A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE By JOHN A. STOUGHTON Copyright ]J^. COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE This edition of A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE is limited to one thousand copies 5^ A Corner Stone OF Colonial Commerce BY JOHN A. STOUGHTON n AtJTHOa OF "WINDSOR FAHMEs" ILLUSTRATED BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1911 Copyright^ 1911, By John A. Stoughton. All rights reserved Published, September, 1911 THE UNIVERSITY PHESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. ©ci.A2i;'rjG:^5 To all those sons and dattffhters of New England, who prefer Old Nation- alism under the Constitution, rather than Executive encroachment and New Nationalism without the Consti- tution, this brief sketch of the Fathers is respectfully inscribed ILLUSTRATIONS Old Priest Williams House, East Hartford, built -^ before the Revolution Frontispiece Facsimile of Bill for 459 Pounds of Tobacco (tea bearker), and Bill of Lading of Schooner ,^ "Success" Facing page 6 Tobacco Beds Covered with Cloth for Sprouting <^ Seed, about April 1st " 7 Facsimile of two pages of Ebenezer Grant's ^^ Account Book "10,11 Field of "Seed Leaf" Tobacco ready for Cut- ting. Between 1800 and 2000 Pounds to the Acre " 14 '^ Cutting Tobacco " 15 ' Facsimile of Diploma issued by Yale College to Ebenezer Grant, of East Windsor, Connecti- cut, October 18, 1726 " 22 Old David Strong House on South Windsor ^ Street • " 26 Mouth of the Scantic River, South Windsor, Connecticut " 27 "^ Facsimile of Statement of Account of Brigantine " Peggy," 1750 " 32 *^ Modern " Seed Leaf " Tobacco Warehouse, East ^^ Hartford, Connecticut " 33 Stringing Tobacco on Lath in the Field ... " 38 vii ILLUSTRATIONS Interior Views of Warehouse showing Process of Casing Tobacco Facing page 39 Rear View of the Ephraim Grant House, South Windsor, Connecticut " 50 Old Aaron Bissell Tavern as it was at the close of the Revolutionary War " 50 Front Hall of Grant House showing Wainscot ^ and Panelling " 51 " Sword carried by Colonel Stoughton in the Rev- olutionary War, and Flint-lock Musket, six / feet long " 51 Detail of Front Hall of the Grant House show- ing original furniture and the ancient clock . " 62 Showing detail of front of the Grant House, / South Windsor, Connecticut, built in 1757 . " 63 Detail of the front door of the Matthew Rock- well House, South Windsor, Connecticut, / built before 1750 " 63 Rear View of the Ephraim Grant House Show- ing peculiar reinforced chimney " 70 Present appearance of the Birthplace of Jona- than Edwards, South Windsor, Connecticut " 70 One of the Old Pitkin Houses in East Hartford, ^ Connecticut " Tl Burial-place of Timothy Edwards, South Wind- i/' sor, Connecticut " 71 Facsimile of Letter of Chief Justice OUver Ells- worth to Captain Roswell Grant .... " 86 Facsimile of "Pen Knife" Letter of General ^^y Washington " 87 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE A POINT indicated by the intersec- tion of north latitude 41 degrees, 47 minutes, with longitude east from Washington 4 degrees and 15 minutes, lies nearly in the geographical center of the renowned "Seed Leaf" tobacco region of Connecticut. This spot is on Connecticut River, about fifty miles north from Long Island Sound, and a circle with a radius of eight miles from it embraces all the territory which first gave the name "Connecticut Seed Leaf Tobacco" to the product, whose superior quality has long been known A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE throughout the commercial world. Herein lay the colonies — Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield — where tobacco grows to- day under improved methods of cultiva- tion, even more luxuriantly than ever, and although the cultivated area appears to have been narrowed somewhat within a few decades, and is now compacted pretty well in proximity to the Connecticut River, yet the increased yield per acre and the improved quality are most effec- tive refutations of all the pet theories of exhaustion and impoverishment of the soil that are claimed to attend closely upon its rapid and profitable growth. The argument against it on that ground utterly and signally fails, as will be dem- onstrated by the facts of this narrative. It is impossible to forget that within the limits assumed is to be found also the local habitation of that civilization A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE which since 1636, "pushing westward, and northward, and southward," has given to state and national affairs the impress of its own stabihty, even causing the Con- stitution of the United States to reflect the harmony of its local state institutions. Windsor, Wethersfield, and Hartford, the three original colonies of the Connecticut Valley, contained within their limits all the productive upland and bottom lands of this region, and to this favored spot where Timothy Edwards, father of Jona- than Edwards, born in 1703, Roger Wol- cott. Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth, Noah Grant, grandfather of the President, Silas Deane, Noah Webster, John Fitch, in- ventor of steam navigation and a host of Pitkins, Wadsworths, Trumbulls, and Tal- cotts lived and died, their native State points with pride, and repeats of each that "this man was born there." 3 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE A strong temptation to retouch the oft rewritten story of the part which her citizens have played Hes upon all who take a pen to review this region so prolific in Connecticut's history. The tale is never told, the picture of the State is yet incomplete, and although the public rec- ords have been conscientiously scanned, still much of the woof of the historical fabric lies hidden largely in scattered memoranda, private account books, and the fragmentary correspondence of every- day life. Surely the homely routine of a people as illustrated by their simple annals is a valuable factor in the sum of knowledge regarding their fuller public life. How commerce began, with whom it was carried on, what commodities were sold and bartered, and at what price, — are really matters too intimately connected with the A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE growth of a state to be ignored, and to know thoroughly of them one must go back of formulated legislation on the subject. Even a wider knowledge of the cost of living, the food, the dwellings, the minutiae of local government, habits of certain individuals, eccentricities and general char- acteristics of families, is invaluable to one who would thoroughly understand the spirit that constitutes a state. A few brief and changeful sketches of this famed region, drawn from the scat- tered memoranda of its early inhabitants, may fittingly introduce its era of later growth and be quite properly accompanied by a little of the history of colonial legis- lation on tobacco. Captain Ebenezer Grant, of Windsor, east of Connecticut River, a great-grandson of the renowned Matthew, was about 1740 5 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE largely interested in the colonial West India trade. From his account books, which are models of accuracy, and replete with memoranda of minute transactions, a large insight is given to the beginnings of the commercial growth of southern New England. The series of linguistic somersaults by which one of Mr. Grant's neighbors charges him with four hundred and fifty- nine pounds of *' Tea- bearker," i. e., to- bacco, illustrated in the accompanying facsimile, — portion of a bill found among his papers, — and the equally interesting reproduction of a page of Captain Grant's account book, are suggestive commentaries on the entire absence of any standard of orthography in Connecticut. It will be noted that the duty of one hundred pounds indicates a tariff of considerable intensity, but the old gentleman very adroitly mixes 6 ^i;^ «5 *1<^ - S e ^1?^ V> n <^ V c^ r^-^ <; 1 ■ ^r^ ; '■ "'v" ^'^- 4 >^ V—' "^. '; ^■»> — ' . ''- >^ r. ^f ■-^ ^ ^ "^s > r^ ft; •> ^ -w. -^ '", ' - t CN *i "^ ^^ ,^ ^. ^: /o/^-JL^J^fy^^-*^"^ — 'iu> J^' p^j^^r^J^ -■^ o^ ao ^-"/""f^^^f^^^ Z-^— 17 f^ oa O/ C" o~t> 'hy *** Z,",'-'^' 1- fj_y^ =3- £>i? / •Z'^^ ■_ 7; '^. ^- /A/ ^^ /e. o^ <;>-& at. a^ ^ /J (T^ -^ y^ _- a^f ffb ca ^ 2,' ^^ 0o CO <^ (to ■^^ /d V^,.^^^. / <^ ^ 7. &a c'v Jl- Ct /' A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE to have given an early impetus to com- mercial legislation, for previous to the union with the Connecticut colony, in 1664, under the charter of 1662, the Gen- eral Court of New Haven, sitting at New Milford on April 26, 1654, tried Captain John Manning on the charge of "supply- ing the Dutch with provisions." Now, if there was any rival dreaded by England and her colonists, it was the complacent burgher of New Amsterdam, who envel- oped himself in huge clouds of smoke from tobacco, somewhat circuitously imported, and, with the aggressive silence of a cautious and phlegmatic diplomacy, di- verted largely to himself the West Indian trade of New England; so that when good Captain Manning, in defiance of the Navigation Acts of Charles II., sought immunity from the penalties of the same, the Court found that he "hath drawn 11 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE guilt upon himself by continued willfull vntruths or lyes," and proceeded to but- tress up the captain's mendacity by proof that he had delivered to the Dutch at "Munnadoes" (i. e. Manhattan) "thirty- six hogsheads of tobacco the one time and thirty-five the other," he having "bine" [i. e. been] " two time at Verginia since he came from Boston." Virginia long before this period had devoted all her energies to the cultivation of tobacco, and even made it a medium of exchange. On September 2, 1645, Richard Catchman "complayned" to the New Haven colony that one Thomas Hart had " carry ed away his servant from Verginia whereby he was damnified to the Vallew of 2000 weight of tobacco in the price of her," and on November 1, 1647, the will of Nathaniel