Stone Chambers as Private Ice Houses

By Paulette Buchanan

        As described in other Stonewatch articles in previous years, the style of stone chambers found in the Gungywamp in Groton, Connecticut is ubiquitous throughout the northeast and eastern United States.  These stone chambers were constructed by colonial and post-colonial inhabitants for a variety of reasons.  Stone chambers were all-purpose facilities that were used as root cellars, small livestock birthing chambers, and were at times lived in as temporary shelters while homes were being built.  In such cases, elements of the stone chamber were incorporated into the larger cellar area of the home being constructed over it or near it.  Many intact and collapsed stone chambers present today are found near existing colonial and post-colonial houses or near where such structures once stood.

        Connecticut writer and historian Dorothy Bennett described that stone chambers still in existence in the 1800s and into the 1900s were used for yet another purpose.  In her book, Dorothy Bennett, A Memoir, co-authored by Harriet Rosiene and archived in the Faith Trumbull DAR Chapter House and Museum in Norwich, Connecticut, Bennett cites that farmers and large landowners would cut blocks of ice from ponds, cart the ice blocks away on horse-drawn sleds, and store the blocks of ice in their own private ice houses.

        Most of the farmers did have an ice house where they could place the ice in sawdust . . . .  On a

        farm, the ice house was quite close to the well so they could wash the saw dust off . . . .

        In the Gungywamp complex, one small intact chamber, about 50 feet away from the larger intact "Calendar Chamber," is partially below ground and easily floods throughout the winter and early spring months.  It was discovered after a hurricane in the mid-1950s uprooted a large tree that had grown over the chamber's entrance.  A largely white quartz stone acted as a door to the chamber and was uncovered by the toppled tree.  Latham Pond is only a short distance down the hill from this stone chamber, therefore making this stone chamber perfect as an ice house.  The stone chosen by the builders of the chamber to place at the entrance would have kept water from seeping in, and the rock's light color stone would not have absorbed heat as a dark-colored stone would have, thereby aiding in the preservation of ice stored in this partially below ground chamber.  Remnant slabs of the light-colored stone still lie on the ground at the entrance of this intact stone chamber.  Even on the hottest of summer days, those who stoop through the entrance and descend about a foot below ground level into the chamber (which is 2.6 m x 2.2 m, or roughly 8' x 6.5', with the ceiling inside the chamber measuring 1.5 m, or about 4.5') can immediately feel the drop in temperature.

Small chamber (Site 2) entrance. Photo by Bill Dopirak

        The following two pictures of stone chambers were taken on private property in Montville, Connecticut, a town across the Thames River just a little north from the Gungywamp area on the other side of the river.  These chambers are near streams, old mill site remains, and other colonial/post-colonial house foundations.

Hut Chamber, Montville, CT on private property.  Photo by Bill Dopirak

Chamber in Montville, CT on private property.  Photo by Bill Dopirak.

        The next four pictures below are of another stone chamber on private property near Raymond Hill Road in Montville, Connecticut.

Chamber on private property near Raymond Hill Road, Montville, CT.  Note 1700s-era house in background.  Photo by Paulette Buchanan

Front view of chamber near Raymond Hill Road on private property.  Photo by Paulette Buchanan

Inside chamber near Raymond Hill Road.  Note slab roof stones and corbelled rock wall construction.  Photo by Paulette Buchanan.

Back wall of chamber near Raymond Hill Road.  Photo by Paulette Buchanan.

More Gungywamp Memories

By John Gibson Sosman

With Paulette J. Buchanan

           The Sosman family has hiked the Gungywamp since over a half-century ago.  We lived nearby on Briar Hill Road.  My grandfather Robert Browning Sosman was a remarkable man with a highly distinguished career in science.  He was an avid hiker and lover of nature.  He and his fellow hikers, including a dog named Gorgon, noted in one of their hikes in the Gungywamp the swampy valley, depressions that looked like sand pits, and stone walls, some of which may have been for screening and loading.

        Northwest alongside Latham Bog, where cranberries once grew, was neglected.  Drainage channels still showed, and an earth dam about ten feet high had decayed gates which had let the lake down nears its original swamp level, with waterlillies and other swamp vegetation.  It was said to have been a duck resort but the Navy Base discovered it and supposedly killed off the ducks.  An obscure trail led up the hill through the young woods, following a stone wall.  Ferny damp places might have suggested some springs.  The walk taken that day was about 1.6 miles.

Robert B. Sosman (middle) camping with friends, location unknown, c. 1930s.

         Throughout the 1950s and 1960s I took many hikes around the Gungywamp area.  I saw the standing stones and I went inside the stone dome structure (the large Calendar Chamber).  I also visited what was known as the Ledyard or Uncas Oak, a bit north of the Gungywamp: 

Ledyard or Uncas Oak, c. 1966-68.  Trunk about 8' diameter.

