The Barkhamsted Lighthouse

Between Riverton and Pleasant Valley, Connecticut

Scan from "Legends of Barkhamsted Lighthouse and Satan's Kingdom in New Hartford by Lewis Sprague Mills, 1961"

The foundation of the Barkhamsted Lighthouse is along the road that follows the east side of the Farmington River between Pleasant Valley and Riverton, Connecticut. There is not much to see there now, except for an overgrown foundation of the small house and a cemetary on the hill. It has an interesting history, though.

-Quote from "The Story of Connecticut" by Lewis Sprague Mills, 1932

"And there's the Lighthouse," rang the driver's shout, As down the valley toiled the Hartford stage Past where the lights were feebly shining out From cabins high on Ragged Mountain side.

About the year 1740 Molly Barber of Wethersfield was prevented by her parents from marrying the man of her choice. She then declared she would marry the first man who offered himself. This man was James Chaugham, a Narragansett Indian, born on Block Island. Molly came with her husband to Barkhamsted, where they reared a family of eight children. A daughter, Mercy Chaugham, married Isaac Jacklyn, a servant of Secretary of State Wyllys of Hartford. Others who married into the Chaugham family were Wilson, Elwell, Webster, and Green, for the children of Molly and James Chaugham were respected among the white settlers as well as among the Indians. These descendants with their husbands and wives became knows as the "Lighthouse Tribe" from the fact that the Hartford and Albany stage drivers, after leaving Riverton and coming in sight of the lights which shone through the cracks and windows of their cabins, would remark, "There's the Lighthouse, and we're only five miles from port." New Hartford was their destination for the night. The cellar holes and the graves of about fifty of these Indians may still be seen on the lonely western slope of Ragged Mountain in People's Forest above Pleasant Valley in Barkhamsted.

FROM THE CONNECTICUT WALK BOOK, 1978 Barkhamsted Lighthouse - "The Jessie Gerand Trail (yellow), starts from the old Indian Settlement, 3 m. from Pleasant Valley, known as Barkhamsted Lighthouse. The nucleus of this settlement was the high-spirited Molly Barber of Wethersfield, who, when crossed by her father in a love affair, eloped with the Indian Chaugham. Stage drivers, pointing to the light from the Chaugham cabin, would shot to their passengers: "There's Barkhamsted Lighthouse; only five more miles to New Hartford.""

NOTES FROM THE WINSTED AND WINCHESTER HISTORY, REPRINT -Chaugum was the founder of the tribe -he was the only genuine Indian of the settlement -one of his daughters eloped with Isaac Jacklyn and settled on the Danbury Quarter Road which runs easterly from near the old district schoolhouse -Jacklyn was said to have been a servant in the family of Secretary Wyllys of Hartford, running away to join some outlaw band that formed the "Lighthouse Tribe" -one of his daughters married Elwell of the Lighthouse Tribe -Isaac's son, John, who died in 1850, inherited his father's farm, his children were- -Isaac, who lived in Colebrook on the Flag Hill Farm Road near its intersection with Green Woods Turnpike -Emmeline, his daughter, married Noah Barber, a teamster, long in the employ of the Hurlbut Brothers of Winchester, hauling merchandise to Boston and New Haven and return -Indian facial characteristics were plainly recognizable in his daughter, Jane Barber, who lived for many years in a house near the original Isaac Jacklyn farm

There is a plaque nearby which reads:
THIS PORTION OF THE PEOPLE'S FOREST
WAS GIVEN BY THE CONNECTICUT DAUGHTERS
OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
1929
NEAR THIS SPOT WAS THE SITE OF AN INDIAN VILLAGE

The Barkhamsted Lighthouse foundation as it looks today Scan from my photo

And another quote from an unknown source, mentioning Chaugum Lookout above the Barkhamsted Lighthouse, "he built a signal fire on Great Rock to warn the settlers in New Hartford of an impending attack by the Indians of Satan's Kingdom."

Back to my home page.