Eastford, Windham County, Connecticut History
The town of Eastford, lying in the northwest part of Windham county, is
about nine miles in length from north to south, and has an average width
of about three miles. Its area would thus approximate twenty-seven square
miles. It is a well watered town, the Natchaug river running through the
length of it, and receiving within its bounds several tributaries, the
largest of which are Bigelow river from the west and Bungee brook from the
east. It has no railroad track within its borders. Farming and
manufacturing are the chief occupations of the people. The town was
formerly included in the territory of Ashford, which joins it on the west.
Other boundaries of the town are Union on the north, Woodstock on the
north and east, making an offset of about three miles square upon the
northeast corner, Pomfret on the east and Hampton and Chaplin on the
south. The population in 1870 was 984, and in 1880, 885.
In March, 1764, the inhabitants of the town of Ashford voted to divide the
town into three ecclesiastical societies, as nearly of equal size as
possible, for the better accommodation of the people in their religious
privileges. When religious worship was maintained in the Eastford and
Westford societies, they were to be relieved from the tax in support of
the minister in the center. A bill passed the general assembly to this
effect. Eastford did not use this privilege until October, 1777, when
arrangements were made to have a settled ministry and a church in said
society. In almost every interest, except holding town meetings, all
proceeded much as though it was a separate town. In sharing town offices
and sending representatives to the general assembly it was expected that
Eastford would have her due proportion. The management of the schools, the
appointment of school visitors and most of the local interests were under
her supervision as much as desired. Ephraim Lyon, David Bolles, Stephen
Keyes, John Paine, Anthony Stoddard, Captain John Stevens and many other
prominent inhabitants of Eastford were among the early settlers in the
town of Ashford wile most of the inhabitants of Eastford have from its
earliest history been engaged in agriculture, they have also been quite
largely employed in manufacturing. While it is a hilly town it has running
through its central portion streams furnishing excellent water privileges.
The Bigelow river forms a junction with the Natchaug near Phoenixville.
This comes from the northwest, furnishing an excellent water privilege for
the Snow mills. In the olden time a carding mill and clothiers' works were
here located, and Eliezer Snow did a thriving business, when the good
house-wife spun and wove the cloth for the male portion of the family and
sent it when finished to be dressed at Snow's clothing works. A grist mill
still does business at this place.
In Phoenixville, in the south part of Eastford, there was a carding
machine at an earlier date than that of Snow's, located where the Stone
Factory now stands. When the Phoenixville Manufacturing Company was
organized a stone cotton mill was built in 1831, consisting of three
floors above the basement, 35 by 70 feet in size. The Phoenix Company also
purchased the cotton mill which had been built by George and Rufus Sprague
about 1812. This building was three floors above the basement, 36 by 50
feet. The original Phoenix Company consisted of Samuel Moseley, Smith
Snow, Josiah Savage, James H. Preston, John Brown and Seth H. Tuthill.
Both mills were well furnished with the best of machinery, and furnished
employment for a large number of operatives. For many years a large amount
of business was done by this company. In time the mills passed into the
hands of Mr. Clifford Thomas, who carried on manufacturing with much
energy and success. When he left the mills the business began to decline,
the stone mill became a twine mill for a time, passed with the other
property into the hands of the late Joseph B. Latham, and is now in the
hands of his sons. But little business is now transacted by what was once
the celebrated Phoenix Manufacturing Company.
At a little distance below the Phoenix Company's mills was the Burnham
silk mill. This did a considerable business for a time, having an
excellent water privilege. This property passed into the hands of Mr.
Alfred Potter, who used the buildings for a saw mill, grist mill,
blacksmith shop and an iron foundry. Stoves and plow castings were here
made, and a good business carried on. Since the death of Mr. Potter little
business has been done by this establishment.
Near the Potter mill, lived a Mr. Swinnington, who was so confident that a
rich mine of gold and silver was located there, that he built a dam, to
turn the water through the gulch in which he supposed the precious
treasure was deposited, expecting to wash out immense treasures, but all
his expectations failed and he felt that his labor was lost.
