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The peacefulness of
Canaan, the second smallest town in Connecticut, belies a history that
is anything but quiet. For it was here, beginning in the early 18th
century, peaking in the 19th and ending in the early 20th,
that stone blast furnaces poured forth red-hot, high quality Salisbury
iron. Mountains and valleys were stripped bare of trees to make
charcoal to feed the hungry furnaces. A huge factory once stood at the
Great Falls and employed hundreds of men to manufacture cannons, war
materiel and huge railroad tires from the famed Salisbury iron. One
hundred years ago the center of town, now so quiet, was a beehive of
commercial activity, a boomtown, and early entrepreneurs dreamed of
channeling the power of the falls to fuel an industrial empire.
Thankfully, the iron
industry moved to the easily accessible surface iron mines of the
Midwest, the plans for empire collapsed, the ravaged mountains and
valleys reclaimed their natural splendor, and the peaceful life of a
small town returned. Today, the stunning and unspoiled natural beauty
of Falls Village remains its most prized and closely guarded asset, and
its rich New England heritage remains firmly in place and guides its
future.
The
Earliest Inhabitants--Native American Indians
The Institute of American Indian Studies,
headquartered in Washington, CT, has conducted a number of
archaeological surveys in Falls Village and North Canaan, including
sites along the Housatonic River and around Robbins Swamp in Falls
Village. The latter revealed sites dating back thousands of years,
indicating that Falls Village was settled very early by Native American
societies, probably in early post-Pleistocene times soon after
deglaciation.
When people of European
stock arrived in the Falls Village area in the early 1700’s, much if not
all appears to have been Weantinock tribal territory. A well-worn
Indian trail along the banks of the Housatonic connected the
Schaghticoke tribe in Kent with the Stockbridge Indian community in
western Massachusetts to the north and with the Weantinock, Pootatuck
and Paugussett tribal communities to the south as far as Stratford on
Long Island Sound. It was known as the Berkshire Path.
The Indians on the whole
were friendly to the newcomers, although some bitter arguments broke out
over land sales and rights to natural resources, such as tree bark for
wood splint basket making and rights to frequent Indian fishing and
planting grounds. Most Indians thought of land rights as that of
occupancy only, not of outright ownership. Representatives of
Connecticut’s General Court were called in to settle disputes, which the
Indians usually lost.
Connecticut Assembly
records report that about 1,000 Indians were left in the state by 1756,
most considered friendly. Eventually the Indians in the northwest
corner were pushed out, except for the Schaghticokes in Kent, whose
village became a major Indian refuge for members of other tribal groups
attempting to continue their traditional way of life.
Early White
Settlement
For almost a century,
white people, mostly of European stock, especially English, had
gradually claimed or bought and settled much of the rugged territory in
the colony of Connecticut. Nearly twice as many towns were settled in
the 30 years after 1690 as in the 30 years before. The estimated
population of the Colony of Connecticut in 1730 was 60,000 and growing
rapidly. But there was one last section of the Colony, the northwest
corner or the so-called Western Lands, that was still mostly virgin
wilderness.
In the early 1700’s high-grade iron ore
had been discovered in Salisbury. White men, many of Dutch descent
migrating from the Hudson River area, began buying up land and water
rights from the Indians and a few received grants from the Connecticut
General Assembly. By 1735, Thomas Lamb was smelting iron in Lime Rock.
The General Assembly considered it illegal for anyone to buy property in
the Western Lands without its express approval and consent. The
“persons who have encroached and unjustly entered” the territory caused
great concern.
The Western Lands, with their beautiful
vistas, rich soils, abundant waterpower, exceptional iron ore, limestone
and vast stands of virgin timber were ripe for settlement. Pressure was
put on the Assembly to open up the Western Lands to development.
