The following is a slight digression intended to complement a couple of longer works-in-progress about overland travel in Colonial New England.
The various primary sources included here hopefully provide some background on a methodology of working with documents from the early Colonial New England period. Working directly from the early records, in their own words, can help foster a narrative based on the content of the records rather than a narrative constructed by interpreting the early colonial era record through a contemporary bias. These are some footprints from long forgotten travels.
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Local author and researcher Richard N. Symonds Jr. contacted me about information I might have on the town's old mill sites. Dick locates and interprets water powered mill sites and has written about Tolland County's old mill sites in Coventry, Hebron, Mansfield, Tolland, Union, Vernon, Willington and is working on Ashford at this time. In addition to on-site detective work, he uses a variety of sources such as county and town maps from the 1800s and local written and oral tradition. The result is the identification and interpretation of the remains of foundations, dams, ponds, millraces, sluice-ways, tail-races and whatever else a site contains in order to define the type of mill or mills the particular site had and how the site might have operated. For my own part, what little I provided was easily outweighed by what I learned about water powered mills, water privileges, town authority and control and mill ownership and operation.
For old abandoned mill sites, the visible clues might be a breached dam, parts of foundations and partially filled in channels. The wooden structures, buildings, sluices, gates and such long gone. Working from a site's configuration, the remains might point to the use of an overshoot or undershoot wheel or a tub (an early form of turbine). In some cases multiple wheels used the same flow of water, hence one might find the description of a site as containing multiple mills. These sites might have water wheels set in a line along a sluice-way. In some cases, water might have been carried by a wooden sluice (no longer extant) from one wheel to another. The water flow to and from each site is unique to the site, usually requiring different site layout solutions. A mill site might suggest whether a dam impounded water or the operation was supported by a wing dam that diverted water to a flume or sluice-way and perhaps a retaining pond.
Some older sites continued in operation up to the present day, operating for several centuries. Often it's possible to document changes to the site over time although changes might make the early use difficult to interpret. Dick's on-site research involved a practised ability to read the lay of the land and the physical details that remained. Over the years he's explored a lot of mill sites.
Part of deciphering each mill site entailed trying to identify the earliest dates of operation and the mill owner and/or operator from whatever information is available. Often the only mention of a site was in relation to the last or most recent operation which often doesn't have much of a relationship to how the original mill was configured and used. Anecdotal details might be gleaned from old newspapers or local oral tradition. This approach tends to start from the present and work back in time, as far back as these records go. Readily available contemporary documentation can drive the methodology.
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I contributed to Dick's research with some details relating to a few colonial era mill properties or owners mentioned in deeds, Town Meeting and Vital records. These primary source documents sometimes pointed to an approximate time of construction or provide a time frame for earliest recorded operation. A parcel of land might be purchased and when later sold, the subsequent deed mentioning a mill, or perhaps laying out the period when abutting land such as a meadow can be flowed (flooded), usually from October to March. The transaction record pointing to a mill operation, sometimes complementing a site's meagre remains.
Early records show that many water powered mills, saw, grist, forge, fulling and woodworking shops had numerous owners/operators over the period that a site was active. Many water powered mills apparently only operated seasonally. Mills seemed to change hands frequently, often the same person or family buying, running and then selling a number of different operations. The records suggest frequent boom and bust cycles. Mill families married into other mill families. Some operations were jointly owned and operated by several interrelated family members.
Locally, town records show that there was an early saw mill in existence several years prior to the town's Incorporation in 1727. The existence of the mill inferred in the deed of sale for the property in which the owner retained the irons (saw blades). The site was built up in the 1800s as a thread mill, removing all trace of the original saw mill.
Deeds sometimes mention details about what a site contained pointing to how the mill operation changed. A site might start out as a saw mill then later add a grist mill or forge (drop hammer) and then later change to a fulling mill, thread mill or woodworking shop. Early grist mills were often called corn mills as they ground cereal grains, not to be confused with indian corn. It is often hard to say whether the owner of a mill property was also the mill operator, or even the owner of the building on the property. Some source material identifies a mill with the operator rather than the property owner which makes deciphering the sequence of ownership and use something inexact.
The remains of some of these early mills can be impressive with building foundations, walls of sluice-ways or tail-races or other stonework. Other sites are barely recognizable for what they were. Still others have left no trace beyond a notation on an old county or town map or perhaps the name of a road that led to or past it. Old mill sites, and the roads to them, can be identified on maps such as William Lester's map of Windham County from the early 1830s. Maps such as Lester's can be used to corroborate information found in town records and vice versa. Over time, floods move things around, channels fill in, ponds silt up and sites are overgrown, these sites perhaps becoming more forgotten than lost. Town records can often fill gaps in the narrative of a site's early history.
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Roads leading to mills or connecting them to the rest of the town also have a way of getting misplaced. A mill ceases operation and the road to it abandoned and with that the import of the physical hint of the road forgotten. If continued in use, the connection perhaps transferred, appropriated as a link to other places. Local landmarks of note and the routes connecting them can change over time, usually taking on a more contemporary import, an effect of a bias of currency. A mill ceases operation and fades into the landscape leaving imprints that recent residents loose a connection to. The road to a mill or one connecting a farm to a district school becomes a farm lane when the mill or school closes. And when the farm is no longer viable, the way is gradually reclaimed by the surrounding wood lots or mowing fields, recognisable only by the stones piled up along the boundaries of an old right-of-way.
