18th c. Derrin Farm House 1865 Pine Grove School House c. 1880 1st Co. Horse Guards Barn 1823 School House No. 3 249 West Avon Road 3 Harris Road 232 West Avon Road 8 E. Main Street, Society’s HQ

The Avon Historical Society -Spring 2017 Newsletter Oh, the joy of Springtime! After a winter of many storms and a blizzard, it is certainly a welcome season. With Spring comes renewal of our landscape environment, birds return from migration, and hibernation is over….even for us humans! We hope you enjoy reading this edition of the Newsletter, with introduction in crocus purple, to help shake off the cobwebs in our heads and get out again to enjoy the great programs we offer. The Society strives to enrich understanding of Avon’s historical past while embracing the history yet to come. Join us won’t you?

UPCOMING EVENTS!

Now through April 90th Anniversary of Avon Old Farms School—an exhibit on display outside the Marian Hunter Local History Room at the Avon Free Public Library during regular hours.

Monday, April 10th An Afternoon with Author Nina Sankovitch at 2:00pm in the Alsop Community Room of the Avon Free Public Library, 281 Country Club Road. Society is co-sponsoring this event featuring her book entitled “The Lowells of Massachusetts—An American Family.” She will talk about the influence this family has had on national history since they landed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1600s. Open to the public free of charge. Books can be bought and signed at event.

Monday, April 10th History of the Heubleins and their Unique Tower— presented by Jay Willerup, President of the Friends of Heublein Tower, at 7:00pm at Avon Senior Community Center, 635 West Avon Road. Fourth lectures in a series (from March into April) as a fundraiser for the Derrin Farm House. Suggested donation $10 each.

Monday, April 24th Avon Historical Society 43rd Annual Meeting—Open to the Public free of charge. Speaker will present “The One Room School House in Avon: What Was it Really Like?” Families are encouraged to attend! Coffee and dessert at 6:30pm with program following at Avon Senior Com-munity Center, 635 West Avon Road. (see page 4 for more details)

Sunday, June 4th Opening Day of 1865 Pine Grove School House, 3 Harris Road for the summer season! Bring family and friends to see this 152 year old one room school house still standing in its original location. It will be open Sundays from 2-4pm or by appointment.

May and June Centennial of the Prince Thomas of Savoy Italian Club - an exhibit on display out-side the Marian Hunter Local History Room at the Avon Free Public Library during regular hours.

Saturday, July 29th Moments in Avon’s History—Public event showcasing eleven banners high-lighting Avon’s history. Project made possible by CT Humanities. These mobile exhibits will be on display beginning at 11:00am in the Alsop Community Room of the Avon Free Public Library for public inspection and comment. Refreshments will be served. (see page 2 for more details)

AHS President’s Message

The Avon Historical Society thanks CT Humanities for once again providing a quick grant of $2,847.00 to produce eleven banners highlighting Avon’s history. The banner project entitled, “Moments in Avon’s History,” is a joint effort between the Avon Historical Society and the Avon Free Public Library. These mobile exhibits will be in the form of retractable, portable banners each telling a different aspect of Avon’s history, with historic and current photos, covering topics such as early education, agriculture, reli-gion, transportation, etc. The idea with these portable banners is to bring history on the road to town offic-es, businesses, schools and retail shops on a rotating basis. A professional graphic design firm will design the banners using specifications from the National Park Service. Writing the text will be experts on individ-ual topics, along with the Town of Avon Historian and a history student from Central Connecticut State Uni-versity. The banners will be unveiled at a public opening on Saturday, July 29 at 11:00am in Alsop Commu-nity Room of the Avon Free Public Library. They will remain on display through August outside the Marion Hunter Local History Room, and then appear around town beginning in September.

The Society thanks Avon Boy Scout, Micah Rahardjo, a sophomore at Avon High School, for his ex-haustive project to update and digitize the Avon Historical Society survey of over 180 historic properties done with a grant in 1997 by the then-State Historic Commission. Micah, and members of his Troop 274, spent several months traveling from house to house, location to location, to photo graph all of the proper-ties in the original study and interviewing some homeowners. The updated database is available online at: https://collections.ctdigitalarchive.org/islandora/object/150002%3A113

The Avon Historical Society Board of Trustees has engaged Brigitte Soucy, Owner of PairDesign, Avon to design a new website for us. This project is being funded thanks to the William Yandow Trust. According to the agreement with PairDesign this will include, “creation of a new design, simple navigation, clear and concise content, refined hierarchy and attention to details.” A committee of the Board, led by Carolyn McGrattan, is working with Soucy on this project to ensure it meets our needs now and in the fu-ture. Carolyn has also launched a new Facebook page for the Society and encourages anyone on FB to “Like” us!

Occasionally the Society receives a fun request. Nora Howard, Avon’s Town Historian, received such a request from two students from Avon, Kyle and David, who attend Renbrook School. They asked her for information on Avon’s colonial minister Rev. Rufus Hawley for a project on colonial life. Nora met with them, showed them Hawley’s grave site and her book with his diary entries spanning 50 years. Later the students por-trayed colonial ministers as part of their project. Their families gave us per-mission to print this photo of them.

