NOMENCLATURE.
WALLINGFORD.
"The town of Wallingford hath beene a verry notable thing and welle waulled. The diche of the town, and the crest whereon the waulles stoode be yet manifestly perceyved, and begin from the castelle, going in compace, a good mile and more, and so cummith to Wallingford bridg, a large thing of stone over the Tamise. And by the patentes and donations of Edmunde Erie of Cornewaul, and Lord of the House of Wallingford, that ther wer 14 Parich Chirchis in Wallingford. And ther be men yet alyve that can shew the Places and 154
Cemiteries, wher yn the al stoode. At this tyme there be but 3 poore Parich Chirches in the town."1
The town was formerly surrounded by a wall; the castle stood by the river. Camden in his Britannia,2 says, the castle's size and magnificence used to strike me with astonishment.
He believed it to have been built by the Romans, afterward destroyed by the Saxons and Danes, and rebuilt under William I.
The name of Wallingford was given to the tract of land extending southward from the point where the "old road to New Haven goeth over Pilgrim's Harbor, ten miles, and to extend five miles each side of the Quinnipiock river," in 1670, by some of the planters from New Haven.
The name of Pond Hill is frequently alluded to in the early records. This locality is said to derive its name from the fact that in the low ground nearly west of the old Marker place, exists a pond of water, just over the line in North Haven, and adjacent to the range of hills; which fact was no doubt the cause of the name being given to that locality.
Green Swamp and Fresh Meadows, were situated in the western and south-western part of the town, and bear the names to this day. Happen's Brook, is in Cheshire, and takes its rise a little to the southeast of the village. Mill River, takes its rise a little west of Cheshire, taking a southerly course through the town of Hamden, and finds its way into the Sound at New
1 Itinerary, vol. 2, p.11; Oxford, 1710. 2 Vol. I, p. 165.
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Haven. Ridge Hill, is that high ground in the north part of Hamden and south eastern part of Cheshire. Samerack Swamp, is in the eastern part of Wallingford, a little south of the residence of the late Peter Hall. Muddy River, takes its rise in the eastern part of Meriden, and running south, empties into the Quinnipiac in North Haven. Sugar Loaf Hill, is that eminence lying between the turnpike and river, just south of Humiston's Mills. Clapboard Hill, is that land lying east of the residence of Joseph Hough, and north of the late residence of Reuben Rice. Broad Swamp, is in Cheshire, about two miles west of Yalesville. Long Hill, is that range of hills east of Wallingford, running south. Tank Hood Road, is the old highway that formerly ran from the village of Wallingford to Clapboard hill, past the residence of the late Reuben Rice and Ephraim A. Humiston, to the North Farms road leading to Meriden ; this old road is now fenced up in many places, by consent of the town. Dr. Russell, an early settler, formerly lived on this road. Wharton's Brook, is the stream east of Wallingford village, running south to the river where it empties, just below Doolittle mill. This mill was built by a Mr. Munson, and was called originally Munson's mill. The first mill ever erected in the town was on this stream, just below the village. Scotch Rock, is in the south part of Cheshire, a little north of the residence of Alonzo Brooks; and the high ground east of the rock was called Scotch hill. The rock is very large, running out of the ground nearly twenty feet. Whirlwind, is that high land east of the late residence of Luther Hall, and west from Pistapaug Pond. Totoket Mountains, are easterly from Wallingford to Meriden.
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PILGRIM'S HARBOR. The place on which our city now stands was called "Pilgrim's Harbor," in an Indian deed of 1664. In the year 1660, when monarchy was restored in England, many who had acted prominently in the revolution, were obliged to flee for their lives. Some fled to the continent of Europe, some to the American settlements, and some were caught and executed as traitors; and for no other crime than that they partook too deeply of the same maddening cup that turned even the philosophic brain of Milton; and the remains of some of the principal actors in that too fearful tragedy, were treated with profane indignities, such as have not since that day disgraced the name of English freedom.1
Two of these, Edward Whalley and William Goffe, in consequence of the rank they had held in the armies of the Parliament, and in the commonwealth of England, were especially obnoxious to the restored king. They arrived at Boston on the 27th of July 1660; John Dixwell came afterwards. As it was not known at that time what disposition would be made of them, and as it was believed that they would be embraced in the general act of indemnity, they were treated by Governor Endicott and the other principal gentlemen of Boston, with all the marks of respect that were thought to belong to men who had filled high places in the government, and whose venerable features and soldierly bearing comported so well with their high reputation, as eminent civilians and military leaders. As soon, however, as it was made known in Boston in what light the king looked upon the official conduct of these men, and that
