Halfway Brook

From the late 1700s to the early decades of the 1800s, there was a mass exodus of families from Connecticut.

In 1812 my ancestors Asa and Esther Hinman Hickok, their six children (ages ten to twenty-four): Reuben, Sylvia, Louisa, David H. (his wife and son), Hannah, and Justus left Connecticut and settled in what was then Lumberland, New York. (In The Mill on Halfway Brook, I stated it was 1811. But later read that Asa said it was 1812.)

Earlier, around 1790, Asa’s brother Gideon Hickok Sr., his wife Hannah, and their two sons Francis and Gideon Jr. crossed the Hudson River, and settled in an area of the Catskill Mountains, later called Greenville, New York.

Asa’s niece Hannah Hickok, her husband Zephaniah Smith and three young daughters, Hancy Zephina, Cyrinthia Sacretia, and Laurilla Aleroyla Smith, stayed in Connecticut. In 1792 the family moved to Eastbury.

In 1795 The Smiths, with the addition of Julia Evelina resided in Kimberly Mansion, a two-story home on a large property in nearby Glastenbury (now Glastonbury), Connecticut. Two years later Abby Hadassah Smith was born.

The main focus of Abby, Laurilla, and Mary Ann is on Asa’s daughter Hannah Hickok Eldred, and granddaughter Mary Ann; and Asa’s niece Hannah Hickok Smith and her five daughters. Asa’s other children and Gideon’s two sons play a part as they are all first cousins of Hannah Hickok Smith.

In the summer of 1854 Abby Smith and her sister Laurilla Smith visited their mother Hannah Smith’s first cousins Reuben and Louisa Hickok in Pennsylvania; and Justus Hickok, his family, James and Hannah Hickok Eldred, and their daughter Mary Ann Eldred Austin, in the newly created Town of Highland (taken out of Lumberland).

Over the next 15 years, Abby Smith wrote eight letters to her second cousin Mary Ann Eldred Austin and her daughter Emma Austin.

Hannah Hickok (Smith) in her 1784–1786 Journals mentioned a trip to Vermont to stay at her uncle’s house and teach. Some of the terms were mentioned when Hannah was in Castleton, Vermont.

Colloquy (colloquies)
Conversation or discussion.

Discourse
To communicate thoughts or ideas in a formal manner. Ex.: to discourse on the properties of the circle.

Disquisition:
A formal inquiry into any subject, using arguments or discussion of the facts that may make the truth clear. It is usually applied to a written treatise.

Fast Days
Fast days had been proclaimed from the start of Puritans settling New England. Hannah indicated Connecticut’s Governor Trumbull still called for fast days.

Flip
Mixture of beer or rum, with sugar or molasses, eggs, and cream.

Garret
A top-floor or attic room.

Impertinent
Rude, intrusive, meddler.

Physic
A medicine that purges; a laxative.

Inimical
Unfriendly, hostile.

Sweet cicely
Aromatic white-flowered plant of the parsley family, with fern-like leaves.

Sarcenet
Fine, thin woven silk.

Some definitions from Webster’s 1828 Dictionary.

• Acre: 160 square rods. Originally: the amount of land tilled by one man behind one ox in one day; four by forty rods or four rods by one furlong. Acres were long and narrow to provide more river front access, and because it was difficult to turn the plow around.

• Furlong (furrow length): 40 rods or 1/8 mile or 660 feet. Originally the distance a team of oxen could plow without resting.

• Oxgang: 15 acres or the land tilled by one ox in one plowing season.

• Rod: a measurement of five yards, or sixteen feet and a half. A square rod is equal to 160th of an acre.

Hannah, in her 1784–1786 Journal calls their home, the Hickok Hotel.

Hickok Hotel, February 1785
Maria is often here. She was with me when we returned from Sam and Grace Prindle’s wedding Thursday evening. There were some lodgers from Stratford here.

Maria and I went to bed at nine. I, not having slept any, rose at about midnight and made some flip* for Maria and I, after which I went to bed.

But I soon rose with Maria. We sat up all night roasting oysters till five this morning. I slept away the forenoon and rose between one and two, Friday afternoon. Mrs. Curtis was here till just before night. Mrs. Gibbs was here also and stayed here all night with her son.

It is cold in this chamber and I have two or three beds to make, so will write no more at present.