As mentioned, town records can illuminate these seemingly lost connections and landmarks with the details found in deeds, surveys and Town Meeting records. The following is from the records of Ashford Connecticut. The township was established and opened for settlement by the Connecticut General Assembly in 1706, around the time the township of Coventry was defined, three or four years after the town of Mansfield. The eight mile by eight mile Ashford tract was located in what was formerly called Wabaquasett and Nipmuc Country located in the hills of eastern Connecticut adjacent to the town of Woodstock. The original spelling and grammar of the town record is retained for the most part:
"Ashford October the 8 : 1716
Then laid out by us William Ward Senr and John Mixer Select Men – a Town High Way begining on the west side of Mount Hope River att an old white oak tree marked and a black on the south side of the way which high way runs along to William Wards and from sd William Wards the sd high way runs to Biggelow Brook and from sd brook it runs to the mills the nicst way and from the said mills to Corbins farm it being allowed to be seven rods wide and as it is marked - John Mixer William Ward" (Ashford, Old Paper, Page 111)
From the above, without knowing the location of the old white oak tree on the west side of the Mount Hope River, William Ward's farm or the location of the mills on the other side of Bigelow Brook, identifying the course of this High Way would be open to speculation at best. From details in other town records however, we can say that the white oak tree is at or near Pompey Hollow, west of John Mixer's farm on the Mount Hope River, and work our way east from there.
John Mixer's farm was in or near present day Pompey Hollow adjacent to present day Route 44, at or near the intersection of Routes 89 and 44. John Mixer of Canterbury bought this land from John Chandler of Woodstock in 1710. John Mixer was Ashford's first Town Clerk. His dwelling was apparently the town's first public house or tavern. Every Connecticut town was required to have one place where travelers and strangers could be entertained. A house where they could have respite, a meal and a drink and have their horses fed. William Ward senior's farm was located on the hill known as Pine Hill, east of Mixer's farm. Pine Hill was the center of Ashford at the time. The Ashford Congregational Society's Meeting House was located on a knoll on Pine Hill just east of Ward's farm. The mill mentioned was located on the Still River in present day Eastford (the East Congregational Society, formerly the eastern part of Ashford). James Corbin's farm was located north-east of the mill at or near the Woodstock town line. The record perhaps covers about seven and-a-quarter miles of path and suggests a mill in operation in 1716, two years after Ashford Inhabitants were granted Town powers.
Early Town Highway records, or road surveys, are a valuable source of information that can locate landmarks, buildings, structures and people and the routes connecting them. Town land records, the deeds recorded by the Town Clerk, Vital records and Town Meeting records can corroborate details found in the road records. Working with these it's possible to create an image of the state of the land and how it is used over a period of time. Starting with the earliest records, it's possible to visualize the state of the land as it was found when first acquired by English settlers.
At the time of the settlement of Ashford and neighbouring towns, Wabaquasett/Shetucket and/or Pequot/Mohegan residents continued to hunt and fish throughout Wabaquasset country. Local Nipmuc communities remained active well into the mid 1720s according to Colony records, and these communities continue to do so. The effects of the annual burns, locations of weirs and other major fishing places as well as planting fields, meadows and woods are documented. Some of this information is touched on in Colony records and these can provide a general perspective of the land and the time, but Town records fill in the details.
The 1716 Town High Way record above shows that the right-of-way for that as-traveled path was seven rods (115.5') wide and was delineated by marked trees. This was a standard practice for defining the bounds of the right-of-way according to similar records at the time. The early methodology was to mark trees on both sides of the as-traveled path to set the length and width of the right-of-way. One period document uses a description of cutting the way, as the trees are marked by making ax cuts. Sometimes the trees along the High Way were cut with the letter H.
Once the trees along the length of the way were marked, the start, end and the width of the right-of-way defined, and all this recorded in the Town Book, the strip of land containing the path became a stated Town High Way, a Town Road, a Road owned and maintained by the town. Country Roads or Common Ways were also marked but outside of town boundaries, were not maintained. Maintenance within towns consisted calling out the town's males ages 16 to 60, usually in the fall, to mostly of cut back brush, remove fallen trees, repair a bridge, trench and drain wet places and move rocks out of the way. For a recently established town the workforce might amount to a dozen and a half or two dozen men, boys, indentured male servants and slaves. A work incentive generally offered was a day rate applied against property taxes owed. Complaints in General Assembly records about towns not maintaining their High Ways and the Common Ways through towns was a recurring theme both in Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay.
