament. 

Despite  all  her  care,  there  was  a  mis-step  and  a  fall  one  day, 
and  after  that  Captain  Jerry  was  an  invalid.  He  had  been  a 
lifelong  member  of  the  Masonic  Lodge  of  Greenport,  L.  I.,  and 
the  lodge  provided  for  him  until  he  died.  Mrs.  Rackett,  widow- 
ed, lived  alone  in  the  house  for  a  time,  then  took  in  tenants. 
Though  not  in  good  health,  she  was  yet  able  to  be  about  and, 
desiring  a  change  in  surroundings,  went  to  the  home  for  the 
aged  people  where  her  husband  had  been,  near  Hartford. 

On  July  3,  1913,  Mrs.  Rackett  telephoned  friends  in  Guil- 
ford that  she  wished  to  come  home  the  following  day,  July  4. 
But  on  the  morning  of  the  Fourth  came  a  message  stating  that 
Mrs.  Rackett  had  died  during  the  night.  She  was  brought  to 
Guilford  and  buried  beside  her  husband. 

The  homestead  now  passed  into  the  hands  of  one  and  an- 
other of  Guilford  residents  until  1917  when  it  was  purchased 
by  Andrew  A.  Benton  of  New  York.  He  was  not  a  descendant 
of  the  builder  of  the  house  but  did  belong  to  the  same  family 
and  bought  it  for  reasons  of  sentiment,  wishing  to  preserve  it 
and  keep  it  in  the  Benton  name. 

Then  came  the  World  War,  interrupting  all  normal  under- 
takings. To  it  was  sacrificed  the  life  of  the  new  owner.  Al- 
though he  had  passed  the  age  for  actual  enlistment,  Mr.  Benton 
was  an  expert  accountant  and  his  energies  were  devoted  to  the 
task  of  putting  on  the  liberty  loans.  His  overtaxed  brain  gave 
way  and  his  life  was  abruptly  closed. 

The  property  then  reverted  to  Andrew  A.  Benton's  father, 
Arthur  H.  Benton  of  Minneapolis,  formerly  of  Omaha.  At  his 
age  it  was  impracticable  to  carry  out  his  son's  plan  to  restore 
and  occupy  the  house.  Accordingly  he  sold  it  in  1921  to  Harry 
Durant  who  has  developed  the  old  mansion  into  a  charming 
and  attractive  home. 


142 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Philemon  Hall  House 

V-^HIS  house,  on  a  hillside  west  side  of  the  Long  Hill  Road, 
was  originally  the  home  of  a  branch  of  the  Hall  family,  a  name 
early  found  in  Guilford.  Mary  Hyland,  a  daughter  of  George 
Hyland,  whose  home  was  the  Hyland  House,  married  Deacon 
Thomas  Hall.  Their  son,  John  Hall,  on  May  30,  1780,  deeded 
this  place  to  his  son,  Philemon  Hall,  2%  acres  "where  Philemon 
now  dwelleth",  "for  and  toward  his  advancement  in  the  world". 
Philemon  Hall  had  married  Sarah  Page  in  1756,  about  which 
time  this  house  was  probably  built. 

Philemon  Hall  rejoiced  in  the  title  to  his  home  for  twenty 
years.  He  died  in  1800,  the  year  after  the  death  of  his  son, 
Thomas  Hall.  The  latter's  son,  Joel  Hall,  removed  to  Wash- 
ington, Penn.,  where  he  was  living  in  1818  when  he  sold  the 
place  to  John  Walker.  Four  years  later  it  passed  into  the  hands 
of  Hezekiah  L.  Partridge,  then  to  Dennison  Chittenden,  then 
to  Calvin  Cramp  ton  in  1842. 

Betsy  Crampton,  widow  of  Calvin  Crampton,  owned  the 
house  until  1877  so  it  was  long  known  as  the  Crampton  place. 

In  1877  Betsy  Crampton  sold  the  house  to  the  Stone  fam- 
ily. William  L.  Stone,  on  October  20,  1919,  sold  house  and 
land  to  the  Bishop  Brothers  of  West  Side. 

A  peculiarity  of  the  house  is  the  outward  slant  of  the 
front  wall,  an  examination  of  the  sills  and  frame  revealing 
that  it  was  built  thus.  A  traditional  explanation  is  that  the 
slant  was  intended  to  protect  the  house  from  the  drip  of  the 
eaves. 


143 


Tester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Four  Elms  House 

V^HE  LAND  on  the  south  side  of  Water  Street,  the  site  of 
I.  O.  O.  F.  Hall  owned  by  Menuncatuck  Lodge  and  the  site 
of  the  old  house  long  known  as  the  Four  Elms  House,  originally 
belonged  to  the  home  lot  of  the  Rev.  Joseph  Eliot,  on  the  corner 
lot  of  which  now  stands  the  Guilford  Theater. 

This  house  was  the  home  of  Wyllys  Eliot,  son  of  Abial 
Eliot  who  lived  in  the  house  formerly  on  the  theater  site. 
Wyllys  Eliot  married  in  1763  Abigail  Ward,  widow  of  Dr. 
Giles  Hull  who  had  died  in  1759  of  measles  while  with  the 
army  at  Ticonderoga  during  the  French  and  Indian  War.  The 
oldest  son  of  Wyllys  and  Abigail  Eliot  was  Samuel  Eliot,  born 
1764.  He  was  only  thirteen  years  old  when  his  father  died. 
Abigail  Eliot  afterward  married  a  third  husband,  Samuel  Par- 
melee.  This  homestead  was  quit-claimed  to  Samuel  Eliot  by 
his  brother  and  sisters. 

On  October  8,  1796,  Samuel  Eliot  sold  to  Peletiah  Leete 
this  house  and  100  rods  of  land,  bounded  on  the  north  by  the 
highway  leading  from  the  "Public  Square"  to  Jones's  Bridge, 
and  on  the  east  by  Nathaniel  Eliot's  land. 

Peletiah  Leete  migrated  to  "York  State",  selling  this  place 
on  January  8,  1817,  to  Stephen  Griswold.  The  buildings  there- 
on included  a  blacksmith  shop. 

Stephen  Griswold  was  a  son  of  Ebenezer  Griswold  of  Kil- 
lingworth  (Clinton),  a  great  grandson  of  Michael  Griswold  of 
Wethersfield.  He  married  in  1805  Nabby  Crampton  of  East 
Guilford.  At  his  death  in  1851  the  homestead  passed  to  his 
son,  Deacon  Leverett  Griswold,  1806-1890. 

