By William G. Domonell

Reprinted with the verbal permission of the The Voice Newspaper Editor Nov, 2002
Reprinted with the verbal permission of William Domonell Jr. Mar, 2004

A person traveling east on Routes 118 and 4 from East Litchfield will cross a brook a short distance before coming into the center of Harwinton. According to a sign erected by the state highway department that was the Lead Mine Brook. The same person coming into Harwinton from Torrington on Rte. 4 will pass over a brook two times. This time however, a sign designates it as Leadmine Brook which is actually the West Branch of the Leadmine Brook. That brook in turn is the East Branch of the Naugatuck River, entering that river "at English Grass meadow between Thomaston and Fluteville" about two miles north of the center of Thomaston.

This traveler might well reason that if there is a Leadmine Brook there either must still be a lead mine there, or else one was there in the past, and this would most likely lead to the question, "If there is/was a mine there where is the site?" That’s a very good question!

Early Indian and settler traditions relate that deposits of both black lead (graphite or plumbago) and massive or block lead (galena) had been found near its banks. Although many people have searched for the "lost mine" no one has actually found it, although some of the searchers have reported finding traces of each. It seems that the present-day richness of the "lead mine" lies only in the wealth of its traditions and legends, of which there are many. It would appear that had there been an actual mine, it surely would have been reported by Dr. Charles Shepard in his comprehensive work, "A Report on the Geological Survey of Connecticut" (1837). However, he did not. Neither did Dr. James Pertival in his very detailed "Report on the Geology of the State of Connecticut" (1842), nor Julian Sohon in "Connecticut Minerals. Their Properties and Occurrence" (1951). None of these comprehensive reports mention Harwinton as a locality where graphite or galena could be found. Dr. John Sahirer ["Minerals of Connecticut" (1931)] mentioned that there was an old lead mine along Lead Mine Brook in Harwinton, but admitted that he was unable to find its exact location.

Long before the first white man settled in Harwinton, a legend persisted that "there were vast deposits of lead deposits of such richness that huge blocks of it had been forted through the surface of the ground. If there actually are, or even were, any such blocks, though, they are notable not so much for their richness in metal as for their ability to conceal themselves from prying eyes."

Richard Manning Chipman, Harwinton’s first historian, related how early traditions tell of "a vast aggregation of lead in a natural condition so pure as to be malleable without previous fusion." Its location was "in the high lands situated in the eastern and southern portions of the township, that is within the territory lying north of Northbury (Plymouth) and between the headwaters of the Pequabuck River, viz., the• land somewhat north-east of the mouth of Lead-mine Brook." Some of the early settlers claim to have seen it personally, while others said they beard about it from the Indians.

Still another locality, this one reputed to be the traditional site of the lead mine, was offered by the Rev. E.B. Hillard in 1881. He said its location was "a little north of the Harwinton line, on the east side half a mile back of the highway running past the house of Alfred Cleveland, in the woods." Marks in the rocks were apparently from rock- blasting which he believed could only have been made during mining activity. Hillard also mentioned a spring which, "from time immemorial has borne the name of the Lead Mine Spring.. . The anticipation of wealth to be derived from the mine was not realized as it was abandoned." The highway referred to is the present day Plymouth Road, and the locality is approximately midway between the D.E.P. headquarters and Rocky Road E.

During a personal interview held on December 28, 1974 with the late Raymond G. Bentley, Harwinton’s previous town historian, Mr Bentley said that he had seen the marks on the rock, and were it not for his advanced age, and a question of his sure-footedness on the rough ground in the woods, would gladly have shown them to this writer.

Beer’s Atlas (18714) pinpointed the mine with a large hachured (shaded) area on each bank of the East Branch of the Leadmine Brook, a short distance above the spot where it merges with the West Branch to form the Leadmine Brook. The site is labeled "Lead Mine" on the map.

In his history of the town of Plymouth Francis Atwater stated that the black lead mine "lay in, and embraced the lower part of the village of Thomaston." If this were true, this would have been the farthest south that the mine would have been located. To coincide more closely with the other historians’ localities, this writer believes that the "upper part" of the village would have been more accurate.

Well then, if the mine exists, why hasn’t it been found? Maybe - just maybe - there is no mine and there never was one. Let us take a look at the information which has been handed down about a Harwinton lead mine from generation to generation.

