AVON HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC.

SPRING NEWSLETTER 2013

Don’t you just love the way the air smells in the early Spring-so sweet; so

light and airy? The tulips, daffodils, and crocus are just starting to put a

‘toe’ up through the earth to see if it is safe to burst forth. And the robins

return from their migration-ah, it’s Springtime in Avon!

HEAR YE, HEAR YE….UPCOMING EVENTS!

The Avon Historical Society is pleased to present ‘The Farmington Canal

Through Historic Avon’ at the Avon Free Public Library, opening on March 1st. In

the glass display case outside of the beautiful Marian M. Hunter History Room we

present ‘Scenes of the Farmington Canal’, a comprehensive overview including his-

toric photographs, illustrations, maps and memorabilia of the canal from 1830s to

1840s. Adjoining this exhibit will be a display entitled ‘Words Tell the Story of the

Canal’ that illuminates some key aspects in the canal’s history and its’ impact on the

town of Avon from 1830-1850. These exhibits will be in place until May 31st.

Please join us March 16th at 2:00 p.m. in the Community Room at the Avon

Free Public Library for a presentation by Dr. Carl Walter, noted canal historian, as he

presents ‘The Farmington Canal in the Farmington Valley’. There will be an Open

House in the History Room following this talk from 3:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Refresh-

ments will be served after the talk in the Community Room.

The Avon Historical Society Annual Meeting will be April 9th, 2013 at 7:00

p.m. in the Community Room of the Avon Free Public Library. (see last page for de-

tails)

The Derrin House and the Pine Grove School House will be open for tours be-

ginning June 2nd on Sundays from 2:00-4:00 p.m. There is a kitchen garden at the

Derrin House and a new bird bottle to see. Stop by!

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Spring is around the corner and we welcome you to another edition of the Avon Historical Society newsletter. Since creating this new format, we have received much praise and admiration for all the time and effort that has gone into it. It is being created by of our loyal volunteers who has been working hard on re-

searching and writing about the local history of Avon. But I thought I would let you all know that, thanks to many of you our members, we are busier than ever with many projects and changes that I want to report to you here. Therefore, I will briefly explain what is happening: 1. School House #3(formerly the Living Museum) - The Society's Board of Directors has decid-

ed to close the building as a museum and make it our working area as we are in need of much more space for the activities and exhibits we are working on for the new History Room display case. Therefore, we have undertaken the task of cleaning the building from top to bottom and storing what we can there and sharing some of our collection with our other loca-tions where they can be displayed. The Farmington Canal displays, including the refurbished diorama, are always available for visitors by appointment.

2. Pine Grove School House - This 1865 gem is going to be featured next month in a tour of

schoolhouses by the Historic Sites of Connecticut’s Farmington Valley. The event will take place on Saturday, April 27th. Watch your e-mails or notices in the paper so you can sign up to visit several school houses that day and enjoy a lunch at Elton Tavern, Burlington.

3. Derrin House - This c. 1810 country home is continually in process of renovation. Thanks to several boy scout eagle projects we now have a porch, walkways and a trail leading up to the Horse Guard Park behind the property. This State of Connecticut DEEP property was once a familiar picnic area years ago and thanks to some clearing of the former path and a kiosk ex- pected to be placed there this spring, it will once again become a destination spot for visitors to the Derrin House. Len Tolisano, the DH Curator, has asked for the following donations which can be dropped off on the side porch or back shed: sheetrock (1/2”) of any size, insula- tion, garden tools of all types, grass seed, power tools (sanders, saws), paint remover, dry wall screws and hand tools. Thanks! 4. Horse Guard Barn - as you will see when your drive by, we have had the south wall comp- letely removed and the roof tarped for the winter. We were able to do this thanks to many, many donations and volunteer labor. The south wall was removed by a professional barn builder who will return in the spring to re-side it with boards curing now at a sawmill. The adaptive reuse of the barn will be an ongoing project for several years, but we know it can be completed and a usable space for the Society in years to come. 5. As is required by the Society's By-Laws, the 39th Annual Meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 9th, at 7:00 p.m. at the Avon Free Public Library. At this year's event we will have a business meeting to bring everyone present up-to-speed on all the activities since the last membership meeting and we look forward to your attendance as it is important for us to hear your comments, concerns, praise, etc. of what we are doing. At that meeting we will hold elections for the next Board of Trustees and Executive Committee. See the last page for more information - please SAVE THE DATE and join us! Refreshments will be served.

News! 1. We thank the Garden Club of Avon for once again adorning all our properties with greens and

red ribbons for the holiday season. They have done this for many years and we appreciate the care and concern for our historic properties.

