Norwalk

Samuel, Jr., born July 4, 1802, the oldest son of Maj. Samuel and the grandson of Abijah, had hardly completed his "schooling" when his father, in 18 18, died. The youth was compelled to buckle on armor, which he manfully did, and became his widowed mother's arm. His brother William married and left home, as did also his brother, Rev. David Comstock. Thomas Anthony, the youngest brother, bought a site on Canaan Ridge. He married Polly, daughter of Samuel and Deborah (Raymond) Lockwood, who had a farm nearly adjoining their son-in-law. Anthony Comstock, Sr., had a son, An- thony, Jr., wlio is the head, to-day, of one of the benevolent organizations of Xew York City. Dinah, sister of Samuel Comstock, Jr., married Rev. Chester Isham, and Ruth, another sister, was principal of the New Haven Dwight Place Comstock Seminary. Samuel Comstock, Jr., married, in 1837. Sarah, Daughter of David and Cynthia (Abbott) Comstock, of Comstock Hill (Silvermine), Norwalk. Their children were and are Hannah (deceased), Sarah, Eliza. Josephine, Clementine and Samuel. Samuel Com- stock, Jr., died March [I, 1871. His widow, born 1812, survives to-day. 'Seymour Comstock still comfortably lives, at a prolonged age, at the foot of Church Hill (lower ex- tremity of llaynes Ridge), New Canaan. He has been an excellent and enterprising resident of that town and has witnessed many changes therein. It seems to have been originally determined that the south end of llaynes Ridge should form the town's business and " town moot " (meeting) centre. Here was built the first meeting house, town house, school and, probably, store. There is a record of the lay- out of the llaynes highway before the parish was or- ganized, and there are those living who tell that the seat of the local marketing was thence gradually transferred to its present site. New Canaan's primal " Slimmer hoarders " were accommodated in the neighborhood of Mr. Comstock's premises, while the remains of the ancient Roult cider mill stand in his lot. Between Mr. Comstock's residence and the grounds of St. Mark's Church lay the former Han- ford Fayerweather home lot. Mr. F., although not a churchman, secured, by another's intercession, to St. Mark's Parish, iis present church site. He was a particular friend of Harriet, daughter of the patriot Capt. Stephen Reus, who was a St. Mark's pillar. The Episcopalians desired to remove from their old quarters — upper end llaynes Ritlge — but found it dif- ficult to obtain a new lot. Miss Harriet Betts plead- ed with and finally prevailed upon Mr. Fayerweather and the praver was granted. New Canaan was an- ciently Norwalk-approached via White Oak Shade, and the Stamford road lay somewhat west of the present business street. The town was Salem-reach- ed via Haynes and Smith Ridges. These two ridges were connected by a highway running southwesterly from Smiths Ridge until it joined Haynes Ridge at the Col. Enoch St. John corner. Two familiar New Canaan and Salem old-time figures— seated finely upon the saddle — were those of Col. Enoch St. John and Col. Thatcher Hayes. A goodly portion of the route between Salem and New Canaan was once pop- lar-bordered. Diverging to the east from the Salem highway, roads conduct to Wilton and Ridgefield. X O R \V A L K . MOSES COMSTOCK LINEAGE. The year 1684 had reached its last day when Xorwalk's first Moses (son of Chris- topher) Comstock was born in, it is probable, that old Indian hiding lot (north corner, 1896, East Avenue and Fitch Street). The boy in all likelihood was a pupil of Thomas Hanford (son of Rev. Thos.) in the antiquated school building- which seems to have stood just north of the East Xorwalk Cemetery of this date.' Leaving school training behind, the youth, as has been seen (note page 146) mar- ried Abigail Brinsmade and chose for a home-site the ground-rise known to-day as Com- stock's Hill in lower Silvermine. Among his children, as enumerated on page 251, was Moses * This son, upon reaching maturity, founded his home near the brow of Northern Canoe Hill, since called " Ferris Hill," where his wife and himself brought up their child- ren, Elizabeth, Phcebe, Sarah. Moses, 3d- Abijah, Aaron, Enos and Caleb. Moses Com- stock,-'1 who died in 1789, was a man of probity, but one who had his peculiarities. At the foot of the hill (Ferris) on which he lived stretched a diversified tract through a por- tion of which to-day peacefully winds a small stream. The ancient name of this tract, the ownership