The Raymond Brook Preserve
Geology, History and Beauty
1. Geology and Important Glacial Soil Deposit
The story of the Raymond Brook Preserve begins about 600 million years ago. You are standing at the bottom of the Iapetus Ocean, a vast shallow sea that is home to a variety of soft-bodied organisms. These were the first complex life forms on Earth, many anchored to the ocean floor, others resembling sponges, jellyfish and worms. Between 230 million and 160 million years ago the super continent of Pangea was formed, squeezing the Iapetus Ocean and compressing the ocean floor. All the organic material, mud and stone was pushed about five miles below the surface, creating a distinctive metamorphic bed rock called Hebron Gneiss. As Pangea slowly expanded again, Dinosaurs ruled the land, ending with their dramatic extinction about 65 million years ago. When the continents drifted apart, the Atlantic Ocean came into existence and Hebron Gneiss bedrock rose back to the surface. Perhaps most importantly to the landscape we see today, a series of Ice Ages gripped the planet about 2.4 million years ago. Through at least 17 different events, glaciers expanded and contracted from the north. The Last Glaciation Period began about 100,000 years ago and the Laurentide Ice Sheet pushed across Canada, New York and New England. By 25,000 years ago the Raymond Brook Preserve was covered with over a mile of glacial ice. As the Ice Sheet receded it left behind a generous gift, Glacial Lodgment Till Soil. The largest pocket of Lodgment Soil in the area is located north and south of Kinney Road, bordered east and west by Church Street and Millstream Road. This is the most important and high-quality agricultural soil available, historically and currently, comprising less than 20% of the soil in Connecticut, probably somewhere between 10% and 15% of all soil.
2 Indigenous Occupation and Colonial Settlement
The area of the Raymond Brook Preserve features historical connections that date back to the very beginning of human occupation in Hebron. Indigenous habitation in Hebron reaches as far back as the Paleo-Indian period, which began 12,500 to 9,500 years before present. A rare Paleo-Indian stone projectile point was found on Burnt Hill and other artifacts from this early period were found near Lake Williams in Lebanon. Indigenous habitation thrived throughout several successive cultures, from the Paleo-Indian period through the Archaic Period and into the Woodlands period. It is also well documented that Hebron Center, including the Raymond Brook Preserve area, was the focal point of the land acquired in February 1675 by a group of colonial settlers from the Sachem Attawanhood / Joshua, the son of the Mohegan Sachem Uncas. The recipients included a number of Saybrook gentlemen, who were also Attawanhood’s fellow soldiers in King Phillips War, known as the Saybrook Legatees. Among them was Edward Shipman I (1630-1697), who received a generous grant of 3,000 acres. His son, William Shipman I (1656-1725), was one of the first settlers in Hebron. Clearly aware of the rich agricultural soil and high water table, William Shipman I built his home on the edge of the Raymond Brook Preserve, near the location of the Church of the Holy Family Rectory on Church Street. This patch of Glacial Lodgment Till Soil soon became the focal point of settlement in Hebron center. Other settlers in the area were John Tillotson (1650-1719) of Saybrook and David Barber (1684-1739) of Windsor. Captain Morris Tillotson (1683-1761), the son of John Tillitson, built his home on the north side of Kinney Road and is found on the first map of Hebron, created by Isaac Pinney (1717-1791) in 1744.
3. Federal Hebron and the Stone Wall Laneways
A recently discovered autobiography of Governor John S. Peters (1772-1858) illustrates the growth of the farmland and the creation of stone wall laneways found in the Raymond Brook Preserve and north of Kinney Road. Writing about 1825, the Governor reports on the growth of his farmland beginning about 1795, “I then overlooked the business of improving my farms, building large walls & making the land productive. I had built a house of brick in 1806, & an office in 1816 on land in the center of the town which I bought of Sylvester Gilbert, Esqr. in 1805… I bought in 1808 of Judah Porter 23 acres of land on the east side of sd. Road - & in 1820 of George O. Gilbert 27 acres north of the Porter lot, together the whole of the old Barber lot (so called).” The re-establishment of the proprietor’s lot of David Barber by Governor Peters stands out as one of the earliest examples of historic land preservation in the United States.
