Norwalk

The five preceding topics, entitled The Settlement, The Islands, The Norwalk East- Saugatuck Lands, The Stamford Boundary and The Oblong define, in some degree, the territorial divisions of ancient Norwalk, and serve to convey something of an idea of the extent of the first grant. In addition to what is to-day known as Norwalk and Wilton,2 portions of several other townships have been carved out of mother Norwalk. ANCIENT AVENUES. Record-paucity is a barring stone to investigation under several heads of Norwalk history. Still, inference is not altogether unlawful, neither is tradition always a dead letter, and meagre information, if supplemented by thorough oral sifting and a thoughtful survey of the ground, is likely to prove helpful. These suggest the conclusion that the pioneers laid out their roadways with reference not alone to the topography of the country, but also to convenient accessibility to certain primitive points, such as The Planting Soil, The Neck, The Pasture Lot, The Parade Ground and The Mill. There was no Town House in early Norwalk times, neither Town Clerk's Office. One of Thomas Fitch's home apartments answered the latter purpose, as a charge upon the proprietor's books intimates.3 Public gatherings were, for the first half-century, held in the Meeting- House,4 and it is more than probable that a chest or closet in the Recorder's possession, constituted the town archives. The town's artery, the abode-site of most of the town's first father's was built four rods wide, and nominated the " Town Street," but was for years hardly more than a tolerable pack-horse or ox way. The south end of this street was comparatively straight and level. i Michael Lockwood and John Rnsco were two Norwalk progenitors who lived close I.;, this angle, (jell. Trvon's men, upon their return to the coast after the destruction in Danbury, seemed to find their way to one or both of these residents' homes. The two lived not far apart, and Mr. Lockwood's son (Michael) was the husband of Mr. Rusco's daughter (Joanna). When the British ( Ridgefield wing ) reached Mr. Lockwood's house, they freely helped themselves to the good things contained in his larder. Upon quit- ting the despoiled home, they, with counterfeit ear- nestness, demanded that Mr. Lockwood should ac- company them. The family, it may well be imagin- ed, were thrown into consternation, but when Hop Meadow (in North Wilton) was reached, the British were suddenly formed into two columns, between which their prisoner was conducted in considerable circumstance, back to his depleted but now joyful hearthstone. Mr. Lockwood was the grandfather of the late Carmi Lockwood of Norwalk, and Mr. Rus- co's descendants are well known citizens of this town to-day. As late as the days of Hons. Wm. T. Minor and Wm. Henrv Holly of Stamford, surveys pertain- ing to The Oblong were made. These men saw that the Vista angle (some ten or eleven miles northwest of Norwalk, and in the vicinity of the old Michael Lockwood and John Rusco homes) was established, thus saving the town of Ridgefield to the State of Connecticut. This line, after having been slightly changed, is the present recognized boundary betw een the tw o States. 2 The greater portion, if not the whole, of the Wilton of 1896, was embraced in early Norwalk. 3Dee. 3, 1701, allowed to Thomas Fitch, for house room, 3 shillings. +The use of the meeting-house for such purpose was abolished by vote early in the 18th century. 34 XORWALK, The St. John tradition mentions the "Ely Swamp," but the town way-wardens took no pains to run their lines around either the Ely bogs or the adjoining Hanford knoll, which knoll has only until late years been removed to allow of passage thereat underneath the Consolidated road. The "Town Street" was not the oldest highway in early N'orwalk. Before N'orwalk was English-inhabited, its territory was trodden by the Stamford founders, w hose route to Fairfield, indicated by barked trees, heaps of stones and "staddle patches," was the identical road that afterward it became the duty of the colonial surveyor to "keep clear of bushes, trees and stones,"1 and along which, "once a month in the winter and every three weeks in the summer" John Perry was wont to can}- the mails. It was over this same road, w hich w as gradually straightened and shortened, that the mounted herald rode, on a memorable spring day in 1687, and loudly trumpeted in the ears of the N'orwalk fathers and mothers that His Majesty James II had acceded to the throne of Empire and was King of England. This