of Moses Comstock, 2d- was " Comstock's Park."2 Its proprietor stocked the territory with game, and it was a handsome addition to the Comstock estate. Elizabeth, Sarah and Phcebe, daughters of Moses Comstock. zd' are remembered to- day, the latter as the " Miss Phcebe " of fifty odd years ago. Moses, 3di a brother of the three sisters, lived at the upper end of Haynes Ridge, New Canaan, a few rods west of 'Rear of the 1896 W. S. Hanford East Norwalk residence. This fact is ascertained from ancient rec- ord- The path leading to the" Plantings" (Bene- dict's Farm, Pine Hill and Marvin Bros.' lands of 1S96) branched, anciently, more at right angle from the"To\vne Street." The Gregory'* Point road of to day, which has taken the place of the old " Pasture path,'' starts from about the same point (opposite Hanford's store of 1896) as did the former "way," hut instead of running for a few rod" due easterly and thence southerly, it cuts off a portion of the fathers' "burying ground," thus making a somewhat more direct line from the " Strcete" to the '• Neck " (East Avenue and Gregory's Point.) The bodies which were removed in this straightening process were, unquestionably, those of the earliest pioneers By careful perusal of preserved land and "pro- prietors'" records facts of ancient M-torv-imerest nre disclosed. The first Norwalk "Town' House" »« 1* w*» known, the first meeting house. When, however, the second meeting house was built (011 Earlc's Hill) the use of said place of worship for secular purposes was abolished. A Town House proper had now, consequently, to be provided. A traveler through Norwalk, in 1704 (Madam Knight), was surprised to find the tavern close by the Church' (both stood on Earle's Hill) and although her Nor- walk landlord provided her with a savory lunch of venison, yet was she in no mood to recognize the con- sistency of the two buildings' locality-approximation. A good move, in this direction, bad been commenced 1 by slutting the Church doors against business in- trusion, and hence we ascertain, from land records, I that a "Town House" was built where now stands I the Street line car house, cor. Knight and Wall St-. This seems to have stood until the burning of the town, after which the new structure was planted on what is now called Town House Hill, which second recorded Town House gave way in 1835, to the pres- ent brick structure. The first parsonage was of course that of Rev. Thos. Hanford, corner of present East Avenue and Fort Point Street. The second par- sonage-site was bought by the town (after Mr. Han- ford's day, whose own home was private property). It w as owned by Joseph Gregory and is to-day occu- pied by the Consolidated road for station purposes. It is on the east side of East Avenue. Its owner, Joseph, son of John Gregory,'-'- had twelve years be- fore bought the first meeting house, for which he paid the sum of £12. -This park and certain of the habits, etc., of its ' owner's family are touched upon in the following X O R W ALK. 259 his brother Aaron's home. Enos (or Enoch), another son of Moses, 2d- married. Dec, 3, 1772, Ann Weed, and had eight children, the seventh of whom, Watts, born Dec. 19, 1790. was the New Canaan citizen of that name who built and occupied the brick building now the home of his son, Charles Comstock, of that town, and near the spacious Alexan- der summer country seat, at present in process of erection. AARON (SON OF MOSES"'-) COMSTOCK LINE. The leaves of the Upper Haynes Ridge trees had just fallen when on Oct. 21, 1780, Moses Comstock, son of Moses and Abigail (Brinsmade) Comstock, and grandson of Christopher, the settler, gave to his two sons, Moses and Aaron, broad acres at the Ridge's far end that heretofore had known the name of " Piatt's Farm" embracing, in part, (1896) the New Canaan Child estate. The two brethren there peacefully lived and died. Aaron was precise and his sense of order was so early developed that the nice manner in which she kept her wool for spinning and the regularity in size and shape of her wool or flax skeins first led him to seek the hand in matrimony of Anne Hanford, his future wife. The two enjoyed their "parade ground" home and the visits to it of the large Comstock family, particularly of Aaron's honored sister, " Miss Phoebe," of Comstock's Hill, whose always neat appearance upon her pillioned horse and accompanied by her faithful w Onesi- " Letters of a Traveler," published some years since by William Cullen Bryant: