New Fairfield Historical District
Encyclopedia
The New Fairfield Historical District is in New Fairfield, Connecticut
. In 2005, the newly created state-funded Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism awarded its first Endangered Properties Grant to the Town of New Fairfield. The $50,000 grant was used to relocate and preserve the Parsonage and the Gideon Hubbell House, two historically significant State Register properties threatened with demolition. Both properties were to be adapted for reuse as part of New Fairfield’s new community center, the first step in the creation of a living history village and town center. The houses were moved to their new location on March 4, 2007.
left us a copy of his will and a complete inventory of his personal property, from the family cow down to the last pair of velvet trousers. With this information the house could be restored as a typical homestead from the beginning of the 19th century. Also, in its historical context, we have a record of the optimistic dispersal of Gideon’s family, leaving an empty house at his death, which mirrored the vigorous westward expansion of his era.
. When British troops burned Danbury in April, 1777, Gideon’s father Parruck Hubbell (January 22, 1731–1819) may have withdrawn his family to adjacent New Fairfield because a few weeks later Parruck, age 46, enlisted there as an ensign in the revolutionary forces. Gideon and his older brother Ezra also served not long after as militia men. Parruck was the son of Andrew Hubbell (1706–1777) and Sarah Parruck (1709–1736) and a great-grandson of Richard Hubbell (1625–1699), who immigrated to Connecticut around 1640 from Worcestershire, England. Gideon’s mother was Parruck Hubbell’s first wife, Sarah Barnum (c.1736–c.1780). She was the daughter of Samuel Barnum Sr. (1697–1764) and Rebeckah Cornell (c.1697–bef.1757), and a great-granddaughter of Thomas Barnum (1625–1695), one of the original eight settlers of Danbury (in 1684) on land they purchased from the local Indians, which now includes all of Danbury, Bethel, New Fairfield, Redding, Ridgefield, and a portion of Derby. She was also a distant relative of the circus showman P.T. Barnum (1810–1891), who at age 71 eloquently described historical details of life around 1820 in the Danbury area of his childhood. After Sarah’s death sometime between 1764 and 1787(!), Parruck married Lydia Beardsley (c.1740–c.1794), who became Gideon Hubbell’s stepmother. (Parruck Hubbell and Lydia Beardsley had no known children.) She was the daughter of John Beardsley Jr. (1704–1772) and Martha Odell (1708–1797). Parruck and Lydia were second cousins; their great-grandfather was Samuel Beardsley (c.1636–1706), son of William Beardsley
(1605–1661) of Derbyshire, England who was a founder of Stratford, Connecticut. After Lydia’s death, Parruck remarried again; his third wife Abigail was admitted to the New Fairfield Congregational church on January 3, 1796. Both Parruck and Gideon were active in the Congregational church, serving on various committees over the years.
at Springfield, Ohio. Gideon's youngest brother Elijah Hubbell (1770–1847) married Hannah Fields (1764–1837) in 1792 and moved to Middlefield, New York where they spent the rest of their life farming.
and settled with his wife Anne Bishop (1759-c.1795) in New Fairfield, where they had three children; Gilead, Billy, and Anna. Anne apparently died when Anna was still very young. Gideon’s second marriage, at age 37, on January 27, 1799, to Cloe Diantha Barnum age 34, lasted until her death in 1834. He was buried beside her four years later in the Town Center Cemetery. They had no known children. Diantha was the daughter of David Barnum (1733–1822) and Amie Towner (1734/35-1767), and a great-great-granddaughter of Danbury co-founder Thomas Barnum.
through the Shenandoah Valley, and continued south on the Carolina Wagon Road from present-day Roanoke, Virginia to Stokes County, North Carolina, where he married Sarah P. Boatright (1778-c.1855) on Feb 10, 1802. The couple lived in nearby Wilkes County until about 1812, when they traveled over the mountains to Rutherford County, Tennessee, near Nashville. Gilead was reported to be a Captain in the militia there in 1818. The 1820 Rutherford County census listed him as engaged in manufacturing. Family tradition states that he was a millwright
specializing in water wheels and that he died of pneumonia around 1822 while constructing a mill near Cape Girardeau, Missouri in bad weather. He left a widow, five sons and a daughter. His widow, Sarah Hubble, returned with her children from Missouri to Giles County in middle Tennessee where she settled with her mother Sally Boatright (c.1750-c.1825) and her brother James G. Boatright Sr. (1769–1839) who had a large family there. Coincidentally, living nearby in 1850 was another widow back from Missouri named Sarah L. Hubble, a distant relative, who was a great-grandmother of the astronomer Edwin Hubble
, namesake of the space telescope. For some reason, early Hubbells migrating south of the Mason-Dixon Line
tended to change the spelling of their name to Hubble. Gilead did so also. (His sons eventually reverted to the original spelling.)
Gideon’s younger son, Billy B(ishop?) Hubbell was born in 1786 in New Fairfield and married Sarah Bearss/Beers there around 1806. They lived near his father Gideon and grandfather Parruck until about 1810 when they moved to New York, where they had at least two daughters and a son. Billy became a farmer at Virgil, New York, in the Finger Lakes region, and lived there for the rest of his life. He was still listed in the Virgil census of 1880 at age 94. He had been named as a co-executor in Gideon’s will of 1830, but it is not known whether he was able to return from western New York to Connecticut to participate in the 1838 estate settlement.
Gideon’s daughter, Anna Hubbell was born about September 24, 1792. She married Joseph Thomas Bearss, who was born about March 24, 1790. He was probably the son of Sgt. Joseph Bearss 2nd of New Fairfield, who served in the Revolutionary War and who lived next door to the young married couple in 1810. The two Josephs were descendants of Josiah Bearse Sr. who moved from Barnstable, Massachusetts to Greenwich, Connecticut in 1734 and then to New Fairfield in 1738, two years before the town was incorporated. He changed the spelling of his name to Bearss when he arrived in Connecticut. Josiah was a grandson of Augustine Bearse, who immigrated in 1638 at age 20 from Southampton, England to Plymouth aboard the “Confidence” and came to Barnstable with the first group in 1639. A fanciful tale of the Bearss family ancestry involving Gypsies and Indian princesses was published in the 1930s, but was later discredited by a professional genealogist. (Reasoned support for a kernel of truth in parts of the story still exists, however.) Anna and Joseph T. Bearss had four sons and eight daughters, all born in Connecticut between 1809 and 1832. Joseph T. Bearss served in the War of 1812
under Lieutenant Bellamy.
Gideon Hubbell’s will stipulated that the bulk of his estate was to be shared equally by his wife Diantha, son Billy, and daughter Anna. This led to an inventory of all his real and personal property after his death. As executor, it fell to Joseph T. Bearss to dispose of the assets and divide the proceeds among Billy, Anna, and “Diantha’s heirs”. He reportedly sold the house to Alpheus Martin Couch in 1841.
Anna and Joseph T. Bearss reportedly moved with eight of their children around 1841 to Catawba Island in Ottawa County, Ohio on the edge of Lake Erie, where they planted extensive orchards. Joseph died there in 1845, but Anna lived on to the age of 90 in 1883. As a final note, their eldest son Gideon Hubbell Bearss (born 1815), who had apprenticed in 1830 as a shoemaker in Putnam County, New York, followed them in 1844 to Catawba Island where he also became a prosperous land owner.
Continuing in the tradition of Gideon Hubbell’s three children long ago, his descendants continued to multiply and migrate across America from that time onward, each leaving a personal legacy radiating out from the old house in New Fairfield.
The Parsonage was also used as a meeting place for educational, charity and social events. According to the Danbury
Evening News on September 9, 1908, "A number of ladies met at the Parsonage yesterday afternoon for the purpose of organizing a Ladies Aid Society." In the early 1900s, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union
(WCTU) met in the parlor of The Parsonage. Years later, a woodworking club for boys was offered there with the pastor serving as instructor and shop steward. Girls in town would attend the Hobby Club. The building also served as an informal teen center in the 1940s and 1950s.
New Fairfield, Connecticut
New Fairfield is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 13,881 at the 2010 census. The town is considered part of the greater New York Metropolitan Area and lies approximately from New York City...
. In 2005, the newly created state-funded Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism awarded its first Endangered Properties Grant to the Town of New Fairfield. The $50,000 grant was used to relocate and preserve the Parsonage and the Gideon Hubbell House, two historically significant State Register properties threatened with demolition. Both properties were to be adapted for reuse as part of New Fairfield’s new community center, the first step in the creation of a living history village and town center. The houses were moved to their new location on March 4, 2007.
Gideon Hubbell House
The Gideon Hubbell house is of interest not only because it is one of the oldest buildings in the area and a good example of Greek Revival architecture, but also because when Gideon died in 1838 his probateProbate
Probate is the legal process of administering the estate of a deceased person by resolving all claims and distributing the deceased person's property under the valid will. A probate court decides the validity of a testator's will...
left us a copy of his will and a complete inventory of his personal property, from the family cow down to the last pair of velvet trousers. With this information the house could be restored as a typical homestead from the beginning of the 19th century. Also, in its historical context, we have a record of the optimistic dispersal of Gideon’s family, leaving an empty house at his death, which mirrored the vigorous westward expansion of his era.
Gideon's Father, Mother and Stepmother
Gideon Hubbell (1761-April 11, 1838) probably was born in Danbury, ConnecticutDanbury, Connecticut
Danbury is a city in northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It had population at the 2010 census of 80,893. Danbury is the fourth largest city in Fairfield County and is the seventh largest city in Connecticut....
. When British troops burned Danbury in April, 1777, Gideon’s father Parruck Hubbell (January 22, 1731–1819) may have withdrawn his family to adjacent New Fairfield because a few weeks later Parruck, age 46, enlisted there as an ensign in the revolutionary forces. Gideon and his older brother Ezra also served not long after as militia men. Parruck was the son of Andrew Hubbell (1706–1777) and Sarah Parruck (1709–1736) and a great-grandson of Richard Hubbell (1625–1699), who immigrated to Connecticut around 1640 from Worcestershire, England. Gideon’s mother was Parruck Hubbell’s first wife, Sarah Barnum (c.1736–c.1780). She was the daughter of Samuel Barnum Sr. (1697–1764) and Rebeckah Cornell (c.1697–bef.1757), and a great-granddaughter of Thomas Barnum (1625–1695), one of the original eight settlers of Danbury (in 1684) on land they purchased from the local Indians, which now includes all of Danbury, Bethel, New Fairfield, Redding, Ridgefield, and a portion of Derby. She was also a distant relative of the circus showman P.T. Barnum (1810–1891), who at age 71 eloquently described historical details of life around 1820 in the Danbury area of his childhood. After Sarah’s death sometime between 1764 and 1787(!), Parruck married Lydia Beardsley (c.1740–c.1794), who became Gideon Hubbell’s stepmother. (Parruck Hubbell and Lydia Beardsley had no known children.) She was the daughter of John Beardsley Jr. (1704–1772) and Martha Odell (1708–1797). Parruck and Lydia were second cousins; their great-grandfather was Samuel Beardsley (c.1636–1706), son of William Beardsley
William Beardsley
William Beardsley was one of the first settlers of Stratford, Connecticut .-Biography:He was born 1605 in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire; England in 1631 he married Mary Harvie in St...
(1605–1661) of Derbyshire, England who was a founder of Stratford, Connecticut. After Lydia’s death, Parruck remarried again; his third wife Abigail was admitted to the New Fairfield Congregational church on January 3, 1796. Both Parruck and Gideon were active in the Congregational church, serving on various committees over the years.
Gideon's Sister and Brothers
Gideon Hubbell had three brothers and a sister. His brother Ezra Hubbell (c.1756-1828) married Love Dibble, lived first in Danbury, Connecticut and then settled in North Egremont, Massachusetts. His brother Noah Hubbell (1767–1824) married Anna Hoyt Barnum (1764–1847) and they spent their life in Danbury, Connecticut except for a farming period around 1800 at Middlefield, New York. His sister Sarah Hubbell (1763–1823) married Pvt. Elijah Beardsley (1760–1826) after which they lived in New Fairfield until about February, 1796, then moved to Delhi, New York, farming there until Autumn, 1811 when they moved to Ohio. They had fourteen children and in their later years they were reportedly innkeepers on the historic National RoadNational Road
The National Road or Cumberland Road was the first major improved highway in the United States to be built by the federal government. Construction began heading west in 1811 at Cumberland, Maryland, on the Potomac River. It crossed the Allegheny Mountains and southwestern Pennsylvania, reaching...
at Springfield, Ohio. Gideon's youngest brother Elijah Hubbell (1770–1847) married Hannah Fields (1764–1837) in 1792 and moved to Middlefield, New York where they spent the rest of their life farming.
Gideon's First and Second Wife
Gideon Hubbell married during the American Revolutionary WarAmerican 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 settled with his wife Anne Bishop (1759-c.1795) in New Fairfield, where they had three children; Gilead, Billy, and Anna. Anne apparently died when Anna was still very young. Gideon’s second marriage, at age 37, on January 27, 1799, to Cloe Diantha Barnum age 34, lasted until her death in 1834. He was buried beside her four years later in the Town Center Cemetery. They had no known children. Diantha was the daughter of David Barnum (1733–1822) and Amie Towner (1734/35-1767), and a great-great-granddaughter of Danbury co-founder Thomas Barnum.
Gideon's Children and Grandchildren
Gilead Hubbell (or Hubble), Gideon’s oldest child, was born about 1779. Apparently while still young and perhaps seeking adventure, he left the family, became a millwright’s apprentice, presumably found his way to Philadelphia and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, joined the pioneer traffic on the Great Wagon RoadGreat Wagon Road
The Great Wagon Road was a colonial American improved trail transiting the Great Appalachian Valley from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, and from there to Georgia....
through the Shenandoah Valley, and continued south on the Carolina Wagon Road from present-day Roanoke, Virginia to Stokes County, North Carolina, where he married Sarah P. Boatright (1778-c.1855) on Feb 10, 1802. The couple lived in nearby Wilkes County until about 1812, when they traveled over the mountains to Rutherford County, Tennessee, near Nashville. Gilead was reported to be a Captain in the militia there in 1818. The 1820 Rutherford County census listed him as engaged in manufacturing. Family tradition states that he was a millwright
Millwright
A millwright is a craftsman or tradesman engaged with the construction and maintenance of machinery.Early millwrights were specialist carpenters who erected machines used in agriculture, food processing and processing lumber and paper...
specializing in water wheels and that he died of pneumonia around 1822 while constructing a mill near Cape Girardeau, Missouri in bad weather. He left a widow, five sons and a daughter. His widow, Sarah Hubble, returned with her children from Missouri to Giles County in middle Tennessee where she settled with her mother Sally Boatright (c.1750-c.1825) and her brother James G. Boatright Sr. (1769–1839) who had a large family there. Coincidentally, living nearby in 1850 was another widow back from Missouri named Sarah L. Hubble, a distant relative, who was a great-grandmother of the astronomer Edwin Hubble
Edwin Hubble
Edwin Powell Hubble was an American astronomer who profoundly changed the understanding of the universe by confirming the existence of galaxies other than the Milky Way - our own galaxy...
, namesake of the space telescope. For some reason, early Hubbells migrating south of the Mason-Dixon Line
Mason-Dixon line
The Mason–Dixon Line was surveyed between 1763 and 1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in the resolution of a border dispute between British colonies in Colonial America. It forms a demarcation line among four U.S. states, forming part of the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and...
tended to change the spelling of their name to Hubble. Gilead did so also. (His sons eventually reverted to the original spelling.)
