Ephraim Hawley House
Encyclopedia
The Ephraim Hawley House, located in New England
, is a Colonial America
n wooden post-and-beam timber-frame farm house built between 1670 and 1690. It is situated on the Farm Highway, or Route 108
, on the south side of Mischa Hill in the village of Nichols
in Trumbull, Connecticut
.
The house is unique, besides being considered the oldest house in Trumbull, it has been located in four different townships
in its history, but has never moved; Stratford
(1670–1725), Unity (1725–1744), North Stratford (1744–1797) and Trumbull (1797–present).
at Yale University
. She concluded, after examining the structure, researching land records, probate records and the Hawley record
, that the house was built between 1683 and 1690 by Farmer
Ephraim Hawley who married Sarah Welles, granddaughter of Connecticut Colony
Governor Thomas Welles
in 1683.
The date of construction was not only based upon architectural details of the house, but also upon comparisons with other homes of the period, facts given to her by the Curtiss family, who owned the house at the time, and information from the Hawley Record which stated that Ephraim resided in Trumbull. Oppenheim also stated the dating of the house compared with that of S.S. on file at the School of Fine Arts at Yale.
The house was dated to 1671-1683 in the 2002 Historic and Architectural Resource Survey produced for the Connecticut Historical Commission by Geoffrey Rossano, PhD. The 2010 Historic and Architectural Survey of the Town of Trumbull, Connecticut produced by Heather C. Jones and Bruce G. Harvey PhD for the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, dates the house to 1670-1683.
A piece of oak framing was carbon dated to 1710 with a standard deviation
of 30 years.
Began as a Cape Cod cottage
The house began as a -story Cape Cod cottage
thirty-six feet wide by twenty-six feet deep with an eight-foot-wide central stone chimney
with three fireplace
s. There were four rooms downstairs, a small entryway
, parlour
, dining room
and kitchen
. The second story was one undivided sleeping loft
. Because of its small initial size, the house was expanded several times.
The first expansion took place sometime in the late seventeenth century when a seven-foot-deep lean-to addition was added onto the northeast corner of the house which was used at first as a borning room and became the buttery (room)
and pantry
. The north exterior wall is made of two inch thick oak boards. When the lean-to was built, the roof was extended, without a break, to within six feet six inches of the ground and gives the house its saltbox
shape. The original hand-riven oak clapboard
exterior siding
is preserved in the attic
that was created (see image).
The second expansion was completed sometime before the Civil War
when a lean-to was added to the remaining rear of the house which reused the original poplar vertical feather-edge beaded paneling, that had encased the original stairs, as roof sheathing. The rear exterior oak clapboards were left in place preserved in the attic that was created (see image). At the same time, the front roof was raised to a full story in height and new vertically-sawn two inch by ten inch common rafter
s were installed. The second floor was petitioned into five small bedroom
s each with a closet
. The batten doors were pine
and the cast-iron hardware
, hinges
and latches were made by Eli Whitney Blake
. A new central staircase was installed, since removed, up against the kitchen fireplace and a wall was built dividing the house into a two-family.
In 1840, Schaghticoke
Indian
Truman Mauwee, or Truman Bradley, moved into the house as a tenant. In 1881, Bradley purchased the house from Charles Fairchild for $450 ($100 in cash and a $350 mortgage to Fairchild). A year later, Bradley sold the house to next door neighbor Clarissa Curtis for $525 ($175 cash and Curtiss assumed the $350 mortgage to Fairchild).
Oak frame and siding
The first growth white oak
post-and-beam frame consists of eight by ten inch girts, eight by eight inch plates and eight by ten inch splayed post
s. The rafters are eight by eight inches and taper to six by six inches and the floor joist
are six by six inches and spaced twenty inches apart.
The six inch by ten inch summer beams run parallel to the front of the house and are dovetailed into the girts. They are located above the interior walls that divide the front rooms from the kitchen, however, they do not support any joist. Since the house was plastered when built, the summer beams were reduced in size and concealed within the plaster
ceiling
. According to some Connecticut Architectural historians, the introduction of plaster, as an interior finish, brought about the end of the summer beam. The home builder, holding onto traditional building methods of the time, included summer beams in the frame, but in a reduced size, as they were beginning to be phased out altogether in this part of the state.
The roof sheathing and flooring
is vertically quarter sawn one-inch-thick oak boards with random widths between twelve and thirty inches. The flooring is laid directly over one-inch-thick split oak boards. The mortise-and-tenon
joints are held by wooden pins, and the flooring is nailed with large hand-wrought iron nails.
The four- to six-foot-length hand-riven oak clapboard
siding is nailed directly to the oak studs with large flat rose-headed nails which was the typical material and application for the earliest New England homes.
Stone chimney
The first floor of the house was built at ground level with a very modest field stone foundation. There is a partial dirt cellar
located on the south side of the house. The eight-foot-wide stone fireplace
is squared up to the chimney girts. The three flue
s are laid up with clay on top of a ten-by-ten-foot stone foundation. The kitchen
hearth
is nine feet six inches wide by three feet three inches deep. There is a one-foot crawl space around the chimney foundation below the first floor. A forty inch deep brick beehive bake oven is built into the right rear wall of the kitchen fireplace
and its small opening is spanned by a wrought iron lintel. The brick are seven and one-half inches long by three and one-half inches wide by two inches thick indicating they were made before brick dimensions were regulated in the Colony of Connecticut in 1685.
There is a small tinder box built into the left wall of the kitchen firebox. The fireplace inside dimensions are four feet four inches high by six feet ten inches wide and is spanned by the original ten-by-ten-inch oak lintel, which rests on oak beams. The side walls of the kitchen firebox are roughly dressed granite
. A lug pole was originally used for hanging cooking pots. Above the ridge, the chimney flue outside measurements are forty eight inches wide by thirty eight inches deep with a course of three inch thick stone drip caps in the front and back.
Interior finish
The original front exterior door opened out and the stairs, closed in by vertical paneling, are located between the parlor and kitchen. The vertical feather-edge beaded poplar
hardwood paneling alternate in width from thirteen inches and fifteen inches. The ceilings and walls are clam shell plaster
on riven oak lath. Initially, there was no baseboard molding and the plaster finished flush to the flooring. The girts and posts were plastered over and not cased.
