In the early nineteenth century, town meetings in Pomfret were held in churches and other borrowed buildings. In the 1830s there was a movement to build a permanent town hall, but the citizens disputed where to locate the building. Eventually a council was formed to select the location. To ensure neutrality, the council of three was composed of individuals who were not members of the Pomfret community, being chosen from the neighboring towns of Hampton, Thompson, and Killingly. The spot chosen was roughly midway between the town’s two larger villages of Abington and Pomfret Center. Erected in 1841 (at what is now 17 Town House Road), the new building would serve as Town House for many years and is now owned by the Pomfret Historical Society.
Abner S Hart was a member of the general assembly in 1887, representing the town of Farmington in the house. Mr. Hart cast his first vote for Henry Clay for president in 1844 and has since been a member of the whig and republican parties. He was born in Barkhamsted, July 15, 1823, and received a thorough education, preparing him for the avocation of teaching in the public schools. He pursued that calling for fourteen years, teaching winters and farming through the summer. In 1866 he established himself in the drug business at Riverton and became postmaster there in 1869. The latter position was retained for twelve years. He has held various local offices, including that of acting school visitor for fourteen years and chairman of the board of relief. Since 1881 he has resided at Unionville, where he is engaged in mercantile pursuits. Mr. Hart is a member of Evening Star Lodge, No. 101, F. and A. M., of Unionville. He is descended from revolutionary stock, both of his grandfathers having served in the war for independence. He has in his possession a sword that was carried in the service by one of them. Mr. Hart is a prominent citizen of Unionville, and is held in thorough esteem in that community as well as in his old home in Barkhamsted.
Abner S. Hart had three sons with his first wife, Julia. The older two continued in business in Riverton, while the youngest, Henry, joined his father in Unionville, where Abner lived with his second wife, Margaret. Abner retired from his store, called A. S. Hart and Son, in 1896, and the business was continued by Henry under the name H. W. Hart and Company. The house remained in the Hart family until 1937. In recent years, it has had significant alterations, with a redesigned entryway and windows, a new porch, and the addition of a rooftop cupola, which is in keeping with the building’s Italianate style.
Possible dates for the construction of the house at 17 Church Street in Hebron include 1797, 1805, 1811 and 1815. The house is listed on the website of the Hebron Historic Properties Commission with the latter date and John Graves as the builder. The website also indicates that the owner of the house dated it to 1805 and attributed the building to Amos Strong, who owned a brick kiln. Strong sold the house in 1818 and it passed through many different owners during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
According to Portrait of a River Town: The History and Architecture of Haddam, Connecticut (2nd edition, 2001), by Janice P. Cunningham and Elizabeth A. Warner (p.194), the family of Benanuel Bonfoey (1755-1825) is thought to have come to Haddam after the expulsion of the Acadians from the Maritime Provinces of Canada by the British in 1755. Alternatively, one genealogical website indicates that Bonefoy’s father, Benanuel Bonfoey I, was born in Massachusetts in 1731 (or 1720) and served in the French and Indian War. His son, Benanuel Bonfoey II, was born in Haddam in 1755 and married Concurrence Smith (1759-1849) in 1779. Bonfoey was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, serving during the battles in New York state. As related in the Commemorative Biographical Record of Middlesex County, Connecticut (1903):
Benanuel Bonfoey often referred to the of the soldiers at Valley Forge so remarkable in the annals of that great war. He referred with pride to the fact of Gen. Washington’s concern for and care of his men and that he was like a father to the soldiers, cheering or inspiring them with hope as best could
After the war, Bonfoey built the house at 15 Jacoby Road in Haddam. Further west on the road are houses built by his wife’s relatives, members of the Smith family. After his death in 1825, the house was inherited by his son, Benanuel Bonfoey (1802-1894). The Commemorative Biographical Record of Middlesex County describes the construction of the house:
He built the house on Candlewood Hill in which his son, Benanuel, spent his long and useful life, dying at the age of ninety-two; this house is still standing and in use, serving to illustrate the stability with which the old time houses were constructed. When this Bonfoey homestead was built, the solid chimney was first erected, and then after the chimney was completed the house was built around it. The chimney was erected in 1804 and the house in 1808.
At 7 Walnut Street in Ivoryton is a large Victorian house situated on a hill adjacent to the Falls River. It was erected in 1890 for Sarah E. Conklin. In 1898 it was purchased by Fred J. A. Miller, an overseer at Comstock, Cheney & Co. He also served as a deputy sheriff. His son, Fred W. A. Miller, attended Brown University. After graduation, he served in the Army in World War One and died of pneumonia in France in 1918. The house was inherited in 1919 by the elder Miller’s widow, Edith, and daughter, Pearl Shupp and remained in the Miller family until 1961. To read more about the house, see Houses of Essex Volume II, by Donald Malcarne (p. 159).
The house at 78 Ferry Lane in Glastonbury, near the Connecticut River, was built c. 1800 (with a much later rear addition). It is traditionally thought to have been a home of the Tryon family and it has been speculated that it might have been the home of Thomas Tryon, a ship’s carpenter, who is known to have lived in the neighborhood. He was master carpenter for the sloop Mary, built at a nearby shipyard in 1808.
The oldest section of the house at 172 Barbourtown Road in Canton is the ell, which was part of a house built in 1803 by Reuben Barber (1751-1825) for his son Sadosa Barber (1781-1860). That house stood south of the current house, which according to assessor’s records was built in 1840. Sadosa attached the ell to the current house in 1856. His son Henry M. Barber (1832-1929) also lived in the house, which remained in the family for many years.
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