The house at 137-139 Woodruff Street in Southington was built c. 1790 (it was once thought to have been built in 1735). It was the home of Jotham Woodruff (1771-1859) and his son Lewis (born 1803). Jotham Woodruff married Esther Lewis in 1793. The house has a later Greek Revival doorway and gable ends.
The house at 1010 Shuttle Meadow Road in Southington was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989. Since the original owners are unknown, it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as “House at 1010 Shuttle Meadow Road.” The house has windows closely flanking the front door. If these were put in when the house was first constructed in 1772, then they are an unusual feature for the time.
The colonial saltbox house at 889 S. Main Street in Southington was built in 1748. It was the home of Dr. Henry Skelton (or Skilton).
As related in Heman R. Timlow’s Ecclesiastical and Other Sketches of Southington, Conn. (1875), Dr. Henry Skelton
was the second resident physician of the town, and was a man of more than common ability in almost every particular. Not only did he successfully practice his profession, but conducted various business enterprises. At one time he had a store, hotel, mill, and two or three farms on hand.
He was born in the parish of St. Michael’s, Coventry, England, November 19, 1718, and entered the British navy at seventeen years of age, and his ship landing at Boston he left the service and remained in this country. In 1741 we find him married to Tabitha Avery [(1717-1797)], of Preston, and in 1748 he removed to Southington, and bought the farm that belonged to the late Avery Clark, Esq., at Clark Farms. He owned a large tract of land in the vicinity of the Merriman Burying Ground, and also the property now the site of the Atwater Manufacturing Company.
The time he began to practice medicine is unknown, but it is supposed that being intelligent and apt he began in the small way of extracting teeth and blood-letting; and by reading of some text-books in Surgery and Practice, he was able to treat ordinary cases. He gave himself, however, more to business than to the practice of his profession. It was probably his superior judgment that secured his professional success. In 1760 he removed to Woodbury, where he practiced medicine, and became a landholder. A son of his having been drafted to serve in the continental army, he took his place. He died at Watertown [to whence he moved in 1788] in 1802, aged eighty-four.
Concerning his military service, it is described in Genealogical and Family History of the State of Connecticut, Vol. II (1911) [also repeated in New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial, Vol. IV (1913)]:
Henry Skilton took the place of his son Avery, who was drafted for the continental army, about the time of the battle of Bunker Hill, and was with a detachment stationed at Roxbury Neck, near Boston, Massachusetts. He is said to have rendered such service as a private soldied as to attract marked attention and to receive an appointment and commission as surgeon.
As related in William Cothren’s History of Ancient Woodbury, Connecticut, From the First Indian Deed in 1659 to 1854 (1854):
Dr. Skilton’s preferences in religion were for the Congregational or Calvinistic doctrines, but he did not approve some of the disciplinary customs of his brethren, nor did he accept the form of church government in use among them. Hence he became a ” Separate,” and held meetings at various places, teaching his followers in the “things of religion.” In Prospect, Conn., the remnant of a church of his organizing existed as late as 1831, in the person of an aged lady who still revered her former pastor’s name.
According to the sign on the Ebenezer Evans House at 17 Long Bottom Road in Southington, the house was built “before 1767.” According to Heman R. Timlow’s Ecclesiastical and Other Sketches of Southington, Conn. (1875), Ebenezer Evans was the
son of Ebenezer and Mary Gridley, his wife, b. Sept. 19, 1742, in Farmington (Southington parish); m. Jan. 19, 1769, Sarah, daughter of Reuben Munson, of Southington. He resided in Southington, where Josiah H. Merriman now lives. He removed to Conway, Mass., where he was living in 1782; but returned to Southington, where he died of influenza, March 24, 1816, aged 75 years.
Anson Merriman (1786-1853) moved to the house in 1832. His father, Chauncey Merriman, had already started a farm on land purchased from Ebenezer Evans in 1809. Anson started the apple orchard on the farm that was continued by his son, Josiah H. Merriman (1834-1912), and then by Josiah’s daughter Sarah (1867-1957) and her husband (m. 1888) Elijah Rogers (1861-1949), who was one of the first farmers in Connecticut to grow peaches commercially. The Rogers Orchard continues today.
H.D. Smith & Company, manufacturer of drop forged tools in Southington, began in the 1850’s as a supplier to New Haven area carriage makers. Originally based in Meriden, H.D. Smith soon constructed a factory on West Street in the Southington village of Plantsville. It was one of several factories there that were powered by the Eight Mile River. The company was famous for its “Perfect Handle” tools. Production later shifted to bicycle parts and then to tool kits for automobiles. The original wooden factory buildings were destroyed by fire in 1910 and replaced in 1911 with a new structure of steel and brick, designed by Charles H. Palmer of Meriden. Adjacent to the factory, at 24 West Street, is the company’s former office building, constructed in 1882.
The Old South End Schoolhouse in Southington, a one-room school, was built sometime after 1810, when the original and smaller schoolhouse on the site, built around 1760, burned down. The schoolhouse was in use until the new South End Elementary School opened in 1955. The old schoolhouse is now owned and operated as a museum by the Southington Historical Society.
Traditionally called the Selah Barnes Place, the saltbox house at 282 Prospect Street in Southington was built c. 1778. Selah Barnes was the son of Asa Barnes, who ran the tavern visited by Rochambeau in Marion. For many years Selah Barnes worked at preparing and shipping corn meal to the West Indies.
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