Several years ago Avon’s Constitutional Pin Oak Tree was listed as a “Notable Tree” in Connecticut. In 2002, on its 100th birthday, it measured 174” in circumference from 3’ off the ground. Janet Connor, head of Special Projects, decided to see how much it had grown since that time. She measured it the same way on January 29, 2017 and found it to be 197” in circumference. It had grown almost 2 feet in 15 years! The tree is located on the corner of Old Farms Road and East Main Street (route 44). All 169 towns in the state received seedlings of a Pin Oak by the USDA’s Bureau of Plant Industry at the close of the 1902 State Convention which amend-

ed the Connecticut State Constitution, hence the name “Constitution Oak.” To be clear, it is not a de-scendent of the famed Charter Oak, which is a white oak. However, Avon does have a such a tree on the grounds of the Avon Town Hall (by the walking path off the parking lot) given to the Town in 1965 after the last Connecticut Constitutional Convention.

Kyle and David perform as colonial ministers

UPDATE ON DERRIN FARM HOUSE

Since the fire in May 2016, many have been asking when the Derrin Farm House will re-

open. This is not an easy answer. The fire caused the Board of Trustees to pause and think

about the future of the property. They see themselves as stewards of local history and, as such,

have an obligation to maintain the buildings available to us and find ways to makes sense for

them and our mission. This may mean different things for the future of the Derrin House. In

the meantime, the Society continues to fundraise to pay for work to be done, that was not cov-

ered by insurance, such as upgrading the electrical, replace walls, fix an apparent leak in the cel-

lar, regrade some of the landscaping around the foundation, etc. The goal, of course, is to make

the house whole again and safe for public use. The Trustees appreciate your patience as they go

through a deliberate process of good thought and planning. Below are some photos of the cur-

rent condition of the interior. To make a donation to the ongoing work, please visit:

www.gofundme.com/derrin. Or send a check to: Avon Historical Society, P.O. Box 448, Avon, CT

06001 and mark it accordingly.

The History Corner…

Heirloom Family Quilts-A Scrapbook of Life

Clothing was valuable in the early farming days of Avon because of the labor involved in making it. Flax was grown to make linen through an arduous, multi-step process taking the small fibers and spinning them into linen thread. The linen cloth, once bleached, was made into household items such as bed sheets and pillowcases, aprons, handkerchiefs, and hand towels. Wool was shorn from sheep, cleaned, hand-combed, spun into yarn, then woven into cloth for blankets or clothing. In historic estate will inventories, articles of clothing were the items listed first with everything from wool overcoats to ladies undergarments!

This explains why every scrap of cloth was saved from worn garments, blankets, and house-hold linens to be repurposed in a new form. The old saying that farmers used every bit of an ani-mal…even the squeal…was equally true of the farm women. They had to be frugal and thrifty as that was the way of life back then…a very sparse lifestyle indeed. When there were enough scraps of fabric, they were hand pieced together to make a quilt. These quilts were made for functionali-ty…as bed coverings for warmth at night or lap quilts by day and baby quilts. But beyond their in-tended purpose, these quilts told the story of the family members who once wore the garments or used the blankets or linens.

The Avon Historical Society has been gifted several historic quilts from town residents. These quilts are true treasures made lovingly by farm women or residents living later in our town’s history. Each one reflects the story of the family…perhaps the old farm quilt has pieces from grandfather’s overalls, a child’s blanket, a farmwomen’s dress. A more modern quilt may have pieces composed of factory-made cloth, but still tells a story if the fabric was formerly worn by a family member or used as a household item.

In 2012, seven of the Society’s historic quilts were put on display at the Harvest Quilt Show held at the Avon Congregational Church. The quilts that were on exhibit are known as: ‘The Har-old E. Case’ quilt, the ‘Derrin Quilt’, ‘Child’s Quilt’, ‘Thompson Family Bedroll’, ‘Homespun Coverlet’, ‘Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus’, and ‘September 11 Honor Quilt’. The Society also preserves what is known as the ‘Stowe Family’ quilt. Viewed together, all of the quilts on display created a beautiful tapestry representing the family heritage of Avon’s residents.

Each square of fabric is like a page of a family scrapbook; each piece of fabric has a story to tell; each piece is valuable. These quilts preserve a snippet of the life of an ancestor of long ago and keep their memories alive. Whether they were made by a mother, grandmother or great grandmother, their fine hand stitches wove together these family heirlooms made of cloth to pass down through the generations. Listen to these priceless quilts…they are speaking from the past.