        Odell and Willard Shepard wrote about the Ledyard or Uncas Oak in their wonderful novel, Holdfast Gaines (a must-read for anyone with a love for the Gungywamp area).  Odell Shepard wrote something to the effect that the Ledyard or Uncas Oak had only been a sapling when Columbus sailed in 1492.  He also wrote that it had only survived in colonial times because it had "defied the axes and saws" of the local woodsmen and shipbuilders.  It was (or so I read) a hard white oak and very large.  It is said to have been a kind of holy place for the Pequots and Mohegans back in the 1600s and 1700s.  The tree was said to have been located somewhere quite near the original site of the Pequot Council Stones.

        The photo of the boulder -- a boulder with a face -- was taken by me during my hiking days in the Gungywamp.  I used to fantasize that it was an ancient Indian face, turned to stone by some ancient primeval woods-magic.  The boulder is known commonly as Echo Rock because the voices of those who speak into its crevices are said to echo and be heard at greater distances than one might expect.

Echo Rock, on SE side of Gungywamp near YMCA camp.  Picture taken c. 1966-68

        I now live in Kansas, but reading all of the information about the Gungywamp makes me ache for its forests and the rural Ledyard where I used to hike many miles in my childhood and as a young adult with my best friend.  I hope the Gungywamp will never be developed but be protected as a nature preserve.

. . . And More Gungywamp Memories

By Steve Ray

        I read with interest the web site of the Gungywamp Society.  I thought you might be interested in some pictures I took of one of the caves and the rock circle in 1976.  I was in the Navy and lived on Gungywamp Road, right across from the area of interest.  I spent many hours hiking and cross-country skiing the trails in the YMCA area in 1975-1977.

Tan Bark Mill Site, c. 1976.  Photo by Steve Ray.

Small Chamber (Site 2).  Note the large light colored slabs at entrance of chamber.  Photo by Steve Ray.

Entrance of Small Chamber (Site 2).  Photo by Steve Ray.

Black Government in Colonial New England

By Melodye Whatley

        In Colonial times, there was a lesser known practice occurring in the New England states.  Black Governors and Kings were elected.  They were called "kings" in some locations, and "governors" in other states.

        According to his book Black Yankees: The Development of an Afro-American Subculture in Eighteenth-Century New England, William D. Piersen writes:

    In Connecticut and Rhode Island, where white citizens were permitted to choose their own governors in the colonial era, black rulers were elected and, like their white counterparts, usually called governors; whereas in the royal colonies of New Hampshire and eighteenth-century Massachusetts, where white governors were appointed, the elected Negro leaders were called kings.

        The first election of this type was  held in about 1756 in Newport, RI, and was in place in Hartford, Connecticut by 1766.  These governors were more of a local jurisdiction figurehead, than a state-wide governing position.  They were more of a community leader than a politician.  They presided over weddings, burials, and helped to settle disputes.

        Norwich, Connecticut boasted at least two of these leaders.  One of these Governors was Boston Trowtrow.  He served a two-year term as Governor, beginning in approximately 1770.  He is buried in the Norwichtown Cemetery, in Norwich.  His surname, Trowtrow seemed to indicate that he was African born.

        The other black Governor from Norwich was Sam'l. Huntington, slave of Samuel Huntington, the future president of the Continental Congress.  Sam'l. Huntington served from 1772-1800.  The Governors were a reflection, in most cases, of their owners.  The owner would have had money to outfit and provide the horses and provisions for the black governor, especially for " 'Lection Day",  and in most cases, were those with considerable local political clout, such as Samuel Huntington.

        From an online article from the Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 29, 1997 edition, entitled Chronicling Black Lives in Colonial New England, Lee Lawrence writes about the day these leaders were elected.

         . . . known as  'Lection Day, a ritual that first appeared around 1750 and continued in some areas for a

    full century.  While their owners were busy casting ballots in Colonial elections, blacks gathered for a

    mixture of fun and politicking, culminating in voting and a flashy inaugural parade.  Once dismissed

    as a childish parody of white elections, 'Lection Day has come to be seen as an important political and

    social phenomenon that blended African and American traditions.

        In 1905, the Connecticut Magazine had an article about these black leaders and included an illustration.  The picture created quite a quandary for the historical society of Hartford  historians and the directors of the exhibition.  It was a painting by H.P. Arms, and was entitled "The Parade of the Black Governor of Hartford".  It shows a man (unnamed) riding a horse, formally dressed, including a top hat and a sash, and leading a parade.  The problem with that picture is that the Governor is portrayed with huge white lips.  They decided to use the picture, with revisions. This created quite a debate.  In the picture, they darkened the lips for the exhibition, but in a brochure produced for the exhibition, the picture was altered differently. This time he had the white lips, made smaller, and more beard.  

        There were approximately 31 of these black leaders that served their communities.  This spanned about 100 years, from about 1750 to approximately 1855.  The last governor was probably Wilson Weston from Seymour, Connecticut, who was elected in 1855.