The ceiling heights are between six feet two inches and seven feet two inches on the first floor. The rear exterior door opening is five feet three inches high and originally opened out. An original casement window
opening located on the east rear wall, in the kitchen, is twenty two inches square and is fifty four inches from the floor. This small opening was plastered over when the lean-to was built behind the wall in the 1840s. There is evidence that at one time shelving was installed in this opening.
The upstairs ceiling height is six feet. The surviving oak sash window
frames have dimensions of twenty eight inches wide by forty six inches high, and also serve as studs for the clapboards and lath. The original interior doorways are twenty eight inches wide by five feet eleven inches high and the interior partitions are made of -inch-thick vertical oak boards.
, was elected fence viewer
in January 1687. He was propounded as a freeman (Colonial)
to the court of the Connecticut Colony at Hartford in May 1687 with his brother Captain John Hawley. To be elected a freeman in the Connecticut Colony
at this time, one had to own real property, a dwelling house, in his name.
Ephraim died on April 18, 1690. Local legend is that he and his horse were killed by lightning
, and since no grave has ever been found and the inventory of his estate did not include a horse, this may be true. Fairfield County raised an army on April 11, 1690 to defend Albany, New York
following the Schenectady Massacre
during the King William's War
. Hawley may have died during the trip there, from fighting or disease (small pox). His peer who served in the war, Lt. John Hubbell, died on May 1, 1690 at Wood Creek (Fort Ann) in New York and was buried at the spot where he died. Lt. Agur Tomlinson, Ensign of the army raised in Fairfield County, would later marry Ephraim Hawley's widow Sara Welles in 1692.
The house lands and meadow were appraised at 352 pound (currency)
by the Fairfield County Probate Court. Since Ephraim died intestate, without a will, and according to English Law
at the time, title to the dwelling house passed to the oldest living male heir, his half brother Robert Haule. Sara's dowry
was returned to her out of her eldest son Daniel's double portion of lands, which were sold, and she received all of the movable estate or personal property.
Soon after Sarah's death, the Hawley's began to have some differences with Lt. Tomlinson over the orphaned Hawley children. In 1696, the Probate Court at Fairfield, ruled that the Hawley's would "award Tomlinson 50 pounds and a bed worth 5 pounds and discharge him from all further charges or trouble in bringing up ye children of sd. brother deceased". Tomlinson returned 25 pounds worth of his deceased wife's property to her children, making an entry in the Stratford land records on November 11, 1696;
The final settlement between Lt. Tomlinson and brothers Captain John and Samuel Hawley over the children and the property were entered into the Stratford land records on November 30, 1696.
Ebenezer Hawley
Ebenezer, great grandson of Daniel, built a colonial mansion in 1765 for his bride, Hannah Beach the daughter of Israel and Hannah Burritt. He owned and operated the family gristmill
which had been rebuilt in 1722 by his great grandfather and his cousin Ephraim. His home was located on a rise just east of the Pequonnock River
, in present day Trumbull Center, on his grandfather Daniel's farm. He fought in the French and Indian War
and died in 1767, at the age of thirty, leaving behind a 1,135 English pound note payable to John Hancock
of Boston
.
This large home was converted into a tavern
by Eliakim Beach during the American Revolutionary War
and from 1862 to 1883 served as Trumbull's first municipal town hall. This is also where Mary Silliman, wife of captured American General Gold Selleck Silliman
, fled when the British burned Fairfield, Connecticut
during the American Revolutionary War
. While at the tavern she gave birth to son Benjamin Silliman
, America's first Scientist
and pioneer in energy
. http://www.trumbullhistory.org/written/eliakim.shtml. The town sold the historic house for $100 in 1961 and it was dismantled and reassembled in Darien, CT.
Nero Hawley
Nero Hawley
, a free negro man, was a slave who earned his freedom after fighting in the American Revolution
in place of his owner Daniel Hawley.
in 1749 and worked under Jonathan Edwards and became a missionary to the Iroquois
Indians.
Captain David Hawley
David, great grandson of Gideon, served in the American Revolutionary War
under Benedict Arnold
at the Battle of Valcour Island
on Lake Champlain on October 11, 1776. Hawley commanded the two-masted schooner USS Royal Savage with a crew of 50 men. His cousin Ephraim Hawley (1746–1777) served as his Lieutenant and his young nephew Samuel Hawley was also a seaman. The ship ran aground during the battle and was burned by the crew to prevent it from falling into British hands. The Royal Savage had been Arnold's flagship until he went aboard the ship USS Congress
. This naval battle is considered to be the first of the United States Navy
and delayed for one year the British attempts to cut the colonies in half
. David Hawley is also credited with capturing twenty British ships during the war for American Independence. He is most famous for leading a raid across Long Island Sound
on November 4, 1779 to capture Tory
Judge Thomas Jones to exchange for captured General Gold Selleck Silliman
who had been taken prisoner out of his Fairfield, Connecticut
home by the British in May 1779.
Major Aaron Hawley
Aaron, great grandson of Gideon, served as Brigade Major under General Gold Selleck Silliman
.
on November 5 1707 at seventeen. Their son William married Abigail Abbot and produced a daughter named Abigail Wolcott who married Oliver Ellsworth
in 1772 and lived in the Oliver Ellsworth Homestead
.
Ellsworth was made the third Chief Justice of the United States
(1796–1800) by President George Washington
. Ellsworth was also a member of the Continental Congress
during the American Revolution
. He and Roger Sherman
advanced the Connecticut Compromise
, prepared the first draft of the United States Constitution
and is credited by some to have preserved the name the United States
Government. He was also a U.S. Senator from CT (1789–96). Their son William Wolcott Ellsworth, served in U.S. Congress from (1829–1834) and was Governor of Connecticut from (1838–1842). Abiah Hawley died on June 16 1716 at 26.
.
Captain Robert Hawley
Robert, grandson of Captain John, was named Captain of the North Stratford Train Band in 1773 and at a special meeting on November 10, 1777, he was appointed to a committee to provide immediately all those necessaries for the Continental soldiers
. On March 12, 1778, the parish of North Stratford made donations of provisions for those residents serving in the southern army stationed at Valley Forge
under General George Washington
.