Deacon  Leverett  Griswold  married  Lavinia  Stone,  one  of 
three  daughters  of  Augustus  Stone  and  Electa  Collins,  whose 

144 


Yester -Years  of  Guilford 

home  is  now  the  Travelers  Rest  at  West  Side.  She  was  a  sister 
of  Electa  Maria  Stone,  third  wife  of  Jonathan  Bishop  of  State 
Street,  and  of  Amanda  Elizabeth  Stone.  The  latter  outlived 
both  Deacon  Leverett  Griswold  and  his  wife,  with  whom  she 
had  made  her  home.  As  they  left  no  children  the  place  be- 
came hers. 

On  February  21,  1894,  George  W.  Hill,  acting  for  Amanda 
E.  Stone,  sold  the  house,  barn  and  shop  and  one  acre  of  land  to 
Menuncatuck  Lodge,  I.  O.  O.  F.,  reserving  the  use  of  the  west 
half  of  the  premises  to  Amanda  E.  Stone. 

After  her  death,  Menuncatuck  Lodge,  having  built 
L  O.  O.  F.  Hall  on  the  east  part  of  the  land,  sold  the  house  to 
Addie  A.  Chittenden  on  March  26,  1898.  Mrs.  Chittenden, 
who  had  been  conducting  the  hotel  in  the  old  house  on  the  site 
of  J.  Harrison  Monroe's  Pharmacy,  named  the  old  Eliot  house 
the  Four  Elms  House  and  kept  a  boarding  house  there. 


145 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


The  Island  House 


O 


N  an  island,  formed  by  West  River  and  its  arm  at  West 
Side,  stands  a  house  now  the  home  of  Miss  Lottie  Norton.  Built 
in  1790,  it  was  originally  a  Fowler  house,  but  the  name  of 
Fowler  long  since  disappeared  from  this  section. 

A  deed  of  January  19,  1790,  from  Andrew  Fowler,  Sr., 
conveyed  to  a  son,  Jonathan  Fowler,  one-half  acre  of  land  at 
the  Mill  Pasture  with  a  new  house,  partly  finished,  the  whole 
valued  at  J 00  pounds,  "in  consideration  of  five  years  service". 
It  was  the  house  of  this  story. 

Andrew  Fowler,  Sr.,  was  a  great  grandson  of  Deacon  John 
Fowler  who  came  to  Guilford  from  Milford  before  1648  and 
had  his  home  lot  on  the  corner  of  Broad  and  Fair  Streets,  where 
George  F.  Walter  now  lives.  To  Andrew's  grandfather,  John 
Fowler,  Jr.,  in  the  sixth  division  of  land  in  1730,  had  been  set 
land  at  the  Mill  Pasture  which  included  this  island.  It  had 
passed  through  the  hands  of  his  father,  Benjamin  Fowler,  and 
so  to  Andrew. 

Andrew  Fowler  married  Martha  Stone  and  they  were 
parents  of  seven  sons  and  three  daughters.  In  1767  Andrew 
Fowler,  Sr.,  bought  of  Mark  Hodgkiss  his  home  near  Barn 
Brook  on  the  Dunk  Rock  Road.  How  long  he  lived  there  has 
not  been  ascertained  but  that  he  disposed  of  it  seems  certain 
for  in  1807  he  sold  to  Solomon  Stone  another  homestead  which, 
as  the  boundaries  given  in  the  deed  disclose,  stood  on  the  site 
of  the  present  home  of  R.  Walter  Bishop,  for  it  was  bounded 
on  three  sides  by  the  highway  and  on  the  east  by  the  home  lot 
of  Ambrose  Chittenden,  opposite  the  present  entrance  to  River- 
side Cemetery. 

Jared  Fowler,  oldest  son  of  Andrew  and  Martha  Fowler, 
died  at  the  age  of  23   years.     His  brother,  Jonathan  Fowler, 

146 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

whose  home  this  island  homestead  was,  deeded  it  to  his  brother, 
James  Fowler,  in  1799,  and  migrated  to  the  Ohio  Valley.  On 
April  12,  1806,  being  then  of  Poland,  Ohio,  he  was  drowned 
in  the  Ohio  River. 

James  Fowler  passed  on  the  title  to  the  island  homestead 
to  another  brother,  Chauncey  Fowler,  who  died  in  1802.  An- 
other brother,  Bela  Fowler,  whose  home  was  the  present  res- 
idence of  Burton  W.  Bishop,  was  administrator  of  his  estate 
and  sold  the  property  to  Charles  Collins. 

The  oldest  brother  of  this  family  was  the  Rev.  Andrew 
Fowler,  of  whom  mention  should  be  made  although  he  had  no 
connection  with  the  island  house.  He  was  graduated  from 
Yale  College  in  1783,  and  was  a  member  of  a  Congregational 
family.  Yet  he  became  a  member  of  the  Episcopal  Church, 
probably  through  the  influence  of  the  Rev.  Bela  Hubbard,  also 
a  native  of  Guilford,  who  was  then  in  charge  of  the  Episcopal 
Churches  in  New  Haven  and  West  Haven. 

Because  of  his  loyalty  to  the  Church  of  England,  which 
included  allegiance  to  the  King  of  England,  Andrew  Fowler, 
Jr.,  was  one  of  the  Tories  cited  to  appear  in  the  old  Town 
House  on  Guilford  Green  and  undergo  examination  by  a  com- 
mittee appointed  by  the  General  Assembly  of  1780.  Pro- 
nounced inimical  and  dangerous  persons,  it  was  ordered  that 
their  names  be  inscribed  as  such  on  the  town  records.  The 
order  was  obeyed  but  an  astute  town  clerk  wrote  the  names  on 
a  fly  leaf  of  the  book.  In  1790,  good  judgment  having  regained 
sway,  the  list  of  names  was  ordered  expunged  from  the  records 
and  this  was  accomplished  by  the  simple  process  of  tearing  out 
the  fly  leaf. 

The  Rev.  Andrew  Fowler  died  in  Charleston,  S.  C  in 
1850.  He  had  presented  for  confirmation  in  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  the  first  class  ever  gathered  in  that  State. 

Charles  Collins,  the  new  owner  of  the  island  house,  was 
a  bachelor  and  had  an  unmarried  niece,  Cynthia  Collins,  daugh- 
ter of  his  deceased  brother,  John  Thomas  Collins,  who  made 
her  home  with  him. 

147 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

Charles  Collins,  in  partnership  with  George  Landon,  con- 
ducted a  country  store  on  these  premises.  It  is  believed  that 
the  building  now  doing  duty  as  a  woodshed  housed  the  store 
as  there  is  evidence  that  it  was  drawn  to  its  present  position. 
Probably  it  stood  nearer  the  street. 