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Where there are several records for a road, a newer record sometimes revisiting a way laid out previously, it is possible to get a more detailed view of the route. The following 1717 Town record adds a few more details to the October 1716 road:
"November ye 19 : 1717
A road laid out by William Ward Senr and John Pitts both Select Men of Ashford - begining upon Pomfret line and runs westward throu William Prices land between William Price Senr and William Price Jur and so extending down to Philip Eastmans and so extending to sd mills and from thence to the house of John Pitts over a hill called grassy hill and so down to Bigilow River and from thence extending forward to a hill called Pine Hill the road is laid out six rods wide marked upon the right hand and left" (Ashford, Old Paper, Page 111)
The November 1717 way starts out at the Ashford's boundary with Pomfret rather than Woodstock. It joins the October 1716 way and then revisits some of the same course as the October 1716 record. Town High Way courses were often re-marked, the marks renewed or added to. Sometimes the right-of-way width was changed or minor alterations made. As time passed and perhaps fewer trees available, the point to point bounds might be made by stakes with stones piled around, a mere stone, stones on a stone or the ends of stone walls, a fence, gate or bars, the corners of houses or barns or the start, end or bounds of another path. Any reference point that could be recorded could stand as a bound.
The November 1717 record apparently starts with present day Yetter Hill Road (Sumner Hill Road) and running west intersects Old Colony Road, continuing to the mills on the Still River and then follows Old Colony Road to where it turns slightly to the Southeast, about where Boston Turnpike once connected and then went across Bigelow Brook. This section of Boston Turnpike connected present day Boston Turnpike Road, Route 244 (Boston Pike Road) with present day Route 44. The course across Bigelow Brook joined the path from Providence and continued on to Ashford center on Pine Hill.
The October 1716 - November 1717 route is a fairly direct connection between Plaine Hill in Woodstock and Pine Hill in Ashford. Combining the 1716 and 1717 records, the course of the path to the Woodstock line, west to east, starts at or near Pompey Hollow on the west side of Mount Hope River, perhaps on the knoll west of Thomas Tiffany Junior's house just to the west of the hollow, crosses the Mount Hope River, climbs the hill east of the Mount Hope, runs across Pine Hill, drops down to and crosses the Bigelow River, continues on to the mills on the Still River and on to the Woodstock line. A 1733 and 1735 record of the marks for the right-of-way being renewed add more details about the course of the path. Except for the gap on either side of Bigelow, the entire route can still be driven today.
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Both Ashford road surveys as well as deeds for abutting properties trace the 1716/17 route through town in some detail. One example identifies the course of the way across the top of Pine Hill. In 1726, William Ward set off part of his farm on Pine Hill to his son Jacob. William gave his son two parcels, one on the south side of a Country Road and the other on the north side. The deed dated September 2, 1726 references the Meeting House lot, a road to Humphrey's saw mill (present day Fitts Road) and a road called Hartford Road. The following is the description of the bounds for the parcel on the north side of the Road.
"To all people to whome these presents shall come know ye that I William Ward of Ashford in ye county of Windham in the Colony of Connecticut in New England yeoman for & in consideration of the love good will and affection which I have & do bare unto my lovimg son Jacob Ward... convey & confirm unto my sd loving son Jacob Ward his heirs & assigns for ever two certain tracts or percills of land...
The other percill lying on the north side of Hartford Road affore named on ye east side of a gravely hill begining at a heap of stones & one of them markd IW & one WW by the side of sd road thence runing North 9 : degr East one hundred & sixty rods to a heap of stones one marked WW & one IW : in James Fullers line thenc Eastwardly fifty eight rods alonge sd James Fullers line to a heap of stons one marked IW by a road leading to Humprys saw mill thence runing South Eastwardly eighty two rods to a stake & heap of stons one marked IW thenc runing westwardly twenty rods to a larg rock in the ground marked IW & small stons upon it thenc runing northwardly five rods to a white oake tree marked thenc runing westwardly thirty two rods to a white oake tree marked thenc runing south eastwardly fifty five rods to a heap of stons one marked IW by the north side of Hartford Road affore named at the bottom of ye Meeting Hous hill thenc runing westwardly fourty six rods allonge the north side of sd hartford Road to ye first mentioned bounds being bounded on the westward by my own land northwardly by James Fullers land eastwardly part by the road leading to Humprys saw mill & part by the Meeting House lot & south by the afore named Hartford Road...
...in witness wherof I the sd William Ward have hear untosett my hand & seal.. this second day of September... Annowe Domini one thousand seven hundred & twenty six... William Ward Judath A Ward her mark" (Ashford Records, Book F, Pages 94, 95)
William Ward's deed to his son identifies the road through his farm serving as a boundary as Hartford Road. Since we know from the October 1716 road survey that it passed or went through William Ward's farm, we can make a connection between the early course of the way and how it became defined in records ten years later as a Country Road or Common Way. There is continuity in the records for the path marked in 1716 with the route of the present day roads. These comprise for the most part present day Route 44 and Old Colony Road. The course was called Hartford Road circa 1718. The Town High Way marked in 1716 was officially designated as a Country Road or Common Way connecting Hartford to Woodstock by the General Assembly in 1724.
“Resolved by this Assembly, That a high road shall be laid out and markt on the most convenient ground and straightest course from Hartford towards Boston, to the extent of this government, by Mr. John Whiting, Mr. Ozias Goodwin and Mr. Jacob Strong, as a committee from this Court; their report thereof to be returned to the General Court in May next.” (Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, From May, 1717, to October, 1725, Page 506)
Town records show that this Hartford Road marked in 1716, called Hartford Road in 1718 and defined as a Country Road was the second Country Road through Ashford to be called Hartford Road. By 1718 deeds show that the previous Hartford Road was then called Hartford Old Road.
