Two Centuries of New Milford Connecticut. Various

Member of firm of Ball, Black & Co., New York City; for eighteen years a resident of New Milford and active in the development of the town till his death, 1889

      to offer their lives, and fathers to give of their substance. The daughters of the town vied with each other in loyal labors for their country, and, gave their time with their hearts to loving ministry.

      In recent days the courage of our citizens has been “tried as by fire.” The great conflagration of May, 1902, swept away the entire business portion of the village; yet the Puritan fathers could not have met disaster more stoically than our brave men of to-day. The cheerful optimism that built “Shanty Town” on “The Green” while the ruins were still smouldering showed that the stout hearts of old New Milford were the same in the new, and that noble lives have been its inheritance through all its years.

      We smile as we recall the old days and ways, but we bare our heads reverently before those godly men and women whose hardships meant a better way for us. Two hundred years hence others will read our record, and smile, perhaps. Will it be as worthy?

THE OWNERS OF NEW MILFORD

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      NAMES OF THE PROPRIETORS IN THE MILFORD COMPANY, WHO, UNDER A DEED OF DATE OF JUNE, 1703, WERE THE OWNERS OF THE TOWN OF NEW MILFORD

      Compiled and Arranged by General Henry Stuart Turrill[1]

      THE following were proprietors to the amount of £1 4s.: Col. Robert Treat, Mr. Thomas Clark, Ensign George Clark, Lieut. Joseph Treat, Ensign Joseph Peck, Jonathan Baldwin, committee; Capt. Samuel Eells, Sergt. Edward Camp, Rev. Mr. Andrews, Thomas Wlech, James Prime, Stephen Miles, Barnabas Baldwin, John Woodruff, Mr. Richard Bryan, Daniel Terrell, Samuel Brisco, Timothy Botsford, Sergt. Daniel Baldwin, Mr. Robert Treat, Deacon Platt, Thomas Clark, Mr. Samuel Clark, Jr., Samuel Buckingham, Thomas Buckingham, John Buckingham, William Wheeler, Nathaniel Farrand, Sr., George Allen, Samuel Camp (mason), John Smith ye 4th, Samuel Clark, Sr., Ephraim Burwell, Joseph Beard, Joseph Camp, Samuel Camp (Lanesend), Nathaniel Farrand, Jr., Thomas Tibbals, Thomas Canfield, John Merwin, Samuel Smith (West end), William Gold, Joseph Wheeler, John Prince, Samuel Camp, (son of Edward Camp), Eleazor Prindle, Lieut. Camp, William Scone, Samuel Baldwin (wheelwright), Lieut. Joseph Platt, Sergt. Miles Merwin, Samuel Sanford, Sr., John Beard, Mr. Samuel Andrews, Sr., George Clark, Sr., Joseph Clarke, Joseph Peck, Jr., John Camp, Sergt. John Smith, Jonathan Law, Jr., John Allen, Hugh Grey, Joseph Ashburn, John Summers, James Fenn, Zachariah Whitman, William Adams, Joseph Rogers, Samuel Stone, Jonathan Baldwin, Jr.; Jesse Lambert, Frederick Prudden, Sergt. Zachariah Baldwin, Benjamin Smith, Sr., John Smith, Jr., John Platt, Josiah Platt, Richard Platt, Samuel Prindle, Sergt. Samuel Beard, Sergt. Samuel Northrope, George Clarke, Jr., Samuel Coley, Samuel Merwin, Lieut. Samuel Burwell, Samuel Miles, James Beard, Samuel Nettleton, Joseph Treat (son of Lieut. Treat), Jeremiah Canfield, Thomas Smith, Nathaniel Baldwin, Jr., Jeremiah Beard, Bethel Lankstaff, Andrew Sanford, Sr., Nath. Sanford, John Merwin, Joseph Tibbals, Billin Baldwin (in right of her father, Sergt. Timothy Baldwin, deceased), and Mr. Samuel Mather.

The following were proprietors to the amount 12s.: Mr. Robert Plumb, Andrew Sanford, Widow Mary Baldwin, James Baldwin, Nathaniel Baldwin (cooper), Henry Summers, Samuel Smith (water), John Clark, and William Fowler.

TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO

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      Contributed by Sarah Sanford Black

      Upon this hilltop stood the doughty priest

       And bade his minions, men of brawn and bone,

       To dig for water ere the frost should come

       To lock the land and shroud the hill in snow,

       Two hundred years ago.

       And here they labored long and valiantly,

       Till far beneath the sod a rill arose

       And ’twixt the rocks a stream broke forth

       And sparkled in the Autumn evening glow

       Two hundred years ago.

      “Thank God for water pure and clear,” he cried,

       And in the twilight grey the good priest stood

       And looking off beyond the valley fair,

       To where the same hills which we love and know,

       Two hundred years ago

       Seemed to touch Paradise, as now, he called

       On God, the wanderers’ God, to bless the well

       Which was to them that day, the most desired

       Of all the gifts which man or beast could know,

       Two hundred years ago.

      The years have passed, two hundred years—and now

       We stand beside the well, which was the first

       Our village knew—“The Ancient Boardman Well”;

       To-day the bucket dips, the waters flow,

       Just as they did

       Two hundred years ago.

       We look where purple hilltops touch the sky,

       We kneel and thank our God for all the past—

       THE FIRST WELL IN THE TOWN OF NEW MILFORD Dug by Priest Daniel Boardman. The property is now owned by Mrs. William D. Black, and known as “Hickory Hearth”.

      They clasped His hand as we do, tho’ that day

       All that their future held they could not know

       As we know now—

       Two hundred years ago.

      We thank our fathers’ God for all His care,

       For smiling fields and busy haunts of men—

       For all the gifts of Science and of Art—

       For lives whose deeds His loving guidance show

       Brave as those lives

       Two hundred years ago.

       All are from Him, these works of hand and brain

       His love has made men wise, has kept men true,

       Since first upon this hilltop life began,

       And water in the wilderness did flow

       Here at this well

       Two hundred years ago.

THE TWO ABIGAILS

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      REMINISCENCES OF A TYPICAL NEW MILFORD FAMILY

      Contributed by General Henry Stuart Turrill

      Caleb Terrill, eldest son of Daniel and Zorvia (Canfield) Terrell, was born in Milford, Connecticut, December 3, 1717. Nearing his majority, he was given the right of land in New Milford of which his grandfather, Daniel, Sr., was the original proprietor. The first allotment to this right was made April 14, 1729, and consisted of about forty-two acres of land on Second Hill, fronting the old Bostwick place. Here, in the spring of 1738, Caleb built his house, cleared a little part of his land and