In  1815,  at  the  age  of  43,  Charles  Collins  made  his  will^ 
making  his  niece,  Cynthia,  and  his  partner,  George  Landon, 
joint  owners  of  the  homestead.  Two  days  later  he  added  to 
his  will  a  codicil,  bequeathing  to  his  niece  the  house  and  lot 
and  to  his  partner  $300  in  lieu  thereof. 

There  were  bequests  to  other  nieces,  Hannah  Collins,  wife 
of  Phineas  Shelley  of  Guilford,  and  Clarissa  Johnson,  wife  of 
the  Rev.  Ashbel  Baldwin  of  Stratford.  To  the  Episcopal  So- 
ciety in  Guilford  he  left  the  sum  of  $1,000,  the  interest  to  be 
applied  annually  to  the  support  of  an  Episcopal  clergyman  in 
said  society  and  the  principal  to  remain  forever  as  a  fund.  The 
will  was  probated  in  1823.  In  1923  a  warden  of  the  church 
stated  that  the  fund  did  not  then  exist  and  no  one  living  knew 
what  had  become  of  it. 

As  her  uncle  had  sheltered  her  all  her  life,  so  did  Cynthia 
Collins  take  her  nephew,  John  Collins  Shelley,  to  live  with  her. 
Each  remained  unmarried.  The  general  store  had  disappeared 
but  Miss  Cynthia  kept  in  the  corner  cupboard  in  the  front 
room  a  little  store  of  candy  which  she  sold  to  the  children  of 
the  neighborhood.  She  died  in  1852,  leaving  the  homestead 
to  her  nephew  who  was  then  forty  years  of  age. 

Then,  if  not  before,  John  Collins  Shelley  brought  his 
mother  Hannah  Collins  Shelley,  to  live  in  the  island  house.  She 
lived  until  1861  when  her  clothing  caught  fire  from  the  front 
room  fireplace  and  she  was  burned  to  death. 

Sudden  death  came  to  John  Collins  Shelley  also.  He  was 
driving  his  horse  in  Fair  Street  when  it  took  fright  and  ran 
away,  injuries  then  incurred  resulting  in  his  death.  His  estate 
was  administered  by  his  brother,  Samuel  Shelley,  who  sold  the 
homestead  in  1870  to  William  Nelson  Norton,  father  of  Miss 
Lottie  Norton,  the  present  occupant. 

148 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Franklin  Phelps  House 


I 


N  MAY,  1925,  Guilford  Public  Health  Nurse  Association 
bought  from  Byron  H.  Benton  the  house  in  State  Street  which 
had  been  known  for  many  years  as  the  Franklin  Phelps  house, 
the  home  of  the  man  who  was  postmaster  of  Guilford  from 
1856  to  1861  and  again  from  1865  to  1869. 

The  house  was  built  in  1828  as  the  home  of  Chloe  Munger 
who  came  here  from  Madison.  On  May  27,  1828,  Miles  Mun- 
ger, whose  home  was  in  the  triangle  bounded  by  State  and 
Union  Streets  and  Market  Place,  deeded  to  his  sister,  Chloe 
Munger  of  Madison,  the  northwest  corner  of  his  home  lot  or 
garden,  and  there  was  built  the  house  which  was  her  home 
until  her  death  in  1842,  when  her  heirs  deeded  the  house  and 
land  back  to  Miles  Munger. 

The  original  home  lot  was  enlarged  by  the  Borough  of 
Guilford,  which,  on  April  17,  1837,  permitted  Miles  and  Chloe 
Munger  to  enclose  land  in  front  of  their  land,  the  line  to  run 
from  the  northwest  corner  of  John  Davis's  house  (now  Mrs. 
Elizabeth  Bristol's)  to  the  southwest  corner  of  Henry  Benton's 
house  (Henry  Beckwith's),  the  north  line  to  range  with  the 
north  end  of  Chloe  Munger's  house,  the  south  line  with  Pent 
Road  (road  having  a  gate),  the  south  fork  of  Union  Street. 

Miles  Munger's  ownership  originated  in  his  wife's  inherit- 
ance. His  wife  was  Rachel  Grumbley,  daughter  of  John 
Grumbley  and  Elizabeth  Griffing  Grumbley. 

In  1801  Joel  and  Nathaniel  Griffing,  sons  of  Jasper  Grif- 
fing, deeded  to  their  half-sister,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  John  Grumb- 
ley, the  house  and  lot  where  her  last  years  were  spent.  The  lot 
was  bounded  on  the  south  by  the  highway,  by  Samuel  Johnson's 

149 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

Sabbath  Day  House  and  by  the  potash  house  and  wood  yard 
of  the  Griffings. 

Jasper  GrflFing,  a  native  of  Southold,  Long  Island,  was 
known  as  "the  Commodore"  on  account  of  adventures  at  sea 
and  a  narrow  escape  from  capture  at  Louisburg,  Cape  Breton, 
during  "King  George's  War".  He  married,  first,  Mindwell 
Stone,  a  daughter  of  Sergeant  Joseph  Stone,  and  evidence  of  the 
land  records  tends  to  show  that  this  land  came  to  the  Griffings 
through  the  Stone  line.    His  second  wife  was  Rachel  Lee, 

The  late  Mrs.  Julia  Woodward,  whose  childhood,  as  the 
daughter  of  Nathan  Brooks,  was  spent  in  a  house  on  the  site  of 
Mrs.  George  H.  Parmelee's,  remembered  the  aged  Widow  Eliza- 
beth Grumbley  living  in  a  three-story  house  standing  east  of 
the  present  house,  formerly  the  home  of  Andrew  J.  Benton  and 
later  of  Henry  Beckwith,  on  the  north  side  of  Market  Place. 

In  1805  the  triangular  plot,  bounded  on  all  sides  by  streets, 
contained  two  dwellings,  one  the  home  of  Samuel  Grumbley, 
the  other  the  home  of  Rachel  Grumbley,  wife  of  Miles  Munger. 
These  were  children  of  John  and  Elizabeth  Grumbley.  Both 
houses  probably  faced  on  "Pent  Road",  the  Munger  house  being 
east  of  Samuel  Grumbley's. 

Emmeline  Munger,  daughter  of  Miles  and  Rachel  Munger, 
married  Franklin  Phelps  in  1825.  Doubtless  they  made  their 
home  in  the  house  of  their  aunt,  Chloe  Munger,  after  her  death 
in  1842. 

