These papers belonged to the Platt family of Poverty Hollow and date
back to the early 19th century. A family account book was kept by David
Platt (1782-1814) between 1801 and 1813 and then by his son Philo Tousey
Platt (1811-1880) from 1835 to 1852. These were personal accounts but they
document the existence of two stores in the Dodgingtown area, one run by
William Beard and the other by Ezra Morgan. This is a location for which
we have little information so this acquisition is valuable and will be the
basis for further research on this part of town.
Two other items were put together by Philo’s son Johnson T. Platt
(1844-1890), who went through the local school system and then Harvard,
before becoming a noted lawyer and professor of law at Yale University.
The first scrapbook consists of his important papers including his
diplomas from Harvard and Yale, certificates of appointment to the
Massachusetts and Connecticut Bar Associations, and sundry letters from
New Haven notables with whom he served on several of the city commissions
and committees. The second scrapbook consists of a sizable correspondence
dealing with the Platt family genealogy, especially the local branches of
the family, which will be an important contribution to the town’s
genealogy collections.
The Platt family homestead, built by David around 1800, still stands on
Poverty Hollow Road and is the house associated with Atlasta Farm (the
large white house across from the duck ponds). David’s grandson and
Johnson’s brother, Theron Platt (1848-1927), distinguished himself as a
scientific farmer specializing in potato agriculture. He experimented with
over a thousand different types of potatoes, developing new disease
resistant strains for which he received international recognition. The
fields where he did his crossbreeding experiments are just to the south of
the house and have now sprouted McMansions. Platt’s interest in local
history led him to preserve a large number of 18th and 19th century
documents relating to Newtown. These have been catalogued as the Theron
Platt Collection and can be consulted in the Genealogy and Local History
Room of the Cyrenius Booth Library. Theron’s son, Philo T. Platt
(1880-1926), distinguished himself by becoming the first Connecticut
Commissioner of Agriculture from Newtown.
We are fortunate to bring this valuable collection of family papers back
to Newtown where it will serve to give us a better idea of the
contributions of this important family. The account book will also yield
important information on the neighboring residents of Poverty Hollow and
their life style.
Philo
Curtis Family Papers
Gloria Hall of Hartford inherited these documents from her grandmother
who had a tenuous connection to the Curtis family. Most of the documents
were land deeds dating from 1780 to the 1850s and were for land that was
acquired by Philo Curtis and his son Philo Jr. in the process of putting
together their very large farm located on Riverside Road. Both father and
son were substantial farmers and the son was also prominent in town
serving as selectmen in the 1840s. These land deeds in themselves do not
contribute a great deal to our knowledge of Newtown history since they
were recorded, copied and are available in the Town Clerk’s office, though
they are of interest as they are the original deeds bearing the signatures
of many of the town’s most prominent men including Judge William Edmond.
One of the documents in this lot, however, is extraordinary: it is the
bill of sale for a “negro girl” named Genny.
Slavery in Newtown is fairly well known as a result of Dan Cruson’s
research and the book Newtown Slaves, but Genny was previously unknown.
There are only three known bills of sale for Newtown Slaves, and they are
all copies. This is the first original slave document that has come to
light. It transferred the ownership of Genny from Abel Bennett, one of the
builders of Bennett’s Bridge which crossed the Housatonic about where the
Rochambeau Bridge is today, to Philo Curtis. It also mentions that she was
the daughter of Sucky, who may have been another of Abel Bennett’s slaves
although this is far from certain. The bill of sale also provides for her
freedom at age 21, which would occur in April 22, 1831. This provision was
in compliance with the 1784 law that provided for automatic emancipation
of those who were born into slavery after that date. Surprisingly, the
document grants her freedom at the age of majority, 21, rather than the
legal age of compulsory emancipation, age 25.
The bill of sale is unusual in two other respects. Genny was only three
years old at the time of her sale and her purchase price was 25¢; the
usual price for a young girl at that time, 1813, was $20 or a little
higher. Both of these aspects of the document suggest that this may not
have been a typical slave sale. Is it possible that Genny’s mother died
and Bennett could not take care of the girl, or that Sucky had become
incapacitated? Is it possible that Philo Curtis agreed to raise the child,
but only if her ownership was transferred to him?
The research on this extraordinary document has just begun. Unfortunately,
slaves and even free blacks did not generate much in the way of
documentation, so it is quite possible that this bill of sale is the only
thing that establishes Genny’s existence. The search is underway, and it
is our great hope that in a future issue of the Newtown Historical
Society’s newsletter, The Rooster’s Crow, we may be able to dispel some of
the mystery surrounding young Genny.
The acquisition of the Sniffen Memorabilia provided copies of two
letters. The full range of Sniffen’s correspondence, from the time of his
enlistment until his discharge is archived at the U.S. Army Heritage and
Educational Center at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The collection consists of
over 215 hand written sheets which were sent mostly to his mother in
Stratford and his brother Charles. Fortunately he was a frequent writer
and so his movements from one engagement and assignment to another are
charted in detail. Photocopies of these letters along with his pension
deposition are now in Newtown.
