The Press., 1912-08-28
Visited Old Homestead al E Village Hill.

SOA WaS AOG HI Gn0S0 parCS on DuS1u0SS a selling agent of the combine is soon to visit the merchants in this part of Connecticut. MT. Richardson, &C., .companied by Mrs. Richardson, came to Rockville to call upon relatives and to visit the paternal homestead in Wilmington, two or three miles out from Stafford Springs.
 A party, consisting of Wm. Richard son of Falls Church, Va, MT. and Mrs. O. A. Richardson, who reside in Bloomfield, N. J., and Mrs. H. H. Martin, went by trolley to Stafford Springs, from which place they were conveyed by touring auto up the hills to the old cemetery on Village Hill. Here are buried the ancestors of this branch of the Richardson family. The road from the corner where once stood the Richardson house to the cemetery, a distance of half a mile, is grass grown and the thickly grow ing branches of trees on either side make automobile touring a difficult feat. Miss Gary, who had charge of the touring car, remarked that she prob ably had the honor of being the first person to auto over the hills and along that particular road. What would have happened had a team of any sort been met is uncertain. There could not possibly have been any turning out.
 In talking over the adventure after wards MT. Richardson facetously re- ferred to his experiences of two days previous, when riding in horse cars in New York, en route to Peck Slip, where he took the steamer City of Hartford for this trip to Connecticut, as compared with travelling through the Wilmington woods in a touring auto. It is we'll known that the old horse-car system is yet in operation along East River front in New York .6ity.
 Coming back from the old cemetery the party tarried, for little, at the corner on the top of Village Hill to view the magnificent sweep of country from this point, and to consider the site where once stood under spreading lelms the spacious farmhouse in which had lived three generations of the sRichardson family.
 The house was originally tavern, sBaEch. like the Vernon taHern now the Town House on what is now the Vernon town farm, but it requires an imaginative mind to picture the road over Village Hill as thorough. fare for the couriers and the post. chaises in the times of the Revolu. tionary war and before. Here travel CTS were put up, here at the tavern bar they regaled themselves with New England rum.
 Sometime in the early part of the past century Nathan Richardson, ST. !, purchased this tavern, an old building even then, but in good repair. With it was farm extending over a wide tract of land. The house was no longer used as a tavern. Here his large family of children grew to man. hood and womanhood, but the chil. dren's children are now widely scat. tered.
 After the death of Nathan Richard. son his eldest son, Levi Richardson, who was teaching in New Jersey, brought his young wife, New Jersey girl, to the homestead on Village Hill. Here were born the children of Levi and Electa Richardson. (In passing, it may be mentioned that il was in these days that the trial o1 John Warren took place, creating great consternation and excitement il this region, and it was this Lev Richardson who served as grand juror
 The Richardson tavern homestead afterwards passed into other hands, Levi Richardson, with his family, re- turning to New Jersey, where ht taught in the public schools for many years.
 The party who last week visited the old homestead site found the old house gone, the farm divided up and smaller houses recently erected. They were informed that the old tavern burned down some few years ago.
 Returning to Stafford Springs the party took trolley for Crystal Lake, where they fell in with members o1 the Holmes -Cady family, that day holding the annual family reunion al the lake. Family pedigree was dis. cussed and relationships considered. While the Richardsons from New Jersey and Virginia had never before visited Crystal Lake, it was from this region that one branch of their ances' tors originally came
 Coming on from Crystal Lake tC Snipsic, the party visited Wayback. All were charmed with the beauties of these two lakes nestling like gems among the hills and with the far views to where the varied shades oi the foliage green meet the horizon on the distant hills. We'll may Rock. vile people consider what all this wealth of glorious scenery between this city and Stafford Springs and be- yond may mean to the traveller who is entranced by it for the first time.
 The above was printed in last weeks Rockville Journal. The writer |Of the article, Mrs. H. H. Martin, who was one of the party mentioned as recently visiting Village Hill, is a granddaughter of the Nathan Richard son. ST., who reared his family on the tavern farm referred to. Mrs. Martin resided in South Coventry in the '9Os, her husband, the late Rev. Henry H. Martin, being pastor of the Methodist