Franklin  Phelps  came  to  Guilford  from  New  Berlin,  N.  Y. 
He  died  in  1873,  aged  70  years.  His  wife's  brothers  deeded  to 
her,  Emmeline  Munger  Phelps,  the  homestead  of  their  father. 
Miles  Munger.  When  the  two  houses,  homes  of  Miles  Munger 
and  Samuel  Grumbley,  disappeared  from  the  triangle,  is  not 
recorded  but  one  of  them  is  remembered  by  persons  yet  living. 

The  adopted  daughter  of  Franklin  and  Emmeline  Phelps 
was  the  latter 's  niece,  Henrietta,  who  married  Sylvester  Bennett 
and  inherited  the  homestead  of  her  adopted  parents.  Thus 
the  property  descended  for  four  generations  through  the  fe- 
male   line,    Elizabeth  Grumbley,    Rachel  Munger,    Emmeline 

150 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

Phelps  and  Henrietta  Bennett,  an  unusual  record  in  this  town 
of  old  houses.  After  the  Bennett  family  ceased  to  live  there 
the  place  passed  through  several  ownerships  until  it  was  bought 
by  the  Guilford  Public  Health  Nurse  Association. 

An  ancient  map  of  Guilford  locates  some  Sabbath  Day 
houses  on  this  triangle.  Miles  Munger  bought  these  from  Cal- 
vin Frisbie  of  Branford,  Friend  Collins,  and  the  Parmelees, 
John,  Joel  and  Harriet,  of  Guilford,  in  1837,  shortly  before  the 
Borough  of  Guilford  consented  to  the  enclosure  of  land  in  front 
by  the  Mungers.  By  1837  the  need  of  Sabbath  Day  houses  for 
shelter  "between  meetings"  on  Sundays  by  dwellers  in  the  "out 
lands"  was  passing. 


151 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Major  Lathrop's  Four  Chimneys 


"W 


HEN  General  Lafayette  was  dining  in  1824  at  the  Minor 
Bradley  Tavern  on  the  northwest  corner  of  Guilford  Green,  a 
little  girl,  Clara  Stone,  swinging  on  a  gate  across  the  street  to 
see  the  great  man  come  forth  from  the  tavern,  heard  Major 
Lathrop,  a  member  of  the  reception  committee,  say  to  Lafayette 
with  much  pride,  "The  house  with  four  chimneys  that  you  see 

across  the  Green  is  er  mine."     Although  the  four 

chimneys  are  no  longer  to  be  counted,  the  same  house  stands 
there  today,  the  home  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  F.  DeWitt  Smith, 
though  it  lacks  the  rows  of  boxwood  that  once  guarded  the 
path  to  its  door.  Jedidiah  Lathrop  owned  the  property  from 
1796  to  1854  and  built  the  present  house  about  1815. 

The  sixth  signer  of  the  Plantation  Covenant,  drawn  up  on 
shipboard  by  Henry  Whitfield  and  his  followers  in  mid-At- 
lantic in  1639,  was  Thomas  Jones.  And  when  Menuncatuck 
had  been  purchased  from  the  Indians  and  the  home  lots  as- 
signed Thomas  Jones  had  two  acres  east  side  of  Guilford  Green, 
north  of  John  Bishop.  This  home  lot  extended  north  to  Union 
Street,  Broad  Street  stopping  at  State  Street. 

Thomas  Jones  appears  to  have  left  Guilford  before  1652, 
and  is  believed  to  have  died  of  small  pox  in  England  or  Scot- 
land. At  all  events.  Lieutenant  William  Chittenden,  agent  for 
Thomas  Jones,  sold  the  lands  in  Guilford  on  March  4,  1667-8, 
to  John  Meigs,  formerly  of  New  Haven. 

A  deed  of  1712  conveyed  the  property  from  Meigs  to 
Captain  Andrew  Ward  (3)  who  had  come  to  Guilford  in  1690 
with  his  mother,  Tryal  Meigs,  daughter  of  John  Meigs,  Sr., 
his  father,  Andrew  Ward  (2)  of  Stamford,  having  died  pre- 
sumably. The  first  Andrew  Ward  had  settled  in  Wethersfield 
and  was  the  first  judge  of  Hartford  County  Court. 

152 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

Captain  Andrew  Ward,  3rd,  married  Deborah  Joy,  daugh- 
ter of  Jacob  Joy  of  Fairfield  and  KilHngworth  (CUnton). 
Among  their  numerous  children  were  three  sons;  Colonel  An- 
drew Ward  the  4th,  an  officer  in  the  French  and  Indian  War, 
who  married  Elizabeth  Fowler  (Madame  Ward) ;  the  Rev.  Ed- 
mund Ward,  who  married  Mehitable  Robinson  and  was  the 
first  pastor  of  the  old  Fourth  Church;  Samuel  Ward  who  mar- 
ried Lucy  Pendleton  and  lived  in  Philadelphia. 

Captain  Andrew  Ward,  3rd,  in  1731,  divided  this  home 
lot  among  these  three  sons.  His  own  dwelling,  bounded  north 
by  the  town  pound,  with  one  acre  of  the  home  lot,  was  deeded 
to  Samuel.  One  acre  of  the  home  lot  on  the  south  side,  next  to 
John  Bishop,  was  deeded  to  Edmund.  And  to  Colonel  Andrew 
Ward,  4th,  "the  house  in  which  he  now  dwells"  was  deeded  with 
two  acres,  all  the  land  adjoining  not  already  given  to  the  other 
sons.  The  house  in  which  the  father  had  lived  is  shown  in 
Angeline  Bassett's  sketch  made  in  1830  and  stood  approximately 
on  land  now  part  of  the  Library  lot.  The  other  house,  in 
which  Colonel  Andrew  Ward,  4th,  lived,  doubtless  disappeared 
when  Major  Lathrop  built  the  present  house. 

In  1739  Captain  Andrew  Ward,  3rd,  sold  to  Stephen 
Spencer,  blacksmith,  three  acres,  formerly  the  estate  of  Ser- 
geant John  Bishop,  deceased,  south  of  Edmund  Ward's  land. 
In  1742  Stephen  Spencer  sold  a  strip  of  land  on  the  north  of 
this  lot  to  Edmund  Ward  and  in  1754  he  sold  to  Lewis  Fair- 
child  a  small  dwelling,  where  the  Third  Church  was  afterward 
built,  having  built  for  himself  a  new  house,  now  the  residence 
of  Elias  P.  Bates. 