Eliakim and Sally Sara Hawley
In 1787, Eliakim, son of Captain Robert and Hannah, married his first cousin Sally Sara Hawley, great granddaughter of Captain John Hawley through Ephraim and Nathan, and received the new dwelling house as a gift from his father for love and good will. Eliakim operated a tavern
nearby in Nichols center called E. Hawley's Tavern. In the early 1920s, the inn was cut in two and one part moved so a new street could be built to service a new elementary school. The wooden tavern sign is displayed at the Trumbull Historical Society museum. Eliakim withdrew from the Congregational Society of North Stratford on January 1, 1801 and joined the Episcopal Church of Trumbull. Sally Sara Hawley lived in the house for 60 years until her death in 1847 and was the last Hawley to live in the house.
, was laid out by the Stratford selectmen to the south side of Mischa Hill. The highway was 12 rods wide, or 198 feet, where Broadbridge Brook runs off the south side of Mischa Hill, at Zachariah Curtiss
, his land, and at Captain's Farm. Broadbridge Brook runs off Mischa Hill west of the present-day intersection of Route 108 and the Merritt Parkway
and flows southwesterly to Broadbridge Avenue in Stratford.
In October 1725, when the Connecticut Colony approved the Parish of Unity, they referred to the Farm Highway as Nickol's Farm's Road. The Nichols Avenue portion of Route 108 in Trumbull is the third-oldest documented highway
in Connecticut after the Mohegan Road, Connecticut Route 32 in Norwich
(1670) and the King's Highway
, or Boston Post Road
Route 1 (1673).
on display. The Hawley house was also featured on the cover of the first modern street map of the town of Trumbull published in 1965.
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, is a Colonial America
Colonial America
The colonial history of the United States covers the history from the start of European settlement and especially the history of the thirteen colonies of Britain until they declared independence in 1776. In the late 16th century, England, France, Spain and the Netherlands launched major...
n wooden post-and-beam timber-frame farm house built between 1670 and 1690. It is situated on the Farm Highway, or Route 108
Connecticut Route 108
Route 108 in the U.S. state of Connecticut, also called Huntington Turnpike and Nichols Avenue, is a two-lane state highway that runs northerly from US 1, Boston Post Road in Stratford, through Trumbull, to Route 110 in downtown Shelton...
, on the south side of Mischa Hill in the village of Nichols
Nichols, Connecticut
Nichols, a historic village in southeastern Trumbull on the Gold Coast of Fairfield County, was named after the family who maintained a large farm in its center for almost 300 years. The Nichols Farms Historic District, which encompasses part of the village, is listed on the National Register of...
in Trumbull, Connecticut
Trumbull, Connecticut
Trumbull, a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut in the New England region of the United States, is bordered by the towns of Monroe, Shelton, Stratford, Bridgeport, Fairfield and Easton along Connecticut's Gold Coast. The population was 36,018 according to the 2010 census.Family Circle magazine...
.
The house is unique, besides being considered the oldest house in Trumbull, it has been located in four different townships
Township (United States)
A township in the United States is a small geographic area. Townships range in size from 6 to 54 square miles , with being the norm.The term is used in three ways....
in its history, but has never moved; Stratford
Stratford, Connecticut
Stratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. It was founded by Puritans in 1639....
(1670–1725), Unity (1725–1744), North Stratford (1744–1797) and Trumbull (1797–present).
Research
Joan Oppenheim, completed a research report on the house while studying ArchitectureArchitecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. She concluded, after examining the structure, researching land records, probate records and the Hawley record
Hawley
-People:* Alan Ramsay Hawley, early American aviator* Cameron Hawley, American fiction writer* Caroline Hawley, BBC war correspondent* David Hawley , Stratfield, Connecticut, captain and privateer during the American Revolution...
, that the house was built between 1683 and 1690 by Farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
Ephraim Hawley who married Sarah Welles, granddaughter of Connecticut Colony
Connecticut Colony
The Connecticut Colony or Colony of Connecticut was an English colony located in British America that became the U.S. state of Connecticut. Originally known as the River Colony, it was organized on March 3, 1636 as a haven for Puritan noblemen. After early struggles with the Dutch, the English...
Governor Thomas Welles
Thomas Welles
Thomas Welles is the only man in Connecticut's history to hold all four top offices: governor, deputy governor, treasurer, and secretary. In 1639, he was elected as the first treasurer of the Colony of Connecticut, and from 1640–1649 served as the colony's secretary...
in 1683.
The date of construction was not only based upon architectural details of the house, but also upon comparisons with other homes of the period, facts given to her by the Curtiss family, who owned the house at the time, and information from the Hawley Record which stated that Ephraim resided in Trumbull. Oppenheim also stated the dating of the house compared with that of S.S. on file at the School of Fine Arts at Yale.
The house was dated to 1671-1683 in the 2002 Historic and Architectural Resource Survey produced for the Connecticut Historical Commission by Geoffrey Rossano, PhD. The 2010 Historic and Architectural Survey of the Town of Trumbull, Connecticut produced by Heather C. Jones and Bruce G. Harvey PhD for the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, dates the house to 1670-1683.
A piece of oak framing was carbon dated to 1710 with a standard deviation
Standard deviation
Standard deviation is a widely used measure of variability or diversity used in statistics and probability theory. It shows how much variation or "dispersion" there is from the average...
of 30 years.
Structure
The house began as a -story Cape Cod cottage
Cape Cod (house)
A Cape Cod cottage is a style of house originating in New England in the 17th century. It is traditionally characterized by a low, broad frame building, generally a story and a half high, with a steep, pitched roof with end gables, a large central chimney and very little ornamentation...
thirty-six feet wide by twenty-six feet deep with an eight-foot-wide central stone chimney
Chimney
A chimney is a structure for venting hot flue gases or smoke from a boiler, stove, furnace or fireplace to the outside atmosphere. Chimneys are typically vertical, or as near as possible to vertical, to ensure that the gases flow smoothly, drawing air into the combustion in what is known as the...
with three fireplace
Fireplace
A fireplace is an architectural structure to contain a fire for heating and, especially historically, for cooking. A fire is contained in a firebox or firepit; a chimney or other flue allows gas and particulate exhaust to escape...
s. There were four rooms downstairs, a small entryway
Entryway
An entryway is a hall that is generally located at the front entrance of a house. An entryway often has a coat closet, and usually has linoleum or tile flooring rather than carpet, making it an easy-to-clean transition space between the outdoor and indoor areas...