Cooper, proven in New Haven, disposed of "all of the tobacco 12 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COIVCVIERCE I have aboard of the barke Faulcon of New Haven then riding near Rikatan in Vurginia." But with the increased trade came also the disrespectful habit of famihar smoking against which the sister colony on the Connecticut had legislated. Therefore, New Haven in 1646 ordered: "that who- soever shalbe fownd taking tobacco in an vncovered place, or in the streate of the towrie, or in mens yards, shall pay 6d. fine each time, also if onn trayning dayes, either in the company or the meeting howse at any time," and again in 1655: "It is ordered that no tobacco shall be taken in the streets, yards or aboute the howses in any plantation or farme in this jurisdiction without dores, neere or aboute the towne, or in the meeting howse, or body of the trayne Souldiors, or any other place where they may doe mischief 13 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE thereby, vnder the penalty of 84 pence a pipe or a time, wch is to goe to him that informs and prosecuts." Then follow certain provisions for enforcing the col- lection of the penalty and punishment by sitting in the stocks on default of payment. The glimmerings of "high protection" for the home product are found in the act of the Colonial Court at Hartford, which in 1662 ordered "that whenever Tobacco is landed in this Colony" "there shalbe" paid by the master of the vessel or "Mer- chant importer" "Vnto the Custome Master" of the port for every hogshead twenty-five shillings, or twopence per pound. Doubtless, the rich valley lands soon began to produce their wonderful crops; at least the importation fell off and on July 15, 1680, Governor William Leete of Connecticut replied to certain inquiries of "The Lords of his Majesties 14 ap va' y^iM^ ^ ,:^^ v^i 'i A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE most privy counciel concerning the trade in his Majesties colony of Connecticott." *'The comodotie of the country are Wheat Peas, Ry, Barly Indian Corn, and Porck Beif Woole, Hemp, Flax, Cyder, Perry and Tarr, deal boards. Pipe staves. Horses. The most transported to Boston and there bartered for cloathing." And adds later: "We have no need of Virginia trade most people planting so much Tobacco as they spend." A very rapid commercial growth fol- lowed closely upon the increased tobacco culture, and it soon figured conspicuously in the intercolonial and foreign trade. The private accounts exhibit the phenome- nal fact of a plant whose habitat is in the tropics so adapting itself to a climate that allows it scarcely more than ninety consecutive days from birth to maturity in the open air, as to produce in later days 15 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE from one thousand pounds to two thousand five hundred pounds per acre, allowing an average of six thousand plants to every one hundred and sixty square rods of ground. As a result of increased demand a little local merchant marine grew up, whose enterprising owners drove a profitable trade with South America, the West Indies, and even before the American Revolution had quite extensive business associations with European houses. In South Windsor, formerly a portion of East Windsor, is the residence of the late Major F. W. Grant. This place is now occupied by Roswell Grant, Esq., who is of the fifth generation from Samuel, the son of Matthew, of Old Windsor. On this spot was born Noah Grant, grandfather of the President, and here lived his brother Captain Ebenezer (pre- 16 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE viously referred to in this article), who retained the homestead after the family separated, Noah removing eastward to Tolland. About three-fourths of a mile below, on the east side of the street, was the parsonage of Rev. Timothy Edwards, father of Jonathan, who for sixty-three years went in and out among his people, representing all that was pure, dignified, and scholarly in New England Calvinism. Mr. Edwards was a graduate of Harvard College, and eked out a scanty salary by teaching the youth of the colony in the classics, and in this had much valuable assistance from his ten daughters. Many men afterward conspicuous in affairs were fitted for Yale College at this humble New England home. He records as follows: On "January 8, 1728, Mr. Samuel Talcott, Gov. Talcott's Son by ye Gov- ern" desire came to be instructed in ye 17 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE Latin Tongue." And in 1738 "Corp" Ebenezer Bissell for Teaching his Son Aaron ye Latin and Greek Tongues." Mr. Edwards also allowed his slave Ansars in 1731 to work "2 dayes howing indian corn for Samuel Evens Sen' £00-04J M V ■ (.,rrf^ ; / V l-ant of East Windsor, Connecticut, October 18, 1726 Fage 22 ^Kmmmmnma "T) ^ i nimbm ./3 incaidi!. (-^ aiiltJifu IfU ^-tV///;//,7,„. .V// 'tiCinnt ft' ,y ,. ,f,/ {^ [' : vac Jt/::;nH-^ (:i ^ .'' ; //■/ ;//// /// . • '/ '/v i/^i ■\\ ■ /^- ■ ' ' ' li ^ ^ \\ : / n It tlL f t t " _ f ■ ^ •' ^ /■. .