Wolcott History – Pillwillop Farm

My cousin, Rob Pierpont, often posts pictures of the Pillwillop Therapeutic Farm in Wolcott. He volunteers his time there and is daily checking on the residents of the many bird houses that the farm maintains. I wondered about the history of this farm, as when I was growing up it was owned by the Atwood family. Lyman Atwood lived in the old farmhouse and his son Clarence had a newer home just up the hill. Clarence and Gloria were my parent’s age and their children were of my generation.

I started my research with some information from an article on the wolcotthistory.org website:

“The house was originally built by Miles S. Upson between 1843-1845 and included a fifty-acre tract of land. Upson was an ancestor of the Atwood family. … In 1924, Clarence’s father, Lyman Atwood, purchased the house and property. … In the late 1970’s, Clarence and his wife Gloria moved into the farmhouse.”

The name Upson was familiar to me from earlier research into early Farmingbury/Wolcott families. Here is the lineage from Clarence back to those early settlers:

Clarence Atwood (1922-2012) -> Florence [Cole] Atwood (1900-1987) -> Martha [Upson] Cole (1854-1903)-> Miles Upson (1820-1885) -> Selah Upson (1771-1854) -> Timothy Upson (1731-1799) -> Thomas Upson (1692-1761) -> Stephen Upson (1655-1735)

And here is what I had written about Thomas Upson in an earlier blog:

In the “History of Waterbury, Connecticut” we find the following: “In Feb. 1732-3, Thomas Upson sold out to Jonathan Baldwin for £150 money, the property being described as "three and a half acres of land with a house and barn, &c. He then removed to Farmington, afterwards Southington, and now the eastern part of Wolcott, (Southington Mountain.)”  This is independent confirmation for a date of either 1732 or 1733 as being correct.

Thomas Upson’s wife was Rachel Judd. She was the daughter of Thomas Judd, the earliest person documented to have a dwelling in what was then Farmingbury (it was just off of the path from Waterbury to Southington (then called South Farmington) – the path is now Meriden Road).

Putting all the above together, we see that (1) the Upson family were some of the earliest residents of Wolcott/Farmingbury; (2) the grandson of Thomas Upson, Miles Upson, built the home on Woodtick Road when he was in his 20s; (3) Lyman Atwood purchased the home from his wife’s parents in 1924; (4) Clarence Atwood moved into the house after the death of his father.

Naturally, since this is my blog and I am usually writing about my own Wolcott ancestors, I have a connection to this as well. Clarence Atwood’s great*5 grandfather, Stephen Upson is also my great*7 grandfather, making Clarence my 6^th cousin, twice removed. Here is that branch of my own family tree.

Myself -> Sylvia [Pierpont] Russell -> Harold Pierpont -> Wilson Pierpont -> Mary Ann [Warner] Pierpont -> Jared Warner -> Mark Warner -> Elizabeth [Bronson] Warner -> Elizabeth [Upson] Bronson -> Stephen Upson

I’m sure that those early Upson settlers in Farmingbury would be very pleased to see that the land that they chose is still being used for such a good purpose. Thanks should also be given to Walter Atwood and people like my cousin Rob for their efforts at keeping this property undeveloped.