CHAPTER VI.

The Root Family. The "Lee House" and its Occupants.

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John Root, one of the early settlers in Farmington, was the ancestor of the Christian Lane families of that name. His will, dated April 21, 1684, reads as follows:

I, John Roote, sen. of the town of Farmington do make this my last will & Testament: I give to my wife Mary Roote a constant comfortable maintenance to be paid to her by my Executors during her widowhood and £20. But in Case she marry again, I give her £20 more, and then the Constant maintenance to cease. I doe solemnly charge my sons Joseph & Caleb, as long as the care of their Mother shall be incumbent upon them to carry very dutifull and tenderly toward her & see from time to time that she want nothing for her comfortable support, and I hope that the Overseers of this my will will have an eye to this care. To each of my sons which are already married, 20 shillings; & to my gr children 5 shillings. I give to my daughter Mary, the wife of Isaac Brunson £15. I do confirm to my son Steven Roote the 20 acres of land which I engaged upon his marriage with his Wife that now is.
I give to my son Joseph both my Looms with all the Tackling. To my sons Caleb & Joseph I give the remainder of my Estate. . . . .

Stephen Root, son of John, and father of the John who came to Great Swamp, was called the "Giant of Farmington." He was well built and of herculean strength and powers. In height he was six feet and six inches. He was one of the greatest racers of his day and was never outrun except by an Indian. He was in the Narragansett war and was in the fight when the fort was destroyed. He carried a sword and a huge musket, now held as priceless family treasures.

In his will, dated October 16, 1716, Stephen Root gave to his son, John Root, "a pair of brown steers," all his "wear-ing clothes," and "half his husbandry tools." John, born at Farmington, 1685, was already hard at work clearing up a farm

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in Great Swamp. The ground was covered with bushes and wild grapevines, and those brown steers had a plenty of exercise.

John Root was strongly built, with broad shoulders and large hands, but he was not so tall by eight inches as his father, Stephen, and those wearing clothes would make over nicely for him. Besides clothes were clothes in the days when women carded, spun, and wove the material, and cut and made every garment that went on to the backs of the family.

John Root married July 10, 1716, Margaret, daughter of Col. John Strong of Farmington. Their house, which is still standing on the west side of the way at the south end of Chris-tian Lane, unchanged as built in 1712, is a rare model of the homes in which our ancestors dwelt two hundred years ago. The barn was built in 1706.

Dwight Root and his sisters, the Misses Elizabeth and Han-nah Root, children of the late Timothy Root, are the last of five successive generations who have lived on this farm. The family have in their possession the deeds by which the once extensive farm was acquired by John Root. One given by Ebenezer Gilbert is dated June 4, 1708.

The oldest deed of all is signed by Samuel Oxuis (his mark). Sounds like an Indian name. The land is described in three parcels "known as the widow Oxuis her land," witnessed before Thomas Hart, Justice.

Attached to the deed is a paper signed by mark E of Elizabeth, mother of Samuel Oxuis, by which she gives her well beloved son power of attorney to sell her land.

John Root was never sick in his life until three days before his death, when he had lung fever. He and his wife were buried in the Christian Lane cemetery. Their inscriptions read as follows: Mr. John Root, d. Nov. 16th, 1764, aged 80. Margaret, wife of John Root d. Apr. 20th, 1751, aged 60.

Their son, John Root, married May 26, 1762, Anna, daughter of Dr. Joseph and Elizabeth Hollister Steele. He was six

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feet two inches in height, with large shoulders, and was remark-able for strength and agility. Foot races were very popular in his day and he was one of the greatest runners Berlin ever produced. He ran a race with John Judd, with a log chain wound around his body, and defeated him. He died November 8, 1781, aged fifty-eight, after a sickness of sixty days of lung fever.

Asahel Root, born February 11, 1766, son of John Root and Elizabeth Steele Root, married Hannah Goodrich, sister of "Uncle" John Goodrich. Asahel Root died August 2, 1818, aged fifty-two. Hannah, his wife, died in 1847, aged seventy-seven. Their eight children were: Jesse, Asahel, Amos, Cyrus, Samuel, Timothy, Rebecca, and Hannah, all born in the Root house, still standing.