Gideon’s younger son, Billy B(ishop?) Hubbell was born in 1786 in New Fairfield and married Sarah Bearss/Beers there around 1806. They lived near his father Gideon and grandfather Parruck until about 1810 when they moved to New York, where they had at least two daughters and a son. Billy became a farmer at Virgil, New York, in the Finger Lakes region, and lived there for the rest of his life. He was still listed in the Virgil census of 1880 at age 94. He had been named as a co-executor in Gideon’s will of 1830, but it is not known whether he was able to return from western New York to Connecticut to participate in the 1838 estate settlement.
Gideon’s daughter, Anna Hubbell was born about September 24, 1792. She married Joseph Thomas Bearss, who was born about March 24, 1790. He was probably the son of Sgt. Joseph Bearss 2nd of New Fairfield, who served in the Revolutionary War and who lived next door to the young married couple in 1810. The two Josephs were descendants of Josiah Bearse Sr. who moved from Barnstable, Massachusetts to Greenwich, Connecticut in 1734 and then to New Fairfield in 1738, two years before the town was incorporated. He changed the spelling of his name to Bearss when he arrived in Connecticut. Josiah was a grandson of Augustine Bearse, who immigrated in 1638 at age 20 from Southampton, England to Plymouth aboard the “Confidence” and came to Barnstable with the first group in 1639. A fanciful tale of the Bearss family ancestry involving Gypsies and Indian princesses was published in the 1930s, but was later discredited by a professional genealogist. (Reasoned support for a kernel of truth in parts of the story still exists, however.) Anna and Joseph T. Bearss had four sons and eight daughters, all born in Connecticut between 1809 and 1832. Joseph T. Bearss served in the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
under Lieutenant Bellamy.
Gideon Hubbell’s will stipulated that the bulk of his estate was to be shared equally by his wife Diantha, son Billy, and daughter Anna. This led to an inventory of all his real and personal property after his death. As executor, it fell to Joseph T. Bearss to dispose of the assets and divide the proceeds among Billy, Anna, and “Diantha’s heirs”. He reportedly sold the house to Alpheus Martin Couch in 1841.
Anna and Joseph T. Bearss reportedly moved with eight of their children around 1841 to Catawba Island in Ottawa County, Ohio on the edge of Lake Erie, where they planted extensive orchards. Joseph died there in 1845, but Anna lived on to the age of 90 in 1883. As a final note, their eldest son Gideon Hubbell Bearss (born 1815), who had apprenticed in 1830 as a shoemaker in Putnam County, New York, followed them in 1844 to Catawba Island where he also became a prosperous land owner.
Continuing in the tradition of Gideon Hubbell’s three children long ago, his descendants continued to multiply and migrate across America from that time onward, each leaving a personal legacy radiating out from the old house in New Fairfield.
The Parsonage
Abel F. Beardsley took residence of The Parsonage as a manufacturer of lightning rods. Most of the town's records burned in a fire at the town clerk's home in 1867, so the exact date of the Beardsley house is unknown. Experts can place it somewhere around 1840 with parts of it being perhaps earlier. The property went through successive owners until Lavenia Jennings sold it to the Congregational Church of New Fairfield in 1903 for $1,000. It was then used as the pastor's home, The Parsonage, until the 1950s - half a century!The Parsonage was also used as a meeting place for educational, charity and social events. According to the Danbury
Danbury, Connecticut
Danbury is a city in northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It had population at the 2010 census of 80,893. Danbury is the fourth largest city in Fairfield County and is the seventh largest city in Connecticut....
Evening News on September 9, 1908, "A number of ladies met at the Parsonage yesterday afternoon for the purpose of organizing a Ladies Aid Society." In the early 1900s, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union
Woman's Christian Temperance Union
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union was the first mass organization among women devoted to social reform with a program that "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far-reaching reform strategies based on applied Christianity." Originally organized on December 23, 1873, in...
(WCTU) met in the parlor of The Parsonage. Years later, a woodworking club for boys was offered there with the pastor serving as instructor and shop steward. Girls in town would attend the Hobby Club. The building also served as an informal teen center in the 1940s and 1950s.