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The Hale Trail LbNA #67389

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Jul 21, 2014
Location: Nathan Hale Homestead, 2299 South Street
City:Coventry
County:Tolland
State:Connecticut
Boxes:10
Planted by:Hale Colonial Experience
Found by: Nairon (10)
Last found:Jan 29, 2023
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Last edited:Jul 21, 2014
The Hale Trail

In the 1740s, Richard Hale purchased this property to start his farm. Soon he met Elizabeth Strong and the two marry. They had 12 children, all born here on the Hale farm. Of the 12 children, 10 survived to adulthood. This Letterbox Trail is dedicated to the Hale children. The Nathan Hale Homestead Colonial Experience (ages 8-12) planted these boxes as a way to learn about the lives of the Hale family, as well as compass reading and clue writing.

Start by standing next to the flagpole. Using a compass, locate the southeast corner of the field and walk to it. Follow the dirt path into the woods. During the 18th century this path was the main road to Norwich.

Samuel (1747 – 1824) is the oldest of the Hale children. We can imagine Samuel growing up here on the farm, helping his father with animals in the barn. Can you picture him driving the big farm wagon being pulled by the family oxen while the younger kids try to hop on the back?

Samuel joins the American Revolution and was captured in New York in 1776 at Fort Washington. When he returned from the war, records show he was “infirm” which we believe is what we now call posttraumatic stress syndrome.

Soon you will see a bar-way on the right. In late summer and fall this cornfield becomes a corn maize, in late October it is where the Friend’s of Hale host a haunted corn maize. Count 25 paces down the path. On the left you will spy a tree with an open cavity in the front. SAMUEL IS NOT HERE. Count out 10 more paces and find a tree with a protruding opening, on the right side of the path and find Samuel.

John (1748-1802) served during the American Revolution in Knowlton’s Rangers with his brothers Samuel, Joseph and Nathan. He achieved the rank of Major, which is the highest of anyone in the Hale family.

After his return home he became a farmer, a Deputy for 16 sessions on the CT Assembly, a deacon in the church, a town clerk, the Coventry town treasurer, and the is a Justice of Peace. When you take the Hale Homestead House Tour make sure you see the secret passage between his parlor and the Judgment Room where he heard cases.

Continue down the path. Keep an eye to the left of the trail. When you see a stonewall a few yards off the path (left side) stop. Walk to start of the stonewall, there will be a large twin trunk tree by the beginning of the stonewall. Walk 7 paces along the wall to a tree with an open cavity and find John.

Joseph (1750-1784) Joseph answered the call to Lexington. According to his brother Enoch’s diary Joseph was at camp in October 1776 and presumably in the battle of Harlem Heights. He was captured and taken prisoner on a British prison ship. After he returned home Joseph married Rebeckah Harris from New London. They purchased and lived on a farm in South Coventry until April 1784 when Joseph died of consumption contracted in the war. He was survived by his wife and 4 daughters. After his death Rebeckah and the 4 daughters moved here to the Hale Farm.

Continue down the path until you come to a right hand turn on the path. At the corner of turn you will find a large evergreen with yellow marks. Behind the tree, low in the wall you will find Joseph.

Elizabeth (1751-1813) Elizabeth was named for her mother, who was named for her mother, who was named for her mother! She was her mother’s big helper, helping with cooking, cleaning, candle dipping, and weaving.

She married Doctor Samuel Rose. Together they lived in a house by the lake that still stands to this day. It is right next to the town green.

Turn onto the path on the right but turn immediately left onto the small path that runs along the stonewall. Continue until you see a funky little twisted tree with 4 (arguably 5) trunks. The roots grow around a rock. It’s twists and turns are quite beautiful. Within these roots you will find Elizabeth.

Enoch (1753-1837) Enoch and Nathan would walk or ride their horse to the Reverend Huntington’s house (corner of South St and Cross St) to prepare for Yale. They possibly followed the path that lead you to here. Enoch became a minister and during the revolution he ministered to the soldiers. Enoch kept a detailed diary and many letters. We have Enoch to thank for much of our written Hale history.