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A generalization can be made that in almost all cases very early town roads were the assimilated traditional foot paths which were appropriated as bridle paths. The same can be said for all town-to-town Common Ways or Country Roads. Although an overly broad statement, it can be used as a starting point in any inquiry into Colonial New England overland travel. Town High Ways mentioned in deeds were often still referred to as paths well into the early 1800s. Town-to-town Common Ways that passed through towns became turnpike right-of-ways in many cases. One Ashford record from 1800 is for the abandonment of two sections of Hartford Old Road, one lying south of and one north of a road identified as a turnpike. The turnpike continued in both directions from the abandoned sections on the original Hartford Old Road as-traveled course.
The following 1741 record for a thirty-three-foot wide (two rod) right-of-way provides a succinct example of the assimilation of an ancient path. The High Way would correspond in part with present day Ashford Road starting at the intersection with Route 171 in present day Eastford:
“May 11th 1741 We the subscribers then laid out a two rod high way begining at Benjam Carpenters land he now lives on at a black oake tree on ye east side of sd way standing neer the line between sd Carpenter & Samll Hayward & from thence southward by marked trees on each side of the way to Jonathan Stoels land as the foot path is trod... Isaac Kendal Thos Tiffany Select Men” (Ashford Records, Book A, Page 21)
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English cross-country travel was almost exclusively on horseback, riding Trotters or Pacers. These riding ponys were preferred throughout New England for their gentle gait and surefootedness. Goods and materials were often transported by pack horse, such as the lead ore (graphite) from Sturbridge brought to Warehouse Point. There is anecdotal mention about ox-carts used for cross-country transport with James Corbin of Woodstock carting beaver pelts to Boston. Traffic between towns increased gradually until by the 1760s regularly scheduled coaches were running advertised routes. Weekly wagon service between towns such as Hartford and New Haven was licensed by the early 1720s. By and large however it seems most travel was by horseback.
The language used to record these forgotten paths may seem somewhat archaic and arbitrary or perhaps inexact to the present day reader, however the intent of and legal requirements behind creating a record of laying out a tract of land or laying out a road were explicitly understood at the time. In the case of Town High Ways or Town Roads, the right-of-way or strip of land containing an as-traveled path was a legal entity, it was Town owned property. The High Way had a defined or "stated" length and width and with it came the Town's authority and responsibility over it's use and maintenance.
As mentioned some of these local Roads remained little more than bridle or cart paths well into the Turnpike era, often coming forward as property boundary lines, hence their mention in deeds. The history of these ways may seem obscure but primary sources show that these ways have a continuity of use over centuries, right down to present day pavement. In addition to English appropriation of the old ways, primary sources like Town records also provide some insights into the design and layout of the network or system of ancient paths that were laid out by navigational rules and used throughout New England. Traces of this network can be found west to Pennsylvania.
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A key aspect to the above records from 1716 and 1717 is Ashford's connection to Woodstock. By the early 1700s, one of the primary routes from Plaine Hill in Woodstock to Hartford ran across Pine Hill in Ashford. Some one hundred and fifty eight years after the 1716 Town High Way was recorded, Ellen Larned in her 1874 History of Windham County related a local tradition about the hill in the part of Ashford called New Scituate:
"In 1707, a tract, five miles in length and three in width, was purchased for £110, by John Cushing, Sam. Clap and David Jacob of Scituate, and laid out west of the Stoddard Tract, ...under the name of the New Scituate Plantation. Captain John Chandler soon purchased a large part of this tract and a strip of land adjacent, and became the chief proprietor of New Scituate. ...In January, 1710, Captain Chandler, in behalf of himself and other proprietors of New Scituate, engaged to give John Mixer of Canterbury, for four pounds, a good deed of one hundred acres of land '...at a place called Mount Hope, lying on the river,' on the site of the present village of Warrenville, and there began the settlement of Ashford. The Connecticut road passed by or near his residence." (The History of Windham County, 1600-1760, Page 216)
"The Windham County territory became known to the English at the first settlement of Connecticut in 1635-6. It lay directly in the route from Massachusetts to the Connecticut River, ...traversed by the first colonists. Tradition reports their encampment on Pine Hill in Ashford. A rude track, called the Connecticut Path, obliquely crossing the Wabbaquasset Country, became the main thoroughfare of travel between the two colonies." (Ibid, Page 2)
"The territory now included in the towns of Ashford and Eastford formed a part of the Wabbaquasset Country, conveyed to Major Fitch by Owaneco in 1684. It was ...known and traversed from the early settlement of New England, lying directly in the route from Boston to Connecticut. The first company of Connecticut colonists encamped, it is said, on the hill north of the present Ashford village, and the old Connecticut Path crossed what is now its common," (Ibid, Pages 214, 215)
In the statement above relating to the first settlers heading to the Connecticut River valley in 1635/36, Larned doesn't identify the first company she is referring to. We don't know whether her first company was those from Watertown led by John Oldham who settled present day Wethersfield circa 1734, those from Dorchester who settled present day Windsor in 1735 or those from New Town who settled present day Hartford in 1736.