We’ve had many lodgers this month of February. I sleep in different rooms depending on how many are sleeping at our Hickok Hotel. When Grace was here we slept in the barroom. When Sallia was visiting, I slept in the kitchen, as I have at other times.

Sam and Grace Prindle are staying here now. Aunt Sarah came home with Momma and stayed here one night.

Mr. Willard and Kevin who lodged here were impertinent. Col. Sherman and Upson lodged here. That latter and I had some discourse. He is a droll man. I went to bed at twelve.

At the end of February, towards the even we had sleigh folks here. We made supper for some.

*Flip: Mixture of beer or rum, with sugar or molasses, eggs, and cream.

Hannah Hickok, daughter of David and Abigail Johnson Hickok, was not the usual teenager. A voracious reader, Hannah
(b. 1767) was usually a no-nonsense
person with strong opinions we learn in her 1784–1786 Journal/Diary.

Hannah mentioned her uncle Asa Hickok several times, including borrowing his geography book. Uncle Asa and Aunt Esther’s daughter Hannah Hickok was born in 1789.

April 1784: Indisposed, Discontented, and Ill
Very much indisposed and discontented I was on the first
Saturday in April.

Sunday though indisposed and discontented, I puzzled myself
whether it was best to drink tea,
and concluded it was not.

Monday I was in a better humor. I went to Uncle Hickok’s. Bella came here. Mama went to Southbury. I washed floors. Mama returned about six. I felt too lonesome to stay below. I am not now happy.

I have read Samuel Richardson’s, The History of Sir Charles Grandison, for several days—perhaps too much. The only advantage I have in reading Richardson’s style is it gives me patience to write, which otherwise I should not have.

The History of Sir Charles Grandison in a Series of Letters, London, 1753–54
Author Samuel Richardson created his leading male character Charles Grandison to be a morally better hero than Tom Jones in Henry Fielding’s, The History of Tom Jones.

Sir Charles Grandison rescued Harriet Byron when she was kidnapped by Sir Pollexfen after he was rejected by her. Pollexfen wanted to duel with Grandison. Mr. G. refused, saying that dueling was harmful to society. Pollexfen then apologized to Harriet and asked her to marry him.

But Harriet was in love with Grandison. However, long ago Grandison had promised to marry Clementina, who lived in Italy. Clementina had demanded Grandison, an Anglican Protestant, become a Catholic. Grandison would not, so there was no marriage.

Clementina’s parents asked Grandison to return and marry Clementina. Clementina said she would never marry a “heretic.” So Grandison returned to England and married Harriet.

English author Jane Austen (1775–1817), a strong admirer of Richardson, is said to have patterned Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, after Grandison. Hannah Hickok didn’t seem to have the same appreciation for Richardson.

Abby, Laurilla, and Mary Ann, pp. 67, 68.

Hannah Hickok, daughter of David and Abigail Hickok, loved chocolate. Hannah was a teenager when she wrote her 1784–1786 Journal. She often mentioned eating chocolate for breakfast, which was not unusual at that time.

Central and South America were the original home to cacao trees, the source of chocolate.

Each cacao pod (the fruit) contains some forty cacao or cocoa beans, which are dried, roasted, and processed into the wonderful goodness called
chocolate.

Spain set up the first cacao plantations in the New World. As with sugar and other plantations, Slaves did the slow, demanding work of processing the beans.

By the 1650s English chocolate houses sold the expensive drink, mainly bought by the wealthy. In 1670 Dorothy Jones and Jane Barnard served coffee and chocolate at their public house in Boston. By 1680 Jamaica exported cocoa to Boston.

In 1705 cocoa and chocolate were advertised in a Boston newspaper. Cocoa beans weren’t taxed the same as tea. The beans were shipped directly to the South, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston from Central and South America, and the West Indies.

In 1739 Benjamin Franklin sold local “very good chocolate” along with Bibles, other books, pencils, ink, and writing paper from his Philadelphia print shop.

Since chocolate came in solid blocks and didn’t spoil, it made a good ration for the troops in the French and Indian War.

The British troops munched on chocolate while they built His Majesty’s Fort at Crown Point.

In 1765 Hannon’s Best Chocolate was produced in Dorchester, Massachusetts, from West Indies’ cocoa beans. Continue reading →