Edmund  Ward  was  graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1727 
and  was  ordained  pastor  of  the  Fourth  Church  on  September 
21,  1733,  but  was  dismissed  in  1735.  Fiis  house  at  Sachem's 
Head  is  described  in  the  story  of  The  Great  Ox  Pasture. 

The  homestead  beside  the  Green  passed  in  1765,  after 
various  real  estate  transactions,  into  the  hands  of  Nathaniel 
Caldwell,  son-in-law  of  Edmund  and  Mehitable  Ward.  Na- 
thaniel Caldwell  sold  the  place  to  Jedidiah  Lathrop  on  October 

153 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

30,  1796.  The  deeds  constantly  describe  the  property  as  "near 
the  Meeting  House". 

The  old  house  on  the  north,  formerly  the  home  of  Cap- 
tain Andrew  Ward,  3rd,  was  afterward  the  home  of  Asher 
Fairchild,  son  of  Samuel  Fairchild  of  Durham,  who  married 
Thankful  Hubbard,  1761,  and  was  lost  at  sea  1795.  His 
daughter,  Harriott,  married  Jeremy  Hoadley,  and  they  were 
the  ancestors  of  Dr.  Charles  Hoadley  of  Hartford,  for  many 
years  state  librarian. 

Major  Jedidiah  Lathrop  was  master  of  St.  Alban's  Lodge, 
A.  F.  &  A.  M.,  1812-13;  warden  of  Christ  Episcopal  Church, 
1820;  warden  of  the  Borough  of  Guilford,  1828-30.  He  sold 
the  homestead  to  Ralph  D.  Smith  in  1854  and  died  in  1859. 

Ralph  D.  Smith,  grandfather  of  Dr.  Bernard  C.  Steiner, 
resided  there  until  his  death  in  1874.  A  complete  sketch  of  his 
life  is  given  in  his  grandson's  volume,  "History  of  Guilford 
and  Madison.  The  house  and  lot  passed  to  his  daughter,  Mrs. 
Sarah  Smith,  wife  of  Lewis  C.  Steiner,  who  sold  it  in  1896,  to 
George  H.  Beebe,  M.  D.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  F.  DeWitt  Smith  suc- 
ceeded the  Beebe  family  as  owners. 


154 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


The  Woodward  Tavern 


U, 


NTIL  the  summer  of  1925  there  stood,  on  the  present  site 
of  Douden's  Drug  Store,  a  house  that  had  been,  in  earUer  years, 
"Woodward's  Tavern,  the  last  to  survive  of  Guilford's  old-time 
hostelries.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  William  Hotchkiss  were  the  last  own- 
ers and  occupants  of  the  house. 

In  the  early  settlement  of  Guilford  four  men  had  home 
lots  on  the  west  side  of  Guilford  Green.  George  Bartlett  was 
located  on  the  "Hotel  Corner".  Next  north  was  Henry 
Goldam,  while  Thomas  French  owned  the  present  Bonzano 
property  and  Edward  Benton  was  on  the  northwest  corner. 

Henry  Goldam  came  early  to  Guilford,  though  not  with 
the  Whitfield  party.  He  died  in  1661,  leaving  his  house  and 
land  to  his  daughter,  Susannah,  wife  of  John  Bishop. 

John  Bishop  died  in  1683.  The  Widow  Susannah  Bishop 
in  1696  conveyed  to  her  son,  Daniel  Bishop,  the  homestead  of 
his  grandfather,  Henry  Goldam. 

At  this  time  the  town  was  settling  a  new  pastor,  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Ruggles  from  Roxbury,  Mass.,  to  succeed  the  late 
Rev.  Joseph  Eliot.  It  was  customary,  in  settling  a  pastor,  to 
bestow  upon  him  house  and  lands  and  Mr.  Ruggles  was  given 
the  house  lot  in  Petticoat  Lane  (Fair  Street)  recently  bought 
by  the  town  from  Goodman  Cook.  This  lot  was  located  on 
the  west  side  of  Fair  Street  and  extended  from  the  Country 
Road  (York  Street)  south  as  far  as  the  residence  of  the  late 
Mrs.  Mary  Bishop,  originally  the  Joseph  Chittenden  house.  Mr. 
Ruggles  was  not  content  with  this  location  and  on  March  6, 
1696,  exchanged  dwellings  with  Daniel  Bishop.  Thereafter 
Mr.  Ruggles  lived  on  the  west  side  of  the  Green,  not  far  from 

155 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

the  old  stone  meeting  house  on  the  Green  where  he  preached, 
and  Daniel  Bishop  lived  in  Petticoat  Lane. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Ruggles,  Sr.,  died  on  June  1,  1728.  The 
inventory  of  his  estate  mentions  an  old  house  valued  at  five, 
pounds,  which  may  have  been  the  original  house  on  the  prop- 
erty, Henry  Goldam's,  described  in  Steiner's  History  as  having 
stood  in  the  rear  of  the  Isbell  house,  which  was  the  Woodward 
Tavern. 

The  elder  Ruggles  left  two  sons,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Ruggles, 
who  followed  his  father  into  the  ministry,  and  Dr.  Nathaniel 
Ruggles,  the  town  physician.  To  the  latter  was  left  the  pater- 
nal homestead.  The  doctor's  daughter,  Huldah  Ruggles,  mar- 
ried Rosewell  Woodward  in  1774,  and  so  the  Woodward  name 
enters  the  story. 

Rosewell  Woodward  first  owned  a  small  house  which  stood 
near  the  present  site  of  Mrs.  Eva  B.  Leete's  home.  This  he  sold 
in  1782  and  in  1783  bought  from  his  father-in-law  the  north- 
east corner  of  the  Ruggles  home  lot,  Dr.  Ruggles  giving  him 
the  right  "to  pass  and  repass  northward  of  my  dwelling  to  the 
rear  of  said  tract",  said  tract  having  a  frontage  of  only  20  feet. 

In  1792  Rosewell  Woodward  bought,  from  Dr.  Ruggles, 
another  bit  of  land  in  the  rear  of  his  first  purchase.  In  1794 
Dr.  Ruggles  died.  The  administrators  of  the  estate  were  Rose- 
well Woodward  and  Nathaniel  P.ossiter.  Through  the  medium 
of  Thomas  Ruggles  Pyncheon,  next  neighbor  on  the  north, 
Rosewell  Woodward  bought  the  homestead.  Now  he  was 
ready  to  build  the  Woodward  Tavern. 