According to primary sources, the first Europeans to plant on the Connecticut River were Dutch traders, setting up trucking or trading houses, first at Old Saybrook, then called Kievits Hoek, circa 1624 then at Hartford adjacent to the Park River circa 1633. This was followed by the trucking house erected by Plymouth near the mouth of the Farmington River in 1633 at present day Windsor. The Dutch had an orchard of forty to fifty cherry trees bearing fruit in 1639 at the farm at Huys de Goede Hoop at Hartford according to David Pieterszoon de Vries.
The 1634/35 initial settlement of Agawam (Springfield) probably wouldn't enter into Larned's equation as William Pynchon's company from Roxbury would have taken an overland route through the middle of Nipmuc country, if there was any extensive overland travel associated with that settlement. Livestock was apparently moved overland to avoid the shipping cost from Boston, around Cape Cod to Long Island Sound and up the Connecticut River. The Connecticut River shipping route ended below the falls at Warehouse Point (the location of William Pynchon's warehouse).
According to Roger Williams, Connecticut was separated from Massachusetts Bay by Nipmuc country which stretched, east to west, from Natick Hill to Moshenupsuck (the outlet of Moshenups, present day Shenipsit pond) and north-south from Quaboag Country to Shetucket (later Wabaquasett) Country. Wabaquasett Country, was described as running some forty-five miles east from Moshenupsuck according to Connecticut Colony records which would have put the boundary with the Hassanamisico, William's eastern Nipmuc, at the Nipnet (Blackstone) River, at least according to Williams description.
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To put Ellen Larned's narrative about the passage of English planters through Ashford in perspective, John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony kept a journal in which he noted among other things, some of the comings and goings to Connecticut and back. From Winthrop's Journal of the Transactions and Occurrences in the Settlement of Massachusetts and the other New-England Colonies (spelling and grammar retained, *comments mine):
"1633
sep
John Oldham and three with him went over land to Connecticut to trade;" (Transactions and Occurrences, page 53)
"1635
Mo 4
A bark of 40 tons arrived fet forth with 20 fervants by Sir Richard Saltonftall to go plant at Connecticut." (Ibid, page 83)
"1635
Mo 6
The Dorchefter men being fet down at Connecticut near the Plimouth trading houfe, the Governor, Mr. Bradford wrote to them, complaining of it as an injury in regard of their poffeffion and purchafe of the Indians whofe right it was, and the Dutch fent home into Holland for commiffion to deal with our People at Connecticut." (Ibid, page 86)
"1635
8 oct
About 60 men women and little children went by land towards Connecticut with their cows, heifers and fwine, and after a tedious and difficult journey, arrived fafe there." (Ibid, page 89)
"1635
9ber 3
Mr. Winthrop the Governor, appointed by the Lords for Connecticut, lent a bark of 30 tons and about twenty men, with all needful provifions to take poifeffion of the mouth of Connecticut, and to begin fome building." (Ibid, page 90) (* This apparently would have been in reference to John Winthrop the Younger who was appointed Governor, based at Saybrook Point.)
"There came twelve men from Connecticut, they had been ten days upon their journey and had loft one of their company drowned in the ice by the way, and had been all flarved. but that by God's providence they lighted upon an Indian wigwam. Connecticut river was frozen up the 15th of this month." (ibid)
"1635
10ber 10
The ship Rebecca, about 60 tons, came from Connecticut and brought in her about feventy men and women, which came down to the river's mouth to meet the barks which fhould have brought their provifions, but not meeting them they went board the Rebecca, which two days before was frozen 20 miles up the river, but a fmall rain falling, fet her free : but coming out fhe ran on ground at the mouth of the river and was forced to unlade. They came to Maffachufetts in five days, which was a great mercy of God, for otherwife they had all perifhed with famine, as fome did. While the Rebecca lay there the Dutch fent a fhip to take poffeffion of the mouth of the river, but our men got two pieces on fhore and would not fuffer them to land." (Ibid, page 91)
"1635
Mo 11
This month one went by land to Connecticut and returned fafe." (Ibid, page 92)
"1636
Mo 2 11
Thofe of Dorchefter who had removed their cattle to Connecticut before winter, loft the greateft part of them this winter, yet fome which came late and could not be put over the river, lived very well all the winter without any hay. The people alfo were put to great ftreights for want of provifions ; they eat acorns and malt and grains ; they loft near £ 2000 worth of cattle." (Ibid, page 98)
"1636
Mo. 3 25
Mr. Hooker, paftor of the church of Newtown, and the reft of his congregation, went to Connecticut ; his wife was carried in a horfe litter, and they drove 160 cattle, and fed of their milk by the way." (Ibid, pages 100, 101)
"1637
Mo. 6.
Mr, Hooker and Mr. Stone came with Mr, Wilfon from Connecticut by Providence and the fame day Mr, Ludlow, Mr.Pincheon & about twelve more came the ordinary way by land," (Ibid, pages 135, 136)
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An abridged timeline derived from the above journal entries shows that John Oldham went overland to Connecticut in 1633. Broadly meaning to the part of the Connecticut River valley between where the present day Farmington River flows into the Connecticut and present day Wethersfield Cove. After returning to Boston, he apparently returned to Connecticut with a small group and settled at present day Wethersfield. He was one of the early planters in Massachusetts Bay and was involved in the fur trade. From other records his removal from Boston was probably looked at as a blessing.