In 1731 the General Assembly accepted the
report of three men who had been sent to the northwest corner to survey
the land and lay out the townships. Word spread about the potential and
beauty of the rugged territory. Disagreement about the method of
selling the land broke out and complicated the process. The Assembly
finally decided to auction off the land to the highest bidders. The
money from the sales was to be used for the support of schools in the
settled towns in Connecticut. Those who had “encroached and unjustly
entered” the Western Lands were told to leave. In 1738 and in
subsequent years land in Canaan, Kent, Cornwall, Sharon, Salisbury,
Goshen and other towns, in what would become Litchfield County in 1751,
was sold, organized, and settled.
On January 3, 1738, at 1:00 o’clock in
the afternoon, Town “C” was sold at auction in New London in 53 rights,
or shares. The first fifty shares were sold outright with the remaining
three shares set apart: one for the benefit of the first “gospel
minister settled”, one to be sequestered for the use of the ministry
forever, and one for the use of a school in such town. Since Town “C”
at that time enclosed about fifty square miles, each share covered a
large piece of land. The purchasers, known as proprietors, agreed to
settle their land within two years, build a house of at least 18 feet
square and seven feet stud, and subdue and fence at least six acres of
land and pay their taxes and financial obligations. The occupants had
to remain on the land for another successive three years. If these
conditions were not met, the property would be forfeited. Proprietors
asked the Assembly committee supervising the undertaking to be
particularly watchful to see that non-resident proprietors did not send
any settlers who would likely become a burden on the town. Strong backs
and willing hands were required.
Town “C” was formally
named Canaan by the Assembly in May 1738. It is interesting to note
that the land in Canaan and Goshen was considered the most attractive,
and bids started at 60 pounds for each share. So rapid was the influx
of population that the Assembly incorporated Canaan in 1739. Perhaps
the biblical name of Canaan attracted the attention of these staunch,
church-going Christians. Some towns in the northwest corner would take
years to be incorporated.
The names of some of the early
settlers—Lawrence (Tavern/homestead), Beebe (Hill road and school),
Belden (Street), Hollenbeck (River), Holcomb (farm), Hogoboom (farm) and
Dutcher (bridge) are still familiar in the area more than two and a half
centuries later.
Taming the Wilderness
After many days of
difficult travel through wilderness to reach the Western Lands, the
early settlers set about providing for the basic necessities.
Protection from the elements and wild animals was secured, cropland
cleared and planted, and a place of worship and town government
established. It was important to these settlers that the earliest roads
would take them to their place of worship, the tax-supported
Congregational Church, the official religion of the Colony.
The winter of 1740-41
was especially severe, and many settlers suffered from the extreme cold,
deep snow and “extra-ordinary sickness.” Many farm animals froze to
death. The sturdy pioneers petitioned the General Assembly for
financial relief.
Bears, wolves and
rattlesnakes were plentiful in the northwest corner. In their earliest
action, Canaan selectmen offered bounties for the tails of dead
rattlesnakes. Blackbirds, jays and squirrels were on their hit list
too. Old records tell of hunting parties organized in the area. Five
bears were reported killed on the same day in one hunt, and five wolves
met the same fate in another hunt in 1765. Connecticut offered a bounty
of 40 shillings for “cattamounts or panthers.”
Slaves
From early town and other written records
we know that slaves once lived in the town of Canaan. Owning slaves at
that time was not uncommon. Slavery as it developed in Connecticut was
an outcome of the heritage, customs and religion of the people of the
colony. A census in 1774 tallied 5,101 slaves in the colony; by 1790
the United States census recorded 2,759 slaves and 2,801 free Negroes.
Emancipation in Connecticut came slowly in measured legal steps until
the stain of slavery ended in 1848, except for those slaves aged 64 or
older.
Certainly the slaves who
came with the earliest settlers must have participated in the
backbreaking and dangerous work of taming the wilderness. On small
farms in New England slaves usually worked side by side with their
masters. Their forced participation in the settling of Canaan and her
sister towns has not been adequately disclosed in historical records,
diaries or journals. There are a few recorded histories of slaves who
lived in the northwest corner, and most of those African-Americans lie
in unmarked graves, their personal histories unknown. Their silent,
important contributions should be respected and gratefully acknowledged.
Researched and written
by Betty Tyburski.
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