Sitting in the sun on a fieldstone front stoop was David Benjamin of Trumbull and his son, Kyle, visiting the Matthew Curtiss House, February 12. The bright red saltbox at 44 Main Street is a part of his family's past, he recently learned.

"You're talking to history," Mr Benjamin said.

Papers recently glimpsed at his mother's house in North Carolina revealed his family links to the house and to Newtown's origins. His mother and father, Sarah (Johnson) Benjamin and Stanley Benjamin, who had spent nearly three decades in Newtown, moved to North Carolina in 2002. Ms Benjamin only then realized that her mother's lineage led back to an original land purchase where the Matthew Curtiss House now stands.

Unaware of her family ties, Mr and Ms Benjamin had moved to town in 1976, when David Benjamin was 18.

"It was a total twist of fate that she moved to a town that her ancestors founded," Mr Benjamin said.

"My mom has told me for years that she found out from her mother or sister that our family was one of the founding Newtown families," Mr Benjamin said. He would ask "all the time about the proof of what she said about Newtown." Her proof was a handwritten family tree, which she showed to him on a recent visit to North Carolina.

Charles H. Johnson, his maternal grandfather, had done a genealogy chart in 1970, tracing family links back as far as a Sherman family from England in 1611. Sarah and Laura Johnson, born in the 1930s, are listed as daughters to Charles Johnson and Faustine Bedde. The modern names follow hand-drawn zigs and zags in his grandfather's handwriting back to the name Sherman. According to Town Historian Dan Cruson, the Sherman name is "one of the original settlers here."

Charles Johnson's work is "still a mystery" to Mr Benjamin, considering that 40 years ago his grandfather "could compile info without a computer."

Mr Benjamin's son, Kyle, had gone online to ancestry.com and worked backwards, confirming what Charles Johnson did in 1970. Referring to his grandfather's research, he asked, "How did he do that?"

Counting Back Generations

Mr Benjamin counted several generations back to Job Sherman, whose father was Benjamin Sherman, and his father was Samuel Sherman. Samuel died in 1790. "Those three people are related to the Matthew Curtiss house and my family built it and lived [in town] for seven generations," he said. Job Sherman was the original Matthew Curtiss House owner. Matthew Curtiss also owned the house, which in current years is the name that stuck with it, Mr Cruson said.

Samuel Sherman bought the land directly from Native Americans, Mr Benjamin explained. He bought a one-mile by one-mile piece of land and that was the Sherman Farm. The Shermans "thought [Newtown] was a good place to buy land and set up camp there," in the 1600s, Mr Benjamin said. The Curtiss family later bought the property from the Shermans.

After his mother provided Mr Benjamin with his grandfather's work - a paper filled with small printed names and lines linking the generations with wives, brothers, sisters, and more, he came to Newtown looking for confirmation.

Mr Benjamin, in early January, contacted Mr Cruson, who directed him to C.H. Booth Library, where he found additional "evidence."

"I started leafing through books" in an area of the library where Mr Cruson had told him to look. Librarians also pointed him to the proper racks where he soon "connected the house and names," now familiar to him. The books connected the Sherman name to Newtown properties and houses and "that was the proof I needed to find."

"I took pictures from a book in the library," about Newtown architecture," Mr Benjamin said.

Touring Newtown's Past, by Mary Mitchell and Albert Goodrich, is a compilation of images and brief backgrounds about Newtown's older homes. Within its pages is The Matthew Curtiss House. According to the book, in which Mr Cruson's comments and research are included, "It was believed that the builder was Matthew Curtiss, Jr, who owned the house in 1781." Mr Cruson was "troubled that the date seemed too late for the architectural style."

A title search sought more evidence. Mr Cruson had concluded that "the most likely candidate for builder" is someone named Amos Marchant, with a construction date of 1750-52. Eunice Marchant was the daughter of Job Sherman "who owned the original Newtown homelot between 44 Main Street and Church Hill Road," the book states.

Eunice inherited one fourth of the property after Job's death in 1753, which the house was already on. Another part of the original property was 38 Main Street.

About 38 Main, the book states, "The lot where 38 stands … was a gift from Benjamin Sherman of Stratford, to his son Job in 1714." The house at 38 Main Street was built in 1792.

