It Happened in Middlebury – Fenn family has long history here

Fenn Farm is seen looking across Fenn Pond before the pond’s most recent dredging. (Middlebury Historical Society photo)

By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD

The Fenn family has lived in Middlebury since the late 1700s, when Samuel (ca. 1766-1852) and Concurrence (Miles) (ca. 1770-1848) Fenn bought property on the south shore of Lake Quassapaug. The family subsequently moved to the area known to Middleburians as Fenn Farm about 1887. The farm the Fenn family operated there was known as Brookdale Farm.

Another branch of the Fenn family, Asa and Sarah (Hickcox) Fenn, had an ax factory on Hop Brook off what is now Fenn Road. An ax head used for hewing wood that is on display at the Middlebury Historical Society (MHS) was manufactured at that mill, and Robert Narkis of Middlebury gave it to the MHS. Asa Fenn also was a highway surveyor when our town began in 1807. Joseph Regan bought the mill was about 1867 and manufactured files there; it later became a cider mill.

One of Samuel and Concurrence Fenn’s sons was David Miles Fenn (1799-1862), who married Tabitha Tuttle (1803-1870). They in turn had a son, Samuel Sylvester Fenn (1840-1910) who married Sarah H. Camp (1839-1896). They were the great-grandparents of Rob Fenn (Robert Miles Fenn II), the current resident of Fenn Farm, and his sister Ellen. Sarah’s father, Robert Camp, foreclosed on the Julius Bronson farm and transferred the land to his daughter and son-in-law Samuel.

In 2006, the Town of Middlebury purchased Brookdale Farm from the Fenn family. Combined with Fenn Pond, this spot is one of the most picturesque in our area and perhaps all of New England. Protected by a conservation easement, “Fenn Farm” (as it is known to most of us) will be preserved in perpetuity.

The entire area around Fenn Pond was once a farm owned by Hiram C. (1830-1909) and Frances (Johnson) (1836-1902) Vail. After Hiram’s death in 1909, the land was acquired by the Middlebury Land and Improvement Company, a local group interested in preserving open space. One of the directors was Middlebury resident, professor William H. Bristol (1859-1930).

Bristol, an educator, manufacturer, and the inventor of sound motion pictures, among many other improvements, provided Middlebury with Fenn Pond. He dammed up Goat Brook and another small stream that used to supply a tannery that stood where Middlebury Garage stands today. He also dammed up Longmeadow Brook to give us Lake Elise in honor of his wife, Elise (Myers) Bristol (1879-1924). The lake could be seen from their house, which is still standing.

Fenn Pond, first called “Little Lake,” was originally much larger, but when Route 64 was built in 1928, the pond was narrowed to its present size. Curiously, the Fenn family never owned the property the pond occupies.

Ice was cut from the lake by hand and hauled to an ice house on Brookdale Farm. Robert (Bob) Clark Fenn (1901-1995), present-occupant Rob’s father, speculated the name probably came from the family’s ice-cutting and the fact that they owned a barn close to the pond to store hay and leased part of the area as a night pasture for his cows.

We thank Rob Fenn for his contributions to this article.

Readers are urged to contact the Middlebury Historical Society if they have news articles, photographs or other historical information to help us compile a complete town history.

Bob Rafford is the Middlebury Historical Society president and Middlebury’s municipal historian. To join or contact the society, visit MiddleburyHistoricalSociety.org or call Bob at 203-206-4717. Your membership would be a valuable addition.