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Connecticut Influences in Western Massachusetts and Vermont

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Connecticut Influences in Western Massachusetts and Vermont TERCENTENARY COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT COMMITTEE ON HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS LVIII Connecticut Influences in Western Massachusetts and Vermont RISING LAKE MORROW PUBLISHED FOR THE TERCENTENARY COMMISSION 9 74.6 BY THE YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS TER ' B 10^6 LVIII HI i yi c.l Connecticut State Library Libs | S-rvice Center 786 South Main Street Middietown, Connecticut 06457 I 'il # • - * .I . ,.,,s f . A?.2•MSweMf.? '„ s- . ' . , ... i i " Vtv'•>:.'{-":.•.'i/.r^'m^ :• -.: • ; •••'.•'.^.'-'•''.V-'-'if: > ' • J J - V iZ ' " * • • • W', ' •K r H;, ' . >. a « ff • 111 iS S," IslilSl^SSaB^^m iigPBMIBjHf llSSStilsi 'Sti." '1' j is? ' zL f\ „ fi'Ig , J »»KJ , s . 2f ' < ~ , * . IB J. ' • -t.vi - • • " 3 ' - flv#, < • - * | - v rli . | I 1 , fe ,;>;! • V 'm TERCENTENARY COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT COMMITTEE ON HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS LVIII Connecticut Influences in Western Massachusetts and Vermont RISING LAKE MORROW I ^ALTHOUGH some settlers of Connecticut had / early turned their footsteps northward, it was / not until the middle of the eighteenth cen- i tury that the movement into western Massachusetts and the region later known as Vermont assumed appreciable proportions. From then on, for more than fifty years Connecticut sent a continuous stream of pioneers through the longitudinal valleys of western New England, first into the region of the Berk- shires, and later into the Green Mountains. Movers from eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, to be sure, joined the trek, but the Connecticut people by sheer weight of numbers so dominated the development of both sections that they became, in substance, new Connecticuts. The land problem, which bulked large in the minds of all frontiersmen, was probably responsible for the greater part of this migration. The spread of population, which flowed like quicksilver into the valleys of Connecticut's hinterlands, and the hegiras to Long Island, New Jersey, and Delaware gave evidence of the restless energy of the colony's earliest settlers. Before Wethersfield was ten years old, a committee of the general court, investi- gating a religious quarrel which threatened to split the settlement, reported: "Many of those who put up their names for remoueall were not induced thereunto by any dislike, or ingadgement they haue in the present quar- rells, but for want of lotts and other considerations." A historian of Hartford might have been describing any of the older towns when he wrote that the place was a beehive for new settlements, "a little swarm here, one there, another there, and they clung, each, almost wherever in the region round about, a tree branch shaded the flowers of the wilderness." By 1680, with a popula- tion of approximately 12,000, Connecticut had already reported its territory to be so full of rocks, swamps, hills, and vales that most of what was fit for planting had already been taken up and that "what remaynes must be subdued, and gained out of the fire as it were, by hard blowes and for smal recompence." As the years passed the land problem grew more acute. There was some immigration from old England and some from Massachusetts but, in the main, the Connecticut people themselves were responsible for their increasing numbers. In the register of births in the New Haven archives, under the 290 family names recorded between the years 1647 and 1754, an investigator has discovered the names of 5,954 children. This record, moreover, is very likely incomplete for, as families moved farther from the village, registrations inevitably became in- creasingly irregular. Abraham Doolittle, for example, had 13 children, 73 grandchildren, and at least 232 great- 2 grandchildren. William Tuttle was the father of 12, the grandfather of 72, and the great-grandfather of 323 chil- dren. Richard Sperry, with 10 children and 66 grand- children, had 325 great-grandchildren. The Reverend Abel Stiles of Woodstock baptized in his society 367 boys and 415 girls between 1737 and 1759. The results of this fecundity are reflected in the population estimates for the first half of the eighteenth century. From 38,000* in 1730, the estimates jumped to 71,000 by 1749. Thir- teen years later Governor Fitch was reporting a popula- tion of 141,000 whites and 4,590 blacks. In 1756 he had written that according to "the best computation that hath been made" the inhabitants of the colony had doubled in twenty-four years, an increase which he attributed to an industrious, temperate life, early mar- riage, and divine benediction. In Connecticut, at that time, there was no well- established manufacturing industry. A few people living on the coast or navigable rivers engaged in trade, but for the vast majority agriculture furnished the chief means of livelihood. In consequence, as the pressure on the arable land increased and its