Early in 1657 two Farmington settlers, John Stanley and John Andrews, traveled far westward into the wilder ness of the Naugatuck Valley on a hunting trip and when they returned they brought back a specimen of black lead (graphite). The early account does not say that they found the specimen, or that they dug it. It only says that they brought it. At any rate, on February 8, 1657, two other Farmington inhabitants, William Lewis and Samuel Steele, obtained the following mining lease from three Tunxis sachems:

"This Witnesseth that Wee, Kapaquamp & Querrimus & Mataneague have sould to William Lewis & Samuel Steels, of ffarmington, a psell or A trackt of Land called Matetacoke; that is to Say, the hill from whence John Standly and John Andrews: brought the black lead & all the Land within Eight mylle: of the Hill: On every side: to dig: & carry away what they will & To build on for y for y vse of them that Labour there: & not otherwise: To improve: y Land In witness whereof wee: have: hereunto set our: hands: & thos: Indians above mentioned must free the purchasers: from all: claymes: by any other Indians:"

This deed, recorded in the Farmington Land Records, is signed by "William Leawis" and "Samuwell Steel" and bears the marks of the three Indians who granted the privileges. Whatever plans, if any, had been made to develop the mineral deposit had to be suspended because of the trouble at home with the Indians, who destroyed John Hart’s house, cruelly murdered Mr. Scott, killed a woman and her maid, and then burned that house.

Where is that "hill from whence John Standly and John Andrews brought the black lead"? Litchfield historian George C. Woodruff admitted in 1845 that he was unable to discover its precise location "but from the subsequent claims of the grantees, from tradition, and from the deed itself, it would seem that is was in the southern part of Harwinton, and embraced that town, and also some portion of Plymouth (them Matatuck or Waterbury) and Litchfield."

In 1896 Homer Bassett wrote that although Lead mine Brook entered the main stream a short distance south of the northern line of Plymouth, there were good reasons fro believing that the original boundary was farther north and that the hill in question was within limits of ancient Waterbury. Concerning the possibility of a mine, Mr. Bassett said, "...the location of the mine, if there was one, was lost and has never been re-discovered."

Traces of black lead had been found in the "mica slate" of the area but nowhere in any such large quantity to be classified a mine. A very good thesis of Mr. Bassett’s was that perhaps the specimen, which those early explorers brought hack to Farmington, was part of a glacial boulder which was carried down from a known graphite deposit farther north, such as Hinsdale, Massachusetts and on, Vermont; or Ticonderoga, New York. Connecticut also had graphite deposits in places to the north of Harwinton such as Cornwall, Union, and Ashford. Six miles to the northeast of the latter was the Sturbridge, Massachusetts graphite deposit which had been granted by the General Court of Massachusetts in 1644 to John Winthrop of New London who worked the mine between 1657 and 1659. Winthrop became Connecticut’s sixth governor in 1657 and served a total of 18 years as the state’s chief executive. Could there be a possibility, since the lease given to the Farmington settlers and Winthrop's working (of) the Sturbridge mine both occurred in 1657, that Indians in the latter place had some graphite from the Massachusetts site and traded it with the Indians from Mattatuck?

According to a newspaper article written by C. W. Balch, originally published in the Waterbury American, and later reprinted in the Torrington Register in 1??? "confirmation of the black lead legends has come at last and established the title of the brook to its name." Dark, metallic substances freely interspersed with gravel were found in an excavation "at a point where the Harwinton - Torrington turnpike road has upon the west a steep hillside and upon the east the brook at Cook’s mill pond." The specimens were later identified by a New York City mineralogist to be black lead of a poor quality. Balch’s article concluded: "Whether this is the veritable hill referred to in the Indians’s deed or no;, it is black lead and doubtless in sufficient purity and quantity for their cosmetic purposes, and within 40 feet of the stream that for more than a century and a half has held doubtful title to the name it bears."

Between the years 1812 and 1817, the region was searched by many scientific men who fared no better in finding the mine than any of the amateur searchers did previously.

