Connecticut western news., 1910-12-01
CANAAN 70 YEARS AGO
Memory of D. L. Peirce Reaches Back
 Earlier Than i84O.

naan appeared 62 years ago. or in 1848- the year in which MT. Britt came to the town-and awakened a considerable de- gree of interest in Canaan's early his tory, among the people of the town, and especially among the older readers of The News. An interesting letter has been received from MT. Lyman Rock well, of Grand, Mich, who was born in Canaan in 1886, relating numerous per sonal recolleotions of his native town, which is reserved for publication in this column next week.
 As follow-up to the recollections ot the oldest living foreign resident, the testimony of the oldest living native male resident will prove certainly no less interesting. MT. Daniel l.. Peirce, now in his 87th year-having been born in Canaan Jan. 1, 1824-is two and one- half months older than Patrick Britt, and being native of the town, naturally his recollections of local conditions in the old days, reach farther back than MT. Britt's.
 MT. Peirce is the youngest man, for his age, in all this region round about. Thanks to, a naturally rugged oonstitu- tion and the observance of temperate and wholesome rules orliving. he enjoys remarkably good health. despite his re- cent experience in being knocked down by railroad train at the crossing, which lni6 fnr |. .,c knl equipment is apparently as alert and clear as ever.
 | MT. Peiree well remembers, some 70 years ago, when what Is now known as Main Street was the only thoroughfare in the present village, and was called Pudding Lane" and the only houses on it, between the Eddy farm house where Charles Dutcher now lives, and the Almerin Gillette place, were the Sereno Gillette house Or. Camps place. and the Wm. Lawrence house, at the turn of the road, latterly known at the Deming place
 | At that time there was no road where the present Church street now is, and Railroad street was not dreamed of. The old "baok road," long since gone into disuse, running north from the liar mon Peet farm was the only pike run ming north and south on that side of the town, while the present Elm street, the old stage road from Hartford to Albany passed the village on the east. The old | T kla nF ho late Dr. Hiram Eddy) was the regular stopping place of the Albany stage coach on it's trips going and coming.
 1 There was no Railroad street until 1841, and Church street was not opened until a few years later. According to the best recollection of MT. Peiroe the ] first building erected on Pudding Lane, "'in addition to the ones men, toned, was the hotel. now the remodeled Canfield Inn, which was built about l 1840, seventy years ago. MT. Peirce re- tains vivid recollection of the raising" of the hotel, for he was present on that occasion, and got ''scare" that he never forgot. He was standing on the timbers of the second story, when some- body on the top story carelessly dropped an axe, which fell just beside MT. Peirce, almost grazing him, and the blade inn bedded itself in the timber on which he stood, barely an inch from his foot.
 He remembers the opening of the hotel by it's first landlord, John Barstow, who had a wide and enviable reputation as hotel keeper. The hotel was opened for business at about the time the first train came through to CanIan, which was then the northern terminus of the rail road. MT. Peirce was st that time about F years old, attending a school taught by Judge M. T. Granger in the old "North house." at Canaan Valley, (more recently the home of the late Joel Corfut,) and in company with Moses Mead, Henry Mead and Herbert Rood, walked down to the village to "see the 1 cars."
 l The only store in the village in those early days was John Franklin's "gin 'ral" store, near the corner of Pudding Lane and the Albany stage road Sheridan Barnes corner,) where everything that the most exacting customer could de- mand was kept in stock.
 Not only has Mir. Peirce literally seen the village grow from practically noth- ing, to its present size and importance, but he is entitled, more than any man living, to the distinction of being con- sidered father of the town, inasmuch as he acted on joint committee with the elder Sidney Ensign, father of the late Sidney P. Ensign, of Falls Village, to solicit signatures to petitions to bring about a division of the original town of Canaan, into two towns. which was &C., complished in 1858 by town vote rati- flying the negotiations of the committee. There was no little dissatisfaction at this end of the town, MT. Peirce recalls, as result of the decision to permit the southern portion to retain the name of North Canaan. These were the terms insisted upon by the Falls Villagers, however and they had to "go." The division had it's chief local advantag, S in the fact that it put an end to the in- convenient arrangement by which the IL Al. Al.