Early Settlers of Ashford, Connecticut
About the middle of the last century Ashford reached a condition of
some prominence and activity. Many new settlers had gained a residence
here. Ebenezer Byles, on becoming of age, settled on land which had been
purchased by Josiah Byles in 1726, about a mile west of Ashford Green.
William Knowlton purchased a farm of four hundred acres in the western
part of Ashford. This was in after years divided between his sons Daniel
and Thomas, who, after serving brilliantly in the French war, engaged with
equal ardor in cultivating their land and discharging the ordinary civil
and military duties of good citizens. Ephraim Lyon removed from Woodstock
to the eastern part of the town, and was greatly esteemed as a man of
shrewdness and sound judgment. Daniel Dow, of Voluntown, settled north of
the "green," with a rising family of great promise. David Bolles, of New
London, established himself near the present Eastford village, with a
license to exercise " the art and mystery of tanning leather," and great
skill and experience in working up the same into serviceable shoes.
Stephen Keyes, Theophilus Clark, and Amos Babcock were admitted freemen
prior to 1760. Samuel Woodcock, of Dedham, succeeded to the farm once held
by Jacob Parker, and Jedidiah Dana to that formerly of John Paine. The
remaining part of the Stoddard tract fell to Martha, daughter of Anthony
Stoddard, and wife of Captain John Stevens, of Boston, who, in 1757, laid
it out and divided it into thirty-one lots or farms, which were sold to
John Chapin, Abel Simmons, James Parker, Robert Snow- and others. A large
and valuable farm, near the site of the present Phoenixville, known as the
Beaver Dam farm, was retained and occupied by Captain and Mrs. Stevens,
and brought under a high state of cultivation. President Stiles,
journeying through Ashford in 1764, was very much interested in Captain
Stevens' agricultural operations. He reported him as holding six thousand
acres of land in the town; having thirty acres of hemp growing, which
required but one man to attend, but employed thirty men in pulling time;
and expecting a harvest of twenty tons of hemp and two hundred bushels of
seed. The people of the town testified to their respect for these
distinguished residents by voting that Captain John Stevens and his family
should have liberty to sit in the ministerial pew at church during the
pleasure of the town. Captain Benjamin Sumner, Captain Elisha Wales,
Elijah Whiton and Amos Babcock were prominent men in the town at that
time. The tavern keepers licensed in 1762 were Benjamin Sumner, Joseph
Palmer, Benjamin Clark, Jedidiah Fay, Ezra Smith, Samuel Eastman and
Elijah Babcock. Solomon Mason had a grist mill, and Amos Babcock kept a
store.
The town officers elected in 1760 were: Amos Babcock. Ebenezer Byles,
Jedidiah Dana, Captain Benjamin Sumner, Ezra Smith, selectmen; Mr. Byles,
town clerk and treasurer: Ezekiel Tiffany, constable and collector for the
west end of the town; Samuel Holmes, constable and- collector for the
middle of the town; Benjamin Russel, constable and collector for the east
end of the town, and also collector for colony rates; Timothy Eastman,
Josiah Spalding, Benjamin Carpenter, Amasa Watkins, Samuel Allen, Jedidiah
Dana, Stephen Abbot, John Bicknell, Benjamin Walker, Jonathan Chaffee, job
Tyler, Benjamin Clark, David Chaffee, William Preston, surveyors of
highways; Jonathan Burnham, Josiah Eaton, fence viewers; Benjamin Clark,
Josiah Holmes, Benjamin Russel, Jedidiah Blanchard, Asaph Smith, listers;
Nehemiah Smith, Jonathan Burnham, grand jurors; Josiah Rogers, Stephen
Snow, William Chub, tithingmen; Benjamin Russel, brander, pound keeper and
collector of excise; Caleb Hende and Josiah Chaffee, branders and pound
keepers; Samuel Snow, sealer of weights and measures; Asaph Smith, sealer
of leather.
As a glimpse of some of the difficulties which beset the people of Ashford
in those days the following memoranda, made by the town clerk in one of
the books of record, are interesting:
"The 5th day of May, 1761, a very stormy day of snow, an awful sight, the
trees green and the ground white; the 6th day, the trees in the blow and
the fields covered with snow.
The 19th day of May, 1763, a bad storm of hail and rain, and very cold,
following which froze ye ground and puddles of water.