In 1925 the Torrington Register carried another article on the subject of the lead mine entitled "Lead Mine Brook Got Name From Bed Of Graphite." Alden Merrill, a chemist for the American Brass Company, and a friend, John H. Spittle, carried on a systematic search for the "lost lead mine" along the Lead Mine Brook. Mr. Merrill’s interest was a scientific one, while that of Mr. Spittle was one of historical research. Every reference they found with regard to the mine was very vague and indefinite, although they did find some plumbago (graphite) in the valley south of the center of town. After searching for nearly two years in their spare time, the couple came to the conclusion that there never was a lead (galena) mine, and that the brook received its name from the graphite deposit which they had discovered, even though Mr. Spittle found a statement in an old history of Derby which said that most of the lead used in casting bullets for the early wars was mined in Harwinton. To this Mr. Spittle commented, "The mine had been quite an affair or else by no means as many bullets were fired in these old wars as we have been led to believe. If the mine was large enough to yield enough lead to supply the colonial armies with bullets for their small arms and cannons it must have been such as to leave a record of its extent."

How did the historic black lead deposit suddenly become a metallic lead deposit? Chipman treats the subject very briefly: "Alack, alack, too late it is now to make farther inquiry who sold or gave to the Farmington people that ‘black lead.’ By some wondrous ‘alchemy’ was it transmuted into blue lead? or did it not rather (?) become block lead.”

End Part 1

Begin Part 2 – The Harwinton Voice June, 1993

Over two hundred years ago during “the times of the old French war”, Joseph Merriman, “whose general veracity was unquestioned, supposedly cut off "large solid ingots of this petriform treasure" and brought them home where he molded them "into bullets which he found excellent for purposes of musketry." However, when he returned for more material, "the lead-rock was some- how missing, and he never could find it more. This annoyance was a vexatious one, no doubt, because lead was a precious metal then."

A Torrington Register newspaper article in 1942 reported that the cannon balls which were used by the British at the siege of Louisburg (1744) were made from lead that was mined in Harwinton. Louisburg was a port fortress in Northeastern Nova Scotia on Cape Breton Island which appeared to be a threat to the American colonies during England’s war with France. A force from New England aided by the British fleet captured the fort after a 49-day siege. However, while checking the Colonial Records of the Colony of Connecticut for the subject of lead, the Battle of Louisburg, or Harwinton between the years 1744 and 1 762 only Harwinton was mentioned but without any reference to mines or mining.

In reply to the query, "What mines are there?" Which was sent to the Governor and Company of Connecticut by the Board of Trade and Plantations from Whitehall, England on June 8, 1748, the committee appointed by the May, 1749 General Assembly responded. "There are some copper mines, but proving unprofitable are wholly laid aside. Iron ore hath been found in sundry places and improved to good advantage." There was no mention of lead in that report nor in the reports sent to England in 1755 or in 1762. For that matter, the lead mine in Middletown which had been worked since 1720 was not mentioned either. An officer of today’s First Litchfield Artillery, who wished to remain anonymous, concurred with the writer that due to the scarcity and value of lead, the cannon balls were most likely made of cast iron, a substance more readily obtainable and less expensive.

Lead was again in great demand when the colonies were waging their War for Independence against England. Harwinton residents, and those of neighboring towns "determined that, if it were possible, this wonderful ‘depository’ and ‘excretory’ of lead should be found, and, when found, apply to the uses for which, at that time, it was patriotism especially required."

In describing one of these searching expeditions, Chipman wrote that on "a day appointed" a large band of men gathered "to drive the woods, to make careful and diligent search through the forest in order to ascertain the ‘local habitation’ of the deposit which of lead-mine had so long been endowed with but variations of ‘a name." He added that in one account he had heard about there were one hundred men in the search party, while another account gave the figure as five hundred.

End Part 2

Begin Part 3 – The Harwinton Voice July 22, 1993

     Included in the party were three clergymen. One of these was the Rev. Samuel J. Mills of Torringford who, Chipman says was quite young at the time, but whom the aged among us remember as an old man of a gravity as amazing as his facetiousness combined with it was prodigious." The other two ministers were the Rev. Andrew Storrs of Northbury (now Plymouth) considered to be "in ripe middle age," and the Rev. Samuel Newell of New Cambridge (now Bristol) "who had seen a whole congregation grow up under his ministrations." The Harwinton pastorate was not represented since it had "its first interregnum." This came about because Harwinton’s second pastor, the Rev. David Perry, decided that he could not, and would not, in all conscience baptize the infant offspring of non-communicants. The covenant-owners (the congregation) considered Mr. Perry to be a covenant breaker and dismissed him on December 23, 1783.