In 1880 M. F. and J. E. Latham built a twine mill a little north of the
Phoenix cotton mills, 30 by 50 feet, two floors above the basement, where
they had ten feet of water on a 40 inch Leffel wheel. This mill is now
doing successful work. All the dams of the several mills in. Phoenixville
are in good condition and ought to be in full use. Latham's saw mill,
grist mill, and shingle mill, are doing a large and successful business,
and use the water privilege of the upper Phoenix mill to good advantage.
The stone dam here bids fair to stand for ages, from its excellent
construction.
Smith Snow was a son of Bilarky Snow, who owned a large tract of land in
Eastford. Smith Snow married Sally Hyde. He was a decided business man,
and gave but little time to the social conventionalities of life. The
story is handed down of him that when he wedded his wife he returned from
the wedding, `which is supposed to have taken place at the home of the
bride's sister, Mrs. William Sherman, in the western part of Pomfret,
changed his clothes and went to work in his mill, completing his day's
work. Having done so he returned home at evening and found his house
filled with guests met to properly celebrate the occasion. But he was not
be thrown out of his usual habit even by such an innovation. When his
usual bed-time came, which was early in the night, he disrobed in the
kitchen and tucked himself away in the bed, telling his new wife that she
could come when she got ready and take the back side, as he should take
the front side of the bed himself.
The Phoenix Manufacturing Company, which succeeded Mr. Snow in the
ownership of this mill, sold the Snow sawmill to Joseph B. Latham, who
removed hither from Johnstown, R. I., when he was twenty-one years of age.
He married Percy Bullard, a daughter of Zuinglius Bullard. Mr. Latham was
a prominent man in Eastford, and represented the town in the legislature
two or three times. He died April 21st, 1872, being seventy years of age.
The mill is now owned by his son M. F. Latham, and it is occupied in grist
grinding and sawing.
In the center of Eastford, there are also excellent water privileges. The
Crystal lake, in the north part of the town, about half its contents in
Woodstock, the rest in Eastford, is not only a beautiful place for
excursions from the surrounding country, a favorite resort for fishermen,
but its waters have been raised by a dam at its outlet, so that it is an
excellent reservoir for all the mills on the stream below it. Early in its
history, Eastford village had clothing works, doing a good business. These
were burnt in 1837, and soon after, within the same year, Captain Jonathan
Skinner built the cotton factory still standing. It was 36 by 60 feet on
the ground, two floors above the basement, and employed some twenty hands.
Cassimeres and jeans were manufactured. After the death of Captain
Skinner, this mill passed into the hands of 11. and James Keith, and has
been used as a cotton mill, in the manufacture of woolen yarn, making of
wooden wares and as a grist mill. It is now owned by James M. Keith and is
used in the manufacture of woolen yarn and as a grist mill. Five or six
hands are kept employed. Its business is said to be successful. A few rods
north of this mill stood the Red Woolen mill. There Mr. Mumford, early in
the history of the village, built and ran the mill, doing a good business
in the manufacture of woolen cloths. Afterward it passed into the hands of
Mr. Ormsby, who continued the business for many years, when the Arnold
Brothers came into possession, built a large addition, and engaged in the
making of cart and wagon wheels, and other wooden manufacturing, and the
carriage manufacturing business. They did an extensive- business for many
years, but since they gave up the business but little has been done with
the mills. The firm of Skinner & Hewett built a substantial stone cotton
mill a short distance above the Mumford mill, 35 by 80 feet, two stories
above the basement, employing some twenty operatives, and doing a good
business. This mill was burnt in 1850 and has not been rebuilt. A large
tannery has also been in operation in the village for more than half a
century. Mr. Dodge did business here for several years, when the stand
passed into the hands of Deacon Joseph Barrows. He enlarged the
establishment, increased the amount of business, and for more than forty
years has done a large business. A few years since he took his son, Clark
Barrows, into the firm, a steam engine of twenty-five horse power was
procured for use in the building, and the leather of the Barrows Company
stood high in the market, and still commands the best of prices. A large
boot and shoe manufactory, employing a large number of hands, either in
the establishment or in shoe binding at their homes, did for many years a
thriving business. Mr. Hiram Burnham was at the head of this
establishment. Near the close of his life the manufactory was burned,
containing a large store of shoes and other goods, and the business was
never resumed except in a small way, and at .Mr. Burnham's death the
business ceased.