2. While the Society's website is under re-construction, we are pleased to announce you can find

us on FACEBOOK! This will be our new social media vehicle while the website is updated. Civil War events A very active Sesquicentennial Committee for the Civil War of the Society AND volunteers in the Hunter History Room mounted all sorts of wonderful displays on Lincoln this winter and this sum-mer they will feature Gettysburg. There is a plan underway to include talks, events, etc. around Gettysburg and other Civil War topics later this year. More will be announced soon. We thank all of the Society's members for attending the very successful 6-week exhibit on "Lincoln and the Constitution" received by the Avon Free Public Library through a national grant. It has been a pleasure to be able to showcase so much of our nation, state and local history through all the ex-hibits mounted there in December through January. Other items of note! 1. We welcome Glenn Grube as the new Avon Library Director! He met with the Society's Board

of Trustees just shortly after his arrival and has been actively engaged with us on our pro-jects. We look forward to continuing the wonderful relationship we have with the Library and we invite you to visit the Marian Hunter History Room on the first floor. It has become a gathering place for people who appreciate local history and want to spend time researching their ancestors, historic sites, their historic home, etc. We are planning an Open House for the History Room on March 16th from 3:00-5:00 p.m. as noted in the Events section on Page One to allow visitors a chance to see what we have there.

2. We also want you to know that the Avon Congregational Church will once again have a quilt

show on October 26 & 27 and encourage any and all new or antique quilts to be showcased. Again the coordinator is Susan Elliott who can be reached at 860-658-0863 or at

shselliott@sbcglobal.net Susan also wants the Society members to know of a wonderful cause many local quilters are engaged in for our troops abroad - Quilts of Valor. This is a national movement to provide lap quilts to soldiers in combat or coming home. Her group meets at the Church the first and third Thursdays of every month at 7:00 p.m. and encourage all quilters, rookies or others interested in this national service project to join them. They will train or help you do a square, row or even a whole quilt. Most supplies are donated. Contact Susan for more details. 3. We have recently been asked by some members "where do our dues go?" It is simple. We are a membership-based organization; the upkeep of our properties is where the dues are put to use. This means the heat and lights, materials to store items in our archives, speaker fees for events, supplies for exhibits, etc. However, we have a dedicated fund just for the adap- tive reuse of the Horse Guard Barn. Any funds received specifically for this project are used for the Barn. Thanks to the Cow Chip Raffles over the past few years, and many donations since we signed the lease on the Barn, we have been able to have a professional engineering study done, purchase of expert labor for removal of the south wall and purchase of lumber for the south wall replacement in the Spring. The tarping project has been mostly volunteer labor but with some purchase of materials. We appreciate all the support we have received to date on this project and will be soliciting again soon.

THE HISTORY CORNER...

Historic Mills of Avon, Connecticut

It is interesting to think about days of old when Avon was dirt roads and each business and farm

played an important part in the survival of the community. As much as the farmers grew crops

for their own consumption and income, they still required the service of a grist mill, for instance,

to grind their grain for livestock and their own kitchens. The gristmills, in particular, were an essential part of resi-

dents’ daily life as grain needed to be ground fresh every few days because there were no preservatives in those

days. The customer would bring his order to be ground while he waited. This also offered the opportunity for social

interaction where farmers could catch up on the latest town news. The mills were located on the banks of a water

source as the water power turned a waterwheel that moved the gears that revolved the heavy millstones, crushing

the grain into a finer material.

Luther Wheeler, who was born in Avon in 1810, along with his son George Luther operated a gristmill on

Woodford Avenue making use of the water power from Cider Brook. A distillery was built on Stub Pond by Amos

Wheeler, father of Luther, about 1804. (Mackie, pg. 19) He ordered grain from a dealer in Chicago and had it

shipped via rail to Avon to be processed at his mill and then sold. (Mackie, pg 119) “Every family needed grain

ground into flour and cornmeal for themselves and oats ground into feed for their animals.” (Mackie, pg. 20) An

interesting side note on the Wheeler family was that Luther’s great grandfather, Joel Wheeler, donated the land on

which the Avon Congregational Church was built and his grandfather, Amos Wheeler, was an early church parishion-

er. Members of the Wheeler family are buried in the Church’s cemetery. George Luther Wheeler sold the mill in

1887 to Joseph and Haley Woodford. (Mackie, pg. 119)

There were other types of mills in Avon as well. Cider mills such as the one operated by Chauncey Lusk in

the western section of town on Roaring Brook, crushed apples for cider. If the liquid was allowed to ferment, it

could be distilled in his distillery and made into cider brandy and high wines. Mr. Lusk sold these at his tavern in the

area later known as Lovelytown where the present day Country Club Road and Lovely Street intersect. (Mackie, pg.

