Norwalk

JThe title of "The Bridge,'" the name which Norwalk's business center has long borne, originated, doubtless, in the ancient title of the same locality, viz.. the Great Bridge. •Action taken In New Canaan, Sept. io, 1896. to mark it. 38 N O R \V A L K . the Court dismissed his case on the ground of insufficient evidence) ; Owenoke, Ponus' baby, for whom the Haynes Ridge of the sev enteenth is, at this closing nineteenth century, named, appears to have wandered a long distance from his birth-place ; so that Ponasses Path fell, gradually, to European use. Fleet savage feet no longer traversed it, but swift English steps— the steps of the Fitch's, Hoyt's. Hanford's and Raymonds, when boys,' bounded along its bushy betweens. It came, doubtless, to be merrily enjoyed by white, blithe souls, blithe as the invigorating morning air nerved them forward, and still more blithe as. laden with game and fruit, the)' returned at night from their day s sport. "All roads lead to Rome;" and, stationed upon the Prowitt East Avenue corner, the site of the first place of Christian worship in Norvvalk, one readily discerns how the oldest Norwalk paths, excepting Ponasses, conducted, intentionally or otherwise, directly to the fathers' sanctuary. THE ANCIENT HOME-LOTS. The first house erected in Norwalk was, it is fair to argue, the "company" or "com- mon house." The advance-guard (all men) of pioneers required immediate shelter. These, en routt from the coast, via Saugatuck ford and the Norwalk rocks, finally stopped, on their way to the coast level, in the depressed rear, tradition states, of the present Prowitt residence in East Norwalk. This point bordered the old Fairfield path, already in exist- ence, which fact quite possibly determined the halt that was made beside it. Here the new -comers at once commenced to fell the timber wherewith to throw together the walls and roofing within and under which they could wait until hasty survey was made and building sites decided upon. They were here, probably, first called to order and organized. Richard Olmsted was made surveyor, and the corner formed by the bend in the Fairfield Path (see diagram on next page, lot between Nos. 8 and 10) very likely suggested itself to them as the proper situation for the meeting-house and the Indian-compelled drill- ground. Their minister was not yet chosen, but when the surveyor ran his straight line from The Cove-bank north to the brow of the hill (now Earle's) a commodious corner-lot w as reserved for a parsonage. By reference to the following diagram,2 the home-lots of the pioneers may be more easily traced. 1 It has been suggested that ancient Norwalk'* voting blood m:iv have been partial!)' responsible for New Canaan's origin, and the surmise that its settle- ment, was devised around the supper tables of the Norwalk planters, may not be so greatly wide of the mark. The settlers' sons had, doubtless, their own way of passing the infrequent holidays of the period. A vvierd path, (Ponasses) already in existence at the dale of the pioneers arrival, led to the land of pigeons, partridge-, wild fruit and honey, and as their bovs ing board recited their experiences, the attention of the elders might have been drawn to these new-found precincts of plenty, which they determined to be a land of promise, and denominated it Canaan. 2This diagram, depicted for condensation and convenience sakes, on the next page, exhibits the home-lots of the Norwalk fathers, the histories of whom will follow in their proper places. As two of said primitive lot-holders had hardly more than nominal connection with early Norwalk, it aft.-r a day's adventure out returned, and at the even. ' order here to make reference to Joseph Fitch, of lot NORWALK. THE ANCIENT HOME-LOTS. The Ort'irhial Settlement's Northern Limitation- Line. Jonathan Mar-h, 2 To tin- Fu-hU, < unjifld ,u,d Half-Ad!,' AAjw./v. Tke Coast. NORWALK. ANCIENT NORWALK ARCHITECTURE. As to early Norwalk architecture, we have hardly even fugitive reference. The first dwellings were log cabins, hastily planned and planted. The work of framing to any considerable extent was contingent to the erection of the saw-mill; consequently » mill- brook "b and subsequently one or two sites on the stream which coursed that "lonesome valley"1 above "the point of rocks" at the head of the creek, now - The Bridge," were promptly utilized. The needful was a cardinal consideration with the Norwalk fathers, whose conceptions as to present necessities were clear. The era when skilled workmen were to manipulate 41 elaborate machines and produce the cloth we wear" had not yet dawned, neither the day when "jars and bottles were to magically grow upon the potter's wheel;" but the time wherein to build the grist-mill, the blacksmith shop and the school- house had arrived, to developments in which primitive and serviceable directions the set- tlers consistently bent their energies. 5, and John Steele of lot 22, both of whom were trans- ient proprietors. Joseph Fitch oF lot 5, brother of Thus. Fitch, Sr., and permanent settler, was a possessor of Norwalk meadow property, (south of East X Or walk school building und embracing the site bought in 1896 by St. Paul's parish for an East Norwalk chapel) but did not long remain (three years) to enjoy it. He sold every thing out, "home-lot, housings and all other parcels of land of anv kind'' to Mark St. John, and went from Norwalk to Northampton, Mass., and thence to Hartford, where he married Marv, the youngest daughter of the "acute and accurate" Rev. Samuel Stone, who was the Hartford successor of the Rev. Thomas Hooker, the founder of the Connect- icut capital. He had three children, Joseph, 2d. \a. thaniel and Samuel. Joseph2'^ resided at Windsor, Conn., where he died in 1697, leav ing a son, Joseph Fitch, 3d- who married Saiah Shaler, of Bolton, Conn. Their son John, born Jan. 21, 1743, was the in vkntok of Steamboats. In reference to this achievement of a great grandson of one of the Norwalk founders, it is affirmed "that if the inventions of others which Fulton had copied were removed from his boat, noth- ing would be left but the hull." John Fitch, the steam-craft originator, married Dec. 29, 1766, Lucy Rnl.erts of Simsbnry, Conn. His brother Augustus married January 22, 1760, Editha Field of Hadfield, Mass., and had John, who came 10 New Canaan for hi- wife, finding her in Lucy Mather, born in 1770, in Cmaan parish. Mrs. Lucy (Mather) Fitch lived to the age ot ninety-two. Her son was the distin- guished Augustus Field Fitch, M l)., of Charleston, Smith Carolina. Hon. John Steele, of lot 22, was the first secre- tary to the government o| Hartford. He belonged in Farmington, but was a Hartford magistrate. It is probable that lie was simply a Norwalk property holder — not a resident of the town. He married the widow of Richard Seymour, Sr. Mr. Seymour was I one of the first Norwalk settlers removed by death. He died in 165? at his home, southeast corner of the present East Avenue and Fitch Street, leaving his wife Mercie and his oldest son Thomas, to take care of the three younger boys, John, Zachary and Rich- ard.2t!- In the ordering of Providence Thomas was to found the large Seymour family of Norwalk, and the other sons, particularly- John, to head prominent house- holds elsewhere. The widow married, second, Hon. John Steele of Farmington and Hartford, and the three younger lads accompanied their mother to their step-father's home. Mr. Steele died Nov. 25, 1665, having been a faithful and good step-father to his foster Seymour children. He sold to the first Mat- thias St. John, the earliest St. John home. He was a notable man at the colony's seat. By his first wife he was the ancestor of Gen. Walter Phelps, brother- in-law of the Connecticut poet, Rev. George H. Nichols, D.D., who was the father of Mrs. William H. Bartunn, Jr., of Lime Rock, Conn. Asahel Steele, who married Nov. 16, 1806, So- phia Seymour, born in Norwalk (Canaan parish) Feb. 2S) 1790. daughter of Samuel and Anne (Whitney) i Seymour, and grand-daughter of David and Elizabeth (Hyatt) Whitney, was a descendant in the seventh generation from Hon. John Steele. 'From " Hyatt's Hill" (the Main Street decliv- ity at the foot of which formerly stood Lamb's black- smith shop) to the old Whitney mill, there anciently stretched a well -wooded and well - watered valley. This valley is now the site of the populous lower end of Main Street. X O R \V ALK. -M Referring to the ancient hearthstones of Norwalk, Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Bouton, nearly fifty years ago, wrote of the "one story and a half or two stories with back roofs running slanting and low." which is. unquestionably, a good description of the houses of days agone. The chimney was a feature and in one sense a factor, for not only was warmth demand- ed, but fuel being superabundant, had to be disposed of, so that the fire-place, sufficiently commodious to take in logs five feet in length, performed the double office of heating and consuming; which explains the New England "chimney viewers" object and "ladder"' ordinance. The former was a sort of patrolman, whose duty it was to see that the gen- erous flues were kept soot clean, so diminishing the fire risks, and the latter was a practical precaution, as the ladder — sometimes a fallen tree instead — afforded quick approach to a burning cinder's lodgment in the roof upon which the chimney's roaring draft had pre- cipitated it.