History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

.Tohn Cho])s, who died in North Bridgeport in 1818, and whose name is jierpetuated by the appellation of a hill upon which his wigwam stood, and William Sharp, a seafaring man, who is believed to have been sold into slavery at a South American port by his ras- cally captain, probably left no issue, but at the present writing (18.S0) there are still several families of these Indians remaining. William Sherman, the most in- telligent of their nundter, lives in the town of Trum- bull. He has for numy years been in the employ of the Ambler family, by whom he is held in very high esteem for his many good qualities. His wife is a negro woman, and they have three or four children. Henry Pease, a nephew of William Sherman, is also a resident of Trinnbiill ; he lost his hand a year or two since by the accidental discharge of a gun. There is also a family named .Tackson, whose home is in North Stratford. So far as known to the writer, these are all the survivors of the Golden Hill branch of the once numerous Paugusset tribe. At the present time their funds amount to about two thousand dollars, divided :ts follows : Amniint paid over to town of TrumbuU for support of Henry Peaflo, per .\ct of Lof^lslature $i¥)0 Lent William Sliurman to liuihl a houso SUO Balancein City Savings Hunk, Ilritlgeport 'Ai\ Total S2021 CHArTKK vin. BRIDGEPORT (Continued). PEQCONNOCK OR STK.\TFIELD, FKOM TIIK FIItST SKTTI.E- MENT BY TllK WHITES TO THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. Naiuca anil Boundarios of the Plantation — Petitions for Sclioi>I and Cliurch PrivlleKCS— The flrel MpotlnK-Houso built. In K.OT— Ski't'hcs uf Rev. Clini'li'M Cluinncey and Rev. Samuel Cooke — Items from Inven- tory of Samuel llnbhell'it Estate in 1714 — Quaint and CuHoiu) Extracts frttm the Parlsli Reeonls — Erection of the second Cliurch edifice, in I7I7— Educational Matters— School Pi^lrlcte formed— The Epis- copal Church In Stnitfield— Sketches of the early MiKRionarlca, Messni. Caner, I^amson, and Siiyre — St. John's Cliurch built In 17-18 — Religious Tulerution in Connecticut — Stralficld Biiptlst Clturch organized in n.'tl — Extroctii fW>m the church records. F.VIHFIELI) and Stratford, lus related elsewhere in this volume, were settled by the English in 1639. BRIDGEPORT. 69 Dr. TniniluiU, in his "History of Cimiircticnt." s;iys tliiit aiicitlii'r settlement was begun the same year at Pequonnock, in the western part of 8tratt'orfi, near the bimndary lirtween tlie twn jihmtations, and in this .statement several jia.ssages in the eolonial reeords would at first view seem to sustain him. Yet, upon further consideration, the question arises whether th<' word " Pei|uonnoek" in these passages is not loosely ns<Ml as another name for Cupheag, or Stratford, and whether a tuuuber of years did not actually tdajise 111 ■fori' the fertile plains near the dividing-line lietween I'airlirld and Stratford tempted a few families to locate upon till ni. * 'crtainly it would he very strange if the first planters within our limits really waited for nearly forty years before setting up a school of their own, and for a much longer period before establishing |>ublie worship, considering the importance which we know that they attached to these institutions; yet this must have been the case if a --cttleinent was bcgiiiL here in Iti^j'.t. About the year IGoo a grist-mill is beliesed to have been built at the foot of what is now called Moody's I'oiid, near Mountain (trove Cemetery. Either lli'iiry .lack Mill, of Fairfield, who hadjust sold the mill erected by him in l(i4N. or his son, INIoses .Taekson, was the builder. In UiTO the land for some three-i|Uarlcrs of a mile west of the street now called Park Avenue was owned by ten families, who perhaps have as good a elaiin as any to lie considered the original settlers. Fidlinving is a list of their names, Xo. 1 being the one whose property was the farthest ea.st. No. - coming next, and so on : 1, TiiK \\iixiw Wheeler. 2, Gi)ni>M.\s Hall. '6, JuSEPlI Wheli'ley. 4, .FnHN OllEIL. .^), Sa.mv'kl Tukapwell. \ G, Isaac Wiieelek. V 7, .Iames Benneit. 8. Matthew Sherwuui'. 