Jesse, who was a school teacher, lived with his brother Timo- thy, on the homestead, and died unmarried, January 22, 1852, aged sixty-two. He was the genealogist of the family, and to him we are indebted for many of the facts given in this account. The inscription on the gravestone of Asahel Root, Jr., in toe Christian Lane burying ground reads as follows:

Asahel Root died at Farmington Aug. 7th, 1833 aged 40; interred here. His father Asahel, his grandfather John & his great-grand-tather, John Root, rest near this spot

The widow of Asahel Root, Jr., was married, second, to beacon Cyprian Goodrich of Kensington.

Amos Root went to New York State as a school teacher, and harried there, in 1830, Orpha Stanton. They came to Berlin and lived for a time in the old Elishama Brandegee house. Afterward their home was in Meriden. They had thirteen children, nine sons and four daughters. Of the sons, Joseph, Reuben, Timothy, and Cyrus were soldiers in the Civil War.

Benjamin, the youngest son, has held for many years a place of responsibility in the Bridgeport post office.

Mrs. Amos Root died in Meriden in 1896, aged eighty-nine.

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Cyrus Root, who married, in 1829, Delia A. Stocking of Blue Hills, purchased the Oswin Stanley place, over on the road leading from the Root farm to the railroad station. The house, on the south side of the way, its roof with the long hack slant called a "lean-to" or "linter," still stands. The great farm barn opposite the house was destroyed by fire a few years since. Besides the care of his farm, Mr. Root owned a blacksmith shop, east of the barn, where horses and cattle of the neighborhood were shod.

A daughter, Leontine, born to Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus Root, died in 1853, at the age of nineteen. She was buried up in their lot, easterly from the house, where her broken-hearted mother could see the grave from her sitting room window.

The cousins remember Aunt Delia Ann as sitting by that window, crying.

Cyrus Root died October 2, 1879, aged eighty-one years. As the farm was then to go out of the family, he was carried to Blue Hills for burial, and Leontine was taken there also.

Cyrus Root, son of Cyrus, the only surviving child, is in the Department of the Interior, at Washington. His mother died in his home at High Ridge, Md., February 12, 1897, aged eighty-seven years and four months.

Samuel, son of Asahel and Hannah (Goodrich) Root, was an East India merchant and died on a vessel at sea. Two of his sons, Samuel and William Root, are in business in Buf-falo, 1ST. Y.

Timothy Root, who remained on the homestead, married Eliza Wilcox of Canton, Conn. He was paralyzed by a fall from a tree, and remained an invalid for several years, until his death, January 10, 1864, at the age of fifty-four.

He and his daughter Eliza, who died of consumption in December, 1873, at the age of twenty-one, were buried in the lot at the side of Leontine Root, but when that land was sold they were removed to Christian Lane cemetery.

As has been stated elsewhere, Rebecca Root was the second wife of Samuel Durand. In giving the names of the children

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of Mr. Durand and his first wife, Eloisa (Lewis), that of Mrs. Jennette A. Durand Cox was omitted.

Asahel Root, Sr., had an elder brother John, and when he married Mary Gilbert, daughter of Ebenezer and Mary (But-trick) Gilbert, a new house was built for them next north of the old place. Their children were Lois, Sarah, Harriet, John, George, Mary, and Amanda.

The women of this family as well as the men were tall, and of a commanding presence. Asahel was six feet two inches in height. One father of six sons, all measuring six feet, used to speak of his thirty-six feet of (Root) boys.

The inscriptions on the stones of John and Mary (Gilbert) Root, in the Christian Lane burying ground, read as follows: Mr. John Eoot b. Apr. 4, 1764, d. Aug. 27, 1827 aged 63. [After two years' illness of consumption]. Mrs. Mary, wife of Mr. John Root, d Sept. 18th, 1823, aged 54.

John, son of John and Mary (Gilbert) Root, married Mary Brown and remained on his father's place until 1840, when he removed with his family to Hanover, a little way south of Buffalo, N. Y. It is said that his son, John, born in Berlin, 1838, was the sixth John Root in succession. He became a lawyer, in practice in Buffalo, where he died of consumption, unmarried.

Elihu Root, Secretary of State, is a descendant of the first John Root, of Farmington.

After 1840, the John Root house was occupied by Daniel Tuller, a Second Adventist preacher, so many years that it came to be known as the Tuller place.

Mrs. Tuller, who was a fine woman, helped to meet the family expenses by teaching school in her home district at first, it is said, in a school house that stood on the west side of the road, southerly from the Edward Deming house. One night, after the school was dismissed, a teacher, not Mrs. Tuller deposited on the entry floor a pile of cold ashes. The next morning nothing remained of the building but a pile of hot ashes.

