Morning journal and courier., 1891-01-03
NORTH HAVEN ANNALS.

NORTH HAVEN ANNALS.
 The Big m.rsh Described-An Inter-
 estlng Portion of old Connecticut
 Geo1ogically Considered-Its Early Puritan PsssessOrs - Dyke Laws
 and Dyking schemes of Ninety Years Ago.
 G NUMBER 59.
 The great marsh lying on both side of
 the Quinnipiac river, from the railroad
 bridge at North Haven to the village of Fair Haven, g distance of eight miles, cov- CTS thousands of acres. Whether seen in the summer with it's plumes of grass ! unSasily tossing and rolling under the winds that 50 constantly sgitate them, or in the winter when the countless hay stacks dot it's surface with their shapely forms, it is an object of interest to every passer-by.
 Its formation is @ matter of the long past. Geology asserts that of old the Connec- l ticut river rolled it's waters along our val ley-that great barrier of rock whereof | East Rock is an abutment, stretched east ward to the heights beyond Fair Haven l that an immense lake in consequence GOV cred all the North Haven and Wallingford | l sion changed all the face of nature-that l this rock barrier gave way then-that the l course of "the long river" was also turned eastward through the Middlesex valley to ! the sea.
 The lake theory finds abundant evidence l in the immense clay banks underlying this ! marsh and the uplands on either side. 1 These beds were not 8 sudden creation nor the work of year or a decade or a cen tury, but of years unmeasured, beneath comparatively still water.
 | Suddenly there came @ change. There was no more quiet, no more deposit. Vast forces were at work. Power utterly incon- ceivable hurled and tossed in boiling sea vast masses of sand and boulders; wind and storm and electric energy made such night and chaos over New England, and probably this continent, as only they who ! observe the marks on mother earth can | form any conception of
 When the storm had passed it was not
 the same valley. Even in some places the
 very lines of the claybeds had become dis ! torted as if 8 power beneath had struggled | upward to act in concert with the mighty forces at the surface The clay was buried
 by this avalanche two, three, five, six feet | and more beneath tons of sand. Then fol
 lowed the growth of vegetable matter and | the slew formation of the soil. Judge now
 of all these long processes, and then won
 der no longer at natures abhorrence of the
 word Time!
 Thus were the uplands on either side of
 this marsh shaped. Man and years have
 done much to modify them, but the gen.
 eral contour has remained the same since . animal life appeared upon the earth. The marsh or meadow itself, was submerged ir shallow water for many years longer; un , der this action its surface became levelled , as seen to day. Besides, since the ar rival of the colonists at New Haven il 1888, the waters of the harbor have mos 2 markedly receded, and the acreage of thil s plain become correspondingly increased. None of the early corners appear to hay 0 been over-greedy for it's possession. Il t remained as "commons" many years, bu l | as the several t'divisions' were from tim - to time set off, constantly stretching north
 ward, and as the land could be had for tn 8 | taking, it was gradually parcelled out. B, : and by portion of it's grass begal : | to have commercial value in tn I | market. But little, if any abov F high water level, the flowing of tn ! ! tides was serious hind1ance in the hay Q making season. No remedy for this semi f daily inundation appears to have beel thought of, much more put in practice, ,fo ! number of years.
 II Little or no allusion is made in ''Th s New Haven Proprietors' Record' to an, @ wall or dyke near East river until 1759 : Only very small areas were enclosed then 2 and those only by individual owners l a dyke was thrown across the meadows nea - l West river in 1769.
 q North Haven men did not move in tn n l matter until 1771. In that year they pu 6 themselves on record, to wit:
 Il "Upon the memorial of James Pierpon
 ! and Othara rIopriatOrc Of @ 1ioan or oaroc
 of meadow or marshy land lying east 0
 the road leading from Wallingford to Ne,
 Haven in the town of New Haven in tn
 East Meadow socalled, which is overfowe d by salt water, and that with drains an dikes could be rendered profitable to tn }. owners, etc., etc." Here follows tn y course of the proposed dyke touching tn
 meadows of Enos Bassett, Moses Gilbert a Caleb Ball James Pierpont, Aaron Gilbert # John Munson, Daniel Todd, 'Turner' T Creek, {" "Atwater's Point."] Resolved the general assembly that commissioner @ as prayed for be granted, and that Samut V Moses Gilbert, are appointed commi, :. sioners for the purpose aforesaid" u Bishop and Gilbert resigned before II y port was made, and there is no transcri1 l. tion of the doings of the committee Th n dyke was built, however. At the sam session Richard Crockett and Davi Jacobs Muddy river men) petitioned for ), Point," touching the meadows of Stephe n Crockett, Joshua Barnes, Isaac Stiles, Jo 7 Bradley, Elphalet Pardee, Ebenezer Brocl i ett, Hezekiah Todd, Theophilus Eaton an d Stephen Todd.
 "a Seasonable laws were enacted regulatln n the maintenance of these dykes. An a three proprietors thereof, on applicatio to to justice; would cause the latter to issr 70 warrant summoning at three days notit '. all the owners at a set time and place. the safety of the entire tract depende 7 upon constant vigilance over these mu :, walls when once built, there was always ?, bill of expense for watchfulness and r ,ss pairs. This was divided according to u ia owners holdings. Should anyone, throug IF neglect or inability, fail to pay his a ,r sessment his associates might do it f. IT him, and such payment constituted Q lie z. on the property until such time as the , could reimburse themselves from the ere d ! upon it.
 d By far the>most extensive of all the.
 schemes of dyking originated in the ye' s 1909. At that time North Haven ar I, Hamden petitioned the general assembly f. d an immense barrier beginning at the hou ss of Benjamin Crockett (now Lucius Brocl
 ett) on the east shore, and extending aero ,a the meadows and river to the Hamdt ,e side. The memorial recites that the forn Ii. CT small dykes have proved intellectual, al w that barrier of the magnitude conte1 y plated "would divide the fresh from u F. salt meadow and be of great advantage in By this means they would enclose son ,n 1, 800 acres. These North Haven m' ,n were interested
 r Acres. Acr
 Joseph Bradley coco. Joel Blakeslee ......
 Eliada Pierpoint. ..... 5 Isaac Bakeslee. ....
 Eli Crockett. ......... 1 Amos Blakeslee. ....
 David Barnes. ....... 2 Philemon Blakeslee.
 Ebenezer Pierpoint.. 6 John Frost. 70 Isaiah Crockett. ..... 8 Titus Frost ........
 Thomas Sanford..... Philemon Pierpont ,
 EliadA Sanford. .., Russell Pierpont, Of | Ebenezer Mansfield III Eli Sackett. ........, nv | Thomas Beach. 10 Todd Wheeler - | Thomas Crockett. =. 9 Joel Beach '1' | Street Humaston. .... Ephraim Humaston en Calvin Eaton. .M Joel Humaston r's Thomas Cooper. ..... Dan Todd ...........