, parlour
Parlour
Parlour , from the French word parloir, from parler , denotes an "audience chamber". In parts of the United Kingdom and the United States, parlours are common names for certain types of food service houses, restaurants or special service areas, such as tattoo parlors...
, dining room
Dining room
A dining room is a room for consuming food. In modern times it is usually adjacent to the kitchen for convenience in serving, although in medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level...
and kitchen
Kitchen
A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation.In the West, a modern residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a refrigerator and kitchen cabinets arranged according to a modular design. Many households have a...
. The second story was one undivided sleeping loft
Loft
A loft can be an upper story or attic in a building, directly under the roof. Alternatively, a loft apartment refers to large adaptable open space, often converted for residential use from some other use, often light industrial...
. Because of its small initial size, the house was expanded several times.
The first expansion took place sometime in the late seventeenth century when a seven-foot-deep lean-to addition was added onto the northeast corner of the house which was used at first as a borning room and became the buttery (room)
Buttery (room)
A buttery was a domestic room in a large medieval house. Along with the pantry, it was generally part of the offices pertaining to the kitchen. Reached from the screens passage at the low end of the Great Hall the buttery was traditionally the place from which the yeoman of the buttery served beer...
and pantry
Pantry
A pantry is a room where food, provisions or dishes are stored and served in an ancillary capacity to the kitchen. The derivation of the word is from the same source as the Old French term paneterie; that is from pain, the French form of the Latin panis for bread.In a late medieval hall, there were...
. The north exterior wall is made of two inch thick oak boards. When the lean-to was built, the roof was extended, without a break, to within six feet six inches of the ground and gives the house its saltbox
Saltbox
A saltbox is a building with a long, pitched roof that slopes down to the back, generally a wooden frame house. A saltbox has just one story in the back and two stories in the front...
shape. The original hand-riven oak clapboard
Clapboard (architecture)
Clapboard, also known as bevel siding or lap siding or weather-board , is a board used typically for exterior horizontal siding that has one edge thicker than the other and where the board above laps over the one below...
exterior siding
Siding
Siding is the outer covering or cladding of a house meant to shed water and protect from the effects of weather. On a building that uses siding, it may act as a key element in the aesthetic beauty of the structure and directly influence its property value....
is preserved in the attic
Attic
An attic is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building . Attic is generally the American/Canadian reference to it...
that was created (see image).
The second expansion was completed sometime before the Civil War
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
when a lean-to was added to the remaining rear of the house which reused the original poplar vertical feather-edge beaded paneling, that had encased the original stairs, as roof sheathing. The rear exterior oak clapboards were left in place preserved in the attic that was created (see image). At the same time, the front roof was raised to a full story in height and new vertically-sawn two inch by ten inch common rafter
Rafter
A rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members , that extend from the ridge or hip to the downslope perimeter or eave, designed to support the roof deck and its associated loads.-Design:...
s were installed. The second floor was petitioned into five small bedroom
Bedroom
A bedroom is a private room where people usually sleep for the night or relax during the day.About one third of our lives are spent sleeping and most of the time we are asleep, we are sleeping in a bedroom. To be considered a bedroom the room needs to have bed. Bedrooms can range from really simple...
s each with a closet
Closet
A closet is a small and enclosed space, a cabinet, or a cupboard in a house or building used for general storage or hanging clothes. A closet for food storage is usually referred to as a pantry...
. The batten doors were pine
Pine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...
and the cast-iron hardware
Hardware
Hardware is a general term for equipment such as keys, locks, hinges, latches, handles, wire, chains, plumbing supplies, tools, utensils, cutlery and machine parts. Household hardware is typically sold in hardware stores....
, hinges
Hinges
Hinges may refer to:* Hinges, Pas-de-Calais, France* Hinges , an Andy Partridge album...
and latches were made by Eli Whitney Blake
Eli Whitney Blake
Eli Whitney Blake, Sr. was an American inventor, best known for his mortise lock and stone-crushing machine, the latter of which earned him a place into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.-Biography:...
. A new central staircase was installed, since removed, up against the kitchen fireplace and a wall was built dividing the house into a two-family.
In 1840, Schaghticoke
Schaghticoke (tribe)
The Schaghticoke are a Native American tribe of the Eastern Woodlands consisting of descendants of Mahican , Potatuck , Weantinock, Tunxis, Podunk, and other people indigenous to what is now Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts. They amalgamated after encroachment of white settlers on their...
Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
Truman Mauwee, or Truman Bradley, moved into the house as a tenant. In 1881, Bradley purchased the house from Charles Fairchild for $450 ($100 in cash and a $350 mortgage to Fairchild). A year later, Bradley sold the house to next door neighbor Clarissa Curtis for $525 ($175 cash and Curtiss assumed the $350 mortgage to Fairchild).
Oak frame and siding
The first growth white oak
White oak
Quercus alba, the white oak, is one of the pre-eminent hardwoods of eastern North America. It is a long-lived oak of the Fagaceae family, native to eastern North America and found from southern Quebec west to eastern Minnesota and south to northern Florida and eastern Texas. Specimens have been...
post-and-beam frame consists of eight by ten inch girts, eight by eight inch plates and eight by ten inch splayed post
Post and lintel
Post and lintel, or in contemporary usage Post and beam, is a simple construction method using a lintel, header, or architrave as the horizontal member over a building void supported at its ends by two vertical columns, pillars, or posts...
s. The rafters are eight by eight inches and taper to six by six inches and the floor joist
Joist
A joist, in architecture and engineering, is one of the horizontal supporting members that run from wall to wall, wall to beam, or beam to beam to support a ceiling, roof, or floor. It may be made of wood, steel, or concrete. Typically, a beam is bigger than, and is thus distinguished from, a joist...
are six by six inches and spaced twenty inches apart.