1 Camden's Imperial Hist. of England, p. 216.
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they were regarded as traitors, a large share of those who had claimed to be their friends, avoided them as if they had been infected with some contagious disease.1
Finding that Endicott had called a court of magistrates to apprehend them and deliver them over to the executioner, they took advantage of the friendly disposition manifested towards them by some of the Magistrates and fled out of the jurisdiction of that colony, and sought a refuge in New Haven among the old and tried adherents of Oliver Cromwell. They passed through Wallingford on the 26th of March, 1661, and the next day arrived in New Haven. Meanwhile the royal mandate reached Massachusetts, requiring the governor to arrest the fugitives. As soon as the news of the king's proclamation reached New Haven, they were obliged to abscond; and were concealed for a time in a cave on West Rock, near New Haven, and which still bears the name of "Judges' Cave." Their stay in this cave was short, however, on account of the wild animals who at that time infested the mountains. One night as the regicides lay in bed, they saw a panther or catamount thrust its head into the mouth of the cave. Its blazing eyeballs and unearthly cry so frightened the inmates that they fled from the cave.
They were concealed in various places until October 13, 1684, when they left Milford, where they had been for two years, for Hadley, Mass., then a frontier town, a hundred miles from Milford, and so remote from Boston, Hartford and New Haven, that it did not seem probable that their presence in such a place would be suspected. They traveled only by night, and laid still during the
1 Hollister, I, 236.
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day in some shady nook in the woods, or by the bank of a brook where the murmuring of the water invited them to repose. On their journey up this road, they encamped in what is now West Meriden, for several days; it then being a swampy, tangled wilderness, well fitted for concealment. The place thenceforward as having afforded shelter or harbor to these men, who though denounced at home as regicides, were honored by our fathers as noble patriots, was called "Pilgrim's Harbor."1 Now this is a very pretty story, and is quoted by Hollister and others; but unfortunately for the truth of it, I have the copy of a letter in the hand-writing of Daniel Clarke, Secretary, written previous to 1661, in which we find mention of "Pilgroomes Harbour." The regicides passed through Meriden in October, 1664. This letter was written in consequence of some trouble in the settlement of boundary lines.
MERIDEN.
As early as 1664, another locality lying several miles north of the town, was called Merrideen, Meridan or Meridon. For as early as that, an Indian deed conveying a large tract of land, describes it, or the locality about it, as "entitled and known by the name of Merideen." Subsequent documents speak of land as lying between Pilgrim's Harbor and Merridan. From a deed in possession of Moses Gilbert of Berlin, who is now (1870) living on the same farm owned by Jonathan Gilbert, previous to 1644, we find that Captain Daniel Clark of Windsor deeded to Jonathan Gilbert, April 22, 1672,
1 Hutchinson, I, 213; Mass. Hist. Coll. VII. 123; Stiles, Hist. of the three Judges of Chas. I; Hartford, 1794.
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"300 Acres of land (forty of which was to be meadow, by Grant of the Colony to sd Clark,) lying, situate, and laid out at a place called Moridam where Mr. Jonathan Gilbert's farm is, and bounded partly on the Mattabesick River where it may be allowed of the town of Farmington."
Long before there were any settlements on this territory, and as early as there was any house, we find the name Merrideen or Meriden. Mr. Perkins in his Historical Sketches, says that there is a tradition that the name is compounded of two words, "merry" and "den;" and that in an old stone house built in that locality, there were so many merry meetings of travelers, that the place acquired the nickname of Merry-den. At or before the union of the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven there was a grant made to Mr. Andrew Belcher of a tract of land containing nearly five hundred acres, on condition of his building a stone house or fort with portholes, and keeping arms and ammunition. With the land, he was to have the right of keeping tavern forever. Mr. Belcher did not come himself, but it appears he sent some one to take his place. The house was erected between the years 1660 and 1667. This building proving too small, another was erected about 1690. This remained and was occupied till after the close of the Revolutionary war, with the addition of a wooden building; and whoever lived there kept tavern if they pleased, until the turnpike was made in 1799. It was a noted place during the French and Revolutionary wars. The stone house stood not far from the late residence of Mr. John Yale, in the northern part of the town, and about twenty-five years ago the foundations of the old house were ploughed up. There cannot be a shadow of doubt but that Mr. Belcher gave the name, and that it was taken from
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Meriden, Warwickshire Co., England. In the parish church at Meriden, in England, are deposited the remains of the Belcher family for many generations; one Mar-garet Belcher was a patron of the church in 1582. The resemblance of the valley in which our town is situated, with the stone house or inn, with the town in England, and other associations, doubtless suggested to him the propriety of giving the name to his tract. Camden1 derives the name from the Anglo Saxon Mere, a pool or lake, and Den, a valley. Dugdale2 thus describes the town, as it appeared in his day:
"MIREDEN. This place situate upon London road, having some Inns and Alehouses, built for the receipt of Passengers, grown to late times to the credit of village, doth utterly eclipse the name of Alspath, by which, and none other, the Town itself was known; even from Saxon times, till about the beginning of King Henry the sixth's reign; I am of opinion, that the place where the greatest part of Myriden now stands, was very antiently so called; for the latter syla-ble dene importeth no lene, being the old English word, that signifieth a valley, as this is; which (I suppose) for the foul-nesse thereof was at first called Mireden."
