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REED8 GAI\ WALLINGFORD.Reed'd Gap, in Wallingford, made famous by the Air Line railroad company killing half a dozen men with glycerine, and making a great fuss over half a dozen diamond drills, while cutting through twenty feet of trap rock, a distance of twenty rode or less, was so called, because of the former residence, at that point, of an old Dutchman, who rejoiced in the name of lteed. He was a revolutionary pensioner. and his bounty-land chanced to le located in this section Here ho came to dwell, and here he squatted, with his little family (which after a time increased iu numbers), in a little cabin house, which occupied the site on the eoutnwest bank of the southerly entrance to the railroad cut. The venerable Reed is spoken of as leading a sort of Gypsy life, with his family, and many were the distant neighbors in Walliugford and Durham who from time to time missed now a sheep or lamb, and now a hen, or turkey, or pig, as the might be. The Dutchman at the Gap waa napeotefl of being the abstractor, bu rare that Ike stolen proparty could be xma to him. It ippmw thatYthe younger children had been schooled to reticence in these little matters of bnsinees, and they had been taaght that all white animals with fleece on their hacks were white rabbits. One dsy, the old Dutchman and his eldest sons were absent on bosinecs, when a deputation of Durham gentlemen visited the Gap, in search of two sheep which had “strayed away” • he night previous. Observing the children playing out of door, the youngsters were enquired of as to whether they had seen any aheep about their bouse. “No, we ain’t seen no aheep,” was the reply of one ; “but there's two white rabbits down cellar.” The party made a tour of inspection into the lower regions, and there, behind the chimney, sure enough, were the missing sheep. The old dwelling was pulled down many years ago, aud the property was sequestered to the town. The Gap, so-called, is simply an interval or natural pass between two parallel ranges of mountains, the noitberly brow of the easterly mountain continuing an eighth of a mile beyond the siutherly face of the west mountain—the twe-being a quarter or a mile apart, thus lormian a pass or defile, en a level with the surrounding country,
Newspaper Details
Meriden Literary Recorder
Meriden, Connecticut, US
Wed, Oct 05, 1870
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 15 Dec 2023
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