Connecticut western news., 1914-09-03
SETTLEMENT OF CORNWALL
Address by Rev. E. 0. Starr,
 at Recent CeIebrati' n.

to settle the question of which should be exterminated, the Pequot Indians or the English settlements in Connecticut, and it was decided in favor of the latter by the taking of the Pequot fort at Groton. That tribe was broken up and scattered, its remannts wandering over the uninhabited regions of Western Connecticut. So it came about ill our corner of the state that little bands of savages, led by some commanding character, located themselves in this no-man 's-land during the following century, at Bantam Cor Litchfeld), at Weataug Cor Salisbury, at Sharon tor Shekomeko), New Milford and at Scatacook in Kent. All the Indians who have lived in Cornwall were from the Scatacook settlement in Kent, a large part of whom had earlier lived in New Milford, where chief Weromaug had his palace" as the early settlers called his rather remarkable wigwam, which, though not furnished with graphophone, telephone, electric lights and other modern conveniences, was decorated by an artist from afar with paintings of all kinds of birds and beasts.
 The first step toward the settling of Cornwall was the purchase from Weromaug (and Nepato, his associate) of strip of land on the east side of the Housatonic river one mile wide and twenty-five miles long, which extended from New Milford to where the Furnace Brook empties into the river at Corn wall Bridge. The price was 29e-a little more than one cent per acre, and the purchaser, who is said to have acted for some citizen of Boston, was Ben jamin Fairweather, of Hartford T. was perhaps in this way that such names as those of John Hancock and Robert Treat Paine came into connec- tion with our Cornwall hills some years later.
 The next step was the act of our legis- lature in 1731, which ordered the sur vey of all the "western lands" yet un- sold in this corner of the colony. That was followed in the Fall of 1737 by an act ordering the sale at public auction of. the seven townships which had been laid out by the surveyors and designated
 
 Palestinian names) and whose sale would close out the stock of unoccupied lands in the colony. Of the townships each except Salisbury was to be divided into 53 rights, two of which were to be reserved for ecclesiastical and one for educational uses-in Salisbury there were but 25 rights. Only citizens of Connecticut, who would dwell on their allotment for three years, finish houses Is feet square and clear and fence six acres within that time could buy and hold these rights. Two years from the time of purchase was allowed for on- trance, however, and one could have his agent act for him in the meantime. Township A (Goshen) was sold at New Haven in December 1737; town ship B (Cornwall) at Fairfield, Feb. 1738; O (Canaan) at New London in January, 1738; D (Norfolk) at Middle town, in 1742, and Hartford, April, 175S, and E (Kent) in March, 173S, at Windham. The price for Cornwall was to have been not less than 50e per right, but actually varied from $99 to SIP. Litchfield, like Salisbury, was divided into 25 rights, which sold at 5e per right just 90 years earlier. It is said that Connecticut money had not greatly depreciated, so that the demand for land would seem to have largely in- creased, or a tract in Cornwall could not have been valued ten times as high or more than twice as much in Litch- field a score of years before-Or was Cornwall scenery taken into account And yet, that all the buyers of Norfolk, except one (who sold out and moved to Cornwall), gave up their purchases there after making their first payments, so that the town was again put up at auction 12 years later, does not appear to indicate that land was scarce. What a mistake not to hold their allotments for the rise that has put high prices on hardhack pastures bleak hills and l laurel thickets in modern Norfolk These towns were to be "set up' at curiously diverse prices-Canaan and Goshen at e60 per right, Norfolk, Cornwall and Kent at $50, Sharon and Salisbury at e30, though the rights in the latter town were more than twice as large as the others-and so while Cornwall was offered at 42 cents per acre, Salisbury land could be had at cents, probably because it was so far west.
 One or more persons may have spent the winter of 1738-9 in this town-Mr. Gold says so MT. Stone says that there is no evidence of it; but the following summer more came; the number is variously estimated from a dozen to two dozen families, so that 1739 is prop erly the date of settlement here. The average pioneer is a sturdy young man, and we may assume that most of the actual settlers were in the full vigor of early manhood. They must have been nodded in thought and character by the spirit and events of their time, so that we may well call to mind the state of things ill the preceding quarter century, in which they had acquired their training.
 Just 25 years earlier the first of the Georges became king of England-a