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Mrs. Tuller taught as late as in the fifties in the new school house on the corner south of Lardner Deming's, and her pupils, to this day, speak of her with affection.

The Tullers had a son, Baxter, who won the admiration of the school girls by standing on his head. They were very sorry for him because his father, a stern man, used to shut him up in a barrel when he was naughty.

When the Tullers moved away, Edward Deming bought their place. It was rented to Elder Joseph Morse when his son Joseph, who now lives in East Berlin, was six months old.

Stephen Belden, Joseph North, John Y. Wilcox, and others lived there. When Cyrus Root, Jr., was first married, he rented the place and it was made quite attractive with large windows, a porch and fresh paint.

Luke Eoiren was the next owner of whom we have record. He lost his health, and his brother-in-law, August Splettstoeszer, came into possession of the property. Soon after that the house was burned and a new one was built in its place.

While Mr. Tuller was in Berlin, he used to hold services in the houses of the neighborhood. Mrs. Cornelia Deming Stowe remembers that he came to her father's house, and that he hung pictures and charts all around the walls to use in illustrating his subject.

By careful study of the prophesies, the Adventists demon-strated that the world was to come to an end in 1843. The month and day were set, some say it was April 23, others give October as the time.

Deacon Charles Webster remembers that when he was a lad, a camp meeting was held, a good three-quarters of a mile away from his father's house and they at home could hear the singing across the hills—words as well as tune—so lusty were the voices. One favorite shouting piece, as well as can be recalled, ran this way:

We'll all go up in a chariot of fire;
I long to sing Hosanna,
The devil's mad and I am glad;
I long to sing Hosanna.
In 1843…………
I long to sing Hosanna.

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Cyrus Webster, father of Charles, went over to the camp to hear one of the sermons, in which the preacher declared that as sure as the Bible was true the world would come to an end in 1843.

That year a brilliant comet with an enormous tail, 200,-000,000 miles in length, appeared in the sky. It came within 32,000 miles of the sun, and a slight change in its course would have caused a collision.

Adventists believed that the comet was sent to destroy the earth by fire, but that the righteous would be caught up into heaven.

One of the signs of the times had been the wonderful display of shooting stars of November 13, 1833. Now, in 1843, lights were seen flickering in graveyards and yellow streaks crossed the tombstones. As the time drew near, great excitement pre-vailed, even among unbelievers. Timid women were fright-ened nearly out of their senses, and children, who listened to the conversation of their elders, feared to step outside the door after dark. The story is told of one man who thought he could go up as did Elijah. He mounted a pine tree in his yard and in sight of a crowd, threw up his arms—and came to the ground with many a bruise.

Miss Fannie Bobbins remembers that in Wethersfield, when the appointed day came, their next door neighbor, a very excitable man, came out of his house holding in his hands a family Bible, which he continued to read as he paced back and forth in his driveway.

A member of this sect, an estimable lady, who lived in Chri-tian Lane, was the widow of a man who, previous to 1840, was a prosperous merchant in a nearby city. He became a convert to the new doctrine, sold out his business, and invited his "time brethren" to come and share his home, which they did until his means were exhausted. Then, reduced to poverty and still on earth in the flesh, he had to go to work. He bought and sold rags, took smallpox, and died in an attic.

A lady who lives in the village of Berlin relates this incident of her childhood. She was invited, with a company of little

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girls, to a candy pull. While they were having their fun the father of their young hostess, an Adventist, came into the room and reproved them for their hilarity. He said they ought to be singing hymns.

Children had to suffer persecution for their parents' belief. A boy and girl kept at home from school, to be ready for the eventful day, were confronted on their return by caricatures on the blackboard which represented their ascension, and the girl was teased to wear her robe to school. What wonder that she was deeply hurt and that she cried!

Stephen Belden, when a little fellow, heard his father and mother talk of the great change at hand. One day the child went into a blacksmith shop and said, "Did you know that the world was coming to an end?" The only reply was a stunning oath from the blacksmith.

The year 1843 passed, and a new calculation set the time for the Advent forward to October 22, 1844. Other dates have been made. Not many years since, a lad in this town when told that on a certain day the end would come, let himself down into a well to escape the general doom.

Antoinette Root, or Nettie as she was called, the youngest of the four daughters of Timothy Root, was a skillful organist. She played the large cabinet organ in the Worthington Congre-gational Church for some years, and then accepted a position as organist at the Baptist church in New Britain. She was married to Waldo Curtis and went to Winsted, Conn., where she still lives, a widow, with one daughter, Maud, who was recently married.