For about half a century the carriage and blacksmith shop of William E.
Cheney did a good business. In the last years of his life he added an
undertaker's office, and kept an assortment of coffins, with a hearse,
much for the convenience of the community. At his death in 1884, the
establishment ceased to do business.
Usually one or two stores and a post office have existed in Phoenixville,
some three or four stores and a post office in Eastford Center, and a
store and post office in the section still called North Ashford. Several
blacksmith shops have usually done business, and one in the Center was
used for several years as an axe and hatchet factory. Captain Jairus
Chapman did quite a thriving business in this factory, a fine trip-hammer
being run by water power. In the olden time there eras an axe factory in
the northwest part of Eastford, and that section of the town still bears
the name of the Axe Factory. Captain Jairus Chapman had carried on the
same business before he sold his shop and removed to Eastford Center. His
business was located in the west part of the town, where he manufactured
scythes, broad axes, axes and hatchets. This business proved quite
profitable, and the goods manufactured had a high reputation in the
market. This shop was sold to Hon. Edwin A. Buck, now of Willimantic, and
Hon. John Dean, who used the water privilege in preparing plow beams, plow
handles, etc. Large quantities of oak timber, growing. extensively in the
vicinity, thus brought good profit to the farmers of the neighborhood.
This business closed when the timber was used up. Mr. L. M. Whitney is now
running a bobbin factory in Eastford Center, making about 1,000 bobbins a
day, which are sold to the manufactories in the region. A ten horse power
steam engine is used in this factory.
The town of Eastford was incorporated in May, 1847, being taken from
Ashford; population, 855; principal industry, agriculture. It is reached
by stage from North Windham on . the New York & New England railroad, from
Putnam on the same road, and the Norwich & Worcester division of the same,
daily. A Masonic lodge was established early in the present century,
meeting for many years in a room in the mansion of the late Benjamin
Bosworth, Esq. It is now united with the lodge in Putnam, where the
meetings are now held. A grange of some sixty members, called the Crystal
Lake Grange, has been established here. Ashford and a part of Woodstock
unite with Eastford in sustaining this organization. A temperance society
exists and holds regular meetings in the place. Distinguished men have
been born in Eastford. Judge Andrew Judson, member of congress and
district judge of the U. S. court; Hon. Elisha Carpenter, judge of the
supreme court of errors in Connecticut; Hon. Jairus Carpenter, judge in
Madison, Wis., lecturer on law and dean for the faculty in the State
University of Wisconsin; Hon. Alvan Preston, for many years a partner and
manager of the glass works in Ellenville, N. Y., and many others. General
Nathaniel Lyon, who fell in the battle at Springfield, Mo., is buried in
Eastford, by the side of his parents. His burial was attended with
military honors, and was the largest assembly probably ever gathered in
Windham county. Governor Buckingham, of Connecticut, and Governor Sprague,
of Rhode Island, with other distinguished men in military and civil
office, were present to honor the memory of one who probably saved the
state of Missouri from joining the secessionists in the late rebellion.
The mother of General Lyon was a niece of Colonel Knowlton, who took an
active part in the battle of Bunker Hill, and who is reputed to be the
prominent figure in the picture of that battle. It was his plan in the
novel breastwork-two rows of rail fence parallel to each other, with the
packing of fresh mown hay between-which probably made that battle an
essential victory to the Americans. Lieutenant Daniel Knowlton, an elder
brother of this Colonel Knowlton, was General Lyon's grandfather. The
father of General Lyon was a mathematician, his mother had the energy of
the Knowltons. An amusing anecdote is related of her. When a girl, she
attended an evening party with her affianced lover. When the hostler of
the tavern brought the sleigh to the door, the young man who waited upon
her had become too much intoxicated to lift his foot over the side of the
sleigh, and she saw her mates giggling at the position she was in. Quick
as thought, she sprang into the sleigh, seized his collar with both hands,
drew him into the sleigh, set him down with a firm hand, took the reins
from the hostler's hands, and drove rapidly homeward. He became more and
more helpless, but she drove directly to his father's house, opened the
door, pulled him into the entry, aroused the family, said the young man
had a fit or something, jumped into the sleigh, drove to her father's
house, and sent her brother back with the horse and sleigh. When he came
back with promises to reform, she wisely considered the prospect too
forbidding, and waited for a better offer.
