It may not be as exciting as a family-named rubber company that employed thousands of people, but we do have modern industry to look at in the example of the old hotel -- The Oxford House.
Rockey mentions it in his book, HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COUNTY (Vol.2), it was in the village center amongst two stores, shops, and churches.
The Oxford House hotel, not to be confused with the old-time inn kept by Gideon Tucker which was on the Back Street of 1890.
The Oxford House that, according to local Municipal Historian Dorothy A. DeBisschop, "was moved back to make room for the widening of the old Oxford Turnpike into Route 67, when the road was paved."
Don't worry, we're in correspondence with Dorothy and working on getting some photographs of the old place which Captain Job and Daniel Candee built. She even mentioned that she may find time one of these years to write up something about the place. We'll keep our eyes open for that!
Built in 1795 and first tended by Daniel Candee as innkeeper, the Oxford House was one of our first historical-site-pertaining-to-family visits!
Given that General George Washington was still commenting on the economically depressed New England of 1787, for the Oxford House to have be built in 1795 was quite an accomplishment.
There had been a growth in stage-coaching and travel with the invention and resources to fund "turnpikes." The first extensive turnpike running between Philadelphia and Lancaster in the nation's heartland at that time urged the boom forward.
The boom continued until the War of 1812 again financially devastated Americans and Connecticut, in particular, lost a great deal of trade goods and ships at that time. This caused the grass to grow on her turnpikes in between thriving periods.
He got a kick out of the Quilt findings telling him and mom's soulmate story. For him to meet Mama in Michigan and for them to both wind up down the road from one of our ancestral homespots...
The blend of history and love story certainly made for good conversation on the car ride.
Captain Job and Daniel, that was eight, seven generations ago. They were...
I was glad I brought my notes.
Captain Job, he built this place. This place!
And that's Mom's great-great-something?
Well, Captain Job was Gideon's brother.
Gideon Putnam.
Israel Putnam...he was a revolutionary big wig. Different Gideon Dad. But Captain Job was one of the famous NINE SONS! Who were born British subjects but who all fought in the Revolution and became the FIRST Americans...well, besides the Indians and Fur Traders.
This road we're on was most likely an old Indian path turned broader as the people settled further and further from New Haven and Fairfield. Or it may have been one of the first post roads. I'd need to compare the location on some of the older maps. From New York to Boston the postman carried "portmantles" crammed with letters and parcels, bags, some even carried the mails secretly under their saddles or on their persons. At some point the riders didn't change horses until Hartford, all the way from New York. They would deliver the mail to a table in a tavern or an inn and anyone who wished to look over the mail could, no privacy. People would most likely hear they had a piece of mail over to the inn and take the pieces addressed to himself and pay the postage. It would be about a month or so between postman visits.
Where's your mother?
Over there by the broken down tractor thing.
Keep in mind how soon this was after the Revolution.
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| Mama and Daddy on a visit to the Oxford House, Oxford, CT, Summer 2011 |
Okay...to the ice cream, it's just close. My Dad has a one track mind and when it comes to ice cream he's like his father (Pop Pop I) who taught us all to thank our parents for dinner, push in our chairs, and start up a round or two of I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.
What about the cemetery?!
No time today.
We'll do that another day, Mama assures.
Trading tastes of ice cream Daddy seemed to be more interested in history.
Nine sons, eh?
Yep, Caleb Cande and Lois Mallory came from West Haven to Oxford.
To get away from the big city?
Not exactly, this was in the 1700's, Dad, New Haven was nine squares and a stockade and West Haven was the farms on it's outskirts. Eventually, people petitioned for permission to be allowed to establish a church in Oxford so they wouldn't have to travel so far on Sundays.
I have to balance my concentrated amount of history research and reading with people's interest and ability to just hop back into time in a strange place and imagine family.
Captain Job who built the inn, he had a brother named Timothy and Timothy was a builder too. He was hired to build the meeting house here in Oxford but the people ran out of money and he ended up moving to upstate New York not far from the Saratoga area. And one of their other brothers, Nehemiah, he moved to Saratoga. Mom's direct relative was Gideon who was an older brother to the builders. Gideon was born in Derby, joined the Church at Oxford in 1774 and eventually was a Justice of the Peace when he founded a church in Volney, New York. That's also upstate in Oswego County. Those nine brothers all served in some capacity in the Revolution and so they were part of the patchwork of people who received land bounties. But not all public deed records are online yet and so I don't have too much information about that part of the journey. I believe Gideon was associated with Scriba's Patent but I'm still researching to find out what that means exactly.
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| Oxford, Connecticut Summer 2011 |
Back at the desk it's index cards and making up electronic Quilt pieces.
This is the right website in which to read more about the nine sons. Click on the Post Title on the bottom of the website cover sheet (below).
