Connecticut Historical Collections

At anoiher meeting of the N'lllage, I'.lih Uee. lollowing— " Tiiey having had some taste of Sir llcminway in jUiMcliiiig the Word, did deilaie their desire \o have him go on in the worke of the Minisiry alnollg^t us, in order to SL-lllemenl ; and towards liis encomageuient they eiigiige to allow him alicr the rale of £10 by the 3ear in pay. And, Voted that George Pardee and Caleb Chedsey signify our dtsiics and proposi- tions to Sir Heminway, and lalce his answer and make reiurne." The Committee immediately consulted Mr. Heminway, and reportctl at the same meeting, " That Sir lleniinway does comply wiih their motion, God's giace assisting, and does accept the propusiiion, and desue some consiilcrali<jn with respect to wood." The next month they voted lo give him JC50 a year. They continued in this state until the close of the yi-ar 170(5, when, at a meiHing, the villageapp'^nted " William Ludington and John Poller lo treat with Sir Jacob Heminway, to see \\ilKnher he will goe on in the work td' the jVlinistry amongst us." And the same day reported Mr. Heminway's answer in writing. " Gentlemen, Whereas you liavc given me notice bv two men, that you desire me to carry on the work of the Ministry in order lo settlement among you. I do, there- fore, hereby give you notice that so far asGoil shall enable me thereunto, lam heartily ready and willing to gratify these your desires ujion these condition.s— 1. That you give me £50 yearly, and my wood. 2. That you build me a good convenient dwelling house, within 2 years lime, or give me money sulhcient to do the same, one half this year ensuing, aiid one half the next. 3 Tiiat when it is in your pou er, yuu give ine a good and sufficient poriion ol land. Yours lo serve, From my sludij, ■2d l.kcr. 170i;. JACOB HEMINWAY." On tlie 2Gth of the same month, the village met and voted, " We do promise Mr. Heminway, if he will carry on the worke of the ministry in said village, to bnild him a house, if we can, in two years after this date, and give him £50 pay, and his wood. EAST HAVEN. 207 And in the mean time, if he wants a house to hire him cue." To accomiilish these objects they laid a tax of four-pence farihing. In the year 17U7, the village bujli a house for Mr. Ilcminway, 40 feet long and 20 feet wide," ou a hve acre lot, on liie soulheasi corner of the Green. One half acre was allowed to set the house upon, adjoining; to Mr. Hurainway's home lot. The w.v^Qs iu working at the house were three shillings a day for a man, and six for a team. The terms proposed were adjusted and ratified in 1709. They gave to him the house and lot it stood on — also twelve acres on the cove road, twelve acres in the bridge swamp, 30 acres in the half mile, £50 per annum, and sulhcient wood, " if he perlorms the worlv of the Ministry so long as he is able ; or if it be our fault that he is forced to leive us, it sliall be his. ikit if it be liis fault, or he leaves the place, or is hindered in the worke, then the property ik to return to the village. And he is to have the use of the Parsonage land." The same year, " 3d May, 170'j, vuied to ['Ctilion the Gene- ral Assembly that we may embody into a Cliurch slate." " The great burying place of the Indian tribes in this town and vici- nity, is on the north end of the hill on which the Fort stands, which, anciently, in allusion to this place, was called Grave llilL Some of the graves have been leveled by the plow, but many of them are yet visible. In the year 18-22. I examined three of these graves. At the depth of about three feet and a half the sandstone appears, on which the bodies were laid, without any appearance of a wrapper or enclosure. They all lay in the direction of southwest and northeast — the head towards the west. Of two of ihetn, the arms lay by the side ; the other had the arms across the body, after the manner of the white peo- ple. The large bones and teeth were in a sound state. The thigh bones of one measured 19 inches in length, the leg bone 18, and the artn from the elbow to the shoulder [Z. By measuring the skeleton as it lay, it was concluded to be that of a man six and a half feet high. No article of any description appeared with the bones. It is said, that about fifty or sixty years ago some of these graves were opened, and a number of Intlian impleuients, of the kitchen and of war, were found in them. Few Indians have been buried there within a century past. "The Indians hud u fort on the hill in the burying ground, and liom thtit circimistaijco it was calletl Fort Hill. It is also a tradition, that they had another on the hill north of Daniel Hughes' house, and near the old ferry road. The appearance of shells shows that they had a village on that spot. The same indications appear in the woods of Southend Neck, west of the sluice. Great quantities of oyster shells are collectcti among the rocks and in the little valleys, on the banks of the river, showing the places where their weekwams stood."