21) Years later another cider mill on Route 10 became a town landmark operating for almost 100 years and known

as the Avon Cider Mill. This mill was operated by the Lattizori family. “In those days, cider was a big thing,” said

the grandson of the original owner. “You make vinegar out of cider. People used vinegar for canning. That’s the

way people stored (food).” (Avon Life, May 08) Theirs was one of four cider mills in Avon in the early 20th century.

Sadly, this cider mill closed it’s doors for good in December 2012 and it’s story will now rest in the annals of Avon’s

town history.

Saw mills were also a very important part of early town life in Avon. In the old Sleepy Hollow section of

Avon, where the present Avon Old Farms School stands, according to Mackie, there was a saw mill about the year

1771 owned by Ambrose Hart and was located on the Farmington River. Other mills including a saw mill, grist mill,

and a carding machine (for wool) were bought in this area by Eldad Woodruff in 1796. (Mackie, pg 91) Later Apheck

and Ozem Woodruff, his sons, operated the mills. Another saw mill in the 1770s was on Nod Brook near Stub Pond

and was owned by John Northway. He sold the mill to Timothy Soper who also erected a grist mill on the property.

Eventually both mills were sold to the aforementioned Joel Wheeler as stated in Mackie’s book Avon, Connecticut.

The saw mills made clapboards for house exteriors and sawed lumber for interior walls as well. There was also a

planing mill for finishing work on the lumber to make the board uniform thicknesses.

Collectively these early mills played an integral part in many aspects of early settler’s lives. Mills were

passed on through many generations of family ownership. But as with so many other relics of the past, these quaint

old workhorses of those days have been replaced by modern mechanization, improved transportation to stores and

food preservation techniques. One can’t help admire though the ingenuity of the early mills’ design and functionality

built by the early settlers in Avon. For their time they were very efficient machines in their operation and also, as a

social benefit, they were a place where neighbors could stop by and chew the fat while their orders were being filled.

Joseph North’s Blacksmith Shop

At the base of Avon Mountain Road on the corner of Nod Road, stall stands the

old Joseph North blacksmith shop. Where you might ask? It is a part of the former

Avon Old Farms Inn, now Belle Terrace of Avon. The blacksmith shop is on the eastern

end of the building complex which consists of a house, kitchen, and dining facilities today. All these build-

ings are connected to one another and were erected by the North family except the free-standing banquet

facility.

John North arrived from England in the late 1600s. He had fought in King Phillip’s War and was

granted land in the north district of Farmington which then became Northington. John’s son Thomas built

the original house on the property in 1678. Across the road was the Marshall Tavern that had stables for

horses and was an overnight stop for travelers on the stagecoach that went to Hartford, Albany and Bos-

ton. The North’s house was also used as an inn for weary stagecoach travelers. Nathaniel North, son of

Thomas, built his own home on the property in 1757. This house had a central foyer, lobby and upstairs

bedrooms. Nathaniel’s son Joseph was born in 1730 and became a blacksmith. He inherited the property

in the early 1800s. Joseph was a Revolutionary War soldier and died in 1775 at Lake George, New York in

service to his country.

Today the old blacksmith shop is used as a dining room and there are now booths where the horse

stalls once were. The hearth in this ‘Forge Room’ is the original from its days as a ‘smithy’ and is the old-

est continuously operating fireplace in Connecticut. The adjoining house was rebuilt in the historic design

after a fire in 1967.

The Colonial Bird Bottle

A very talented potter, by the name of Andrea Donald from Farmington, graciously

agreed to undertake the recreation of a clay piece with historic beginnings. A colonial

bird bottle is a clay vessel thrown on a potter’s wheel and shaped much like a water

pitcher, sans the spout and handle. They can be of various sizes and mouth width

openings depending on the size of the birds one wishes to attract.

In the bygone days of colonial kitchen gardens, bird bottles were strategically placed near

the gardens for birds to nest in. This location created a symbiotic relationship between the

homeowner and the birds for the birds fed on the abundant insects as a natural form of pest con-

trol.

The bottle could also have a small stick for a perch on which a bird could alight before en-

try or from which to feed young. The placement of a bottle on a house was important as it need-

ed to be in a North or South orientation so as not to allow the clay to overheat, thus roasting its’

inhabitants! Once a bottle was chosen by a bird as a residence, it was not unusual for birds to

return year after year to raise their families and provide color and lively activity to the family’s

garden.

The Derrin House commissioned a bird bottle that will be affixed to the house in the Spring

of 2013…please stop by to view the Kitchen Gardens and see the bird bottle on Sundays starting

June 2nd from 2-4 p.m. Contact the Avon Historical Society if you are interested in ordering a

bird bottle from Andrea. The cost is $30/bottle and you can choose your own color to fit your

house’s color palette and will be made to order.

KID’S PAGE

Can you draw an arrow to connect the parts of the flower to the drawing?