highway, along its entire Xonvalk length, from the Xoewanton to the Saugatuck, was known by the name of the "Stamford Path." It con- ducted from Stamford to Fairfield, the Xorwalk and Saugatuck streams being approached, one by a fo»t-way, the other by a "lane," and both crossed at first by log rafts, probably. The "line of the road to the west of the N'orwalk river" lay through the present Marshall Street, when, winding across to "Ponasses Path," it extended over Flax Hill, following nearly the lower Stamford road of to-day. To the east of Norwalk river, this highway traversed the Fort Point and Fitch Streets of 1896, and thence to Strawberry Hill, from whence it took an easterly direction, crossing Indian Brook not far from Indian Field, and making a sharp turn on Saugatuck Hill, led southeast to the northern base of Rocky Neck, from whence Compo was reached by ferry. At the foot of Strawberry Hill there diverged from the Stamford Path the Fathers' Path to Stony Hill, and thence to Saugatuck Playne, Duck Pond, Stephens Island and ('neat Marsh. This was a frequented "way," as it afforded accessibility to some of the most desirable portions of the new settlement. The "Towne Street" began at the foot of what the settlers, in their simple speech, styled the "burial place," now the East Xorwalk Cemetery. From this point the "land allotments" were numbered, and from the same point two "ways" parted, the one to The Pasture and The Neck, and the other to The Ballast, at the harbor end of the cove, west of the water-side home of John Gregory, Sr. The Pasture and Planting Soil were reached from the southeastern end of the burial slope, through a gate w hich was erected not far below the small bridge now standing just under the burial ground hill. This was the settle- ment's principal gate.2 The paths to Pine Hill and The Fields, from whence a path led to Saugatuck, Calf Pasture, Spruce Swamp, Half-Mile Isle and Fruitful Spring started from this gate, of which - ttaf" to" iT a ^^"^(vide action Jol). ,Th, ., tlwt s~niU ^dav dImine- direcily opposite the J.Mah Raymond place. NOR W A L K Robert Beacham was among the first keepers, and which position he possibly held, dwell- ing in ms cove-side cottage close by, until his removal in 1657-8 to one of the fairest marine sites then and now in New England — that of Compo coast. " Towne Street" became more of a thoroughfare as the tow 11 grew, but north of Goodman Hoyt's (Earle's) hill, the limit of the ancient settlement, it was still, in 1680, a path only. Milling, in earliest Norwalk history, was a failure.1 Mill Brook1' (Allen Betls' brook) was a larger stream than Mill Brook," (East Norwalk brook) and grinding and saw- ing plants were consequently there established. This industry, in addition to the purchase and working of France Street lands, created a road traffic in that direction, and opened up the roads to Sticky and Cranberry Plains, two of the older ways in the town. Not manv years, however, elapsed before Henry Whitney solved the mill problem bv utilizing the waters of Norwalk river, when streets began to spring up around "the great bridge " The oldest path on "the other side of the river," (South Norwalk) was Ponasses Path, but the planters, with the exception of their sons, made, probably, for quite a time, no great use of this Indian "way." "Stamford" and "Meadow" paths came next, the first leading through Marshall Street, and the second lying quite near to the South Main Street of 1896. Meadow Path connected the Great Meadow (plain upon which South Norwalk's center is built) with the lower meadow, the "gate" between which two divisions stood in lower Main Street, not far from the present Main Street intersection with Woodward Avenue. Prob- ably there was a gate below that point. It is inferred, from old writings, that Ponasses Path swung towards the cast as it approached the present South Norwalk, and merged in the path to the lower meadow at a point adjacent to the present Railroad Square. Before the pale face set foot on Norwalk soil, there was here already a field-and- forest path that etirvingly coursed the future settlement-site from west to east and thence south. It was evidently something more than a trail, of which sinuous tracks, according to tradition, the "Narwokc" of two- and-a-half centuries ago w as full. The path referred to was known to the Norwalk proprietors as Ponasses Path. Ponasses is a derivative of Ponus. Bonus and his partner, Wassacussue, both Sachems, were rulers over the Rippowams and proprietors of the territory now styled Stamford.