Selden Gladwin (1794-1883) was a merchant, farmer and manufacturer who played a major role in the establishment of the Higganum Congregational Church. In 1816 he married Lydia Lane and in 1823 he built the house at 365 Saybrook Road in Higganum (in Haddam). The house remained in the Gladwin family until 1948.
The house at 416 Saybrook Road in the village of Higganum in Haddam displays the architectural features of the Federal style. It was built in 1825 by Russell Gladwin (1799-1824), a ship carpenter, shortly after his marriage (February 18, 1824) to Susan (aka Susannah) Dickinson. The couple had a dozen children and the house remained in the Gladwin family until 1900. In the mid-twentieth century, Harriet and Warren Smith lived in the house and Mrs. Smith rented rooms upstairs to returning veterans of World War II.
The house at 429 Saybrook Road in Higganum was built by Cornelius Brainerd (1811-1884) as a wedding present for his daughter, Jennie (Jane Jerusha), who married Edward Dwight Gilbert, a merchant, on June 1, 1871. When the Higganum Savings Bank was chartered in 1874, E. D. Gilbert was secretary and his father-in-law was treasurer, a position Gilbert would later hold. Gilbert also served as postmaster. The later couple moved to Cornelius’ house and sold the 1871 house, which has since lost its original elaborately carved porch.
In 1844, residents of the village of Higganum in the town of Haddam successfully petitioned to form their own ecclesiastical society, taking 135 members of the First Congregational Church of Haddam and that church’s minister, Rev. David Dudley Field. On July 23, 1845, the new congregation dedicated the Higganum Congregational Church at 23 Parsonage Road. In 1870, a rear addition to the church building was erected containing a chapel, conference room and kitchen. Another addition was constructed in 2012 to provide Christian Education classrooms, the church office and a remodeled Fellowship Hall.
As related in an obituary by George A. Bronson in The Christian Advocate (Vol. 84, No. 11, March 18, 1909), Orlando Burr (1847-1908)
attended the common schools at Haddam, and was graduated from a business college in Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Returning home, he entered the employ of D. & H. Scovil, of Higganum as a bookkeeper, and later was made superintendent, in which position he remained until one year ago. May 18, 1882, Mr. Burr was married to Clara E. daughter of Oliver C. and Augusta Neff, of Higganum. To this union were given two children—Eugene Orlando, who is employed as bookkeeper for D.& H. Scovil, and Ethel Clara, who is a student in Wesleyan University. Mr. Burr was interested in politics, voting somewhat as his conscience dictated, but did not desire political preferment, having twice refused the nomination for representative. Both he and his wife have been consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was a trustee and steward, also treasurer of the church for some years. He was steadfast, straightforward in his business, devout in his religion and conscientious in politics.
Burr acquired the lot at 33 Maple Street in Higganum (part of Haddam) in 1876 and traveled the country looking for a house design he wanted to duplicate for his own residence. In the end he decided to go with plans he created himself. Construction on the house began in 1881 and was completed the following year, after his marriage. The house remained in his family until 1952.
As related in The Genealogy of the Brainerd Family in the United States, with Numerous Sketches of Individuals (1857), by David Dudley Field:
Abraham Brainerd [of Higganum] married Almira M. Clark, of Southwick, Massachusetts, June 5, 1840, and has two children:
Francis Gertrude Brainerd, born Aug. 15, 1841. William ” ” July 29, 1849. They lived on the paternal homestead a few years, and then moved to Madison. They keep a house of entertainment on the shore of the Sound, near the East Wharf, where they furnish sea food for those who call upon them, or board with them. Among the latter are numbers, especially in the warm season of the year, seeking health from sea air and sea food.
The family returned to Higganum (in Haddam) where Abraham Brainerd built the vernacular Italianate house at 34 Maple Avenue on land he had acquired from Orrin Freeman in 1861. As related in The Genealogy of the Brainerd-Brainard Family in America, Vol. II (1908), by Lucy Abigail Brainard:
He was commissioner on ferries from 1869 to ’74, inclusive. He was grand juror in 1862; justice of the peace from 1846 to ’51, inclusive; selectman in 1847; notary public and postmaster at Higganum for three years, and commissioner of the Superior Court from 1869 to ’75, inclusive. He was a representative from Haddam in 1846, and nominated delegate to the Whig State Convention in 1848. He lived in the Brainerd district, Higganum, Conn. Mr. Abraham Brainerd d. Aug. 7, 1884, ae. 68 yrs. Mrs. Almira M. (Clark) Brainerd d. Aug. 5, 1890.
The house at 59 Maple Avenue East in Higganum (part of Haddam) was built c. 1903 for Charles E. Kahrman (1851-1911). Born in England, Kahrman was superintendent at the Lower Mill of the D & H Scovil Hoe Company. He financed the purchase of the land and construction of his home with a bonus from his employer. The house was inherited by his son Everett E. Kahrman (1882-1959) and remained in the family until 1966.
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