Christian Lane road, as at first laid out, ran east of the old church and of the Seth Deming house. Later, its course was changed.

Vol. II of Berlin Land Records contains the following petition:

To the Inhabitants of the Town of Berlin to be convened in Town meeting on Monday the 11th of Instant April (1814) the petition of the Subscribers. Inhabitants of the town of Berlin humbly Shusith(?) that the road leading from John Root to Capt. Seth Deming Is very crooked and lyeth across ground Extreamly Bad to

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pass for a Considerable part of the year and that an alteration might be made with but very little expence to the town that would be very Beneficial for the Inhabitants to get their Children to School and for a Considerable number of the Inhabitants to go to and from meeting as well as to the adjoining town, the Subscribers therefore pray said town to direct their Selectmen to open a road from near Said roots dwelling house In Worthington to Capt. Seth Deming's Dwelling house and compensate for the same by Exchanging of any publick Lands in Said School district or any other way they shall adjudge best for said Town.
(Signed) Samuel Porter, Seth Deming, Thomas Gilbert, Moses Gilbert, Thomas Booth, Asahel Blin, Joseph Wright, Aziel Belden, Norman Porter, John Goodrich, Jr., Abel North, Hezekiah Stanley, Thomas Hart 2.

The Root family have some traditions of the Indians.
The red man was fond of the white man's cider, and often, when the door was opened in response to a soft knock, an Indian would appear and say in a low voice, "Got any cider ?" The people used to give them a little because, if offended, the Indians would stand off and run full tilt at the door and try to break it in. Those doors were double planked, double barred, and sometimes driven full of spikes. Dwight Root remembers hearing that once a company of Indians came along and asked his grandfather Asahel for some cider. He told them they could have it if they would not fight. They promised not to, drank the cider and went away quietly, but fell to fighting before they were out of sight of the house.

It was a common occurrence to see an Indian peeking around the corner of the Root barn.

Cyrus Root, Jr., now of Washington, D. C, gives by letter the following incidents: "About that Indian story. As I heard it, there were in Connecticut two tribes who were at enmity. One of these Indians was helping my ancestor, I think it was my great-grandfather, John Root, with his annual spring clean-ing of the barn yard, when he saw in the distance one of his foes approaching. Instantly he dropped down in the filth of the yard and told the man to cover him up with the litter. No sooner was this done than the other Indian came to the

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yard and asked if they had seen a man of such a tribe, mentioning the name, pass by. He was answered in the negative, for he had not 'passed by.'

During my father's boyhood days, the early days of the nineteenth century, Indians frequently came to his father's house begging for cider. Window shades and blinds were little used in those days. My father related to me that one night " his parents were away and he was left at home to care for the younger children. They were sitting in darkness because they were afraid to have a light. Suddenly a man with a dusky face appeared at the window and said: 'I see you, you are at home.' Happily, the Indian turned and went away, much to my father's relief.

People were careful not to offend the Indians, for with their long memories and revengeful dispositions, one never knew when the blow might fall."

Mr. Root in his letter gives other reminiscences of interest as related to him by his father, Cyrus Root.

Referring to the Rev. Mr. Johns he says: "He was a Welsh-man and an exceedingly arbitrary man. In those days every-one was expected to attend divine service, and no ordinary excuse would answer for absence from 'meeting.' He was accustomed to go among his parishioners and scold them for not 'going to meeting.' A clergyman's word was accepted without protest It would never do to have any back talk with a minister of the gospel.

meeting the Rev. Johns on the highway had to stop; the girls to make a low courtesy, and the boys to remove the hat and reverently bow. He considered himself too dignified to return the salutation, but woe be to the boy or girl who failed to give him the proper salutation. The offense was duly reported to the parents and an application of the rod would follow. Sometimes boys, rather than meet him, would make a circuit through the fields."

Mr. Root brings to mind an incident of the sixties, which illustrates the strong character of Josiah Robbins, father of Miss Fannie Robbins.

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It was the first Monday in April, and Mr. Robbins was driving over to Kensington to cast his vote for State officers who were then, and up to 1876, elected in the spring. Near where the driving park now is, he overtook an old man plodding along with a cane through the mud, which in those days was knee-deep in places. Mr. Robbins halted and asked the man to ride. The conversation turned at once to politics and the passenger began to rant about Lincoln. Mr. Robbins stopped his horse and said: "Mr. , get right out of my carriage, I will not carry to the polls a man who talks as you have done about so good a man as Abraham Lincoln."