West3 thus describes the town:
"Meriden, anciently called Alspath, or Ailespede, until the reign of Henry VI, when it bore the name of Myreden, from its low and miry situation. One of the old seats of the Earl of Aylesford is now turned into an inn, (The Bull's Head,) and a noble one it is, commanding fine prospects, and having extensive gardens, pleasure grounds, a fine archery, and bowling green."
1 Britannia, I, 160.
2 Antiquities of Warwickshire, 720; London, 1656.
3 History of Warwickshire, 598; Birmingham, 1830.
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Leland describes Meriden in his time, as a "Village 4 Miles by enclosed Ground, having some Corne, Wood and Pasture. And at the End of this Village ranne downe a Broket on the left Hand, and thereby was a Parke."1 Gorton (Topographical Dictionary, London, 1833), gives the population in 1833 as 927, and says,
"Meriden, a parish in the Solihull division of the hundred of Hemlingford, which derived its name from the anciently low and damp situation; The church, dedicated to St. Laurence, has been recently enlarged; patron, the Earl of Ayles-ford, who has a seat here, surrounded by a fine park, well stocked with deer. An old mansion, formerly a seat of the, Earl's, is now converted into an inn, having very extensive pleasure grounds."
Clarke's British Gazetteer for 1852, says, "Meriden, Warwick Co., 100 miles from London, 6 from Coventry, 12 from Birmingham. The village is very pleasing. One of the seats of the Earl of Aylesford, which had latterly been but little used, has been converted into an inn, to which extensive grounds and pleasure gardens are attached. The Meriden poor-law union comprises 18 parishes, with a population of 11,000 persons, spread over an area of seventy-two square miles."
As Mr. Belcher built his stone house as early as 1664; as we find the name Meriden applied to the locality on which the house stood, as early as the house was built; as Meriden in England was distinguished for its beautiful tavern, and as Mr. Belcher's stone tavern was an unusually substantial and costly building for that period, there can be no reasonable doubt that he gave the name to the north part of the town; which name was nat-
1 Itinerary, V. 96; Oxford, 1710.
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urally transferred to the settlements which sprang up around it.
BANGALL.
Captain Benjamin Hall had a tavern at the Noah Pomeroy place, which in those days was a place of great resort by parties who came from Middletown, Durham and Wallingford. One night in particular, a large party came from Middletown, and kept up their frolics all night; in the words of Captain Hall, "they banged all creation;" from which circumstance came the name of Bangall.
CROW HOLLOW.
William Botsford, in the year 1830, gave the name of Crow Hollow to the locality near Julius Parker's shops, about two miles west of the city, there being such a great number of crows in that vicinity.
HANOVER.
A manufacturing company was formed in the fall of 1826, consisting of Elisha A. Cowles, Julius Pratt, Fen-ner Bush, Nathaniel C. Sanfbrd, Howell Merriman, Erastus C. Parmelee and Edward Sanford. All except the last were citizens of Meriden. Of this company, N. C. Sanford was the accredited agent, doing business under the name of N. C. Sanford and Co. The manufacture of augers was commenced by this company in the summer of 1827, near the shop occupied by Bradley and Hubbard at West Meriden. But there not being sufficient water power, this company purchased the lands and water rights on both sides of the Quinnipiac river, both above and below the Fall Plain bridge, so far as was then deemed necessary (and so far as the rights could then be secured), for building purposes and the
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control of the water power. They first broke ground in the prosecution of their work, April 23, 1832. Various names had been proposed for the village; and to decide upon one a special meeting of the company was called at the house of their agents (then standing on the grounds now occupied by the Byxbee House). Four only of the members of the company were present at that meeting, viz.: Messrs. Cowles, N. C. Sanford, Mer-riman and Parmelee. Various names were proposed and were severally acted upon and rejected till the list had been reduced to three. Neither of these could be adopted or rejected by vote of the members present, and it was voted to come to a decision by casting lots, and the first drawn to be the name decided upon. One of the members present was blindfolded. Another then wrote the ballots and placed them in a hat. The blindfolded man then drew out one ballot and handed it to another member who read the name Hanover written upon it. Such was the origin of the name, a name which Dr. Hough at the request of the agent of the company, announced to the people who were assembled on the occasion of the raising of the boarding house, June 6, 1832.