    The army of searchers divided into three parts with a minister in charge of each group. Each one took a specific section or territory in which "the elusive mine was believed to be located." The central division "within whose range the discovery was probably deemed the most likely to be made" was under the leadership of the Rev. Samuel Newell, who carried a bell with which he could signal the discovery of the mine. Although the large group worked throughout the day "feint though pursuing" there was no need to sound the bell because nothing was found and "when night came. all the persons went home, wise enough not to engage a second time in such explorations". It is not known whether all three groups searched their allotted territories thoroughly and completely. Assuming they did not, and that the search had lasted longer. would they have found the mine if they had gone over the top of that small hill, or looked behind that large boulder, or searched behind that large clump of bushes? Then, too, would they have found it had they searched other than where "the elusive mine" was believed to have been located?

    This extensive search most likely took place sometime between December 23,1783 and March 2, 1785, since the first date was the beginning of the interregnum in Harwinton following the dismissal of the Rev. Mr. Perry, and the latter date was the day on which the Rev. Mr. Storrs died in office. Of course, this would mean that the walk did not take place during the War for Independence, since the Peace Treaty of Paris was signed with England on September 3, 1783.

    During the American Revolution, a rich deposit of lead would also have been very useful to the British army. Moses Dunbar, a former resident of the Northbury Society of Waterbury (now East Plymouth) became a convert to the Church of England. Since he could not reconcile himself to the idea of taking up arms against Great Britain, he supported the Tory cause. This resulted in a strain in his relationship with his father, who according to one account, "later offered to furnish the hemp to hang him with."

    After a trip to Long Island where he received a captain’s commission in Colonel Fanning’s regiment of the British Army, Dunbar successfully recruited men from Connecticut during the winter of 1776-1777.

    One day while eluding a group of Patriots in Harwinton intent on harassing local Tories, Dunbar sought shelter for the night in a cave he had discovered in the hillside above brook. By the light of a fire he had kindled his eyes spied a large vein of almost pure black lead in the back wall of the cave.

    The following day he told one of his men that there was enough lead there "to make — bullets for all the King’s Armies to last out the war." There is no record of that man’s name or of another to whom Dunbar had given a sample of the ore as proof of his discovery. The specimen, as well as a letter from the captain, were to be delivered to the British commander in New York, but it is not known whether he ever received them. Nor is it known if Dunbar ever told anyone else of his find, but his secret probably went to the grave with him.

    Betrayed, he was tried by the Superior Court on January 23, 1777 for high treason against the State of Connecticut and upon conviction, given the sentence of death which stated "that he Go from hence to the Gaol from whence he Came and from thence to the place of Execution and there to be hanged up by the Neck between the heavens and the Earth until he Shall be Dead."

    Dunbar was hanged on March 19, 1777 before a large crowd of spectators on a gal lows erected on the hill south of Hartford, where Trinity College now stands. It has been said that just as he was breathing his last, a white stag emerged from the nearby woods, ran under the gallows and then vanished into the woods.

    Had history repeat itself? Nearly one hundred years earlier an identical thing had happened as Rebecca and Nathaniel Greensmith were being hanged at the same spot, after having been indicted and found guilty "on suspicion of witchcraft."  At their trial, Rebecca testified that the Devil had often appeared to her in the form of a deer or fawn and had often spoken with her.  She also admitted that he "had frequent use of her body."

    It appears that Moses Dunbar has the dubious honor of being the first and only person executed as a traitor under the laws of Connecticut during the War for Independence.

    Sometime later, a Mr. Tyler who lived near the woods where the unsuccessful search was made, came upon "the great lead rock" quite by accident while he was hunting. He cut off a piece which he could conveniently carry upon his shoulders and started for home. He had not gotten too far when "from an invisible hand - belonging to an unamiable personage that need not here be named- ‘there came pounce on him such a blow’ as not only made him relinquish his load, but, in addition to the mental anguish occasioned by the loss of that prize, inflicted on him so great a bodily injury that ‘a long time passed away, before he regained his (wonted) strength."