" The 17th day of October, 1763, it snowed, and ye 18th in ye morning the
trees and the ground were all covered with ice and snow, which made it
look like ye dead of winter."
One of the last general agitations with which the town of Ashford was
disturbed, before the great upheaval of the revolution, was an outbreak of
land controversy, with respect to the claims of James Corbin and his legal
representatives. This broke out afresh about the year 1769. At that time
the Corbin claims were represented by Benjamin and Ashael Marcy. An appeal
was taken to the assembly, and all the actions of town and assembly since
1719 were reviewed at great length. The assembly decided that 910 acres
were still due to Corbin under the settlement of 1719, and 375 acres more
under the patent of 1725, which they interpreted as being an addition to
the settlement of 1719, and the Macys were authorized to take up land to
the amount of such deficiencies, from the commons of the town. But when
they began to act under this authority the town prosecuted them in the
superior court, and obtained a verdict against them. The Macys then
appealed again to the assembly, and that body reversed the decision of the
superior court, restoring the Macys to the possession of the land and
reimbursement of costs. Thus the question rested until the events of the
revolution gave the people questions of deeper import to absorb their
attention.
As early as 1767, when the oppressive acts of parliament were being
discussed as vital questions in the colonies, Ashford held a meeting
December 14th, and appointed some of its trustworthy citizens, Elisha
Wales, Benjamin Clark, Benjamin Russel, Elijah Whiton and Benjamin Sumner,
"to be a committee to correspond with other committees in the county and
elsewhere, to encourage and help forward manufactures and a spirit of
industry in this government." In regard to the non-importation agreement
of 1769, and the violation of it by some, the people of this town, in
response to a call for a convention of delegates at New Haven, in 1770, to
consider the public welfare in regard to the matter, gave the following
expression of their sentiments:
"Our utmost effort shall be put forth in vindication of the
Non-importation Agreement, as a measure without which the safety and
prosperity of the Colonies cannot be supported.
" That peddlers who, without law or license, go about the country selling
wares, are a nuisance to the public, and, if in our power, shall be picked
up and put to hard labor, and compelled to earn their bread in the house
of correction.
" We highly resent every breach of the Non-importation Agreement, and are
always ready to let our resentment fall upon those who are so hardy and
abandoned as to violate the same.
" It is our earnest desire that every town in this Colony, and in every
Colony in America, would explicitly and publicly disclose their sentiments
relating to the \Ton-importation Agreement and the violations thereof.
"That the infamous conduct of the Yorkers in violating the patriotic
engagements of the merchants, is a daring insult upon the spirit and
understanding of the country, an open contempt of every benevolent and
patriotic sentiment, and an instance of treachery and wickedness
sufficient to excite astonishment in every witnessing mind, and. we doubt
not but their actions will appear infamous till the ideas of virtue are
obliterated in the human mind, and the advocates of liberty and patriotism
are persecuted out of the world.
" That if the people of America properly attend to the concern of
salvation, and (unitedly) resolve upon an unshaken perseverance in the
affair of non-importation till there is a total repeal of the revenue acts
and an ample redress of American grievances, we shall be a free and
flourishing people.
"In consequence of the above resolutions we have chosen Captain Benjamin
Clark to attend the general meeting of the mercantile and landed interests
at New Haven-the sense of the town as above-and to use his utmost
influence to establish in the most solid and durable form the
Non-importation Agreement."
At the same meeting a committee, consisting of Elisha Wales, Benjamin
Clark and Samuel Snow, was appointed to see that no trade in imported
goods was carried on in Ashford in violation of the non-importation
agreement. Later on, when the war clouds began to thicken, in the summer
of 1774, Ashford appointed as its committee of correspondence, to act with
similar committees from other towns, for the general good, the following
men: Jedidiah Fay, Captain Ichabod Ward, Captain Elisha Wales, Benjamin
Sumner, Amos Babcock and Ingoldsby Work. Sympathy was expressed on behalf
of the blockaded and oppressed Boston people by following the example of
Windham in sending a fine flock of sheep for the relief of the distressed
city. During the troublous years of the war Ashford suffered in common
with other towns of the county, and contributed her share of men and means
to carry forward the common cause. The sound sense of political economy
with which her people were inspired is shown in the following instructions
given October 3d, 1783, by Ashford town meeting, to Simeon Smith and Isaac
Perkins, her representatives in the assembly
" 1. Oppose all encroachments of Congress upon the sovereignty and
jurisdiction of separate States, and the assumption of power not expressly
vested in them by Articles of Confederation.