The six inch by ten inch summer beams run parallel to the front of the house and are dovetailed into the girts. They are located above the interior walls that divide the front rooms from the kitchen, however, they do not support any joist. Since the house was plastered when built, the summer beams were reduced in size and concealed within the plaster
Plaster
Plaster is a building material used for coating walls and ceilings. Plaster starts as a dry powder similar to mortar or cement and like those materials it is mixed with water to form a paste which liberates heat and then hardens. Unlike mortar and cement, plaster remains quite soft after setting,...
ceiling
Ceiling
A ceiling is an overhead interior surface that covers the upper limit of a room. It is generally not a structural element, but a finished surface concealing the underside of the floor or roof structure above....
. According to some Connecticut Architectural historians, the introduction of plaster, as an interior finish, brought about the end of the summer beam. The home builder, holding onto traditional building methods of the time, included summer beams in the frame, but in a reduced size, as they were beginning to be phased out altogether in this part of the state.
The roof sheathing and flooring
Flooring
Flooring is the general term for a permanent covering of a floor, or for the work of installing such a floor covering. Floor covering is a term to generically describe any finish material applied over a floor structure to provide a walking surface...
is vertically quarter sawn one-inch-thick oak boards with random widths between twelve and thirty inches. The flooring is laid directly over one-inch-thick split oak boards. The mortise-and-tenon
Mortise and tenon
The mortise and tenon joint has been used for thousands of years by woodworkers around the world to join pieces of wood, mainly when the adjoining pieces connect at an angle of 90°. In its basic form it is both simple and strong. Although there are many joint variations, the basic mortise and tenon...
joints are held by wooden pins, and the flooring is nailed with large hand-wrought iron nails.
The four- to six-foot-length hand-riven oak clapboard
Clapboard (architecture)
Clapboard, also known as bevel siding or lap siding or weather-board , is a board used typically for exterior horizontal siding that has one edge thicker than the other and where the board above laps over the one below...
siding is nailed directly to the oak studs with large flat rose-headed nails which was the typical material and application for the earliest New England homes.
Stone chimney
The first floor of the house was built at ground level with a very modest field stone foundation. There is a partial dirt cellar
Basement
__FORCETOC__A basement is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. Basements are typically used as a utility space for a building where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system...
located on the south side of the house. The eight-foot-wide stone fireplace
Fireplace
A fireplace is an architectural structure to contain a fire for heating and, especially historically, for cooking. A fire is contained in a firebox or firepit; a chimney or other flue allows gas and particulate exhaust to escape...
is squared up to the chimney girts. The three flue
Flue
A flue is a duct, pipe, or chimney for conveying exhaust gases from a fireplace, furnace, water heater, boiler, or generator to the outdoors. In the United States, they are also known as vents and for boilers as breeching for water heaters and modern furnaces...
s are laid up with clay on top of a ten-by-ten-foot stone foundation. The kitchen
Kitchen
A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation.In the West, a modern residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a refrigerator and kitchen cabinets arranged according to a modular design. Many households have a...
hearth
Hearth
In common historic and modern usage, a hearth is a brick- or stone-lined fireplace or oven often used for cooking and/or heating. For centuries, the hearth was considered an integral part of a home, often its central or most important feature...
is nine feet six inches wide by three feet three inches deep. There is a one-foot crawl space around the chimney foundation below the first floor. A forty inch deep brick beehive bake oven is built into the right rear wall of the kitchen fireplace
Fireplace
A fireplace is an architectural structure to contain a fire for heating and, especially historically, for cooking. A fire is contained in a firebox or firepit; a chimney or other flue allows gas and particulate exhaust to escape...
and its small opening is spanned by a wrought iron lintel. The brick are seven and one-half inches long by three and one-half inches wide by two inches thick indicating they were made before brick dimensions were regulated in the Colony of Connecticut in 1685.
There is a small tinder box built into the left wall of the kitchen firebox. The fireplace inside dimensions are four feet four inches high by six feet ten inches wide and is spanned by the original ten-by-ten-inch oak lintel, which rests on oak beams. The side walls of the kitchen firebox are roughly dressed granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
. A lug pole was originally used for hanging cooking pots. Above the ridge, the chimney flue outside measurements are forty eight inches wide by thirty eight inches deep with a course of three inch thick stone drip caps in the front and back.
Interior finish
The original front exterior door opened out and the stairs, closed in by vertical paneling, are located between the parlor and kitchen. The vertical feather-edge beaded poplar
Poplar
Populus is a genus of 25–35 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar , aspen, and cottonwood....
hardwood paneling alternate in width from thirteen inches and fifteen inches. The ceilings and walls are clam shell plaster
Plaster
Plaster is a building material used for coating walls and ceilings. Plaster starts as a dry powder similar to mortar or cement and like those materials it is mixed with water to form a paste which liberates heat and then hardens. Unlike mortar and cement, plaster remains quite soft after setting,...
on riven oak lath. Initially, there was no baseboard molding and the plaster finished flush to the flooring. The girts and posts were plastered over and not cased.
The ceiling heights are between six feet two inches and seven feet two inches on the first floor. The rear exterior door opening is five feet three inches high and originally opened out. An original casement window
Casement window
A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges. Casement windows are hinged at the side. A casement window (or casement) is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges. Casement windows are hinged at the side. A casement window (or casement) is a...
opening located on the east rear wall, in the kitchen, is twenty two inches square and is fifty four inches from the floor. This small opening was plastered over when the lean-to was built behind the wall in the 1840s. There is evidence that at one time shelving was installed in this opening.
The upstairs ceiling height is six feet. The surviving oak sash window
Sash window
A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels or "sashes" that form a frame to hold panes of glass, which are often separated from other panes by narrow muntins...
frames have dimensions of twenty eight inches wide by forty six inches high, and also serve as studs for the clapboards and lath. The original interior doorways are twenty eight inches wide by five feet eleven inches high and the interior partitions are made of -inch-thick vertical oak boards.
Ephraim Hawley
Ephraim, son of Joseph HawleyJoseph Hawley (Captain)
Joseph Hawley , born in Parwich, Derbyshire, England, was the first of the Hawley name to come to America in 1629. He settled at Stratford, Connecticut in 1650, becoming the town's first town clerk or record keeper, tavern keeper and a shipbuilder.-Surname:The surname of Hawley is one of locality...
