CHAPTER XVI.The South District: The Roberts Farm; David Sage, |
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280 The course of our history will now lead eastward from Bishop's corner in the South district. The statement, in an early chapter, that "The Bishop house was long since torn down and the new schoolhouse now stands on the place," called forth a response by letter, from Charles H. Aspinwall, in which he says: The new school house in the South district stands several hundred feet north of the site of the old Bishop house.
Betsey Bishop spent her last years in Springfield, where she owned half of a pretty house. A favorite nephew owned the other half, and she lived happily until after his death. She left a sum of money for the care of her family burying lot, at Maple Cemetery, in Berlin, where she desired to be laid beside her father and mother, but her wish was not regarded. Miss Bishop's mother, Elizabeth [Galpin], born about 1767, was the daughter of Benjamin Galpin, who kept the old tavern at Boston Corners. Elizabeth Galpin's sister, Roxy, was the second wife of Selah Savage, and the mother of Mrs. Franklin Roys. The two sisters used to sing songs that they learned from the dancing parties at the tavern. 281 The large elm tree on the north bank in front of the Loveland house, now occupied by the Roys sisters, was set out in 1784 by Samuel Bishop. He told Mr. Galpin that, when he was nineteen, he went over on the ledge, dug up that tree, and brought it over to the village on his back. At the same time he planted, on the south front bank, a buttonball, which grew to an immense size. It was a target for lightning once too many times, and shortly before 1870, it was split so that a large limb fell over against the house, and for safety the old giant was cut down. Samuel Bishop died September 27, 1856, aged ninety-one years. His wife died December 25, 1840, at the age of seventy-three. Since Erastus North's day, women have complained that they could not find anyone to put scions into their fruit trees. Mrs. Bishop grafted her trees successfully with her own hands. Over the hills, easterly and southerly, around Bishop's curve, at the head of the road, as it runs east and west, may be seen the house of Martin Dunham, built about 1850, by his brother, Solomon Dunham. The farm next east was long owned by the Roberts family. John Roberts died in 1837, aged ninety-two years. His wife, Sarah (Merrills), died in 1830, aged eighty-two years. They were members of the Worthington Congregational church previous to 1812. There were twelve children in this family, whose names were: Sarah, Electa, Eleazer, Samuel, Harry, William, Mary, Maria, John, Emeline, Lucetta, and Julia. Besides the large house, now standing, there was a smaller house farther east, which was occupied by the son John, father of Walter Roberts of New Britain. John Roberts and his father were blacksmiths. Their shop was on the north side of the way easterly from the dwellings. This story is told of John. He made a pair of tongs and set the rivet so tightly that he could not open them. Men in those days wore cloaks, and Roberts, with his tongs hidden under his cloak, came up to Lotan Beckley, the village blacksmith. After standing around awhile he remarked, casually, that he knew a man who made a pair of tongs and he couldn't 282 open them when finished. "Why didn't you tell the d ------------ fool to heat 'em again," said Mr. Beckley. Roberts returned to his shop, put his tongs into the fire and opened them easily. The Roberts farm was purchased in 1844 by S. C. Twitchell. It is now owned by C. M. Jarvis, who is showing what can be done with an abandoned New England farm. Next east of the Roberts blacksmith shop was an old house, known as the King place. Benjamin King was here in 1802. Widow King was the last wife of Seth Savage, Sr. The King house was occupied by tenants until shortly after 1850, when it was torn down. There were two front rooms and a large kitchen at the rear. William Luby says that when he was eight years old his father rented that house. His mother was dead; there were four Luby children; and an aunt, who came to keep house for them, brought her four children, so that they had lively times. There was no floor or ceiling over the kitchen and the children used to jump from the front chambers down onto the kitchen floor. One day, when left alone, they threw a bed down and jumped onto that, and they "caught it" when the old folks came home. The farm house next east of the King place, now (in 1906) the home of the Benson family, was formerly