Rosewell  Woodward  was  a  son  of  William  Woodward  of 
Guilford  and  a  grandson  of  the  Rev.  John  Woodward  of  Ded- 
ham,  Mass.,  of  Norwich,  and  finally  of  New  Haven.  The  first 
wife  of  the  Rev.  John  Woodward  was  Sarah  Rosewell,  whose 
surname  came  down  in  the  family  as  a  given  name. 

Miss  Lydia  Chittenden  recalled  that  the  ball  room  of 
Woodward's  Tavern  was  located  in  a  smaller  building  which 
stood  on  the  present  site  of  the  Times  Building.  This  ball  room 
was  later  the  hardware  store  of  E.  H.  Butler  and  stands  now, 

i56 


Tester -Years  of  Guilford 

dilapidated  and  used  only  as  a  store  room,  in  the  rear  of  the 
Times  Building.  A  card  of  invitation,  dated  June,  1800,  to  a 
ball  at  Woodward's  Tavern,  sent  to  Miss  Clarissa  Caldwell, 
was  an  exhibit  in  the  Henry  Whitfield  State  Historical  Museum. 
It  stated  that  dancing  would  begin  at  six  o'clock  and  was  signed 
by  several  young  men  of  the  town. 

Next  south  of  the  "Woodward  place  was  the  house  of  Dr. 
Elisha  Hutchinson.  A  fine  old  house  it  was,  with  a  piazza> 
and  stood  on  the  site  of  Music  Hall  Building,  originally  part 
of  a  factory  at  Jones's  Bridge  and  now  owned  by  Eliot  E.  Davis. 
Congress  Hall,  which  was  burned  in  1862,  occupied  this  site. 
The  old  well  of  the  Hutchinson  house  is  located  in  the  cellar 
of  Music  Hall  Building. 

Dr.  Hutchinson  had  a  daughter.  Marietta,  and  of  her  ad- 
mirer he  disapproved.  When  the  young  man  called,  he  sat  on 
the  piazza  outside  the  window  inside  which  sat  Miss  Marietta. 
The  courtship,  for  some  reason,  did  not  result  in  a  wedding. 
The  family  removed  later  to  New  York. 

Rosewell  Woodward  died  in  1807,  at  the  age  of  57  years. 
He  willed  his  homestead  to  remain  undivided  among  his  three 
sons.  The  oldest  son,  John,  was  to  have  the  first  chance  to  take 
over  the  entire  homestead,  buying  out  his  brothers'  rights. 
Should  John  decline,  it  was  David's  privilege.  Failing  that,  it 
was  Rosewell,  Jr.'s  chance.  Rosewell,  Jr.,  became  the  next 
owner. 

The  Widow  Woodward  survived  her  husband  until  1827. 
Seven  years  later,  in  1834,  her  son,  Rosewell  Woodward,  and 
his  wife,  Catherine  Eliot,  were  living  in  Georgetown,  D.  C. 
The  homestead  in  Guilford  was  sold  to  William  and  John  Hale 
on  August  9,  1837. 

During  the  following  winter,  1837-8,  a  Methodist  mis- 
sionary came  to  Guilford  and  organized  a  society  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church.  John  and  William  Hale  became  active 
members  and  deeded  to  the  society  the  land  upon  which  the 
Methodist   Church   was   immediately   built.      This    building   is 

157 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

now  owned  by  Paul  Cianciolo  and  has  been  converted  into  a 
store,  occupied  as  the  Ben  Frankhn  Store. 

The  Woodward  homestead,  which  had  ceased  to  be  a 
tavern  after  the  death  of  the  elder  Woodward,  continued  in 
the  Hale  family  through  the  lifetime  of  Kate  Hale  Isbell,  wife 
of  William  Isbell,  and  was  later  owned,  as  has  been  stated,  by 
her  nephew,  William  Hotchkiss.  He  sold  it  to  Frank  F. 
Douden  on  July  1,  1925,  and  the  house  was  taken  down  to 
make  way  for  Douden's  new  Drug  Store. 


158 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Minor  Bradley  Tavern 


'^, 


HE  lot  at  the  northwest  corner  of  Guilford  Green,  on 
which  the  late  Miss  Lydia  Chittenden  built,  in  1886,  the  present 
dwelling,  now  long  unoccupied,  was  a  part  of  the  home  lot 
set  to  Edward  Benton,  an  early  settler,  who  came,  perhaps  from 
Milford,  to  live  in  Guilford  and  died  here  in  1680. 

The  house  known  as  the  Minor  Bradley  Tavern,  torn  down 
to  be  replaced  by  Miss  Lydia  Chittenden's  modern  dwelling,  was 
built  in  1750  during  the  ownership  of  Simeon  DeWolf. 

When  the  land  passed  from  the  Benton  name  to  the  Stone 
family  has  not  been  ascertained  but  it  was  early  for  in  1724 
the  five  sons  of  Lieutenant  Nathaniel  Stone,  grandson  of  Samuel 
Stone,  divided  the  property  of  their  deceased  father  and  set 
this  lot  to  Joseph  Stone.  Joseph  Stone's  daughter,  Mindwell, 
was  the  first  wife  of  Jasper  Griff ing  and,  in  1748,  Jasper  and 
Mindwell  Griffing  sold  eight  rods,  "the  northern  part  of  our 
home  lot"  to  Simeon  DeWolf,  no  house  being  specified  in  the 
deed.  On  March  4,  1751,  when  Simeon  DeWolf  sold  the  prop- 
erty to  Abraham  Bradley,  a  new  dwelling  house  was  mentioned 
in  the  deed,  and  the  price  had  risen  from  150  pounds  to  965 
pounds.  Abraham  Bradley  profited  by  the  transaction  as  he 
sold  the  place,  in  1753,  to  Daniel  Stone  for  1,200  pounds. 

Daniel  Stone  was  a  distant  cousin  of  the  earlier  owners 
of  that  name,  being  of  the  fifth  generation  from  Samuel  Stone. 
His  estate  was  distributed  in  1790  and  his  dwelling  house  was 
set  to  a  son,  Medad  Stone.  To  these  eight  rods  Medad  Stone 
soon  added  19  Yi  rods  on  the  south,  which  he  bought  from 
Jasper  Griffing  and  his  children,  they  being  Stone  descendants. 