, was elected fence viewer
Fence Viewer
A Fence Viewer is a town or city official who administers fence laws by inspecting new fence and settlement of disputes arising from trespass by livestock that have escaped enclosure.The office of Fence Viewer is one of the oldest appointments in New England...
in January 1687. He was propounded as a freeman (Colonial)
Freeman (Colonial)
Freeman is a term which originated in 12th century Europe and is common as an English or American Colonial expression in Puritan times. In the Bay Colony, a man had to be a member of the Church to be a freeman. In Colonial Plymouth, a man did not need to be a member of the Church, but he had to be...
to the court of the Connecticut Colony at Hartford in May 1687 with his brother Captain John Hawley. To be elected a freeman in the Connecticut Colony
Connecticut Colony
The Connecticut Colony or Colony of Connecticut was an English colony located in British America that became the U.S. state of Connecticut. Originally known as the River Colony, it was organized on March 3, 1636 as a haven for Puritan noblemen. After early struggles with the Dutch, the English...
at this time, one had to own real property, a dwelling house, in his name.
Ephraim died on April 18, 1690. Local legend is that he and his horse were killed by lightning
Lightning
Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
, and since no grave has ever been found and the inventory of his estate did not include a horse, this may be true. Fairfield County raised an army on April 11, 1690 to defend Albany, New York
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
following the Schenectady Massacre
Schenectady massacre
The Schenectady Massacre was a Canadien attack against the village of Schenectady in the colony of New York on 8 February 1690. A party of more than 200 Canadiens and allied Mohawk nation, Sault and Algonquin warriors attacked the unguarded community, destroying most of the homes, and killing or...
during the King William's War
King William's War
The first of the French and Indian Wars, King William's War was the name used in the English colonies in America to refer to the North American theater of the Nine Years' War...
. Hawley may have died during the trip there, from fighting or disease (small pox). His peer who served in the war, Lt. John Hubbell, died on May 1, 1690 at Wood Creek (Fort Ann) in New York and was buried at the spot where he died. Lt. Agur Tomlinson, Ensign of the army raised in Fairfield County, would later marry Ephraim Hawley's widow Sara Welles in 1692.
The house lands and meadow were appraised at 352 pound (currency)
Pound (currency)
The pound is a unit of currency in some nations. The term originated in England as the value of a pound of silver.The word pound is the English translation of the Latin word libra, which was the unit of account of the Roman Empire...
by the Fairfield County Probate Court. Since Ephraim died intestate, without a will, and according to English Law
English law
English law is the legal system of England and Wales, and is the basis of common law legal systems used in most Commonwealth countries and the United States except Louisiana...
at the time, title to the dwelling house passed to the oldest living male heir, his half brother Robert Haule. Sara's dowry
Dowry
A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...
was returned to her out of her eldest son Daniel's double portion of lands, which were sold, and she received all of the movable estate or personal property.
Sarah Hawley and Lt. Agur Tomlinson
Widow Sarah married Lt. Agur Tomlinson in 1692 and had a son named Zachariah in 1693. However, there were complications during a later childbirth and Sarah and her baby, named Sarah posthumously, died on June 29, 1694 in Derby and were buried together. Tomlinson inherited his wives personal property according to law.Soon after Sarah's death, the Hawley's began to have some differences with Lt. Tomlinson over the orphaned Hawley children. In 1696, the Probate Court at Fairfield, ruled that the Hawley's would "award Tomlinson 50 pounds and a bed worth 5 pounds and discharge him from all further charges or trouble in bringing up ye children of sd. brother deceased". Tomlinson returned 25 pounds worth of his deceased wife's property to her children, making an entry in the Stratford land records on November 11, 1696;
The final settlement between Lt. Tomlinson and brothers Captain John and Samuel Hawley over the children and the property were entered into the Stratford land records on November 30, 1696.
Daniel Hawley
Daniel married Elizabeth Brinsmade in 1707 and raised 5 children in Trumbull and died on July 28 1750. On May 26 1708, Daniel recorded his 48 acres of land by way of the division in the woods of the six mile division;Ebenezer Hawley
Ebenezer, great grandson of Daniel, built a colonial mansion in 1765 for his bride, Hannah Beach the daughter of Israel and Hannah Burritt. He owned and operated the family gristmill
Gristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...
which had been rebuilt in 1722 by his great grandfather and his cousin Ephraim. His home was located on a rise just east of the Pequonnock River
Pequonnock River
The Pequonnock River is a waterway in eastern Fairfield County, Connecticut, flowing through the city of Bridgeport. The river has a penchant for flooding, particularly in spring since the removal of a retention dam in Trumbull in the 1950s. There seems to be a sharp difference of opinion among...
, in present day Trumbull Center, on his grandfather Daniel's farm. He fought in the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
and died in 1767, at the age of thirty, leaving behind a 1,135 English pound note payable to John Hancock
John Hancock
John Hancock was a merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts...
of Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
.
This large home was converted into a tavern
Tavern
A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food, and in some cases, where travelers receive lodging....
by Eliakim Beach during the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
and from 1862 to 1883 served as Trumbull's first municipal town hall. This is also where Mary Silliman, wife of captured American General Gold Selleck Silliman
Gold Selleck Silliman
Gold Selleck Silliman was born in Fairfield, Connecticut, graduated from Yale University and practiced law and served as a crown attorney before the American Revolution...
, fled when the British burned Fairfield, Connecticut
Fairfield, Connecticut
Fairfield is a town located in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is bordered by the towns of Bridgeport, Trumbull, Easton, Redding and Westport along the Gold Coast of Connecticut. As of the 2010 census, the town had a population of 59,404...
during the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
. While at the tavern she gave birth to son Benjamin Silliman
Benjamin Silliman
Benjamin Silliman was an American chemist, one of the first American professors of science , and the first to distill petroleum.-Early life:...
, America's first Scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
and pioneer in energy
Energy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
. http://www.trumbullhistory.org/written/eliakim.shtml. The town sold the historic house for $100 in 1961 and it was dismantled and reassembled in Darien, CT.
Nero Hawley
Nero Hawley
Nero Hawley
Nero Hawley , born into slavery in North Stratford, now Trumbull, Connecticut, enlisted in place of his owner, Daniel Hawley, in the Continental Army on April 20, 1777 during the American Revolution and earned his freedom...
, a free negro man, was a slave who earned his freedom after fighting in the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
in place of his owner Daniel Hawley.
