Norwalk

"A robust old gentleman, a native of Norwalk, Conn., told us that he had been reading a history of that place by the Rev. Mr. Hall. 1 1 find,' said he, 1 that in his account of the remarkable people of Nor- walk he has omitted to speak of two of the most re- markable, two spinisters, Sarah and Phoebe Comstock, relatives of mine and friends of my youth, of whom I retain a vivid recollection. They were in opulent circumstances for the neighborhood in which they lived, possessing a farm of about two hundred acres; they were industrious, frugal and extremely charit- able; but they never relieved a poor family without visiting it, and inquiring carefully into its circum- stances. Sarah was the housekeeper and Phoebe the fanner. Phoebe knew nothing of kitchen matters, but she knew at what time of the year greensward should be broken up and corn planted and potatoes dug, She dropped Indian corn and sowed English grain with her own hands. In the time of planting or of harvest it was Sarah who visited and relieved the poor. I remember that they had various ways of employing the young people who called jupon them. If it was late in the autumn, there was a chopping- board and chopping-knife ready, with the feet of neat-cattle, from which the oily parts had been ex- tracted by boiling. ' You do not want to be idle,' they would say 'Chop this meat and you shall have your share of the mince pies that we are going to make.' At other times a supply of old woolen stock- ings were ready for unraveling. 'We know you do not want to be idle,* they would say. ' Here are some stockings which you would oblige us by unraveling.' If you asked what use they made of the spools of woolen thread obtained by this process, they would answer: ' We use it as the weft of the linsey-woolsey with which we clothe our negroes.' They had negro slaves in those times, and old "O'ne", a faithful black servant of theirs, who has seen more than a hundred years, is alive yet. "They practiced one very peculiar piece of econ- omy. The white hickory you know yields the purest and sweetest of saccharine juices. They had their hickory fuel cut into short billets, which before plac- ing on the fire they laid on the andirons, a little in front of the blaze, so as to subject it to a pretty strong heat. This caused the syrup in the wood to drop from each end of the billet, where it was caught in a cup, and in this way a gallon or two was caught in the course of a fortnight. With this they flavored their nicest cakes. "They died about thirty years since, one at the age of eighty-nine, and the other at the age of ninety. On the tomb-stone of one of them, it was recorded that she had been a member of the Church for seven- ty years. Their father was a remarkable man in his way. He was a rich man in his time, and kept a park of deer, one of the last known in Connecticut, for the purpose of supplying his table with venison. He prided himself on the strict and literal fulfilment of his word." S O R W A L K mus," is a Norwalk Revolutionary memory.' In that house (now Jones') hard by in that day, to the Haynes patrimony, and, for many a year after, next to the sunny Mitchell and Bonny residence, were reared their children : Thaddeis, born Aug. 6. 1775, died young. Aaron, born Mar. 25, 1777. THADDEUS.21'* born Sept. 10, 1 779. Lucretia, born Sept. 7, 1782 ; married Gold, uncle of Prof. Samuel St. John, of New Canaan. Hannah, born Sept. 8, 1785 ; married Edward Nash, of New Canaan. Daniel, born Aug. 4, 1789. Anne (Mary Ann), born Feb. 12, 1790 ; married Erastus Seeley. Aaron,"1- son of Aaron Comstock, married Esther, daughter of Enos Kellogg. SEYMOUR-COMSTOCK LINEAGE. Maj. Jonathan Selleck. son of David and Susannah Selleck, the settlers, came to Stamford in 1660. He married. May I I, 1663, Abigail, daughter of Hon. Richard Law, of Stamford, "the first gentleman of the colony, " and had Jonathan, born July II, 1664, who married Jan. 5, 1685, Abigail, daughter of Maj. Nathan Gold, of Fairfield, and had Nathan, born Sept. 12, 1686, who married, Aug. 12, 1708, Susannah, daughter of William 'Miss Phcebe, horn Sept. 26, 1763, and her sister, Sarah, left, finally, the Ferris Mill home and estab- lished themselves on the old Moses Comstock's'- (their grandfather) estate on Comstock Hill. They were maiden ladies who kept the ancient place until it was accidentia set on fire by their slave, Onesimus. The old building having burned down, the sisters re- moved a few rods further down the hill (south) where they passed the remainder of their days. " Miss Phcehe's" reminiscences are found in "Hall's Nor- walk," page 173. Their uncle, Abijah, 'at- ( son of Moses'"-) lived, first, in what is now the " VVardwell house" in Silvermine. It seems highly probable that he built the same. He surrendered it, however, to his son, Thomas, who there resided