"John Oldham
1629 17 Apr
Mr John Oldham came from New England not long before yor arrivall there, by whom wee haue had noe small disturbance in
or business, having bin cast behinde, at the least, two months tyme in or voyage, through the varyetie of his vast conceipts of extraordinary gaine of 3 for one, ppounded to bee made & raised in 3 yeares, if hee. might haue the managinge of or stock, prferring to bee contented for his owne employmt, soe hee might haue the overplus of the gaines ; wth whom, after long tyme spent in sundry treaties, fynding him a man altogeather vnfitt for vs to deale wth, wee haue at last left him to his owne way ; and, as wee are informed, hee wth some others are prvyding a vessell, and is mynded, as soone as hee can despatch, to come for new England, prtending to settle himselfe in Mattachusetts Bay, clayming a tytle and right by a grant from Sr Ferdinando Gorges son, wch wee are well satisfyed by good councell is voyde in law. He will admitt to noe tearmes of agreemt, vnless wee leaue him at librtie to trade for beavor wth the [indians] wch wee deny to the best of or owne planters ; nether is hee satisfyed to trade himselfe with his owne stock & meanes, wch wee conceeve is so small that it would not much hinder vs, but hee doth interest other men, who, for ought wee knowe are never likely to bee benefitiall to the planting of the country, their owne prticuler pfitts (though to the overthrowe of the genrall plantacion) being their chiefe ayme and intent.
...
Wee haue therfore thought fitt to giue yow notice of his disposicon, to the end yow may beware how yow meddle wth him, as also that yow may vse the best meanes yow can to settle an agreemt wth the old planters, soe as they may not harken to Mr Oldhams dangerous though vaine ppositions. Wee fynde him a man soe affected to his owne opinion as not to bee removed from it, nether by reason nor any pswasion ; and vnlesse hee may beare sway, and haue all things carryed to his good likinge, wee haue little hope of quiett or comfortable subsistance where he shall make his aboad." (Records of the Governor and Company, Vol. I., 1629 - 1641, Pages 388, 389)
I haven't found any primary sources to date explicitly stating this but from Colony records it would appear that at least a dozen families, about sixty men, women and children, was the minimum community size needed to establish a plantation (township) and the formation of a Congregational Society. Conditions usually included building a Meeting House and installing an orthodox pastor. Early Societies were overseen by a pastor and a teacher. A Society's teacher was responsible for seeing that an orthodox doctrine, adhering to the colony's established puritan dogma, was adhered to. Pastors like Roger Williams and individuals who espoused a more liberal non-Puritan doctrine were exiled.
In the time period that John Oldham went to Connecticut and settled there, the Dutch built a fort at Dutch Point, near the outlet of present day Park River. The palisade and blockhouse (garrison?) and apparently a farm, was at or near the trucking house for the Dutch beaver pelt trade. There are suggestions in Dutch records that could be interpreted as the trading house predating the fort. Initially the Dutch traded from their ships, later establishing land-based trading posts.
A small group of men from Plymouth established a trucking house upstream of the Dutch near the mouth of present day Farmington River. William Pynchon and company began work on a trading venue and plantation across from the Westfield River, upstream from the Dutch and Plymouth locations. In each case, a trading place was established that leap-frogged the competition with a new location upstream on the beaver pelt & wampum trade route. Connecticut leap-frogged Pynchon's Springfield with a trading operation on the Westfield River identified as Woronoco. Pynchon shipped his pelts from his warehouse, (whence Warehouse Point) below the falls at present day Enfield (settled in the late 1670s as the Freshwater Plantation).
In late 1635 a group of indentured servants sent by the Dorchester Separatists began work on a settlement on the north side of the Farmington River above (upstream of) the Plymouth trading house. A couple of months later the Dorchester company went overland driving cattle, heifers and swine. Winthrop described the journey as difficult and tedious which one might assume would be the case of driving that array of livestock ninety miles overland.
The Dorchester company didn't receive the expected winter supplies at the time promised and subsequently the entire company traveled down the Connecticut River to Saybrook. The company embarked from Saybrook, going by boat back to Boston. The cows that arrived late at Connecticut and were left on their own on the east bank survived the winter. The Dorchester company returned to Connecticut in the spring, route and method of travel unknown. One could speculate that the Dorchester company took the old way to Connecticut on what was later called Hartford Old Road. The Old Road branched in a number of places with one leg going on to Windsor. The old way, made up of discrete sections, branched with routes to Springfield, Enfield, Windsor and Hartford. One of the key signatures of the traditional foot-path network was the branch.
in early 1636, the Newtown company of Hooker and Stone drove one hundred and sixty cows to Connecticut. The comment that Hooker's wife rode on a "litter" would suggest that she rode aside on a planchette saddle, a chair with a footrest, i.e. a version of a side-saddle. The litter was perhaps noteworthy as the use of a pillion, or riding astride, might have been more common. From some these sources, one might get the impression that the Hookers thought well of themselves.