Medad  Stone  was  a  brother  of  Thankful,  first  wife  of  Sol- 
omon Stone  of  Fair  Street,  and  of  Leah,  wife  of  Henry  Hill  at 

159 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

the  south  side  of  Guilford  Green.  He  made  of  his  home  a 
"Tavern  House",  too  late  for  the  visit  to  Guilford  of  General 
Lafayette  who  was  entertained  then  at  Brown's  Tavern,  farther 
down  the  west  side  of  the  Green.  Although  General  Lafayette 
visited  Guilford  again  in  1825  and  was  entertained  beneath 
this  rooftree,  Medad  Stone  was  no  longer  living  to  act  as  host. 
That  responsibility  fell  upon  Minor  Bradley,  who  had  bought 
the  "Tavern  House"  from  Mary  Griffing  Stone,  widow  of 
Medad  Stone,  and  her  son-in-law  and  daughter,  Rosewell  and 
Sally  Bartholomew,  in  1822. 

The  stage  coach  pulled  up  at  this  hospitable  door  on  its 
way  from  New  Haven  to  points  east,  or  returning,  and  the 
stage  coach  road  ran  diagonally  through  the  Green,  past  the 
"Old  Temple"  or  second  edifice  of  the  First  Congregational 
Society  of  Guilford.  The  signboard  of  the  Minor  Bradley 
Tavern,  with  its  pictured  stage  coach,  later  found  its  way  to 
the  Henry  Whitfield  State  Historical  Museum. 

Minor  Bradley  was  thrice  married  but  his  children  were 
all  mothered  by  his  first  wife,  Acsah  Bishop,  who  died  in  1814. 
In  1815  he  married  Phebe  Hull,  who  died  in  1847,  and  in  1848 
he  married  the  Widow  Parnel  Munger,  who  died  in  1860,  two 
years  before  his  own  death.  He  was  a  son  of  Simri  Bradley  of 
Madison  and  a  great  great  grandson  of  Stephen  Bradley  who 
had  lived  in  Guilford. 

Of  the  seven  children  of  Minor  Bradley,  only  two  attained 
adult  years,  Caroline  and  Harriet,  who  died  1876  and  1878, 
respectively.  Dr.  Frederick  P.  Griswold  bought  the  place  from 
the  Estate  of  Harriet  Bradley  in  1882  and  sold  it  in  1885,  when 
he  moved  to  Meriden.  As  has  been  stated  Miss  Lydia  Chit- 
tenden had  the  old  house  torn  down  and  the  present  one  built. 
Here  she  lived  until  her  death,  leaving  the  house  to  the  First 
Congregational  Church  which,  not  needing  it  as  a  parsonage, 
sold  it  to  the  present  owners. 


160 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 


Little  Journey  Of  A  Great  Man 


e 


NE  June  day  in  1805  a  covered  wagon  passed  out  of 
Crooked  Lane,  Guilford,  and  turned  westward  along  the  Post 
Road.  The  oxen  which  drew  the  wagon  were  driven  by  Ben- 
jamin Hall,  whose  family  and  worldly  goods  were  within  that 
canvas  cover.     A  family  was  migrating  to  "York  State". 

Benjamin  Hall,  son  of  Benjamin  Hall  and  grandson  of 
Ebenezer  Hall  and  Deborah  Hyland,  was  of  the  fifth  genera- 
tion from  the  settler,  William  Hall,  who  had  come  from  Kent, 
England,  with  the  Whitfield  Company  in  1639.  Born  in  175  5, 
he  was  leaving  his  native  town,  at  the  age  of  fifty  years  to 
migrate  to  the  frontier  of  New  York  State. 

The  Legislature  of  "York  State"  had  set  apart  2,000,000 
acres  in  the  heart  of  the  State  to  be  divided  as  bounty  to 
soldiers  who  had  taken  part  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  This 
so-called  "Military  Tract"  was  divided  into  townships  which 
were  sprinkled  with  classical  names.  Thither  were  hastening 
many  of  the  ambitious  and  progressive  people  of  Massachusetts 
and  Connecticut.  Benjamin  Hall,  ex-soldier,  came  to  the  end 
of  his  journey  in  the  town  of  Homer,  county  of  Onondaga, 
by  the  beautiful  Susquehanna.  The  old  homestead  back  in 
State  Street,  Guilford,  had  been  sold  by  him  and  his  maiden 
sisters,  Judith  and  Hannah  Hall,  to  William  Starr,  whose  de- 
scendants yet  own  the  property. 

In  the  new  home  in  the  new  land,  Ruth,  daughter  of  Ben- 
jamin Hall,  met  and  married  Andrew  Dickson,  a  settler  from 
the  town  of  Middlefield,  Mass.  A  daughter  was  born  to  them, 
Clara  Dickson,  who  became  the  wife  of  Horace  White.  He 
also  was  of  Massachusetts  stock,  a  son  of  Asa  White  and  Clara 
Keep  from  Monson,  Mass. 

161 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

To  Horace  White  and  Clara  Dickson,  his  wife,  was  born, 
on  November  7,  1832,  a  son,  Andrew  Dickson  White.  The 
name  of  his  grandfather  was  conferred  upon  him  but  the  spirit 
of  his  grandmother  was  born  within  him.  The  child  was  to 
be,  in  later  years,  one  of  the  wisest  of  America's  diplomats, 
one  of  the  greatest  of  American  educators,  one  of  the  keenest 
of  America's  thinking  men;  so  great  a  man,  withal,  as  to  be 
utterly  unconscious  of  his  own  greatness,  which  is  the  highest 
pinnacle  of  human  achievement. 

In  September,  1917,  112  years  after  the  slow  and  ponder- 
ous outfit  of  Benjamin  Hall  had  journeyed  out  of  Guilford, 
a  swift  and  luxurious  touring  car  rolled  into  the  ancient  town 
over  the  State  highway.  It  brought  Benjamin  Hall's  great 
grandson,  the  first  of  the  family  to  come  back  for  a  look  at  the 
ancestral  town. 

At  the  age  of  85  years  and  near  the  close  of  a  long,  active 
and  distinguished  life,  Dr.  Andrew  Dickson  White  was  real- 
izing the  intention  of  a  lifetime.  He  was  seeing  for  himself 
the  old  town  which  had  been  unforgetably  impressed  upon  his 
memory  by  his  grandmother,  Ruth  Hall.  With  him  were  his 
wife,  formerly  Helen  McGill,  and  their  daughter,  Karin  Andre- 
erna,  born  in  Finland  twenty-four  years  earlier. 