"2. Inquire into the very . interesting question whether Congress was
authorized by the Federal Constitution to grant halfpay for life, and five
years full pay to officers---and if the measure be ill-founded, attempt
every constitutional method for its removal.
"3. Promote a strict inquiry into public and private expenditures, and
bring to a speedy account delinquents and defaulters.
" 4. Use your endeavors that vacant lands be appropriated for the general
benefit of the United States.
" 5. Pay particular attention to the regulation and encouragement of
commerce, agriculture, arts and manufactures.
" 6. We instruct you to use your influence for the suppression of
placemen, pensioners and all unnecessary officers.
" 7. Also, to use your influence to promote the passing an act in the
Assembly to enable Congress to lay an impost on the importation of
-foreign articles.
" And, finally, we instruct you to move in the Assembly that the laws for
the promotion of virtue and good manners and the suppression of vice,
maybe attended to, and enforced, and any other means tending to promote a
general reformation of manners." The population of Ashford in 1775 was
2,228 whites and 13 negroes. The grand list at that time amounted to
£17,273, 11d. 3d. Captain Benjamin Sumner was at that time a very
prominent citizen of the town. Josias Byles succeeded Isaac Perkins as
town clerk and treasurer, in 1780. The selectmen in 1783 were Esquire
Perkins, Captain Reuben Marcy, Captain David Bolles, Lieutenant John
Warren and Edward Sumner. Other officers then were: David Brown, Jedidiah
Ward, Ebenezer Bosworth, Ebenezer Mason, constables and collectors;
Ephraim Lyon, Joshua Kendall, Ephraim Spalding, AmaSa Watkins, Jacob
Chapman, Thomas Ewing, Jonathan Chaffee, Timothy Babcock, Isaac Kendall,
Captain Samuel Smith; Medina Preston, John Loomis, Ephraim Walker and
Stephen Snow, highway surveyors; Medina Preston, Samuel Spring, Abel
Simmons, Deacon Chapman and Josias Byles, grand jurors. At this time the
selectmen were directed to provide a workhouse in which idle, lazy and
impotent persons were to be taken care of and under the direction of the
selectmen they were to be put to work. A committee was at the same time
appointed to look after schools.
One of the memorable events in the history of Ashford was the visit of
General Washington, while on his presidential tour in 1789. Leaving
Uxbridge before sunrise, Saturday, November 7th, they breakfasted at a
tavern kept by one Jacobs, in Thompson--the well-known half-way house
between Boston and Hartford-and thence proceeded on the road to Pomfret.
Major Jackson and Private Secretary Lear occupied the state carriage with
the president, and four servants , followed on horseback. No one knew of
the coming of such a distinguished party through the town, so the people
were not prepared to see him, and only those who happened to be in the way
were fortunate enough to get a glimpse of the nation's chieftain.
At Grosvenor's, in Pomfret, they paused for refreshment and rest, and to
inquire for General Putnam, whom Washington had hoped to see here, and
which indeed had been one of the objects in coming this road, but finding
the distance to his residence too great to be covered without disarranging
his plans, Washington abandoned the idea of seeing Putnam, and continued
on the main road eight miles further, to Perkins' tavern in Ashford, where
he remained over the Sabbath. The diary of the president speaks of this
tavern as " not a good one," a remark which he frequently found
appropriate to the taverns he found on his way, and as he was not writing
for publication he had no scruples against candidly noting it in his
private memorandum. Tradition gives few details or incidents of this
visit. Washington, it is said, attended church, and occupied the most
honored seat in the house of worship, and Mr. Pond and the town officials
doubtless paid their respects, but the Sabbath-keeping etiquette of the
time did not permit any formal demonstration, and he was probably allowed
to spend the day in peace and quiet after his own taste. His visit here is
said to have aroused the jealous indignation of the people of Windham
town. They declared in reference to the president that he had "gone back
and stole away from ye people, going by a by-road through Ashford to avoid
pomp and parade."
Back to: Ashford, Windham
County, Connecticut History Source: History of Windham County, Connecticut,
Bayles, Richard M.; New York: W.W. Preston, 1889 Back to: Windham County, Connecticut
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