value rose, the sons of Connecticut's pioneers turned once more to the frontier. There they raised their crude log cabins, wrested their acres from the wilderness, and established again the institutions of their fathers. It is significant, also, that the larger emigration came from districts having poor transportation facilities. Counties and towns on the coast and rivers, whence markets could be easily reached, grew rapidly, while inland districts remained either stationary or, in a few cases, actually declined in 'So reported by Secretary Hezekiah Wyllys to the board of trade, but there is reason to believe that the population was actually 50 per cent greater in both 1730 and 1749. See A. L. Olson, Agricultural economy and the •population in eighteenth-century Connecticut (no. XL in this series), p. 21. 3 population. It was a rural people, holding to agrarian principles, who founded the colonies of Connecticut. Rural though they were, however, in common with the other pioneers of the American frontier, they were not good farmers. Secure in the knowledge that out on the fringes of settlement virgin land could always be bought for a song, they exploited their soils with no attempt to preserve their productivity. It is a curious paradox of the American frontier that, owing to the abundance of land and the scarcity of labor, the most economical farming was often the most wasteful. Hence, antiquated methods were followed and, as the soil lost its fertility, the farmers left it in order to repeat the process farther on. Another factor in the exodus northward from Con- necticut was the growth of land speculation. During the seventeenth century the New England colonies in general had granted lands to groups of men for the purpose of founding communities. The proprietors were supposed to hold such lands in trust until assigning them to persons who would properly carry on the Puritan tradition. Yet, in the eighteenth century, as the density of settlement increased, and as it became necessary to reward the re- turning veterans of the wars with the French, a com- mercial element entered into the proceedings. Among the seaboard businessmen of Massachusetts and Connecticut were many who, as the result of trade, found themselves with a growing capital surplus to invest. Since the devel- opment of manufacturing enterprises was ruled out by the British mercantile system, investment in land seemed to them to be the only recourse. Consequently, with no thought of settling upon the lands themselves, they either bought the allotments to soldiers or sought new grants from the colonial authorities, with the idea of reselling the land at a profit. Realizing that actual settlement 4 would attract additional settlers, they often offered special inducements to the firstcomers. While it seems clear that economic factors were chiefly responsible for the migration from the colony, religious considerations played a part as well. Irreconcilable dif- ferences over such matters as the Half Way Covenant and the proper combination of church and state were responsible for the founding of many a town, both within and without Connecticut's boundaries. Hartford and Wethersfield, for example, were hardly well established before a theological dispute as vague and indefinite, according to Cotton Mather, as the source of the Con- necticut river, sent a disgruntled minority into the wilds above Springfield to settle Hadley, Massachusetts. Troubles also arose as a result of the territorial extent of the parishes. In the early days of a settlement one church normally served a township. In consequence, people in outlying districts often found it difficult, be- cause of the distance and other conditions affecting travel, to attend church services regularly. When the dissatisfied ones felt that the numbers in their section were sufficient to support a minister of their own, they applied to the general court for permission to form a separate church. Since the new church would diminish not only the area of the old parish but, by including all people and property within the new bounds, would diminish its revenue as well, the original churches regu- larly opposed any division. Sometimes numbers of peti- tions would be necessary and years would pass in controversy before the discontented either won their case or removed to more congenial surroundings. Though difficulties of this sort tended to decrease during the eighteenth century, the Great Awakening brought in its train a new crop of theological dissensions. 5 Coming as it did just at the set of Connecticut's north- ward tide, it was perhaps the most important element in the religious cause of the migration. To check the eccle- siastical hysteria which was sweeping the colony, the general assembly, in 1742, forbade ministers to preach in any parish but their own, save on the invitation of both the people and pastor of the parish in question. This was followed a year later by a repeal of the law which allowed all who soberly dissented from the prevailing order to establish separate worship unmolested provided they paid their taxes for the support of the parish minister.
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