owned by Albert "Hulbert," so spelled in 1824. Robert Hurlbert of this town was a son, by adoption, of Mr. and Mrs. Hulbert. They had no children of their own. The road known as "Old Stantack," two miles in length, which starts opposite the Hulbert house, is sometimes followed by boys of an exploring turn of mind to its termination, on the Middletown and Meriden road, near Bradley and Hubbard's reservoir. Spruce Brook starts in Middletown, a mile or so south of the Berlin town line, and, as it runs northward, crosses Stantack, a short distance south of the Hulbert house. At that point a dam was laid and a sawmill was built. In 1798, Roswell Woodruff leased, for seventy years, to Elisha Savage, that water 283 privilege, with his mill and mill house thereon, described as being east of the dwelling house of said Woodruff. From this statement it would appear that Roswell Woodruff lived on the west side of Stantack road, but no one now living can tell us anything about the Woodruffs. At the expiration of the seventy years lease not much remained of the property to revert to Woodruff heirs. A scattered pile of stones, a shaft and a broken water wheel now lie across the stream to mark the site of the old mill. Elisha Savage was the grandfather of Mrs. Roys and she remembered that when a child she was often sent from her home on Savage hill with hot dinners for the men who worked at the mill all day. In 1805, John Roberts, Jr., claimed Stantack road as his private property, and petitioned the town for permission to enclose the land. Fifty years ago, the bank east of the Savage sawmill was covered with elegant mountain laurel, and not far away grew the pretty, though noxious, lambkill. The same young girl who exclaimed over the laurel blooms, discovered a bed of luscious wild strawberries extending up the mountain slope. Her liking for strawberries overcame her fear of snakes until a monstrous reptile leaped from the bushes and thrashed along her pathway. Ask the Benson boys to tell of their experience with rattlesnakes, red adders, and black snakes. A rattler of unusual size was caught alive in their yard a year ago. Deacon North, whose boyhood days were spent in these fields, used to tell this story: "A great black snake found by the boys was cut apart, and, by actual count, forty-two little snakes ran out of the body of the old one and around in again, at its mouth." Reference has been made to the Stantack Road. According to a report found on page 403, vol. 22, of Middletown Land Records, that road was laid out December 12, 1780, by a committee appointed for the task by the town of Middletown. As 284 surveyed it was four rods wide, and was bounded on either side by stubs of trees; a "Black Oak Staddle" here, a "bunch of Maples," or a "Walnut Staddle" there, and so on throughout its length. On the north side of the way, next east of the Albert Hulbert farm, may be seen an ancient house known to the last two generations as the "Ward place." The Sages once owned land all the way from Connecticut river over to Berlin Street, and this Ward place seems to have been the home of David Sage, Jr., great-grandson of David Sage, the Welch emigrant who came to Middletown in 1652. David Sage and Lois Harris, his wife, had fourteen children, seven sons and seven daughters, born between the years 1754 and 1775. Their names were: Abraham, David, Harris, David and Jonathan (twins), Seth, David, Lois, Ann, Mehitable, Ann, Bathsheba, Ruth, and Lois. The father, David, died in 1779. On the stone at his grave in Maple Cemetery, we read this inscription: Under this stone doth lie the Body of Mr. David Sage, jun'r. Killed instantly by a fall from a horse on the 25th of Febry A. D. 1779. In the 47th Year of his Age— And all those little children! What wonder that three years later Lois, their mother, gave up the ghost, and died, as she did, at the age of forty-eight years. The children held onto their home until 1795, when, as shown by a deed dated June 10, of that year, Abraham Sage, the eldest son, conveyed to Simeon North, his right in the house and barn, with the five-acre home lot bounded east on Spruce Brook, and one-ninth of the sawmill. This deed included thirteen acres of land besides the house lot. By another deed, of date August 29, 1798, Lois Sage, the youngest child, and Bathsheba Bulkeley, her sister, sold for £24 to said North, one-third of the dwelling house and barn, "being the same distributed to Lois and Bathsheba from their father's estate," and "now occupied by sd. North." Then on May 6, 285 1799, their brother David sold to North his