Winchester / Winsted





Jonathan Coe House

Colebrook Road
Coe Street
GPS  N 41-56-53 W 73-5-29
Jonathan Coe was listed as an Underground Railroad agent
One reference said the house was constructed in 1830
Listed in Appendix 2, Underground Railroad Agents in Connecticut (Strother  1962:  210)
He also founded the Anti-slavery society.

"...passing...the Jonathan Coe House, built in 1791, a station on the "underground railway."  (Connecticut Guide  1935:  137

"When it became democratic to ignore the manhood of the African race and deny the right of petition and free speech in its behalf,
he cheerfully accepted the offensive epithet of Abolitionist, and stood in the front rank of the little band that battled for the right
and prevailed.  He died with his armor on, while the conflict seemed doubtful to men of feeble faith.  In him there was no doubt,
no fear, nor trembling.  When the minister refused to read from the pulpit the notices of prayer meetings for the slave, he would
rise from his pew and give the announcement.  His house was one of the stations of the "Underground Railroad" from Dixie to Canada,
where the panting fugitive was fed, clothed, and speeded on his journey.  His influence in the town during his middle age probably transcended
that of any other man."  (Boyd   1873:  309-310)

"In the walls of one of the barns he tore down he found 11 silver spoons which we have always supposed were hidden there by runaway
slaves who for some reason were unable to take them as they journeyed north."  (email correspondence)
"Regarding the underground railway on the Colebrook Road, Winsted, Connecticut...My home, built in 1830, was just above the Coe home.
When my father tore down barns, silver was found in the stairwells at the dairy location.  We were told that fleeing slaves from
the south had stolen the silver from plantation owners (masters) and used the silver to get food, etc.  (Very thin silver probably from England.)
In our cellar there was supposedly an escape underground to the home above us.  My mother and father related that from our home the men headed
for Colebrook, Norfolk, and points north."  (email correspondence)

MY NOTES about this house and the 3 others nearby.
I was told there were tunnels between the 4 houses.  I was invited to check the area out,
no evidence.  The Coe house was on a new foundation, nothing left.  And I was told the tunnels were all
filled in over the years, or they caved in and were then filled in.  Some had tanks put in the yard, some were
bricked up, sealed up and concealed.
Silas Hurlbut McAlpine
Newfield Road (aka Mill Road)
Winchester Center
"At Winchester, a few miles north of Torrington and close to Winsted, there was a small but active antislavery society  Noble J. Everett was its secretary;
Jonathan Coe. a member who lived in nearby Winsted, managed a well-patronized Underground Station at his house.  Another station may have been
the home of Silas H. McAlpine, poet, philanthropist, and abolitionist of Winchester;  in the foundation wall of is house was a hidden crypt that was possibly
a hiding place for fugitives, but there is no positive evidence that is was so used."  (Strother  1962:  125)
"It is also believed that Silas H. McAlpine ran a station in his Winchester home, although proof has never been established."  (Morytko 1994:  B1)
McAlpine Mill  (Thomas interview)
GPS  N 41-53-15  W 73-8-13
Silas Hurlbut McAlpine - agent -  "He was of literary and scientific tastes, a poet, and a warm philanthropist.  Standing as he did in the front rank
of the despised little band of early Abolitionists, it is fitting that his name should be identified with the once feeble cause, but now triumphant,
cause which he advocated."  (Boyd's Annals)


Nobel Joshiah Everett
Newfield Road
Winchester Center
He was secretary of the Antislavery Society of the town of Winchester and Borough of Winsted.
Above Wah-Nee Road  (Thomas interview)
GPS  N 41-53-91  W 73-8-11

"Spite House"
Winchester Center
"One of our friends lived in what was referred to as the "Spite House".  It was built well before the Civil War on the village green
but with the front entrance facing away from the green.  Allegedly there was a tunnel that ran from the spite house under the green
to the big house just to the right (and across the drive from) the Congregational Church.  They said that this was used by the
underground railroad"  (email correspondence)


Chapel Road
House on top of the hill, on the left, built as a mill.


Wyndecreste House - Winsted
Thomas interview


William D. Coe House
Austin built in 1772
East Lake Street, by Highland Lake
Cellar redone now
"My father had discovered a room in the base of the chimney that could have been used to conceal runaway slaves.  During the mid-19th
century, this house was owned by William D. Coe as shown on an old map of Winsted dated 1852.  Although the cellar was a likely place to
conceal runaway slaves, the main attic was an even more likely place of concealment.
If the Coe's were abolitionists the next owner was in the opposite business, slave running and blackbirding.  He retired from the sea at
the age of 31, business was very good."  (email correspondence)

"Blackbirding involves the coercion of people through deception or kidnapping to work as slaves or poorly paid laborers in countries
distant to their native land."  (Wikipedia)


Thomas Hosner, Esq. house
1732, opening in the ceiling, Underground Railroad connections.  (Thomas interview)


Meeting House
East End, Park Place, First Congregational Church
GPS  N 41-55-28  W 73-3-63
Had "Nigger Heaven" which was black seating area of the church.  (Thomas interview)


Nelson Brooks
Agent for the Underground Railroad
Winchester Center, Grantville Road, off Lake Winchester Road
"...farm on Mad River adjoining Norfolk line in Danbury Quarter...Nelson Brooks  (Boyd   1873:  192)
"A saw mill was erected on Mad River near the Norfolk line on the site of the Martin and Nelson Brooks mill."  (Boyd  1873:  258)
(It is possible that the house built in 1732 by Thomas Hosner might be the same place.)
GPS  N 41-57-15  W 73-9-60

Sherwood House
Winchester Center, South Road
I was told there were trap doors, but when they modernized the house they were destroyed.
Another source said that this house was once owned by Jonathan Coe, 1764.

Danbury Quarter
Outsider community, African-American settlement  (Hewey and Perry  2009:  63)

Antislavery Societies
Winchester - Noble J. Everett - 12 members
Winsted - 50 members (Strother  1962:  215)