Gideon Hawley
Gideon's grandson graduated from Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in 1749 and worked under Jonathan Edwards and became a missionary to the Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
Indians.
Captain David Hawley
David, great grandson of Gideon, served in the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
under Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold V was a general during the American Revolutionary War. He began the war in the Continental Army but later defected to the British Army. While a general on the American side, he obtained command of the fort at West Point, New York, and plotted to surrender it to the British forces...
at the Battle of Valcour Island
Battle of Valcour Island
The naval Battle of Valcour Island, also known as the Battle of Valcour Bay, took place on October 11, 1776, on Lake Champlain. The main action took place in Valcour Bay, a narrow strait between the New York mainland and Valcour Island...
on Lake Champlain on October 11, 1776. Hawley commanded the two-masted schooner USS Royal Savage with a crew of 50 men. His cousin Ephraim Hawley (1746–1777) served as his Lieutenant and his young nephew Samuel Hawley was also a seaman. The ship ran aground during the battle and was burned by the crew to prevent it from falling into British hands. The Royal Savage had been Arnold's flagship until he went aboard the ship USS Congress
USS Congress
USS Congress may refer to:, was a galley built on Lake Champlain, which served as flagship in the Battle of Valcour Island, was a 28-gun frigate built under authority of an act of the Second Continental Congress dated 13 December 1775, was a 38-gun sailing frigate launched in 1799 and in service...
. This naval battle is considered to be the first of the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
and delayed for one year the British attempts to cut the colonies in half
Saratoga campaign
The Saratoga Campaign was an attempt by Great Britain to gain military control of the strategically important Hudson River valley in 1777 during the American Revolutionary War...
. David Hawley is also credited with capturing twenty British ships during the war for American Independence. He is most famous for leading a raid across Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound is an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean, located in the United States between Connecticut to the north and Long Island, New York to the south. The mouth of the Connecticut River at Old Saybrook, Connecticut, empties into the sound. On its western end the sound is bounded by the Bronx...
on November 4, 1779 to capture Tory
Tory
Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
Judge Thomas Jones to exchange for captured General Gold Selleck Silliman
Gold Selleck Silliman
Gold Selleck Silliman was born in Fairfield, Connecticut, graduated from Yale University and practiced law and served as a crown attorney before the American Revolution...
who had been taken prisoner out of his Fairfield, Connecticut
Fairfield, Connecticut
Fairfield is a town located in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is bordered by the towns of Bridgeport, Trumbull, Easton, Redding and Westport along the Gold Coast of Connecticut. As of the 2010 census, the town had a population of 59,404...
home by the British in May 1779.
Major Aaron Hawley
Aaron, great grandson of Gideon, served as Brigade Major under General Gold Selleck Silliman
Gold Selleck Silliman
Gold Selleck Silliman was born in Fairfield, Connecticut, graduated from Yale University and practiced law and served as a crown attorney before the American Revolution...
.
Abiah Hawley
Abiah, daughter of Ephraim and Sarah, married William Wolcott of East Windsor, ConnecticutEast Windsor, Connecticut
East Windsor is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 11,162 at the 2010 census.The town has five villages: Broad Brook, Melrose, Scantic, Warehouse Point and Windsorville.-Area:...
on November 5 1707 at seventeen. Their son William married Abigail Abbot and produced a daughter named Abigail Wolcott who married Oliver Ellsworth
Oliver Ellsworth
Oliver Ellsworth was an American lawyer and politician, a revolutionary against British rule, a drafter of the United States Constitution, and the third Chief Justice of the United States. While at the Federal Convention, Ellsworth moved to strike the word National from the motion made by Edmund...
in 1772 and lived in the Oliver Ellsworth Homestead
Oliver Ellsworth Homestead
Oliver Ellsworth Homestead, also known as Elmwood, was the home of the American lawyer and politician Oliver Ellsworth from 1782 to 1807. The house is in Windsor, Connecticut...
.
Ellsworth was made the third Chief Justice of the United States
Chief Justice of the United States
The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices; the other eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States...
(1796–1800) by President George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
. Ellsworth was also a member of the Continental Congress
Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a convention of delegates called together from the Thirteen Colonies that became the governing body of the United States during the American Revolution....
during the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
. He and Roger Sherman
Roger Sherman
Roger Sherman was an early American lawyer and politician, as well as a founding father. He served as the first mayor of New Haven, Connecticut, and served on the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence, and was also a representative and senator in the new republic...
advanced the Connecticut Compromise
Connecticut Compromise
The Connecticut Compromise was an agreement that large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that in part defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution...
, prepared the first draft of the United States Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
and is credited by some to have preserved the name the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Government. He was also a U.S. Senator from CT (1789–96). Their son William Wolcott Ellsworth, served in U.S. Congress from (1829–1834) and was Governor of Connecticut from (1838–1842). Abiah Hawley died on June 16 1716 at 26.
Captain John Hawley
John, Ephraim's brother, inherited the house sometime after 1690 and before 1721 when his name appears in the land record when his next door neighbor Zachariah Curtiss gifted his entire farm to his son and used Captain John Hawley as part of the southern boundary. John was named Captain of the Second or North Company of the Stratford Train Band and was also Justice of the Peace for Fairfield CountyFairfield County
Fairfield County is the name of three counties in the United States:* Fairfield County, Connecticut* Fairfield County, Ohio* Fairfield County, South Carolina...
.
Captain Robert Hawley
Robert Hawley
Robert Hawley , Captain, raised provisions for the Continental soldiers and fought in the American Revolutionary War.BiographyCaptain Robert Hawley was born June 5, 1726, in North Stratford, now Trumbull, Connecticut, in New England...
Robert, grandson of Captain John, was named Captain of the North Stratford Train Band in 1773 and at a special meeting on November 10, 1777, he was appointed to a committee to provide immediately all those necessaries for the Continental soldiers
Continental Army
The Continental Army was formed after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War by the colonies that became the United States of America. Established by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, it was created to coordinate the military efforts of the Thirteen Colonies in...
. On March 12, 1778, the parish of North Stratford made donations of provisions for those residents serving in the southern army stationed at Valley Forge
Valley Forge
Valley Forge in Pennsylvania was the site of the military camp of the American Continental Army over the winter of 1777–1778 in the American Revolutionary War.-History:...
under General George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
.
