Putnam patriot., 1914-09-25
POMFRET HISTORY
"Reminiscences of POmfret.
By Darius Mathewson of Norfolk, Neb.
Delivered at romtret Celebration,

men; l hasten to assure you that the guise of Historian, in which 1 am
 masquerading today, | feel to be s very thin disguise, through which you must ail see without the least effort. When approached by oue of your com- mittee tn regard 10 taking part today, my first feelings were those of Mike
 whom kind friend invited to take a drink of whiskey. Mike made no answer but fixed his gaze heavenward. "What are you looking at, inquired the friend. "Bedad, said Mike,t | thought | heard an angel speak,,
 Later in my feeble and futile efforts to fill the bill thought 1 had made a mistake, and was reminded of the Old Rhode Island farmer who one day in breaking his steers, had rope hitehed to one of them. Coming to a pair of bars which must be taken down, he wound the rope around his legs. X dog rushed out, and the steers lit out. Later the old man was found by his friends among the rocks on the other side of the field, destitute of clothing and much afflicted with
 bumps and bruises. His nearest and dearest friend said to him "Now Jed dediah, don't you think il was mis- take to fasten that rope to your legs9" "Well, Tn tell you, said Jed. "i
 don't believe rde gone more than 90
 yards before began to see that mis- take.n However looking backward
 has always been somewhat serious
 undertaking, for while Edward Bel lamy is said to have made fortune.
 Lots wife only made her salt. Hoping
 to escape both of these extremes,
 will now proceed to scatter the dusty
 dryness of these dates upon this other
 wise joyous occasion.
 By the way ] should state that this l hislorial fusion or confusion Is the re- l suit of the combined efforts Of the l NJ athewson tribe, at home and abroad. 1 l am also constrained ito congratulate
 this audience, and myself, upon tho | 1 For 1 am reminded of the fact that when a western nan finds himself in l company with eastern speakers he
 must never hope to strike their gate. He can only look at them wistfuliy,
 and with something the feeling Of l Charles the second when he said, s'l
 have always admired virtue, but I have never been able to initiate it..
 The new territory,now occupied by l Windham county was known to the
 early settlers of New England as the
 Nipmunk Country and later as the
 Wabbaquassett Country, both names
 being those of Indian tribes once iiv- ing here. The Indian ownership at | the time of the settlement was vested
 in Owaneco and his son Josiah. Both
 of these worthies had lbeen placed by
 the Connecticut Assembly under tho
 guardianship of Major Fitch of Nor
 wich es Owaneco whsn filled with
 rum was apt to deed away portions Of his patrimony for more rum. Asearly
 as 1880 the settlement at Roxbury, | Mass, had become overcrowded. The pastor of the Roxbury church John
 Eliot had f;aae missionary expedi- l tions among the Wnbbaquassetts and
 reported s'the fair lands stretching
 southward into Connecticut in the
 possession of that tribe. The settle-
 ment of Woodstock followed in 1885. l Tn 1886 Major Fitch together with 1 Owaneeo and his son Josiah deeded l i50O0 acres of land, known as the Mashanoquet Purchase to Saml
 Ruggles Sr, John tSandler Sr, BenJ.
 Sabin, John GrosYenor, Sam'l kuggles Jr., and Joseph Griflen; with these
 were associated as co-partners John
 Pierpont, John White, John Ruggles, John Gore, Sam'l Gore and Sam
 Mowry. These men, twelve in num- Der were the original proprietors of the Town of Pomfret. All were of Rox- bury or Boston, Mass.
 The actual settlement Of Pomfret
 was delayed many years by the Rev olution of 1888 in England and by in- dian wars in New England. One ven tursome hero however dared the ter TOTS of the wilderness and the dangers of hostile Indians. John 5abin in 1891
 bought of Capt. Fitch for pounds, 100 acres at the \. E. corner Of the Mashamoguet purchase and euiit him garrison house in the wilderness at or near the farm of the late w. lX Bartholomew This was the first house built in Pomfret. Just when 1t was built we do not know put Capt. Sabin
 WAS living there in 1894, on good terms with his Indian neighDors and in- | fluential in keeping them of The war path. The next settler was Nathaniel Gary who took up 550 acres in the | Gary neighborhood in 1898. samuel | Allin, samuel Grey, Samuel Perrin, Benj. Griggs and Peter Aspinwail all | bought lands between the Mashauio- quet purchase and the Quinneoaug ] River and occupied them prior to l7uO. 1 The settlement of the purchase now proceeded rapidly. Thomas Goodeil arrived in 1889, Madam Esther Gfos- yenor with her sons, John Leicester, Joseph, E.benezer, Thomas and her