Back track to the YELLOW trail (Joseph will be across the path). Turn left. Pause a moment and look across the corn fields on your right. Spy the Hale barns. It is a very picturesque spot. Can you see the Hale’s working their fields? Can you hear them whistling? Remember where you are standing was not woods but fields.

You should see a small path to your left with a large tree standing like a sentry. Behind the tree at the base you will find Enoch.

You now need to go back to the Nathan Hale Homestead and locate the stone folly that covers the grave a horse named Thomas Hooker Bones. This horse did not belong to the Hales but a man named George Dudley Seymour who purchases Nathan Hale Homestead 100 years ago in 1914.

Once at the folly use your compass to get a reading of 300 degrees. This will lead you to a split rail fence. Walk through the fence and follow the fence towards the woods. There will be a stonewall ahead. Walk through the opening in the wall.

Nathan (1755-1776) Nathan was very ill as a child but as he grew older, he grew stronger. Can you imagine young Nathan and Enoch sneaking off to go fishing in Lake Wangumbaug?

Nathan went to Yale graduating in the class of 1773. Nathan became a schoolteacher. First he had a schoolhouse in East Haddam and then a schoolhouse in New London. Both schoolhouses are still open for tours.

Nathan joined the army and served with Knowlton’s Rangers. When George Washington asked the troops for a spy, Nathan stepped forward. At the age of 21, Nathan was captured in New York as a spy and hanged the next morning. His body was never recovered.

Once you have walked through the opening in the wall. Directly across the path before you is a two trunk tree and a large triangle rock. You will find Nathan to the LEFT of the triangle rock.

With the path in front of you turn right.

Richard (1757-1793) Richard grew up on the farm following right in his brother’s footsteps. He did all kinds of chores around the farm and on a hot summer day he too may have jumped in the lake for a swim. He joined the army and served in Captain Benjamin Clark’s company and then Colonel Obadiah Johnson’s Regiment in Rhode Island. During the war he contracted tuberculosis, which was called consumption back then. Richard married and had 3 daughters. His health remained poor and he went to the West Indies to try and recover but died there in 1793.

Continue on the path until you see Tarzan like grape vines to the left of trail. Count 10 paces more. Find a stonewall off the path. Find a tree with 2 trunks and a hole in the bottom of the tree. Find Richard here.

Billy (1759-1785) Billy was the prankster in the family. It is said he had a very quick humor and kept everyone laughing. He was always climbing trees and jumping over stonewalls. He was named after his mother’s brother, William. Billy apprenticed to a Mr. Huntington of Lebanon, to learn blacksmithing. He served a short time in the army. He died of consumption just weeks before his only child, a son was born.
Head back to the path and return the way you came. You will pass the opening you originally entered through. Stop when you come to a trail on the left. Turn onto the path, step down a natural step and turn around and look low and to the left. “Through the sun is twice as fun, down the steps and turn around, to the left you treasure’s been found.”


David (1761-1822) David attended Yale. He then apprenticed with a clergyman. He became a traveling minister in Long Island before receiving his own congregation in Lisbon, CT. David was said to be very “Fire and Brimstone.” David eventually left the ministry, returned home to the farm. He opened a small boarding school in the house.

Continue down this side path until you find a birch tree laying down next to the path. In the end you will find David.

Joanna (1764-1838) was the youngest of the Hale children. Joanna loved working with textiles (spinning, weaving, knitting, sewing) and made socks and gloves for her brothers and the soldiers. Joanna married Doctor Nathan Howard at the age of 20. Their house stood on the corner of South Street and Judd Road where a fire department stands today. Joanna is who we have to thank for a lot of the original furnishings that Hale owns today. There’s one in every family who saves everything!

Turn back the way you came and head back to the main path. Turn left. Continue until you come to a T in the path. On the corner is an opening to the Hale property. Turn in here but don’t head back to the house. Stay to the left and follow keeping the tree line on your left. Follow to the opening that leads to South Street. In front of you is a small green that has been named “The Holy Grove” but that is a story of another generation, for another day. On this little green find a stone memorial, it is the HALE MEMORIAL. Directly behind this memorial is a tree with a hollow bottom. Under some rocks you will find Joanna. PLEASE BE DISCRETE AND REHIDE WELL, AS THIS IS A BUSY SPOT.