Prof. Robert M. Thorson of the University of Connecticut, Earth Science Department and The Stone Wall Initiative, has identified the significance of the stone wall laneways and fields located at the Raymond Brook Preserve and north of Kinney Road. Prof. Thorson has documented a "compelling" connection between the stone wall laneways and the underlying Glacial Lodgment Till Soil left behind by the Laurentide Ice Sheet, calling the alignment of the stone wall laneways over the lodgment till soil "just beautiful." He would continue to describe the history importance of the soil and the settlement of Hebron, “Envision the ellipse of good soil that is Hebron. At the top is the town center. To the west is historic Church Street, the main transportation route from north to south. To the east are the residual fields and laneways. These three elements go together to define historic Hebron.” Prof. Thorson emphasized the unique quality of the laneways and the unusual group effort it took to create them, "I have never seen a series of stone wall laneways like this. It took the planning and effort of the community to create them. The extensive patch of good soil with good drainage nucleates the town. This is a beautifully preserved community landscape, rather than the hodge podge of walls built by individual farmers."
4. Farming and Hebron’s Free Black Community
A group of account books kept by Governor Peters in the early 1800s identify an important relationship with a thriving the free Black community in Hebron. This includes extensive transactions with Cesar Peters I (ca.1750-1814), his sons Henry Peters (1788-1862) and Cesar Peters II (b.1787), Lewd / Lude Barber (ca.1784-1854), Oran Eber (b.ca.1770) and Martin Powers (b.ca. 1765). These connections and additional historical information support the development of a significant arrangement between formerly enslaved African Americans and the expansion of commercial agriculture in Hebron during the early 19th century. By 1800, Hebron featured a vibrant export economy and was the wealthiest town in Tolland County. At the same time, Hebron also developed one of the largest free Black communities in the area. The Governor Peters account book includes an extensive listing for Oran Eber, beginning in 1800, with debits due Governor Peters and payments made by Governor Peters. In 1811, the Governor Peters account book records the payment to Martin Powers for 2 days of “drawing stones”, suggesting the possibility that he was involved in the construction of the stone walls or laneways. The Governor Peters account books document a thriving relationship with the free Black community, with entries through the 1820s and into the 1830s, including a settlement of an account with Lewd Barber in November 1831 for a total of $43.16. By the time of the 1840 Census, Hebron is listed with the largest community of free Black farmers in Tolland County.
5. Agriculture and Preservation in the 20th Century.
The property the includes the Raymond Brook Preserve continues to be an active and important agricultural landscape to this day. You will see around you traces of the late 19th and early 20th century descendants of Hebron’s settlers, European immigrant farmers and the hay fields and corn fields of modern commercial agriculture. In the late 19th century the property was owned by Frederick Clarence Bissell (1848-1931), whose ancestor Benjamin Bissell I (1711-1751) was married in Hebron in 1738. In 1914, F. Clarence Bissell sold the property, including a portion of the Raymond Brook Preserve, Samuel A. Hilding (1885-1982) and his two brothers, Edward Hilding (b. 1888) and Albert Hilding (b. 1891). In 1965, the property was sold by the Hildings to Harry K. Megson (1923-2008), a World War II veteran and farmer from Glastonbury. He enhanced the farm, first raising Shetland ponies and then Registered Polled Hereford cattle. The hayfields of the Raymond Brook Preserve continue to be cultivated and harvested by Harry K. Megson’s son-in-law Marc S. Baribault of Hebron. The beginnings of the Raymond Brook Preserve can be traced back to 2004, with subsequent expansions to include the current tract of 107 acres.
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