The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1889-02-22
The Sidewalk of our Grandsires.

The Sidewalk of our Grandsires.
The BEE has been shown by that au-
thority ON Newtown antiquities, Mr. G.
II. Peck, the original subscription paper
that raised the money for building the
first sidewalk in Newtown Street. The
money subscribed was paid to Henry
Dutton, at that time an honored attorney
of this village, afterward governor of
Connecticut, who lived in the house now
owned and occupied by Mr. John III.
Blackman. This paper is dated 81 years
ago, February 8, 1928 and provides for
''hagging, gravelling and paving side
walk on each side of the Newtown Town
Street and across said street." The
amount realized was $167 81, the largest
single subscriptions, $40, coming from
David V. b. Baldwin and Henry Beers of
the firm of Baldwin & Beers, the mer-
chants who occupied Mr. f. +. Hawley's
corner; Mr. Baldwin lived where Mr.
Skidmore does and "Dea" Beers near the
home of the Misses Glover; Caleb Bald
win, town clerk at the time Che and his
father filling the Office for about 20
years., who lived where Mr. Charles F.
Beardsley does; John johnson, father of
David johnson, long a Newtown mer-
Glover, father-in-law of ''Dea" Beers,
near whom he lived; Andrew b. Glover,
who built the old Belden house. Those
subscribing lesser amounts were Rev
Daniel Burhans, rector of Trinity parish,
who lived where Dicks hotel is located;
d. II. Belden, the noted lawyer, who
then lived on the site of the present rec
tory; Samuel c. Blackman, Newtown's
first Judge of probate, who lived on the
site of the Grand Central; Drusus Mich
OILS, son of "Capt Jim" Nichols, who
kept store at a building which once stood
south of Mrs II. T. Nicholas; T. Mich
OILS; Hermon Warner, who lived where
Mrs II. +. Nichols does and father of Mr.
John Warner of New Haven; Henry
Dutton; Moss X. Botsford; Gar Keller,
who kept tavern north of Misses Glover's
in red house now gone; Ebenezer Tur-
ner, who lived at Mr. S. c. Glover's home;
Thomas Seeley, who kept hotel where
Mr. Charles Morehouse lives and had
shoe shop; Charles Clark, who lived
where Aaron Sanford does and was an
an old schoolmaster and selectman;
James b. Fairman; Eli Hard; Ives
Glover, then in the blacksmith shop at
the head of the Street; William Blakes-
lee, the noted silversmith, father of Mrs
S. c. Glover and Mrs ID. S. Hammond;
Boyle Fairchild; Daniel Millin; Charles
Botsford; "Dea' Elijah Botsford; James
I. Wheeler; Wakeman Smith; Alexan-
der Hall, n carpenter and joiner, who liv-
ed where Barber Oscar does; Capt Jim
Nichols, who lived at Mr. James NJ. Tur-
ney's; DIR C. II. Booth, father of Mrs NJ.
G. Hawley, who lives on the site of old
the Congregational church; DR. John
Judson, father or DIR Monroe Judson;
William G.. Smith; Charlotte Glover !;
Sylvia Shelton; Maria Glover; Ophelia
Bancroft, widow of DIR Bancroft, who
! lived in house that stood south of Mrs
Thomas ID. Shepard; David Il. Botsford.
The walk was laid with paving stones
brought from Mine Hill and part of it
remains in front of Mrs Henry Sanford's
place and elsewhere. Gar Keller and
David V. b. Baldwin, a committee ap-
pointed by the subscribers, made a con-
tract for the stone with David Booth of
New Milford, which Mr. Peck has also
secured, which specifies that Booth shall
furnish 20O0 feet of tagging stones, IS
inches wide, squared, the edges cut to a
line, split to Il thickness not exceeding
two inches, though natural faces of not
less than one and half and not more
than two and quarter inches in thick
ness were to pass muster. The stone
cost 800 got out ''and delivered on the
banks free from the quarry at a place
called Mine Hill in New Milford" They
must, OF course, have been hauled to
Newtown by teams, for we are back of
the steam and electric age, when New
town packed and shipped pork to the
West Indies and Bridgeport was its in
ferior in population and influence. Turn
pike stock was valuable property in those
days. The stone was hauled by Lewis
Briseo, father of Mr. Isaac Brisco, who
lived at Mr. John Egan's and Hawley
Judd for $40, the only other bills being
those of Booth and L. Judson for 81 "a
l and A. Il. Glover for 81 rs and, after the
| work was done, a balance of 50 "a was
left. Though most of that stone flag
ging has been replaced by concrete, i
must have been great comfort in suci
:. wet, muddy soil as this.