    While many people doubt that there ever was any such thing as a lead mine in Harwinton, information has been found. that money had actually been spent in a ‘ Lead Mine, Harwinton." In the estate p of John W. Buell which were probated   in Litchfield on November 28, 1864  is a record of his having held a five dollar interest in that mine. According to two receipts in the files of the Litchfield Historical Society, Buell also spent a total of  $24.65 in a "Black Lead or Plumbago Mine, Harwinton, Conn.", dispersed as follows: On August 1, 1860 he paid $3.62 to a Cap’t.Pinch; September27, $3.32 to Michael  Kennedy for labor;   November13, $3 .00 to E.H. Smith. The other receipt dated August 5, 1860 reveals that five dollars was paid to a Mr. McCanada for five days’ work and that Captain Pinch had paid out a total of $3.62, $2.00 of which went for "Drawing Black Lead." On the reverse side of this receipt was an inventory prepared by the Captain on September 3 which showed that they had the following items on hand: 2 shovels, 2 large barrels, 1 lease, 1 scale, 2 pounds of nails, 2 flour barrels, and 1 barrel "in the Ditch." Buell also had thirty-seven cent expenditure for recording a lease in Harwinton, which most likely was for the lease he obtained from Sally M. Churchill to 23 acres on August 27, 1860 in association with Samuel Pinch of Massachusetts and John Snevily of Pennsylvania. That deed enabled the three partners" the right of entering in and upon the land here in after described for the purpose of searching for minerals and rocks containing mineral substances of whatever name or nature and for conducting mining operations to such extent as they may deem advisable." They agreed to pay the grantor fifty cents for every ton of merchantable washed ore or minerals taken away from the land, with a further provision that the lessor could choose to accept a lump sum of fifty dollars within sixty days of the signing of the lease in lieu of the fifty cents per ton.

    The lessees were not new to the business of mining. Both Buell and Snevily were actively engaged in obtaining mining leases not only for themselves, but for the Connecticut Mining Company in Litchfield and the Torrington Nickel Nine as well. Captain Pinch was employed at the Litchfield mine on April 7, 1860. An examination of the Connecticut Mining Company’s account book in the pos session of the Litchfield Historical Society shows that a Michael Kenedy (sic) was employed by them between August 14, 1858 and May 11, 1860. It may just be that this was the same person to whom Buell paid $3.32 for labor at the Harwinton site and that he had been recommended for the position by Captain Pinch, since he most likely was Kennedy’s supervisor in the Litchfield mines. This same Pinch had also been involved in a lead mine at Southampton. Massachusetts.

     When a comparison is made with a present day map of Harwinton and one of 1874, it appears that the mine property was located in the vicinity of Birch Hill Road and Gale Road.

    The June 15, 1905 issue of  The Bristol Press reported that Hiram Minor of Harwinton had exhibited a 50-pound mineral specimen in Thomaston which was considered to be 11/1 6ths pure lead. Believing that he had a good thing, Hiram refused to tell where he found it, or whether there was any more of it. When asked if he was going to form a company to work the mineral deposit, he very politely said that was his business. Several pieces of the specimen were given to various people in town, but whether it was in Harwinton or Thomaston is not known. One week later after stating that Center Bill in Harwinton was also called Leadmine Hill, and giving a very brief history of the mine, the Litchfield Enquirer concluded its article with, "Mr. Miner has evidently at last found the long lost lead mine." On January 27, 1979 during a personal interview with Maurice E. Minor, Hiram’s son, this writer was told that Hiram did not find the specimen personally but that he had purchased it at an auction arid wanted to have some fun showing it off.

    Perhaps one or two years later, Levi Bierce displayed a large chunk of lead which he said he had found near Lead Mine Brook, but the report did not specify whether the specimen was graphite or galena. However, the secret of where he found it died with him because he was killed by a train near Fluteville a short time later. A check of the Probate Records in Harwinton on January 11, 1979 failed to verify the fact that any Levi Bierce had died between 1860 and the present. Of course, there is also the possibility that he wasn’t a resident of Harwinton.

