By Dan Shine
Voice Columnist
The Hubbard Farm
Part II
Acquisition and Establishment
Miles Merwin came to the fledgling Colonies as a seven year old boy in 1630. Upon his arrival, he and his family first settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts; by 1645, he had relocated to the young town of Milford, (now) Connecticut. In 1654, the town of Milford granted Miles Merwin, now a young man, a plot of land upon which to establish his tanning business. Five years later, he was granted and purchased ten acres of additional land. In the ensuing years and decades, Merwin was granted further additional lands. By 1687, Merwin, now 64, purchased a large tract of land on the shore of Long Island Sound, some of which is now known as Pond Point, Merwin’s Point and Woodmont, extending across Oyster River and into what was then the Town of Orange—and later on–became West Haven.
And so it was that Miles Merwin bought a plot of land in what is now West Haven (where it extended across Oyster River), and in 1701 built a saltbox house at the corner of what is today Jones Hill Road and Hubbard Lane.
The first Hubbard ancestor to settle in West Haven in 1817 was John Hubbard Jr. He bought the 50 acre farm and farmhouse at the corner of Jones Hill Road and Hubbard Road from John Merwin Jr., a tanner whose father had built the house in 1701. John Hubbard paid for all of this property by cutting and selling firewood to Yale students to heat their dorms. That farmhouse has stayed in the Hubbard family ever since. Over the years, John Hubbard, Jr. would purchase a total of 88 acres; his son John Peck Hubbard would buy an additional 167 acres, for a total Hubbard accumulation of 266 acres by 1864.
During the War Between the States, the Hubbard farm operated a mill that produced the sweetener known as sorghum, since during wartime other sweeteners were in very short supply. Early twentieth century photos of Hubbard Road include the mill, which was located next to the stream that ran through the property.
By the early twentieth century, the Hubbard farm was just a shadow of its former self. At one time, it had stretched from north of Grand Street in West Haven all the way to Merwin Avenue in Milford, and from Jones Hill Road over to and beyond the railroad tracks into Orange.
During the 1930s, Jones Hill Road and Benham Hill Road had become something like “busy” throughfares: As many as one automobile per day might be seen passing along these dirt roads! Otherwise, they were used by the farmers of the West Shore, as they drove their livestock from field to barn and back again. Dairy farms nearby were owned by the Alspaugh and Rockefeller families, and Goffi’s egg farm was along Shingle Hill Road.
There were two ponds on the Hubbard properties; one lay on either side of Hubbard Road. In the wintertime, these ponds were opened up to the public for skating, and the family lit the ponds with strings of electric lights, for nighttime skating. Many an old-timer from the West Shore can recall skating on these ponds.
By the 1970s, the Hubbard Farm had shrunk to the lands between Woodmont Road, Grand Street, Jones Hill and Benham Hill Road. Most of this acreage was surrounded by a stone wall, according to this writer’s recollection. Within the confines of the stone wall were acres of pastureland and several outbuildings. During the 1920s and 1930s, one of the ponds had been a stopping point for Gypsies that camped along its banks, as they migrated from place to place.
But finally, the increasing suburbanization of West Haven farmland, and the increasing property taxes that were brought to bear on farmers, made the existence of open land in the former farming community no longer viable: the Hubbard farm was sold off and subdivided into housing lots in the late 1970s.
Today, the Hubbard farmhouse still stands, right where it has for over three hundred years, along with a couple of remaining acres of adjacent dooryard. Along Jones Hill Road and Hubbard Road, several homes are still occupied by Hubbard descendants, many of whom can still “remember when.”
And the Hubbard ancestors who once lived in West Haven are all buried at Oak Grove Cemetery, while most early New Haven Hubbards lie in their eternal repose beneath New Haven Green—however, their gravestones have long since been removed to New Haven’s Grove Street Cemetery.
To be continued.-
We wish to thank Bryan Anderson, a Hubbard descendant, for his contributions to this series of articles.