This young man graduated at Yale College in 1785; was ordained at East Windsor, in Sept., 1785; and was settled over a small Presbyterian Church in the Isle of Saba, in the West Indies. Being obliged, by the failure of his health, to relinquish his charge, he returned to Ellington, were he died as above stated, at the age of 29. The sermon at his funeral was preached by the Rev. Dr. McClure, of East Windsor, and was afterwards published.

37

CHAPTER XV.

WINDSOR, EAST OF THE CONNECTICUT RIVER. - CONTINUED.

The North, or Scantic Parish (now the town of East Windsor).

1

Our esteemed friend,Mr. AZEL S. ROE, has already written so thorough and excellent a history of this parish, that any attempt to rewrite it for the mere sake of originality, would be a work of superorogation. Therefore, as the elucidation of historic truth, rather than any display of authorship is the object of this work, we shall content ourselves in the following chapter, with simply abridging the substance of his interesting little volume; and by adding thereto a few items which we have ourselves collected.

As before mentioned, the first settlement of Windsor, east of the Connecticut River, was along the river from Scantic to Podunk, and included the whole of the present town of South Windsor. At a subsequent period (1696-1700) a few families began to locate themselves north of the Scantic. Thomas Ellsworth, the Osborns and the Stileses were among these northernmost settlers, all of whom were near the Connecticut River. But the gradual increase of numbers, and a necessity of larger accommodations, drove them, in the course of a few years, back into the higher forest lands of the interior.

"As early as 1736, settlers began to select favorable spots

1 History of the First Ecclesiastical Society in East Windsor, from its formation in 1752, to the death of its second pastor, Rev. Shubael Bartlett, in 1854. With a sketch of the life of Rev. Mr. Bartlett, and his farewell discourse, prepered for the fiftieth anniversary of his settlement. Hartford, 1857.

for location amid the forests-some choosing their position where the land was favorable for grain, some where the large pines afforded means for the manufacture of tar, and others amid marshy places where the grass grew rank for the purpose of gathering hay to winter stock, the sowing of grass-seed being an improvement in agriculture not then known to them." At what time the Ketch Mills1 settlement was commenced is uncertain. As early as March, 1663-4, the court allowed Mr. Matthew Allyn "to take up that meadow at Catch, beyond Goodman Bissell's, on the east side of the River, and what upland he pleaseth, so he exceeds not his former grant." And in Feb., 1687, the town voted that

"Samuel Grant, Senior and Nathaniel Bissell shall have liberty to set up a sawmill with the use of ten acres of land upon the brook that is known by the name of Ketch, and the town is to have the boards for 4s per 100 at the mill, or 5s at the Great River, they to have no right to the land any longer than they maintain a mill upon the place."

We think the settlement in that neighborhood, however, began at a much later date- and subsequently to that on the river. The first settlers there, or among the first, were JонN, ROGER and LUKE, sons of John Loomis.

1 It is related that once, "in the olden time," the men engaged at the old saw mill here were suddenly alarmed while at dinner by the unceremonious appearance of a huge bear. Unprepared for such an honor, they sought their safety in flight, while their unwelcome visitor, snuffing around in search of something to eat, espied the luncheon which one of the men had left on the huge log that was set for the saw. Mounting the log, Bruin began, with his back to the saw, quietly to dispose of the luncheon. Meanwhile the owner thereof, taking courage to reconnoitre, found his four-footed adversary thus busily employed, and started the saw. Away it went, steadily sliding along the timber, on which unconscious Bruin was seated, in happy enjoyment of his stolen feast, until he was awakened from his "sweet dream of peace," by a savage scratch on his shaggy back. Quick as thought he faced around, and instinctively grasped the shining blade in a deathlike hugbut still, up and down, the relentless saw held on its way - and a mangled carcase testified to the exultant settlers that Bruin had "caught a Tartar."

This incident has been assigned as the origin of the name Ketch Mills, but this is an evident mistake. The name is a corruption of catch, by which the brook was known at a very early date in the history of Windsor. The low wet lands on its borders were then covered with a large quantity of coarse grass, of which each of the surrounding inhabitants had liberty to gather in what he could; hence the name of Catch Brook.

Ireland Street, in the northeast part of Scantic Parish, was settled about the middle of the last century, by a number of families of Scotch-Irish, who came from the north of Ireland with the Rev. Mr. McKinstry, and others, who settled at Ellington. The names of Thompson, McKnight, Harper, Gowdy, Cohoon, and others, have been long and honorably connected with the history of this parish.

"From all," says Mr. Roe, "that can be now learned of the character of those who first settled the north parish of East Windsor, we must judge them to have been men of strong resolution, untiring industry, and of religious habits. They were not mere speculators, who sought to make the most out of the land they occupied in the shortest possible time, and then to remove and try their luck upon some other uncultivated spot; but they seemed to have settled with a design to make a lifestay of it, contenting themselves with a bare living for the first few years, and enlarging their incomes as they extended their clearings and brought more land into a state of cultivation. The houses which they erected were not log-houses, such as have formed the first houses of settlers in the far west, but they were frame buildings of small size, made comfortable without any pretension to ornament. Many of the original settlers purchased large tracts of land, which have sufficed even to the present day for division among their descendants, so that in very many locations among us the present owners can sit beneath the shadow of the trees that sheltered their forefathers, and cultivate the soil where their great-great-grandfathers labored.

From the best information which can be obtained, they were a church-going people, for we learn that they were in the habit of attending regularly those places of worship nearest to their different locations. Those who lived in the north visited the old church in Enfield, and those who settled in the middle and southern portions of the parish, attended the church of Dr. Ed wards, situated near the old burying ground at East Windsor. Sabbath after sabbath they traversed the foot-paths through the woods to that place of worship, and in death they were carried through the same paths for many miles on the shoulders of

neighbors and acquaintances to the depository of the dead near the house of God." 1

In December, 1749, however, the inevitable necessity of a division was so apparent, that the Second Society petitioned the assembly therefor.

2

Several committees were appointed, the last of whom reported, Sept. 1751, favorably to a division of the society by a line running due east from the mouth of the Scantic River; with the proviso, that as the list of the south side exceeded that of the north side, a part of the former should pay rates to the latter for six years. This report was finally adopted, not without some remonstrance from the south-siders; and, by an act of the assembly, in May, 1752, that part of the Second Society north of the Scantic, became the Second or North Society of Windsor, east of the Connecticut River. 3

The first meeting of the new society, of which we have any record, was held on the 25th of June, 1752. From this point we follow Mr. Roe's book. "A meeting legally warned con-1 vened on that day at the house of Mr. John Prior. Captain John Ellsworth was chosen moderator, and the following votes were passed:

"Voted, That Captain John Ellsworth, David Skinner and Joseph Harper, be society's committee.

Voted, By more than two thirds of the inhabitants of the North Society, entitled by law to vote, to build a meetinghouse in and for said society.

Voted, That they would apply themselves to the county court to see where the meeting house should be.

Voted, That Samuel Watson, an inhabitant of said society, be the agent for said society to apply to the county court for a committee to affix a place where the meeting-house shall be." Oct. 30th, 1752, at an adjourned meeting of the society, the following resolution passed:

1 One of our oldest inhabitants remembers that at the death of a young lady, whose relatives had been buried in the old cemetery on East Windsor Hill, the corpse was carried from the house he now occupies in Ireland Street, upon the shoulders of the bearers to the place of interment, a distance of seven miles; several sets of bearers relieving each other.

2 South side list, £9. 716s. North side list, £5. 165s.

3 State Archives, Ecclesiastical.