0, UlCHARI* HUBUELL. lu, Henry Jackson. These jieople were thi> jiroprietors of " lon'g lots," — narrow strips of woodhiiid only a few rods in width, but extending back into the forest Ibr some six or eight miles. Even the front line or southern ex- tremity of these lots we should now consider a long way back into the country, as it was about as far north a.s the present Stratfield Baptist Church. Where the houses of the owners stood cannot now be cerlaitdy determined, excejit in two or three instances. Most of them probalily had their homes mucli farther south- ward than the locality mentioned, and perhaps some of them, though owning land here, never lived in Pe- quonnock at all. The word "Pequonnock" — the name applied to the territory near where Park and iS'orth Avenues now intersect — is of Indian origin ; it signifies " place of slaughter" or " place of destruction," and was perhaps given to tlic locality on account of some long-forgot- ten tragedy occurring among the aborigiiu's. It still survives in the name of a street, in tiie title of one of our banks, and in that of the river u|:on which tiie city is built. In a petition dated May, lti;>4, the inhaliitants asked that, as the ]ilaee was upon the boundary-line of the towns of Fairfield and Stratford, belonging partly to each, the Indian name I'equon- iiock might be changed to Fairford, — a word whose comjiosition is at a glance ai)|iarcnt. The (icmral Court preferred that it should be called Fairlicld \'il- lage, and so ordered; but in the Ibllowing year the people changeil this appellation to Stratfield, though the change was not legalized until 17(11. The follow- ing order was passed by the Assembly at the May session in that year: " Tlii-s Assenilily, liavirig tu'iinl anrl ronsiiii-ri'il the petition nf tlie in- liiiljilHuts of Fairfleld villagis pii'seutv.l to tlu'lii l.y Lieu' Jain.s Ui-iini-lt desii-iiig that tlie Court woul'I state au'l s^ettlo forCTieni a lim'liir tlie west I>ouiu1arye to their plantation, Ac, fine order ami cn.iet: That the line to be the west boundan'e of the said plantation shall run so a^ that it may take in and include within llu-ir I".unris,one Moses .hiL-Uso.i, mil- ler, his housings and lands and run on the west side of idd .laiKson's lotts (viz'l, pa.sture, huililiiig lolt. aii.l Ion- lott, upwards or nmtli- wards to the upward or nortliern end of the hounds of the town of Fairtield, and that all such person or persons as have l.uill m thai »hall hiiild and iulialiit on the east side of tlie aliove.said line, and on tlie west sideof Poipianock River.slinll pa.v lo all pulilick ehinges that shall ariso in the said plaiitalioii his rateable [lart thereof. " I'lovideil alwayes: That this act shall in no wise hinder or abridge tlie inhabitants of the said plantation of using and holding the privi- ledge of feeding sheep to the westward of the abovesaid line, as it wiis granted to them formerly by the inhabitants of the town of Fairfield. " .Vnd further it is enacted by the authoritye aforesaid : Thai the said phuitatiou ^formerly called I'oiiuannoek and Fairtield village) shall for Ibe fiinire be called by the name of Sliatheld." ' These limits were afterwtirds enlarged by an act passed by the (Tcneral .Assembly at New Haven in (Ictobcr, 17o2. Till- code of laws drawn uji for ( 'oiinccticut ( 'oloiiy first settler of Fairfield, and colony, which was adopted by the \ear llioft, contains this by Koger Ludlow, thi deputy-governor of tin the ( ieneral Court in passage : " It lieing one chief project of that old deluder Satlian, lo Ue.pe men from the knowledg of the Scriptures, as in former times keeping them in an unliiiowii tongue, so in these latter times by persuailitig them friun the vse of Tongues, so that at least the tiiie sencc and meaning of the oiiginall might bee clouded with false glosses of saint seeming deceivers; and that X^earning may not bee huiied in the Oiave of o' Forefathers ia Church and Commonwealth, the J>ord assisting our indeavors. It ia therefore ordered that every Townesliip within this .Inii-diction after the Lord hath increased them to the number of lifty househoblers, shall then forthwith appoint one within theiie Towne to teacli all such chil- dren as shall resort to him, to write and lead, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of siuli children, <u- by the inhabitants in generall, . , .Villi it is fiittbei ordereil. that where any Towne shall increase n> the niimher of one bilnilled families or lioiislioblers they shall si-t iipaOraoimar Schoole, the masters llieirol being able to in- struct youths .so farr as they may be fitted toi Ihe ^'ni\el^ity " There is aliundaut evidence to show that this law wa.s not suH'ered to remtiin a dead letter upon the statute-book, and that the projects ot' tin "old de- luder" met with considerable opposition. As earlv as KioO it was voted by the inhaljilants of Stratford in public meeting to pay the scho()lin;ister thirty-six pounds per annum, — a birge sum consider- ing the small size of the place and the gretiter relative value of mtuiey at that day, — the town to bear one- half the expense, and the parents of the children the balance. 70 HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.