Ruth  Hall  had  left  a  townful  of  kinsfolk  and  acquaintance 
when  she  departed  from  Guilford  in  1805.  Her  grandson,  re- 
turning in  1917  to  look  reverently  upon  the  scenes  of  his  grand- 
mother's youth,  could  find  no  person  living  who  remembered 
Ruth  Hall,  no  person,  then,  who  could  point  out  to  him  her 
birthplace.  He  came  with  the  honors  of  the  nations,  the  laurels 
of  the  world  of  letters,  the  friendship  of  kings  and  emperors 
heaped  upon  him.  Yet  scarcely  a  person  in  Guilford  knew 
that  Dr.  Andrew  Dickson  White,  former  minister  to  Russia, 
former  ambassador  to  Germany,  former  president  of  Cornell 
University,  leader  of  the  American  delegation  to  the  peace  con- 
ference at  the  Hague,  was  a  grandson  of  Ruth  Hall  and  there- 
fore a  kinsman  and  descendant  of  Guilford  families. 

162 


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Minor  Bradley  Tavern,  1750-1885 


Major  Lathrop's  Four-Chimney  House  Minus  Two  Chimneys 


Yester  -Years  of  Guilford 

Had  Andrew  Dickson  White  visited  Guilford  during  his 
years  at  Yale  College,  New  Haven,  only  sixteen  miles  distant, 
the  case  might  have  been  otherwise.  In  the  early  1850's  people 
were  living  who  would  have  remembered  Ruth  Hall.  In  1917 
it  was  too  late. 

However,  Dr.  White  could  see  Guilford  Green,  beneath 
the  turf  of  which  four  generations  of  his  ancestors  lay.  He 
could  look  upon  the  spot  where  once  stood  the  original  Epis- 
copal Church,  a  tiny  wooden  building,  wherein  Ruth  Hall, 
herself  trained  in  the  strictness  of  the  Congregational  Church 
founded  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Whitfield,  had  been  so  much  im- 
pressed by  the  Christmas  Eve  service  with  its  chants  and  carols, 
the  white-robed  priest,  the  greenery  of  mountain  laurel  and  the 
box  and  the  pine  together. 

He  could  look  upon  the  seacoast  which  Benjamin  Hall,  a 
youth  of  21  years,  had  patrolled  as  a  Minute  Man  of  the  Revo- 
lution. He  could  visit  the  tomb  of  Fitz-Greene  Halleck, 
America's  poet,  dead  for  fifty  years  yet  "one  of  the  few,  the  im- 
mortal names  that  were  not  born  to  die."  Ruth  Hall  had  re- 
counted the  great  honor  she  had  thought  it  when  the  future 
poet,  a  small  boy,  was  brought,  from  time  to  time,  into  the 
school  which  she  attended,  and  the  respect  and  admiration  with 
which  she  regarded  his  later  career  as  a  leading  poet  of  America 
in  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Dr.  White  brought  with  him  to  Guilford  other  memories 
cherished  by  Ruth  Hall  of  her  ancestral  home.  The  great  fire- 
place in  the  old  home  had  held  a  kettle  hanging  from  the 
crane.  Hungry  children  had  helped  themselves  to  boiled  lob- 
sters from  this  kettle  to  "piece  out"  between  meals. 

There  was,  too,  the  "grand  lady"  of  Guilford,  a  Mrs.  Leete 
who  had  deeply  impressed  the  young  girl,  Ruth  Hall,  yet  whose 
identity  could  not,  in  1917,  be  determined,  so  many  women 
had  borne  that  name. 

Benjamin  Hall  and  his  family  experienced  many  hard- 
ships, much  toil,  privation  and  suffering  on  the  frontier.  Wolves 
howled  in  winter  about  the  houses  of  the  village  of  Homer. 

163 


Yester -Years  of  Guilford 

Flour  was  brought  from  the  mill  by  a  day's  journey  through 
the  trackless  forest.  Church  attendance  meant  a  ride  of  twenty 
miles  on  horseback.  But  those  lean,  hard  years  brought  results. 
The  wilderness  was  made  to  blossom  as  the  rose. 

By  the  time  that  Ruth  Hall's  grandson  was  in  his  impres- 
sionable years  the  village  of  Homer  was  a  pretty  place.  A 
Green  formed  the  center,  even  as  in  Guilford.  Likewise  as  in 
Guilford,  upon  the  Green  stood  the  church  and  the  academy. 
Maple  trees  shaded  the  broad  main  street.  Beyond  the  stores 
and  tavern  were  large,  pleasant  dwellings,  each  with  its  own 
garden  and  orchard  and  its  fence  in  front. 

The  house  in  which  Dr.  Andrew  Dickson  White  was  born 
was  described  by  him  as  a  large,  brick  house  in  Colonial  style, 
its  southern  stoop  shaded  by  honeysuckles.  Old  fashioned 
flowers  bloomed  in  the  large  garden,  brought,  who  shall  say 
from  what  gardens  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  even  as 
English  foremothers,  sailing  for  America's  distant  shore,  brought 
with  them  seeds  and  roots  of  beloved  posies  from  gardens  they 
could  never  see  again. 

Ruth  Hall  Dickson  had  died  in  1865  at  the  age  of  76  years. 
But  she  had  lived  to  see  her  beloved  grandson,  by  whom  she 
was  so  reverently  remembered,  well  started  in  the  path  which 
led  him  to  heights  of  distinction  as  a  leader  in  the  thought  of 
a  nation  and  of  the  world.  She  saw  him  graduated  with  honors 
by  Yale  in  1853;  become  an  attache  to  the  American  legation 
at  St.  Petersburg  (Petrograd) ;  professor  of  history  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Michigan;  a  writer  of  articles  for  high-class  publica- 
tions; State  Senator  at  Albany.  And  her  spirit  may  have  vis- 
ualized the  future  that  was  to  be  his  after  she  had  passed  from 
earth. 

No  small  part  did  she  have  in  the  formation  of  her  grand- 
son's character.  It  was  she  who  refused  to  allow  the  young 
boy  in  the  streets  after  dark,  even  to  the  point  of  going  forth 
herself  to  bring  him  in,  and  so  taught  law,  order  and  restraint. 
Hers  were  the  broad-minded  faith  and  trust  that  enabled  her 
to  look  up  from  the  harsh  Galvanism  of  the  time  to  say,  "There 

164 


Yester -Years  of  Guilford 

is,  of  course,  some  merciful  way  out  of  it  all."  So,  Dr.  Andrew 
Dickson  White  believed,  through  all  the  horror  of  the  European 
war,  that  it  would  result  in  the  establishment  of  an  international 
peace  tribunal  of  permanent  working  value. 

The  visit  to  Guilford  was  made  none  too  soon.  In  1918, 
the  following  year,  and  one  week  before  the  signing  of  the 
Armistice,  Dr.  White  died,  leaving  the  world  a  better,  happier, 
and  richer  place,  because  he  had  lived  in  it. 


165 


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