A. Petal

B. Stem

C. Leaves

D. Stamen

Unscramble these Springtime words:

EBE __ __ __ R I B D __ __ __ __

N Y U N B — — — — — L I P T U __ __ __ __ __

N E A G R D __ __ __ __ __ __ M A L B __ __ __ __

R W F O L E __ __ __ __ __ __ G U B S __ __ __ __

Spring is a colorful season so make the images below pretty

Abigail’s Garden Adventure

When we last read about Abigail, the Pine Grove School

House mouse, she was nestling in for the long winter under the

floorboards of the schoolhouse. Now that winter is over, we find Abigail joy-

ously scouting out the bright green leaves of the vegetables in the garden at nearby Cold

Spring Farm. Abigail knows it is far too early in the season to pull up any carrots or rad-

ishes as they have not yet had time to mature. But she absolutely cannot resist the

temptation of the lettuce leaves! Oh how gloriously sweet they taste! As Abigail is

munching away, she hears something else nearby munching as well. She peers around a

small stone to see a brown baby bunny rabbit. Oh how big it’s eyes are; it’s pink lined

ears are alert to danger while it’s nose twitches to sense threatening odors. But the bun-

ny did not fear Abigail. Being very curious, Abigail approached the bunny to say hello.

The bunny did not answer. So Abigail tried a different approach. She said her name was

Abigail and she lived nearby and remarked on how lovely the garden was shaping up to

be this year. The bunny still remained silent. So Abigail persisted-she talked about how

nice the sun felt warming her fur after the cold winter and about her family and about her

plans to make a stunning bonnet to wear for the bonnet parade. Just then the bunny

hesitantly began to speak. And, as she did, Abigail noticed something odd. When the

bunny opened her mouth to speak, she had only one front tooth instead of two! Abigail

said, ‘oh that’s why you are shy’. The bunny said that her name was Button because

whenever people saw her in their yards, they would say she was cute as a button. Abigail

and Button became friends because Abigail looked past this tiny flaw to see the nice bun-

ny that Button was.

All of a sudden Button’s nose twitched and her ears stood straight up. Button

yelled – ‘Predator!!!’ – and told Abigail to skedaddle. But Abigail just froze in place as her

whiskers detected no danger. Then she heard a faint rustling sound. It was close! Abi-

gail turned around to see a garter snake right behind her. Oh my! The snake had just

awakened from winter hibernation and was quite hungry. Abigail thought quickly as she

knew she could not outrun the snake’s lightning fast striking ability. Just as the snake

opened it’s mouth to swallow Abigail whole, pinafore and all, Abigail grabbed a small

nearby twig and shoved it vertically into the snake’s mouth so he couldn’t close it. Poor

snake – lucky Abigail!!

The sun was beginning to set and it was time for a tired Abigail to return home. She

plucked some beet leaves and put them into her basket to make a nice salad back at

home safe under the floorboards of the little schoolhouse. It was quite a day and Abigail

was happy she met a new friend, Button the bunny.

Join us in the summer when Abigail takes a ride on the Farmington River!

2012-2013

Officers: Terri Wilson, President

Pam Fahey, Vice President

Wendy Zacchera, Secretary

Satvinder Mayal, Treasurer

Trustees: Helaine Bertsch

Jennifer deSimas

Ben Isaacson

Glenn Lawrence

Chung Lee

Liz Neff

Sebastian Saraceno

Kyrstyn Hasting Silver

Mary Margaret Stoll

Eric Throndson

Len Tolisano

Avon Historical Society

P.O. Box 448, Avon, CT 06001

ahs.mail.1830@sbcglobal.net

www.avonhistoricalsociety.org

The Mission of the Avon Historical Society, founded in 1974,

is to identify, collect, preserve, utilize, publish, display and

promote the history and heritage of Avon.

The Avon Historical Society requests the pleasure of your company at its 39th Annual Meeting

Tuesday, April 9, 2013 from 7:00—8:00 pm

Community Room, Avon Free Public Library, 281 Country Club Road, Avon

The agenda will be:

Call to Order, Secretary’s Report, Treasurer and President’s Reports,

Elections to Board of Trustees and Officers & Open Discussion

SLATE OF OFFICERS - 2013-2014

President – Terri Wilson

Vice President – Pam Fahey

Secretary – Helaine Bertsch

Treasurer – Satvinder Mayall

SLATE OF TRUSTEES FOR ONE-YEAR TERM

Samantha Klaburner

Chung Lee

Nancy Milnor

Sebastian Saraceno

Anne Savo

Katie Stoll

SLATE OF TRUSTEES FOR TWO-YEAR TERM

Eric Throndson

Sue Zielenbach

TRUSTEES COMPLETING SECOND YEAR OF TWO-YEAR TERM (do not need to be elected)

Glenn Lawrence

Elisabeth Neff

Leonard Tolisano

Peter Wright

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