share of the house, being one-sixth part thereof and eight acres of land. Mr. North seems to have bought out the Sage heirs for the sake of the land. He sold the part of their house and barn that he had from Abraham, in 1795, to David Woodruff, the next year, for £195, but he kept the land, all except the five acres that have always gone with the house lot. David Woodruff deeded the place to Shubael Pattison November 19, 1812, described by Woodruff as the place where I now live. With house, barn, shop and twenty acres of land, this time, the price paid was $1,130. This is the first mention found of a shop there. Elisha Cheney came into possession of the property and sold it, November 4, 1822, to his son Olcott for $850, reserving to S. North his mill right. Olcott Cheney sold April 10, 1824, for $1,000, to Ebenezer Post. There were five Post children: Eliza, Harriet, Solomon, Ralph, and Ebenezer. Mr. Post died, and his widow, Laura Post, sold to Alfred Ward, September 9, 1837, for $333, encumbered by her dower rights. Mrs. Post became the third wife of Horace Steele, whose house was on the site now occupied by Walter Gwatkins. She had there in the front yard a famous garden filled with old-fashioned flowers, and herbs, and vegetables of every sort. She delighted to cut nosegays for the school children. "Scarlet London pride," yellow lilies, sweetwilliams, columbine, "spider wort," "none so pretty," valerian and violets, with striped grass for green—what if they were not arranged artistically, as to color and shape, the giver is remembered to this day for her gay, sweet flowers. Another plant, popularly called "yellow myrtle," which Mrs. Steele cultivated, was considered quite choice by the women of her day. They would break off slips to give to their friends, with the assurance that they would "live," and they still live. Between the Hulberts and the Wards there was a piece of land thickly wooded, with much undergrowth. After Mrs. Post married again and came up to the village to live, she used to 286 go back to her old home and go all over those woods. She knew where every flower and plant grew. Alfred Ward was a blacksmith who understood his business well. The shop, where he shod horses and cattle driven from far and near, stood near the street west of his house. There was never a saloon or store in this part of the town, and when their day's work was done, the men of the neighborhood used to gather at the blacksmith shop to discuss politics and town affairs, and to exchange bits of gossip. Alfred Ward and Maria Van Orden, his wife, had ten children. Walter died in 1851, aged ten years. It is said of him that "he was a good boy." Leverett, Martha, Mary, Olive, Plumah, Elizabeth (twins), and Ellen lived to maturity. In the lot west of the Savage sawmill, near where Roswell Woodruff's house must have stood, is a never-failing spring of fine water. Leverett Ward thought it would lighten the labor of his mother if the water from that spring could be conducted to her kitchen. He obtained permission to take the water, and dug a trench for a pipe, below frost line across two roads, and down the hill into the house. Now, for nearly forty years that water has been drawn from a faucet over the sink in the Ward house. Once, however, there was trouble, when a gang of Italians, sent to cut wood on the mountain, came down and washed their soiled clothing in the spring. Mr. Ward died June 4, 1880, aged seventy-seven years. His wife died November 29, 1896, aged ninety-two years and four months. Mrs. Plumah Skinner, now the only survivor of the ten children, mother of Elmore Skinner, superintendent of the Berlin Town Earm, came to the homestead to care for her mother in her last days. She repaired the house so that it is good for another century. A grand old maple tree, in the front yard, whose heart had furnished a home for many generations of squirrels, was blown over a few years since. In its fall some of the branches struck against the house and caused considerable damage. When water was carried to the house from the 287 spring above, a branch pipe supplied a fountain in the shape of a goose, under the maple tree. Mrs. Skinner moved the blacksmith shop around to the rear of the house and used it for a summer kitchen. Mrs. Ward cut a fine, new, white, front tooth, one of a third set, late in life. Even then she was not so fortunate as the old lady who said she had two teeth left and she thanked the Lord they were opposite. The Ward place is now owned and occupied by C. J. Thompson. |
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