Eliakim and Sally Sara Hawley
In 1787, Eliakim, son of Captain Robert and Hannah, married his first cousin Sally Sara Hawley, great granddaughter of Captain John Hawley through Ephraim and Nathan, and received the new dwelling house as a gift from his father for love and good will. Eliakim operated a tavern
Tavern
A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food, and in some cases, where travelers receive lodging....
nearby in Nichols center called E. Hawley's Tavern. In the early 1920s, the inn was cut in two and one part moved so a new street could be built to service a new elementary school. The wooden tavern sign is displayed at the Trumbull Historical Society museum. Eliakim withdrew from the Congregational Society of North Stratford on January 1, 1801 and joined the Episcopal Church of Trumbull. Sally Sara Hawley lived in the house for 60 years until her death in 1847 and was the last Hawley to live in the house.
Farm Highway
On December 7, 1696 the Farm Highway, present-day Nichols Avenue Connecticut Route 108Connecticut Route 108
Route 108 in the U.S. state of Connecticut, also called Huntington Turnpike and Nichols Avenue, is a two-lane state highway that runs northerly from US 1, Boston Post Road in Stratford, through Trumbull, to Route 110 in downtown Shelton...
, was laid out by the Stratford selectmen to the south side of Mischa Hill. The highway was 12 rods wide, or 198 feet, where Broadbridge Brook runs off the south side of Mischa Hill, at Zachariah Curtiss
Zachariah Curtiss House
The Zachariah Curtiss Houses are located in New England, and are Colonial American wooden post-and-beam timber frame farm houses. The older house of the two was built by Zachariah I around 1686 and the second house was built by his son Zachariah II around 1721 in the Georgian architectural style...
, his land, and at Captain's Farm. Broadbridge Brook runs off Mischa Hill west of the present-day intersection of Route 108 and the Merritt Parkway
Merritt Parkway
The Merritt Parkway is a historic limited-access parkway in Fairfield County, Connecticut. The parkway is known for its scenic layout, its uniquely styled signage, and the architecturally elaborate overpasses along the route. It is designated as a National Scenic Byway and is also listed in the...
and flows southwesterly to Broadbridge Avenue in Stratford.
In October 1725, when the Connecticut Colony approved the Parish of Unity, they referred to the Farm Highway as Nickol's Farm's Road. The Nichols Avenue portion of Route 108 in Trumbull is the third-oldest documented highway
Highway
A highway is any public road. In American English, the term is common and almost always designates major roads. In British English, the term designates any road open to the public. Any interconnected set of highways can be variously referred to as a "highway system", a "highway network", or a...
in Connecticut after the Mohegan Road, Connecticut Route 32 in Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
(1670) and the King's Highway
King's Highway
King's Highway or Kings Highway may refer to:* King's Highway an ancient trade route from Egypt to Syria* Kings Highway , Australia* King's Highway , United States* King's Highway King's Highway or Kings Highway may refer to:* King's Highway (ancient) an ancient trade route from Egypt to Syria*...
, or Boston Post Road
Boston Post Road
The Boston Post Road was a system of mail-delivery routes between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts that evolved into the first major highways in the United States.The three major alignments were the Lower Post Road The Boston Post Road was a system of mail-delivery routes between New York...
Route 1 (1673).
1964 house tour
The Trumbull Historical Society organized its first historic house tour on October 24 1964. Tickets to the event were $2.00. The society printed a brochure with historical information on each house on the tour, which included the Ephraim Hawley House. The brochure proclaimed the Ephraim Hawley House was unequivocally the oldest house in Trumbull. It was presumed that the house was built by Ephraim Hawley between 1683 when he married and 1690 when he died. Mr. Elliott P. Curtiss owned and was residing in the house at this time, and put many of his 17th and 18th century antiquesAntiques
An antique is an old collectible item. It is collected or desirable because of its age , beauty, rarity, condition, utility, personal emotional connection, and/or other unique features...
on display. The Hawley house was also featured on the cover of the first modern street map of the town of Trumbull published in 1965.
The house today
Over the last 340 years, the appearance of the house has evolved as each family has left their mark while preserving, expanding or adapting the house to accommodate changing ideas about space, function, comfort, privacy, cleanliness and fashion. Many original architectural details remain preserved including; partial dirt cellar, field stone foundation, oak post and beam frame, oak roof sheathing, stone chimney with brick beehive oven, oak interior walls, wide-board quarter-sawn oak flooring, clam shell plaster walls and ceilings over riven oak lath, poplar paneling, oak batten doors, oak window frames and the original riven oak clapboard siding in the lean-to attic.Images
See also- History of Trumbull, ConnecticutHistory of Trumbull, Connecticut-Introduction:Trumbull, a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut in the New England region of the United States, was settled owned and controlled by the town of Stratford from 1639 until May 1725 when the northwest farmer's of Stratford petitioned the Colony of Connecticut to establish their own...
- Nichols, ConnecticutNichols, ConnecticutNichols, a historic village in southeastern Trumbull on the Gold Coast of Fairfield County, was named after the family who maintained a large farm in its center for almost 300 years. The Nichols Farms Historic District, which encompasses part of the village, is listed on the National Register of...
- Nichols Farms Historic DistrictNichols Farms Historic DistrictAccording to Stratford land records, Abraham Nichols purchased several old farms and large parcels of land in 1696. Nichols exchanged his land for of Lt. Joseph Judsons old farm which had a barn on it, or half the land owned by Jeremiah Judson, and of land from Benjamin Curtiss...
- Stratford, ConnecticutStratford, ConnecticutStratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. It was founded by Puritans in 1639....
- Trumbull, ConnecticutTrumbull, ConnecticutTrumbull, a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut in the New England region of the United States, is bordered by the towns of Monroe, Shelton, Stratford, Bridgeport, Fairfield and Easton along Connecticut's Gold Coast. The population was 36,018 according to the 2010 census.Family Circle magazine...
- Thomas Hawley HouseThomas Hawley HouseThe Thomas Hawley House at 514 Purdy Hill Road in Monroe, Connecticut is a historic Colonial American wooden post-and-beam saltbox farm house built in 1755. Hawley was the great grandson of Joseph Hawley of Stratford, Connecticut through Samuel. A drawing and description of the house was included...