The one passage that might apply to Ellen Larned's narrative is the 1637 note about Hooker, Stone and Wilson going to Boston via Providence. This would suggest that they took the path from Hartford to Providence that crossed what was later known as Pine Hill in New Scituate. One could then speculate that this was the route that the New Town company took from Woodstock to the Connecticut River, taking a branch in Woodstock that was more direct and avoided the worst of the hills. One supposition is that this was the source of the tradition that came forward that Ellen Larned related and why Larned said of John Mixer, "The Connecticut road passed by or near his residence." However, the path that passed Mixer's dwelling was not Hartford Old Road but the path marked in 1716 as a Town High Way that pointed to Providence and by 1718 was called Hartford Road:
"May 26, 1718
To all people to whom these presents shall come greeting know you that I Isaac Mackgoon of Ashford... husbandman... in consideration of the sum of six pounds to me in hand... truly paid by Thomas Tiffany Junr of Ashford... convey... one mesuge or tract of land... it begins att a stake runing west fifty rod to a stake and heape of stones thence runing north one hundred & eight rods... ...joyning westerly upon Thomas Tiffanys land and southerly upon hartford road as it now layeth... this twenty sixth day of may in the year one thousand seven hundred & eighteen" (Ashford Records, Book B, Page 123)
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If one postulated Ellen Larned's route from the Connecticut Path in Woodstock to Pine Hill, starting on Plaine Hill in Woodstock and joining the October 1716 path, using present day roads as a guide, it would run west from present day Old Hall Road to Pulpit Rock Road then branch to Meehan Road, continuing over or around Fort Hill to Rocky Hill Road to Perrin Road to present day Old Colony Road in Eastford. This route connects with the road laid out in Ashford in 1716/17 and marked anew in 1735. Another, somewhat more direct way would have been Old Hall Road to New Sweden Road to Quarry Road in Pomfret, to Old Colony Road in present day Eastford.
Some parts of the above routes have been abandoned or discontinued, namely Quarry Road, but the parts can be plotted using Light detection and ranging (lidar) Hillshade Elevation data which presents a greyscale rendering of the topography. Driving the accessible parts of these routes today shows that in contrast to the traditional Hartford Old Road route, the way from Plaine Hill to Pine Hill is relatively direct with fairly gentle grades. The softly undulating terrain through and around the eastern hills offered by the route might have been a consideration for a party of men women and children, some on horseback others walking, driving 160 cows. On the other hand, driving the accessible portions of Hartford Old Road across the hills shows it to be on a more challenging and difficult terrain, not a landscape one would want to drive a heard of 160 cows over, especially if word of the Dorchester Company's hardship and toil made the rounds in Boston.
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There doesn't seem to be any primary sources identified for Ellen Larned's local tradition about a company of English passing through Ashford. Larned apparently conflates the path from Woodstock crossing Pine Hill with Hartford Old Road, known as Connecticut Road in Woodstock and Connecticut Path coming into Woodstock, east of Muddy Brook. None of these paths were lost to later generations, they are still in use today, but what they once were has been forgotten for the most part.
The publication of Larned's history in 1874 would suggest that she spent considerable time researching town records and probably talking to the locals who would have been part of the last generation or a generation removed from the turnpike era and would have carried forward at least parts of the old stories. One can speculate that there would have been some continuity with the stories about the initial settlement of Ashford. One can find hints of these stories in deeds from the 1930s, but they gradually fade away in later transactions.
Town records from the early 1800s retain references to landmarks noted in deeds recorded in the early 1700s. Some of these landmarks retained significance, much like how old stone walls sometimes retain a boundary line or two of a parcel laid out in 1718. One can take an early road survey for an abandoned way and plot it against a lidar Hillshade projection for a match. Where contemporary records come up short, early records have the ability to plot a concise narrative.
The forgotten paths with stones piled along the sides, graded and paved over in many cases, connecting dimly remembered landmarks and destinations, still retain their function for the most part, if not their appearance. The early records show that by the mid 1630s English traders and settlers were well acquainted with the network of paths throughout the region and by the late 1640s had perused almost every nook and cranny of the land from the Bay to the Connecticut River.
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Postscript
Roger Williams provides some insight into overland travel in the 1630s in his phrase book, A Key into the Language of New England. There were well worn paths throughout the entire country, many marked, with guides available to navigate the ways. These were paths that well established communities had been using for generations.