Opposite the Timothy Root house, on the east side of the way, was a "Lee house," long since gone to decay, and the piece of land next south of the schoolhouse, on this street, was known as the "Lee lot."

John Lee, emigrant, settler in Farmington, married in 1658, Mary, daughter of Stephen Hart of Farmington. John Lee and Stephen Hart both owned land in Great Swamp, and Stephen Lee, son of John, with his nephew Jonathan Lee, came over this side of the mountain to improve the property.

Captain Stephen Lee married October 1, 1690, Elizabeth Royee of Wallingford, and they had ten children. His name stands first after the minister as one of the seven male members, and Elizabeth was one of the three women who were organized into the Christian Lane church December 10, 1712.

Stephen Lee was captain of the militia, and was one of the most influential men in the society.

His inscription in the Christian Lane cemetery reads as follows:

Stephen Lee, one of ye first settlers of ye society and church of Christ in Kensington, etc. d. June 7, 1753, in the 87th year of his age.

Elizabeth, his wife, died May 3, 1760. Jonathan Lee, son of John, grandson of John the emigrant, received from his father a tract of land in Great Swamp,

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which was known as "the Island" for the reason that it was higher than the surrounding land. He was chosen rate-maker and lister of the parish in 1714, and was made deacon of the church. In 1716 he was seated in the "3d pue" of the meet-ing house. By trade he was a blacksmith. He married June 4, 1713, Mary Root. Their six children were named Mary, Elizabeth, Lucy, Ruth, John, and Eunice.

The gravestones of Jonathan Lee and Mary, his wife, in the Christian Lane cemetery, bear the following inscriptions: Deacon Jonathan Lee, b. Mar. 20, 1686, d. Jan. 16th, 1758. Mary Root, widow of Dea. Jonathan Lee d. Sep. 14th, 1764.

Ensign John Lee, only son of Jonathan and Mary Root Lee, born April 20, 1725, married May 7, 1752, Sarah Cole. They were members of the first Kensington church, of which he was one of the deacons. They came into the Worthington church at the time of its organization in 1775, and he was chosen a member of the church committee, May 1, 1776. Deacon John Lee died January 21, 1796, aged seventy. Sarah, his wife, died April 5, 1800, at the age of seventy. Their graves are in the Bridge Cemetery. Three of their sons, Jonathan, Orrin, and Samuel, were soldiers in the Revolutionary War.

Jonathan, born October 3, 1755, died in the service. Orrin, born October 13, 1757, was a drummer. By occupa-tion he was a blacksmith. He married December 2, 1784, Charlotte, daughter of Captain Samuel Hart, sister of Mrs. Emma Hart Willard. He represented the town of Berlin in the State legislature in 1805. It is said that he removed to Granby, Conn.

Samuel was taken prisoner and confined in one of the prison ships in New York Harbor, where he was so nearly starved that when he had the good fortune to catch a rat, he declared it to be the sweetest meat he ever tasted.

Lieutenant John, the youngest son of Deacon John Lee, mar-ried November 6, 1789, Mary Hart, another sister of Mrs. Wil-lard. They lived in Blue Hills, Kensington. Their daughter Lucy was the wife of Albert Norton.

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On the way through Christian Lane one place was not men-tioned. Down the street that now ends at the river, east of the schoolhouse, on the south side of the way, there stands a house now occupied by George H. Ripple, which was built by Linsley Austin. He bought the lot for twenty-five dollars, March 3, 1846, from Cyrus Root, who stipulated in the deed that if Mr. Austin should wish to sell, he, Mr. Root, should have an opportunity to take the place at a fair price.

George Austin, brother of Linsley, lived there afterward, and John Hudson Webber, whose first wife, Laura Lucretia, was a sister of the Austins, owned the place for five years previous to 1858.

The Mattabesett at that point, in summer time, was about twenty feet wide, and two or three feet deep.

John H. Webber, Jr., who was three years old when the family moved there, relates the following thrilling incident: One day his sister, Mary, started to go across the lots to visit Uncle George, who then lived up on the Hartford turnpike. As she was going over the water on the plank that served as a footbridge, a furious woodchuck came out of his hole in the bank and chased her. The child was terribly frightened and ran screaming back to the house. Her father, with an old-fashioned pitchfork, came to her rescue, ran it through the animal, pinned him to the ground, and told Mary to go on her way.