    In 1942 John H. Thompson, editor of The Torrington Register and the writer of a very popular newspaper column, "Read It Or Not by Tomp", told of an account whereby a man "planted" or "salted" some graphite in Harwinton with hopes of making money by selling shares in the mine. Tomp wrote, "In view of Barnum’s undisputed statistics on the birth-rate of suckers it is reasonable to suppose that the sale of shares was a gratifying success, providing, of course, it actually was attempted and providing the law didn’t catch up with the promoter."

    According to Miss Rosa Gangloff, Thomaston’s historian, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers found evidence of mining in the area when they were building the flood control dam just below the Two-Mile Bridge in Thomaston following the disastrous flood of 1955 Among their finds were specimens of lead-bearing ore (galena), drill marks in the rocks, a drill broke off quite deep in the rock, and some pieces of lead which at one time had been in a molten state and had been poured into the Naugatuck River. If, as the engineers said, there were about 40,000 cubic feet of water racing down the river every minute at the height of the flood, it seems unlikely that the lead would still have been left in its original position from the early days when the flood waters were capable of moving railroad tracks and the Two-Mile Bridge "a considerable distance."

    Thirty-seven minerals, including galena and gold, were found at various places in and around the dam site, and identified by local mineralogists. This writer saw a 3-inch cube of galena which was found by one of the workmen as the new railroad cut was being made on the west side of the Naugatuck River, and has a piece of massive galena weighing four and one-half pounds in his own mineral collection.

    Many years before this, someone had opened a small prospect hole in which galena was found in the woods across from the Piney Grove Restaurant a short distance south of the Two Mile Bridge on the west side of old Rte. 8. The bridge was washed away by the 1955 flood and the restaurant was purposely burned because it stood on the flood plain of the new dam. Could this spot have been ‘the mine" referred to by Anderson in The Town and City of Waterbury in 1896 where he wrote:

"We find, in Waterbury Town Records, of 1735, ‘a place called the mine.’ It was situated "near the upper end of the bounds.’ We further learn that ‘it was on the west side of the Naugatuck River" and that ‘it was against English Grass Meadow;’ and still further, we are told by record that ‘English (3rass Meadow is at the Mouth of East Branch, or Lead Mine Brook.’ It is the most northern meadow lot, save one - the Plum Trees - within the ancient bounds. Both meadow lots were named before 1 688.The law forbidding persons to acquire title to lands from the natives, was not made until 1663, six years after the date of conveyance of the mining rights to Lewis and Steele; hence its validity as recognized in later transactions."

    Anderson also stated that from time to time the region had been sought after for its supposed mineral treasures, and that mining rights had been secured in lands very near the mine of 1735 as recently as within twenty years of the time that he edited the history of Waterbury. The name of the East Branch of the Naugatuck River was changed to Lead Mine Brook at about the time that Northbury was settled. The Northbury parish was organized in 1739 as the northern part of Water bury and included Plymouth, Thomaston, and Watertown. The place where the brook entered the river was "at a point quite nearby the place opposite English Grass meadow, where marks still remain which may be attributed to attempts at mining in view of the recorded evidence of such an attempt having been there made." Another source while mentioning its elusiveness said, "This famous hill (mentioned in the black lead deed), with all its treasure, has disappeared from view as completely as the fabled island of Atlantis, often sought, never found."

    Raymond Bentley, Harwinton’s late historian, believed that the Harwinton lead mine was only a legend, while Chipman kept people interested in searching for the mine with his statement, "Such a leader rock itself could it ONLY have been found (and made accessible to ordinary wights), would surely have proved indefinitely valuable . . . what less for value would this mine be than an eighth ‘wonder of the world?"

    This present-day writer, however, is a romantic who hopes that someday, some where, somehow, someone will find Harwinton’s long "lost" lead mine.

End

Editor's Note: Bill Domonell was my Torrington High School 9th grade Earth Science teacher 1972-1973. Now thirty-something years later I can still hear him telling stories such as this one that helped make science a real, a human and an important part of his student's life. I remember thinking how great it would be to know as much as he knew, but who in their right mind would put up with classes full of teenagers as obnoxious as me? -- Tony Mitchell, 9th Grade Environmental Earth Science Teacher, Lewis Mills HS, Harwinton/Burlington CT

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