"The wildernesse being so vast, it is a mercy, that for a hire a man shall never want guides, who will carry provisions, and such as hire them over the Rivers and Brookes and find out often times hunting houses, or other lodgings at night," (A Key, 69)
"So that I have knowne many of them run betweene fourescoure or an hundred miles in a Summers day, and back within two dayes : they doe also practice running of races; and commonly in the Summer, they delight to goe without shoes although they have them hanging at their backs :" (Ibid, 71)
"They are are marvailous subtle in their Bargaines to save a penny.- And very suspicious that English men labour to deceive them : Therefore they will beate all markets and try all places and runne twenty thirty, yea forty mile, and more, and lodge in the woods to save six pence." (Ibid, 163)
“ … he that is a Messenger runs swiftly, and at every towne the Messenger comes, a fresh Messenger is sent: he that is the last, comming within a mile or two of the Court, or chiefe house, he hollowes often, and they that heare, answer him: untill by mutuall hollowing and answering hee is brought to the place of audience, whereby this meanes is gathered a great confluence of people to entertaine the newes.” (Ibid, 60)
That the English sought help with path routes from the Algonquian speaking communities is illustrated in small part with a 1649 letter to Henry Whitfield from John Eliot, as related by Whitfield. In Eliot’s letter entreating Whitfield for more financial and material support, Eliot describes a desire to go to Namaske (Namaoskeag or the falls at Amoskeag), the gathering and fishing place on the Merrimack River. There was an English trucking house located at Nashaway [brackets mine]:
“the Indians way lyeth beyond the great [Merrimack] River which we cannot passe with our horses, nor can we well go to it on this side the river, unlesse we go by Nashaway, which is about, and bad way, unbeaten, the Indians not using that way ; I therefore hired a hardy man of Nashaway to beat out a way and to mark trees, so that he may Pilot me thither in the spring, and he hired Indians with him and did it ;” (Whitfield, 19)
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From John Franklin Jamison's Narratives of New Netherland 1609 - 1664, observations written in a memorial to representatives of the Dutch government by Adriaen van der Donck and others, relating in part to the Dutch on the Fresh (Connecticut) River.
The Representation of New Netherland, Adriaen van der Donck, 1649:
"Of the Fresh River, After Fort Good Hope, begun in the year 1623, on the Fresh River, was finished, some time had elapsed when an English bark arrived there. Jacob van Curler, factor of the Company, by order of Director Wouter van Twiller, protested against it, but notwithstanding his protest they did, a year or two afterwards, come there with some families. A protest was also made against them; but it was very manifest that these people had little respect for it, for notwithstanding frequent protests, they have finally seized and possessed the whole of the Fresh River, and have proceeded so far in their shameless course as, in the year 1640, to seize the Company's farms at the fort, paying no regard to the protests which we made. They have gone even still further, and have belabored the Company's people with sticks and heavy clubs; and have forcibly thrown into the river their ploughs and other instruments, while they were on the land for the purpose of working, and have put their horses in the pound. The same things happened very frequently afterwards. They also took hogs and cows belonging to the fort, and several times sold some of them for the purpose, as they said, of repairing the damage. Against all these acts, and each one in particular, protests were repeatedly made, but they were met with ridicule." (Narratives of New Netherland 1609 - 1664, Page 308)
Jamison notes that Van der Donck's date for the fort Good Hope of 1623 should be 1633. However, if Van der Donck was speaking generally about settlement at the Fresh River, including fort Good Hope, Van der Donck's 1623 date is probably deliberate as the Dutch set up a trading post at the mouth of the river at Kievits Hoek (Old Saybrook), presumably circa 1624. The Dutch were traveling and trading on the waters of Long Island Sound in 1614.
David Pieterszoon de Vries on a voyage along Long Island Sound and up the Fresh (Connecticut) River in 1639 writes about a visit to the Dutch trading house and fort at Dutch Point located just below Hartford, near where the Little (Park) River joined the Fresh River, called Huys de Hoop, House of Hope. His tour was three years after the English settlement at Hartford. Three years after settlement the English on the river were importing Canary wine:
David Pieterszoon de Vries:
“These English live soberly, drink only three times at a meal,” (Voyages from Holland, Page 126).
“ …among the incidents which happened while I was here, was that of an English ketch arriving here from the north, with thirty pipes of Canary wine. There was a merchant with it, who was from the same city, in England, as the servant of the minister of this town, and was well acquainted with him. Now, this merchant invited the minister's servant on board the vessel to drink with him ; and it seems that the man became fuddled with wine, or drank pretty freely, which was observed by the minister. So they brought the servant to the church, where the post stood, in order to whip him. The merchant then came to me, and requested me to speak to the minister, as it was my fault that he had given wine to his countryman. I accordingly went to the commander of our little fort or redoubt, and invited the minister and the mayor, and other leading men, with their wives, who were very fond of eating cherries ; as there were from forty to fifty cherry-trees standing about the redoubt, full of cherries. We feasted the minister and the governor and their wives, who came to us ; and, as we were seated at the meal in the redoubt, I, together with the merchant, requested the minister to pardon his servant, saying that he probably had not partaken of any wine for a year, and that such sweet Canary wine would intoxicate any man. We were a long while before we could persuade him, but their wives spoke favourably, whereby the servant got free.” (Ibid, Pages 126, 127)
David Pieterszoon de Vries again,
“Whilst I happened here, another farce was played. There was a young man, who had been married two months, who was complained of before the consistory, by his brother, that he had slept with his wife before they were married ; whereupon they were both taken and whipped, and separated from each other for six weeks. These people give out that they are Israelites, and that we at our colony are Egyptians, and that the English in the Virginias are also Egyptians. I frequently told the governor that it would be impossible for them to keep the people so strict, as they had come from so luxurious a country as England.” (Ibid, Pages 127, 128)
Mark A. Palmer,
Excepting all materials in the public domain or provided under a Creative Commons Public License; Original content © 2023, all rights reserved.
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