History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

In Book B, Town Records, page 120, it is found that May 1(), 1704, "the town grants liberty to .Toscph Perry to erect a grist-mill on ye Mill River att such a ])lace and upon such conditions as ye couimittee hereafter named sliall agree to. Ye committee arc as follows, viz.: Capt. John Wakeman, Mv. Peter lUirr, Jolm Edwards, John Sturgis, and John AVliccler." Page 13;i, Book B, states ".Tose]di Perry proiioseth for liberty to erect a grist-mill or mills upon ye Main River near ye place where his present mill stands. Ye town, having considered his proposal, do grant unto him, ye said Perry, liberty to erect a grist-mill or mills on ye main stream or river where he shall think titt, near ye place where his present mill stand, and only upon ye same terms and conditions as are ex- pressed between him and ye town in ye late covenant about the ]iresent mill." Joseph Perry nuide ])Ur- chases in 1705, and in 1709 obtained a permit to trans- fer the building of the mill to Mill River. Tradition states that the mill, on its original site, was protected by a fort from devastation by the Indians, and tluit one man, while acting as sentinel thereon, was killed by an Indian. It is also stated that a band f)f In- dians set out to destroy it, but a few of the cobmists at work in a coi'nfield, concealed by the liigli corn, apprehending their danger, made a great noise, wbieli caused the foe to beat a hasty retreat, fearing they were greatly outnumbered. In 1705, Joseph Perry also bought the Ogdcn home- stead, contiguous to the mill, and in all |)robal>ility moved thither. Joseph married three times: (1) Sarah, daughter of John Bulkley ; (2) Deborah, daughter of Daniel Burr (1st); (.3) Mary, daughter of Michael Clugstone, and granddaughter of Hev. Samuel Wakeman. Joseph was the lather of twelve children. It is not known whether they were all born in this house. The original deeds granted him' from the town from 1705 till 1751 of the "common and undivided lands" are in possession of Messrs. David Beers and Burr Perry. He (Joseph 1st) lies ill the old burying-gnmnd under the simple inscrii)- tion, all in capitals: " Here l.ves Buried the lioily of M' Joseph Perrj', ■wlio ileparted ttiis life August ye 9tli, 1 7 .5 3, in the 77tli Year of His Age."* * His inventory amounted to seven thousand five hundred pounces, iitid includes a uogio weueh and a negro girl, liut does li'^t ineludc the mill, His son Joseph, .Tr., married Sarah, daughter of Peter Bulkeley (2d), »f Fairfield. They had four children. He died eleven days later than his father, leaving a widow and three childrcn.t The eldest, Peter, was born Jan. 24, ]7.'!9 ((). S. ), and married Sarah Bradley in 171)8. They were the parents oi fifteen children. Betsey, the last of tliem, married Samuel Sherwood, of Brooklyn, N. Y., and died in 1878. She was the last of four generations interred in the old burying-ground, whose record (of the four) extends back two hundred and one years. Peter's si>ter married David Hubbell. (See "Colonial," 21.) His (Peter's) children were bajitized Kail, JMiah, Pol, and Job. His father intended that the name of the latter should be Jo, Init the clergyman, not under- standing, baptized him Job. He repaired the house, and, judging from his account-book, he must have re- modeled it, as the work of repairs licgan in 17(iO and extended to 1763, at an expense of £159 14<. This is considered the oldest house in town. It must have l)een newly sided with cedar shingles, which are yet on two sides of the building, tliough in some cases holes are worn entirely through them. Everything was probably fitted up in fine style for the times in which he lived. The beaufet, with its einiilar shelves and rounded-top sash-door, with its euri(]iis pane of glass, the cranes, and trammels, yet remains. The tiles alxjut the fireplace have been taken for old-time relics. Among the one hundred and fifteen items of ex- licnse on the house are : £ s. ,1. To 4:.(in of Shingl.-s U l.i ii " 4 Day's work 12 0 " A W'eek's board 6 o " 14(K)0 teTjpennv nails 7 18 " A box of mass r, 7 (i " 00-' of While Lead 2 10 0 " ;!(KM)foiMi>eniiv brads li o " lOOil of Sboit Shingb-a 1 J 0 "laKlOLalb Nales 2 8 0 " 5d(r/,entilo 12 0 From these extracts prices can ))e compared with the present rates. In the old church record ke|it at I)eac(in Josejih Lockwood's, written in the beautiful handwriting of Rev. Andrew Eliot, is the following: " Mary, daughter of James and Kli'/abeth Bulkley. " Jonathan, son of Walter and Ruth Iliuldington, liaptized at the house of IVIvr Perry, .