* East Haven, April 2G, 1781. Early on Thursday morning last, the Guard House on the East side of our Har- bor, near the Ballerv, was discovered to be nearly destroyed by lire, and John Howe lying dead near the House; the rest of the Guard (eleven in number) who were sta- tioned there the evening before missing, supposed to be talcen off by a Party from Long Island in Whale Boats, who set the building on Eire, and that Howe being on Gentry, was shot dead ; but whether any others were killed or wounded, is not known, as the party who did tlie mischief got o/l" undiscovered, and no accounts have been received of them since. Rev. Mr. Dodd's History of East Haven. SOS E A S T II A V K N . The following incidents were related by an aged lady, ulio is now living in the town of East Haven. They are said to have taken place at the time of the great excitement about witchcraft. These events were related to the lady by her father, who is now dead, and was an eye-witness of these occurrences. The relation may be considered as a fair sample of flitch atorics, which in ancient times were generally believed. " The old gentlein:in referred to above, Avas ritling on one bright moonlight evening in a ver}' lonely place called the Duik- HolUnv, {ahy-ivdd which leads Irom East Haven to Fair Haven,) when he baw two leniales at tlie head of his horse, very earnestly (apparenily) engaged in conversation, and keeping pace with his horse. He was con- siderably excited, and his feelings of fear were aroused, as he had no doubt that these ■were the famous hags that were disturbing the peace of the land. He had, however, courage enough to speak to ihein in these words, — "In Ihe name of O'i'd, I beseech you to tell VIC who you are." When wonderful to behold, they imniediately vanished. He got otrfrom his horse to look for them, but could tind nothing but a riding hood, ■which lay where they disappeared " A short tinie alter this event, the same gentleman was riding, as lie says, past one of his orchards, and there appeared to him to be some one shacking one of his apple trees : a considerable quantity were falling to the ground. He wentup to the tree, and the ground was covered with ajiples which had just fallen from this tree ; but there was no one to be seen — all was siill as the grave.' "The following is still more mysterious, — there was an old woman that lived not far from the neighljorhood of this gentleman, who wassuspecteil by the neighbors of being one of these tormentors of manlcind. 'I'heir hogs would run about un their hind legs, and sijueal as though they were possessed bylegions of unclean spirits; iheir children would be taken sick ami crying out " that some one was slicking pins in them." A member of one of the lamilies, would roll about the lloor with great rapidity, as though urged forward by some inviMhle power; and the members of the family had to keep an Eagle's eye on'the rolling gentleman, lest he should roll into the fire. When the neighbors made their bread it v\ as lull of hairs, and their soap would run over their kettles, and (ly about tlie (loor like buiiiing lava, from the crater of Ml. Etna. In the night large stones would liimble tluwn their chimneys and break their cooking utensils, setting the whole family in an uproar. It appeared as though the powers of darkness had been let loose from I'andemonium to torment these neighbors. But not long after these dilticuliies all ceased in a singular manner, i. c. One of ihe neighbors' pi^rs was running about on its hind legs as described, ami the man who was noticing it, jumped over into the pen and cut off one of its ears, and the old wo- man mentioned, always afterwards had one of her cars mudled. The neighbors \\ere now satisfied that this wt/mun was the cau--e of all their troubles. However they thought they would say noilung or do nothing lor the piesent, but see how these things coulinueil; unil a slioil tune after this one ol the neighbors was making potash beside the river, and it began to lly out and run ab.)ut so that they could do nothing with it. They held a consulialiiin and concluded that they would shoot into it with a" rille, ac- cordingly they did; and immediately there was a calm, and they were enabled to go on with their work and finish it. In the inorning the neighbors went to the place where this woman resided, and they found her dead, and tiius their troubles ended.* But it appears this woman was not the only suspected witch in the place; for in an old lonely house which stood on the road leading to New Haven, lights were seen in the night; the sound of the violin, and the noise of persons dancing, was heard by the inhabitants of the place, around it, until they went to work day after day, pulling its clapboards off, umil tlie house was completely destroyed, to the joy of the inhabi- tants of the town, and nothing more of any coiiscc|ueiice was heard of witches from tliat iime."t * A granddaughter of this old woman is now living in East Haven. She is noted for her eccentricities, her singular life, &c.