Number 6 Main Street is also linked to the Sherman name.

"From the Revolution until the late 18th century, Jotham Sherman owned and lived in it with his four successive wives." The home later passes into the possession of other owners.

Mr Benjamin was impressed to see much of Main Street documented at the library, and to "see pictures of the houses - someone has done a great job of keeping track of things; it's a benefit to everyone."

Thinking about Newtown's variety of old Main Street homes, he said, "There are many nice towns in Connecticut, but Newtown is one of the best. Main Street is so cool."

Considering the Matthew Curtiss House, he said, "If I walked up to the foundation I could see the way it was constructed, and I wonder if it was a relative who used hand tools."

Another book on local history, Newtown, 1705-1918, written primarily by Newtown's first unofficial town historian, Ezra Johnson, opens with the forward, "It was the fond desire and studies purpose of the late Ezra Levan Johnson [town historian] to publish and preserve the early history of his native town …" In the back is a genealogical section detailing many early families with names that continue into the present. Among those family names are the Shermans.

Mr Cruson's Recollections

Sitting surrounded by books and old photographs in the Edmond Town Hall suite once occupied by the town clerk, Mr Cruson mentioned that Amos Marchant's name appears on the deed from Job Sherman.

"He ended up striking off a small piece of property deeded to the Marchants," he said.

Shermans "were some of the original settlers here," Mr Cruson said, noting the name Sherman Street, off of Route 34 past Zoar Cemetery. Ten generations of Shermans lived in a house in the vicinity of High Rock Road and Greys Plain Road. The house had burned and was then rebuilt and sold out of the family, he said.

The Matthew Curtiss House passed hands and saw various owners until the Newtown Historical Society purchased it in 1970. The house was purchased in an exchange, Mr Cruson said. The society had inherited an old farm off Blackman Road at the same time that the Matthew Curtiss House was on the market. "We arranged a swap," Mr Cruson said. "Then, the process of restoration began."

Why is the home named after Mr Curtiss and not a Sherman or Marchant?

"Matthew Curtiss had purchased the house in 1781 and lived there until he died. He was the first person we knew about until I did the title search and found earlier owners. The name stuck," Mr Cruson said.

He then mentioned a Reverend Judson who had purchased the house "and it remained in his possession until 1776," Mr Cruson said. "Judson owned slaves." Although he owned the Matthew Curtiss House, he lived next-door, Mr Cruson said. The Matthew Curtiss House "was probably a slave quarters."

Brief research in the 1980s made another discovery. Old pieces of tobacco pipes littered the back yard, which "indicated the house was used as a tavern." Patrons could rent smoking pipes from the tavern owner. Pipes were kept at the tavern and reused. The smoker would break off a bit of the stem for a fresh piece of pipe. Mr Cruson also found a probate notice or ad for an auction be held at the Matthew Curtiss Tavern. Owners operating a tavern "had to have a license," Mr Cruson said. "We know Matthew Curtiss applied."

In early February David and Kyle Benjamin had parked at the curb in front of the Matthew Curtiss House, approached the front door, and sat on the stoop as if passing idle time talking on a sunny winter afternoon. The two soon walked around to the backyard, gazing at the long, sloping back roof topped by a large stone chimney. Looking through the back window's rippled antique glass, they saw inside the large, cooking fireplace taking up a full kitchen wall.

Mr Benjamin wondered: had his ancestors walked those worn plank floors, stoking a fire there?

[naviga:img class="size-full wp-image-306101" src="https://newtownbee.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Sherman-family-connection-to-Matthew-Curtiss-House-genealogy.png" alt="David Benjamin's maternal grandfather, Charles Johnson, in 1970, did a family genealogy by hand. By tracing the generations back toward dates in the 1600s, the family tree leads to original Newtown land owners named Sherman. (image courtesy David Benjamin) " width="1280" height="719" /]

David Benjamin's maternal grandfather, Charles Johnson, in 1970, did a family genealogy by hand. By tracing the generations back toward dates in the 1600s, the family tree leads to original Newtown land owners named Sherman.

-image courtesy David Benjamin