Norwalk

In the brain and breast of the devotee of natural scenery, the view from the ref erred-to Norwalk Rocks works effects almost talismanic, and one with eve open to the picturesque can there revel mid romantic delightfulness. From the lower end the ascent by the '* west rocks road" is gradual, affording growing glimpses of the vast stretch to the west, north and east, so that when the summit is gained there is al- most an inexhaustible range of landscape. The rocks, as the Almighty planted them, are at vmir feet ; there are the charms of bolder slope and seape-irregularitv immediately about, and the softness of distant scenery in the far away. The distinguished prelate and grace- ful poet Right Rev. Arthur Cleveland Coxe, became enthusiastic over the scene and there grew demons- trative, and its skirting hill and dale diversified pas- toral country in every point of the compass, finished by the long shining sea line on the south, drew from the able and greatly esteemed Edwin Hall, D.D., his- torian and for many successive years pastor of the First Congregational Church in Norwalk, well-merit- ed praise. XORWALK on their part, as well as from the additional significant fact that while Ponus left his son Onox to reign in his stead, and Catonah his son Wachamene, yet that no intelligence of any such succession on the part of our red children to regal rights or honors exists, (ex- cepting in Naramake zd-, supposable case,) it may be fairly argued that our aborigines were the feeble remnant of braver sires. As pertaining to their parent stock, it is well known that the Mohegans left behind them proof of native greatness, but it is hardly probable that any Norwalk annals will ever be overladen with vivid illustrations of local Mohegan- transmitted purpose or performance-nobility. There is limited notice of this excellence, and it and every authentic Indian mind or manner-mention is a contribution to general information upon an interesting and inviting topic, and therefore worthy of preservation.1 Some of these pre-occupants of the soil returned, most probably, to the north, but the majority of them, by degrees, disappeared by death and left no representatives. Heckett, and his brothers two, whose names cannot with certainty be given, seemed to be among the last of the Norwalk chieftains. Their wigwams stood at different points between Woodpecker's (North Stamford) and Winnepauke's (Vista) Ridges. Heckett is to-day remembered by a hill on Ponus Street, New Canaan, which bears his name. There is a mention that would appear to indicate Ponus-contemporaneousness in his case, but it is vague and seems improbable. Tradition, amounting almost to truth, represents himself and brethren as familiar with the later epoch haunts of the revolutionary Col. Sheldon of Lower Salem and Capt. Joshua King of Ridgefield. It is possible that these Heckett brothers, as was the case with the Indian "Ezra," who lived above Woodpecker's Ridge, and in what is now known as the "High Ridge" district, and who had a son " Roselle," were direct descendants of Ponus. One of Ponus' sons is known to have strayed from the home wigwam, and it is believed that he went to the Oblong neighborhood. Some seventy years ago an Indian is reported to have appeared (see Kurd's Fairfield County) on the top of Flax Hill, who, after a transient glance over the surroundings, disappeared. Not greatly distant from that time a portion of a tribe was ■One of the concluding generation of the Nor- the i ■irv David, for some distance, eluded his copper- walk Indians was out-matched and out-witted by one ,.,,!,,„.,:' ,.u„ ' n, of the settlers grandsons. Matthew Marvin wo him a fi n' latter constantly gained upon lived on the " Fairfteld Path," (Fort Point Street I parties" -pi j j° ^ " hi"'5 hM ^ h~ .S96. next lot west of H. M. Prowitts land) 1 ad a ft The„Indlans sent UP * victory-yell at which grandchild, David, who was deer-footed. During one ^ ' °f »~ *"* ™ of the last century Indian troubles, young David Mar- vin, having been mustered in as a soldier, strayed on one occasion beyond camp bounds. His absence was oticed at headquarters, and a number of white and passed harmlessly by. David lived to found a family, a daughter member of which (Susan) married Mr. James Benedict,* whose home in West Avenue was • - * ..... .,,!»