Details from the Stowe-LeGeyt crazy quilt c. 1880

The Stowe-LeGeyt Crazy Quilt c. 1880

THE HISTORY CORNER…

A Bequeath To the Town He Called Home

O’Neill Blacksmith Shop 1887* O’Neill Blacksmith Shop 1915* Modern day photo of barn (AHS)

The O’Neill family immigrated to Avon early in our town’s history. They came from Ireland some years after the Great Potato Famine of 1847. Patrick O’Neill was the patriarch of the family and ran a black-smith shop out of his barn on Simsbury Road. Patrick’s son, John Hayes, learned the blacksmith trade and with the advent of the first automobiles, O’Neill’s added a gas pump. By 1921 the O’Neill’s purchased the property on the corner of Old Farms Road and Albany Turnpike (Main Street today) and opened O’Neill’s car dealership that is still in business today. John H. O’Neill’s teenage son, John Anthony O’Neill, helped in his father’s business, went off to col-lege, and returned to Avon. The dealership was sold in the 1950s after the passing of John, Sr. John Antho-ny went on to pursue many lofty goals including getting his pilot’s license. He devoted much time and ener-gy in helping Avon grow having served on the Planning and Zoning Board, helping build and maintain build-ings in Avon Center, and working for the Avon Water Company until 2014. Unfortunately we lost John An-thony O’Neill in February of this year. One of John Anthony’s greatest contributions to the town of Avon was his belief in the preservation of our town’s history. He joined the Avon Historical Society in the mid-1970s to help toward that end. Over time, he amassed a large collection of historic photographs, some of which have been on display in the Avon Water Company office. He also kept pieces of the past secured in his home and larger items in his barn. And, as owner of the building the U.S. Post Office is in, he placed a glass cabinet for use by the Society to showcase artifacts or post notices. The Avon Historical Society was truly blessed to have had John Anthony O’Neill as an early member and lifelong supporter of our town’s historical heritage. To John we say thank you and…

‘May the road rise to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face…’ (Irish Blessing)

Photo by Nora Howard, Town Historian

*Historic photos from the collection of J. A. O’Neill; text John Anthony O’Neill obituary Hartford Courant 2/12/17; Mackie, pg. 207

A Farm By Many Other Names By Janet Conner

On Town Farm Road in Farmington, that becomes Tillotson Road in

Avon, there is a working agricultural farm as there has been at that location for

over 130 years. It is now known by one of its historic names, Sub Edge Farm.

This farm, over its many years of ownership, has changed its name multiple times and its function as well. The own-

ers dating back to the late 1800s were E.W. and N.W. Tillotson and at that time it was known as Walnut Grove Farm

[1]. According to an inventory of historic property, in 1884 the Tillotsons operated the farm as a dairy farm.[2] In

1920, the farm was purchased by Theodate Pope Riddle, the architect of Avon Old Farms School to educate boys in

animal husbandry and farming. As to where the name Sub Edge came from, it is written in a book [3] that an employ-

ee of Mrs. Riddle noted an unusual topographical feature on the property and it was he that named it. From the book:

“My father renamed it “Subedge” as it was under the shadow of the large esker, which was devoid of trees in those

days.” The feature is a glacial ‘esker’ that was formed as the glacier melted creating a buildup of sediment creating a

hill or ridge (esker).[4] The farm was then sold in 1955 to Mr. Stan Fisher and became known as Fisher Farm. Rich-

ard Merrit would then lease the farm from Mr. Fisher until 1988 and it became the Merrit Farm. Subsequent to this,

the town of Farmington purchased the property in 2001 and leased it to the Simmons family and the farm took this

moniker.[2] The farmhouse, outbuildings, and barns are in Farmington along with about 75 acres; the remaining 200

acres are in Avon. The Phillips family became the next stewards of the farm in 2013.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Rodger Phillips to gain some insight on what the farm has become under his

management. Today the farm is no longer a dairy farm, but cattle, both Highland and Angus Simenthal, are raised for

beef, chickens for poultry and eggs, and turkeys in the Fall. They are a certified organic farm and run a subscription

based program called CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) where patrons pay for a share of the crops grown on

the farm. Rodger said “first we feed ourselves, and then we feed the community.” And that is Rodger’s basic philoso-

phy, having grown up loving plants and the earth, that the farm he works today with the help of his lovely family and a

hired crew, benefits the community. I asked him why he decided to revert back to the name of Sub Edge. Rodger

told me that he was interested in the history of the farm and chose the name as a nod to its history. As Rodger spoke,

I could see his love of the land, his new home, and his family as he thinks of the farm as his “homestead.” I think that

is the most fitting name of all.

Sources: [1] Village of Beautiful Homes by Arthur L. Brandegee; [2]Historic Barns of Connecticut, Historic Resources Inventory #28336; [3]Aspiration and Perseverance by Gordon Clark Ramsey, pg. 24.; [4]AVFF-Fisher Farm Trail brochure. Photo: Sub Edge Farm website

The Mission of the Avon Historical Society, founded in 1974, is to identify, collect,

preserve, utilize, publish, display and pro-mote the history and heritage of Avon.

www.avonhistoricalsociety.org

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Officers: Terri Wilson, President Helaine Bertsch, Vice President Carolyn McGrattan, Secretary Satvinder Mayall, Treasurer

Trustees: Sue Cho

John Forster

Mary Harrop

Ben Isaacson

Deb Key

Cal Miller-Stevens

Sebastian Saraceno

Eric Throndson

Len Tolisano

Peter Wright