\ug. 10, 1779, the church having been consumed by tire July S, 177'.l." After Peter Perry's death his son Job bought the liomestead of the heirs, and ])laced his son Alfred thereon in 1811, and he in 1815 brought hither his wife, Ann Dimon (see " Colonial," No. 10), who died in 1850. In 1854 he married Mary Godfrey, widow of Walter Andrews, of Easton. She is the last sur- vivor of that generation of Job's family, either of husbands or of wives. In 1835, Alfred built the which had been sold previously to his son Joseph. It alsii includes a quantity of silver. It is dated Sept. lil, \~r,.i. f Joseph Periy, Jr.'s inventory amounted to six thousand two hun- dred pounds, including s*lue silver. Both fittlier ami son were wealthy f.i the tinojs. 296 HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT. present dwelling, occupied by Burr Perry, who mar- ried (1) Laura H. Gildersleeve, daughter of Dr. Thomas Gildersleeve, of New York, in 1866. She died in 1869. (2) Kate E. Peet, in 1870, a descendant of Capt. Thomas Nash (see " Colonial," No. 13) and Col. John Burr, both of Fairfield, and also of Thaddeus Peet, one of the first settlers of New Milford, Conn. Alfred moved the old dwelling to the northwest a few feet, and removed a portion of the house ; the rest hiis been devoted to various purposes. An upper room is now used for an industrial and Sunday- school, with some tliirty-five pupils in attendance. The frame bids fair to stand another century. It has been in the Perry family to tlie seventli generation. The cradle in which Peter Perry's fifteen children were rocked, and the clock, made by John Wliitear in 1763, which told the hour of their birth, are pre- served on the grounds of the first purchaser. The mill being built in 1709, in 1760 Peter Perry repaired it at a considerable expense, building a new water-wheel, repairing the dam, etc. In 1811, Job Perry tore down the old mill and built a new one, when he introduced Oliver Evan's* machine " for elevating grain and meal, and conveying the same from one part of the mill to another, and for cooling the meal and attending the bolting-hopi)ers," for which he jiaid a license of twenty-five dollars, but which proved a fraud. There was no change in the mill till 1849, when Alfred Perry added a burr-stone at the cost of seventy- one dollars in New York. In 1850 he imported two more run from France, for one hundred and one dollars and fifty cents. In 1866 his nephew, Burr Perry, had possession, and in 1868 raised the mill several feet, put in entirely new machinery, and added the turbine-wheels at the expense of two thousand dollars. The first toll-dish used in the first mill in this section still hangs in Perry's mill, having been in existence abnut two hundn'd years. Peter Perry built a mait-liouse in 1762, from which he sold malt at four English shillings j)cr bushel. The greatest number of entries in his account-book was for meslin (a mixture of wheat and rye used for bread-making). The prices seemed to fluctuate same as at present. Peter Perry was a business man, and amassed a goodly estate. He was a miller, merchant, and owner of vessels, an extensive land-owner, and an excellent financier. Having preserved all his papers and ac- count-books,— which also are journals of events, in- terlarded daily, — much light is thrown on the doings of a century ago. He held several offices in the dis- trict, but his aspirations were not in that direction. He was industrious, energetic, able, and i>ious, and brought up his family in like manner, and, like most of his descendants, felt that a " simple steadfast life alone is glorious." Peter Perry's sons. Job and Walter, married sisters, — Sarah and Elizabeth Sturges, daughters of Joseph Sturgea (who married Sarah, daughter of Ebenezer Dimon), who was taken prisoner by the British and died of the smallpox on one of their pri.son ships. As several from Fairfield died on the prison ships, the following is given : One of the prison ships was the "Jersey," anchored on the present site of Brooklyn Navy-yard. This ship was of sixty-four guns, dis- mantled, and moored about twenty rods from shore. Her port-holes were closed up, and two tiers of holes, twenty inches square, barred with iron, were cut in her sides. For a long time the average number of prisoners on board w.is one thousand. Their allow- ance of rations was two-thirds the cfuantity issued to British seamen, but with no fresh vegetables of any kind. The rations were mostly cooked in an immense boiler called "the great copper," the meat being boiled in sea-water, which corroded the copper and rendered the food poisonous. There was .some relief for those of the prisoners who happened to jiossess anj' money. An old woman known as "Dame Grant" came along- side on alternate days, in a boat rowed by two boys, and sold fresh bread, vegetables, etc., prudentlj' re- quiring that the cash be placed in her hands before the goods were delivered. The prisoners had no means of washing their linen except by dipping it in sea-water and then laying it on the deck and treading on it. No light or fire was furnished, and every night there was a struggle for the places nearest to the small grated openings.