and there receiv- ed the fleeing sufferers at the time of Tryon's fiery raid in 1779. When Abijah Comstock gave up his Silvermine hume to his son, Thomas, he established the large farm in Vista.which his great grand-children to day enjoy, and which is with grace presided over by his grand-daughter-in-law, the widow of Samuel Com»tock*l. herself the daughter ol David Comstock (M,n of David), of Comstock Hill. The slave, Onesimus, before mentioned, was a character in his way. Older Norwalkers still remem- ber him a- seated upon one of the Comstock Hill ■ rode, the attendant of Miss Phoebe, to and ' O'ne " was a I . hnr-es, h< front Norwalk. >>ng Wander, born before the Revolution, lie was Norwalk-purchased by Sarah and Phoebe Comstock, the aunts of 11 Miss Phcebe." The lad's original bill of sale, of which a copy is here presented, is in the possession of linn. A. H. Hyington, of Norwalk. "O'ne" is said to have been the last slave owned in Connecticut. 1 Norwalk, AuggVKt the Ninth Day, in the Year, 1 773. " Know all men to whom these presents shall come that I, Jonathan Masted, "f lirookhaven on Long Island, for the consideration of thirty-nine pounds, New York money, received to my full satis- faction of Sarv Comstock and Phebe Comstock, I do bargain, sell and convev unto the above named Sary Comstock and Phebe Comstock, of Norwalk, in the County of Fairfield, one certain negro boy aged nine years the first day of November last named Onesi- mus, which I, the said Jonathan Hosted, do sell for a slave lor the term of his life which I do bind myself and my heirs and assigns to wan-ant secure and de- fend against all claims and demands whatever. "In witness whereof, I have herein set my hand ami seal, the day and date above saitl. •' JONATHAN 1IUSTED." " Signed and delivered in presence of " John Makviv, m'.sks co.mst'k k." NORWALK. 261 Hooker.' Mrs. Nathan Hooker Selleck died Oct. 5, ^709, leaving a daughter, Susannah, who married Joseph St. John, the father of Hooker, William and Buckingham St. John, of Norwalk. Nathan Selleck married, (see note page 126) second, Dec. 1710, Mary Sands, of Jamaica, L. I., who died Jul}- 15, 1712. He married, third, Jan. 1, 1713, Sarah Sands, cousin of his second wife, and had Nathan, born Sept. 15, 1726, who married, Sept. 17, 1745, Katherine, daughter of John Clock, of Stamford, who had Phoebe, who married, Feb. 1, 1776, as his second wife, Thos., son of Abijah, and Deborah Comstock, of New Canaan. Thomas2 and Phcebe lived in the Ward we 11 house in Silvermine, which house three years after their marriage was crowded, at the time of Try on s incendiarism, with Norwalk refugees. Their son, Nathan Selleck Comstock, married Betty, daughter of Ezra Sey- mour,3 of White Oak Shade, and had Seymour, born 1 804, who married Matilda, daugh- ■William Hooker was the thinl sou of Rev. Sam- uel and Ma rv ( WKlelis) Hooker, of Farming ton. Conn, His father was a son of Rev. Thomas Hook- er, founder of 1 lartford, and his mother was a daugh- ter of Capt. Thos. Wil'etts of Plymouth, Mass., and the first Mayor of New York City. He was a broth- er of Mrs. Rev. Stephen Buckingham of Norwalk. 2On the afternoon before Norwalk was burned Thomas Comstock, born Jan. 26, 1747, was dwelling in peaceful security in the house now standing in Sil- vermine, west side of the road and second house above the "Crofoot corner" (See note page 115). The alarmed Norwalkers, however, soon put in an appearance, as hastening out of tiie doomed town they sought shelter in the suburbs. Mr. Comstock opened wide his doors to receive them and the refu- gees were made welcome. The times were stringent and it was difficult, at that date, to money-pay Mr. Comstock for the unexpected expense he had in- curred. Two well-known benefitted Norwalk men, Simeon Raymond and Goold Hovt, who themselves had suffered by the foreign incendiaries, generously proposed to surrender to Mr. Comstock any damage- claims which might ultimately stand in their favor. These claims were afterward satisfied by the Ohio " Kireland Vs apportionment, and as Messrs. Ray- mond and llovt's shares were put to Mr. Comstock's credit, the latter became proprietor of a Western estate. Time rolled along and it was not until 1806 that Mr. Comstock's son, Nathan S., determined, with -<oine others, to journey to Ohio and look up land matters. The companions reached their des- tination, bnt the land was unmarked, and local infor- mation could not easily be obtained and the com- pany returned from a bootless errand. Three years passed and Nathan S. Comstock, hoping for better tilings, arranged for a second investigation trip. He now took with him I>arius Ferris, of Ferris Hill, not a half mile north of the Thos. Comstock place, and Elijah Hovt. There is a record that the three men took :i span of horses which, attached to a wagon,