-: ... r°™d°W" \° make r00m' ^arS a8°' for the LeGrand red men were put in pursuit. The Indians led and i L°Ck;VO°d ™P™^ments at that point, and the gate- Indians led, and | way trees to which old home are still in their places. *Roni On. i6. i;... . married Oct. 22, • • marneo Oct. 22, itsio. He was the son \- i.I Nathan and grandson of Nathaniel Benedict His mothe 1 " ' himself and brothers may refer with satisfaction .vasSMannahSammisof Huntington, L.I., and his grandmother ' u lncestry- Another daughter of the fleet young David Hannah, daughter of Rev. Thomas H.wlej of Ridgefield On «""•'<! Shubal Elwood, father of the late Rev. David of hi. „,„. was the principal of ..Hillside" Boarding School i -f T° E,wood of N"rwalk. Rev. Mr. Elwood had, in earlier "b scnool, life, been a physician. N O R \V A L K accustomed to pay annual visits to Norwalk, and to encamp at the foot of "The Rocks." These may possibly have been the children of "Chicken,"' whose descendants quarters were a little north of Burr Plain. The venerable Horace Staples, with great positiveness, speaks of his boyhood memories in relation to this tribal remainder.2 "•Chickens" was a sort of lesser Sachem. Dr. Ezra Stiles, president of Yale College, mentions that during a residenceship east of the Saugatuck, Chic- kens committed murder, and was on that account com- 1 pelled to flee to Redding. He left Redding about 1749, and went to the northern part of the State, where he lived to old age. The Connecticut Assem- bly granted him a small tract, upon which he resided a few years, and died leaving a family of two or three members. The Burr Plain visits were those, prob- ably, of liis Redding or Weston descendants. "Chic- ken Street" to-day bears the name of this grandson of the Pequonnock "Chickens" of 1660." aSome three miles north from Compo's east Sau- gatuck sovereignty-ship lay an undulating meadow- stretch broken by a forest patch and bordering the old Norwalk and Fairfield boundary line that Mama- : chimon had been called upon to help define. These chieftains had passed away, and left a small fraction of an Indian clan to tenant, in Ephraim Burr's day, : along a brook valley not a great distance to the north- east of said Burr's romantically lying area just alluded to. Ephraim was a grandson of Nathaniel Burr, which Nathaniel was a grandson of John Burr, the first of the name in Fairfield. Ephraim Burr s great- grandfather owned and resided at the site of the "Covenant Oak" at the west end of the present Bridgeport. It was one of the fair homesteads of New j England, but fell short, promise-wise, of Burr Plain, | afterward "Hockanum," where Ephraim Burr brought up his son Silas, which son, born May 19, 1771, and having married a daughter of Benjamin Banks, of descent on one hand from John Banks, the settler, and on the other from Richard and Margaret Lyon, of Barlow Plain, Fairfield, was a large landed pro- prietor. Silas Burr's extended Burr Plain home (after- ward the New England manor-like estate of his son- in-law. the late Morris Ketchum) is of Norwalk in- terest by reason of the fact that it was the neighbor- hood of one of the latest Indian inhabited localities, not alone in the vicinity of Norwalk, but in the entire colony of Connecticut. It is supposed that these red men were the descendants of Chicken, whose name is street-perpetuated to-day, and whose home was near the present Wilton and Weston lines. Mr. Horace Staples (referred to in the text) well remembers con- cerning the last ones of the race. He states that in his youth it was the custom of the farmers, after their own use of two-thirds of a barrel of cider, to let the balance stand until it became almost vinegar sour. This was kept for the Indians, who preferred it at that state of acidity. They would come, Mr. Staples relates, men and women, to the farmers' cellars and stand, Indian file, (the squaws in the rear,) until each drank his or her portion, which oftentimes was a full quart of the liquid. " Hockanum," a portion of the more ancient Burr Plain, occupied, in the fathers' vernacular, a Norwalk "adjoyninge," and while the spot au naturrl was somewhat " uncanny," yet under the genius-di- rection of its earlier and later proprietors' wildness, irregularity and even intricacy became blended ex- cellencies. The result of every touch of Mr. Ketch- urn's masterly hand was a transformation, and the Indian domain of days long agone now formed a splendid landed, lawn and garden estate. One hund- red acres of the rolling area were Burr bequeathed, and its four hundred additional acres were the pur- chase, from time to time, of its new proprietor. The house was Gothic, and its architectural features and " setting " were in agreeable harmony with its picture environments. Morris Ketchum, born in Waterford, N.Y., 1796, the fourth child of Amos and Arabella (Landon) Ketchum of Saratoga Countv, N.Y., and of line de- scent (see Ketchum lineage) of Joseph and Mercie (Lindall) Ketchum of early Norwalk, was a man of unblemished character, was one of the business mag- nates of America and an ardent and exalted patriot. At the Hockanum height-period, Westport was the site of several well known family seats. Francis Burritt was located at the ancient " Rocky Neck" and he greatly beautified the acreage which, since Mam- achimons' day had, with a slight exception, remained to a large extent, rocky field and forest lots. From that home emerged two daughters, the brides of the two Ketchum brothers, (sons of Morris) Charles J. and Landon.