The house at 401 Wolcott Hill Road in Wethersfield is thought to have been built about 1800 by Josiah Robbins. It originally stood to the south and was later moved to its current location. During the Revolutionary War, Josiah Robbins (1724-1794) served in Capt. Hart’s company in Col. Samuel Blatchley Webb‘s regiment from 1777 to 1781. He was then transferred to the Sappers and Miners and served under Capt. David Bushnell at the Battle of Yorktown.
Dr. Orin Witter of Chaplin built the brick house, with distinctive monitor roof, at 73 Chaplin Street c. 1820, when he was first setting up his practice. He also served as the first Town Clerk of Chaplin. The house remained in the Witter family until 1960, being the home of Dr. Orin Witter II and Orin Witter III. As related in the Commemorative Biographical Rrecord of Tolland and Windham Counties (1903), the first Dr. Witter
became a noted physician and one of the town’s most prominent citizens. He studied medicine with Dr. Hutchins, of Brooklyn, and later with Dr. Thomas Hubbard, of Pomfret, completing his studies at Yale Medical College in 1820. During the same year he established himself as a physician, in Chaplin, Conn., and soon gained the confidence and approbation of the people. Two years later, when the town was incorporated, he was chosen the first town clerk, and was later a member of the board of education, and was also made judge of probate in his district. The latter office he held for many years, until age excluded him from service.
For nearly fifty years Dr. Witter continued in practice, retiring about two years previous to his death, which took place Feb. 2, 1869. Dr. Orrin Witter was married to Florinda Preston and two daughters and one son were born to them, one daughter dying in infancy, and the other, Cornelia, marrying Dr. E. C. Holt, of Bennington, N. Y. The son, Dr. Orrin Witter, was born in Chaplin, Conn., April 25, 1835, and married Helen A. Utley, a third of the name, their son, also being a physician. Dr. Witter (2) attended Yale Medical College, and also the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City, graduating from the latter institution in 1859. He succeeded to the practice of his father and has since conducted the same with remarkable success, in spite of the fact that he has been blind for several years.
As noted in A Modern History of Windham County, Connecticut, Vol. I (1920):
The first Dr. Orrin Witter located in Chaplin in 1820, his son, Orrin Witter, Jr., began practice in 1860. The elder died in 1869, and the junior in 1907. Dr. Orrin Witter III retains the old homestead as a summer residence, but is a practitioner in Hartford.
In 1960 the house was purchased by another doctor, Brae Rafferty, M.D., who restored it with his wife, Ann Postemsky Rafferty. (more…)
As related in An Historic Record and Pictorial Description of the Town of Meriden, Connecticut AKA A Century of Meriden (1906):
A[l]though the present attractive edifice of All Saints’ Protestant Episcopal Church, was not occupied for services until Ash Wednesday, 1893, some eight years or more previous it became evident that the erection of a church was definitely contemplated for that section of Meriden. The first service was held in the dwelling house, 273 West Main street on December 13, 1885[.]
A women’s sewing circle began raising money to build a church. Their funds were augmented by a bequest of $10,000 by Mrs. Phoebe A. Hallam, in honor of her late husband, the Rev. R. A. Hallam, D. D., at one time rector of St. Andrews Church in Meriden. All Saints Memorial Church was built at 215 West Main Street and consecrated on November 17, 1893. In more recent years, as the parish faced declining attendance, they began meeting at Immanuel Lutheran Church on Hanover Street. The old church building on West Main Street was sold in 2009 and bought by Rock of Salvation Church (Roca De Salvacion).
By 1841, Ransford Button, a merchant originally from New York State, owned two houses on Hebron Road in Andover, built in 1823 and 1841 respectively. In the 1850 census he listed himself as a merchant with $1000 in real estate. He also served as village postmaster. At the time, he was living with a wife, three children, and his mother-in-law in his second house, located at 27 Hebron Road, which he built in the Greek Revival style in 1841. He may have used the earlier house as his store. By the 1860 census he had become depot master.
Ransord Button, a merchant, came from New York State and settled in Andover in 1822-1823, where he built the Federal-style cottage at 25 Hebron Road. In 1841 he built the house next door at 27 Hebron Road. There is some indirect evidence that Button then used his earlier cottage as a store and post office, at least until he became the depot master about 1860.
The village of Gales Ferry in Ledyard is named for Roger Gale, who from 1759 to 1764 owned the ferry there that crossed the Connecticut River. One of his successors was John Allyn, Jr., who owned the ferry rights from 1774 to 1793. He then built the cottage at 54 Hurlbutt Road in 1795. After his death in 1798, the cottage passed to his widow, Priscilla. In 1804, she leased her property to James Eldrege, who who eventually purchased it in 1806. According to tradition, the house was used as a training school by Commodore Stephen Decatur during the blockade of New London in 1813-1814. Ichabod and Dorcas Babcock bought the cottage in 1815. Ichabod Babcock (1758-1848) was a veteran of the Revolutionary War. Their daughter Caroline married Stephen Gray, who built the house next door in 1842. Thomas Latham acquired both houses in 1863 and later rented the 1795 house, which he called “Ichabod Cottage,” to various tenants. Latham, a teacher, may have used the cottage for his private school. The building now has dormer windows, which were added sometime in the twentieth century.
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