Franklin Sibley is a successful physician in one of our Western states,
and two of his brothers were in good practice, but died in early life.
Andrew J. Bowen is a lawyer in good practice in Willimantic, one of his
brothers is a physician in the West, and Stephen Bowen, another brother,
has been sheriff of the county, and is a large dealer in horses, bringing
hither several car loads of western horses every year. Preston B. Sibley
has filled the office of sheriff for several years, and is now quite a
popular and successful keeper of the county jail in Brooklyn. Godfrey
Works for several years was a manufacturer and a successful business man
after his removal to Providence, R. I. Benjamin Bosworth was a large
landholder, a merchant and a liberal contributor to objects of benevolence
and charity. Benjamin Green, a successful manufacturer in the state of
Maine, who paid half the price of the pipe organ in the Congregational
church in Eastford, was also a native of the town.
The selectmen of the town are Munroe Latham, Charles Warren and George
Lyon; Doctor Elisha Robbins is judge of probate, and Frank Bowen,
collector.
Reverend Solomon Spaulding was born in Eastford, educated at Dartmouth
College, preached in western New York, and when out of health, for
diversion, wrote a legendary story of the Indians, which is supposed to
have furnished the basis of the Book of Mormon. His brother Josiah, who
was with him when he wrote the legendary tale, and heard him read his
manuscript, said they were so similar, that when he read the Mormon Bible,
he usually knew what was to come before he read the pages. Rigdon, an
elder, afterward high in office, borrowed the manuscript of the widow
under the alleged purpose of using it to refute Mormonism, but would never
return it to the owner.
Captain Joseph B. Latham should be named among the prominent business men
of wealth in Eastford, also his son Eugene, a master machinist, recently
killed instantly in Windsor Locks by being caught in the machinery in a
mill. A few years since the firm of Smith, Winchester & Co., commissioned
him to go to Egypt to put up machines in that distant country. Master John
Griggs was a famous school teacher. When 75 years of age, he was still
pursuing his favorite vocation. He taught over fifty terms in his own and
neighboring towns, and is said to have had altogether more than three
thousand pupils under his care. He wrote excellent poetry, as did his son
Lucian, born in Eastford, remarkable for his memory. It is said that when
he attempted it, he could repeat a lengthy speech or sermon nearly word
for word, or a poem after once carefully reading it. An amusing anecdote
is told of him in his days of early manhood. A schoolmate of his received
proposals from a young gentleman, wishing to cultivate an acquaintance
with matrimonial views. With a blushing hesitancy and apology, she said to
Lucian, after stating the proposal, "You are well acquainted with him and
I am not, what is it best for me to do? If he is an estimable man, I might
like a further acquaintance." Lucian paused for a little, and then said, "
He and I have always been good friends and I do not wish to say anything
to his injury. I will give you a couplet in poetry, and you can draw your
own inference. Trust not in any man, trust not in any brother; so girls,
if you must love, love one another." She understood his advice and
followed it. Lucian Griggs bid fair to become an eminent lawyer, practiced
for a few years in Indiana, where he died, greatly lamented by his friends
and the community.
The Eastford Creamery is a co-operative concern with a capital of
$2,000, organized as a joint stock company. The directors are: J. M.
Herendeen, D. M. Bent, H. K. Safford, M. F. Latham, C. O. Warren, E. W.
Warren and S. O. Bowen. C. O. Warren was chosen secretary, and also acts
as superintendent. The company was presented with a piece of land (by S.
O. Bowen) on the highway leading from Eastford village to Phoenixville,
with the privilege of digging a well, and conveying water from a favorable
point above the site of the building, which gives a good fall and great
abundance of water.
The benefits of a creamery were first agitated in the Grange, which
interested many of the leading citizens of this community and some of the
farmers of Woodstock, which culminated in the agreement to establish a
creamery. The building committee was J. E. Latham, J. M. Herendeen and
Henry Trowbridge, who commenced work soon after the ground opened in the
spring.
Source: History of Windham County, Connecticut, Bayles, Richard M.; New York: W.W. Preston, 1889