^.i^|^c'-^\:J^il!/;^// (>>)..r^'^-'^' 'fun Cf- .? /ci"- ^ *7 -r -^ ^■a'-'i. -7: ; / ^-' / ''n Facsimile of Diploma issued by Yale College to Ebenezer Grant of East Windsor, Connecticut, October 18, 1726 /^a^e 22 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE Other entries show that Ebenezer was evidently a student who had means enough to get through his course without econo- mizing. He buys "powder and shoot,'* indulges in oranges, pineapples, and speaks of "keeping a horse at ye Village." "Shades of the mighty!" was New Haven ever a village? Tell it not in Hartford! But the most perspicuous evidence of his diligence as a student is found in the fact that he paid "For a Hodden Arithmetick 00-03-00," and "For 5 dozen of Quills 00-00-09." The private accounts also indicate that a lucrative trade in Connecticut products must have sprung up about 1700, for not long after tobacco that was produced above the demands for home consumption was exported to foreign ports, and the traffic became general and profitable. But these scenes of commercial and agricultu- 23 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE ral prosperity were interrupted by the quite frequent demands of the "Pubhque Service." Captain Grant's commission over a "Train Band East of Connecticut River," in Windsor, issued by Governor Jonathan Law, October 29, 1742, was no empty title. He gives the names of fifty men "that went upon an Expedition into ye frontiers under my command, Dec. 19, 1745," and in a memorandum of con- viviaUty, which doubtless fell upon the rejoicings over the reduction of the French stronghold of Louisburg in the previous summer, he charges, among other items: "Jeremiah Drake, Dr. J^ expense for Cape Breton frolick 00 - 04-00," — surely not an extravagant pro rata expenditure for four veterans to make. The names of the other two are not given. The homely life of the river colonists very rapidly changed under the stimulus 24. A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE of commercial enterprises. A better class of houses soon took the place of the old plank frame dwellings. These latter were buildings whose sides were commonly of two-inch plank, spiked perpendicularly on to the heavy frame-work, and either clapboarded or shingled on the outside, — little studding was used on the inside, — and even the partitions between the rooms were often of single inch lumber carried from floor to cross beams, with a paneled base; this often sprung and bowed out under the sag of the upper floors, which, of course, rested on the beams. A huge chimney usually ascended in the middle, and of itself afforded substantial support to the whole building. This feature of the old architecture was retained in many houses built dow^n to the period of the American Revolution. The chimney in the house built by Colo- 25 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE nel Joseph Pitkin, brother of Governor Wilham Pitkin, in East Hartford, in 1726, was over nine feet square where it rose from the stone foundation in the cellar. The cellar in many old houses was on the north side, rarely extending, except in more pretentious edifices, under the whole building. This chimney contained over fifteen thousand bricks and a large amount of stone. The following picture of the David Strong house, photographed in 1894, shows a house which was old in 1808, and illus- trates the improved architecture of the East Windsor parish. Major F. W. Grant, a grandson of Captain Ebenezer, and who was born in 1794 and died at the age of eighty-seven years, — a life-long resident of East Wind- sor, — particularly detailed the facts of «!'S'*S!!CTrp A CORNER STONE OP COLONIAL COMMERCE the antiquity of this and many other buildings located in East Windsor. The bricks are of Windsor manufacture and of the standard size prescribed by law; and the fissure extending over the south door may have been caused by the earthquake which Nathaniel Loomis of Windsor mentions: "November 17-1755 the Earth- quace was about 4 a-clock in morning it held about 4 minits the hardest that ever came in my time." This shock broke the walls of Benjamin Cook's house, a short distance above, and called forth a practical sermon from Rev. Dr. Eliphalet Williams of East Hartford, whose imposing mansion furnishes a fine type of the im- proved colonial parsonages of the period. This building remained in its original completeness until 1907. On its walls was hung the first wall paper of which there is any record east of the river. It 27 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMIVIERCE is located in East Hartford, and was built in 1753. It must be kept in mind that all of the territory of which we speak east of Con- necticut River was embraced in the limits of ancient Windsor, excepting East Hart- ford, which was set off from Hartford in 1784. The importance of Windsor as a commercial center was fully as great as Hartford, and even Middletown previous to the Revolution ranked as a shipping port much above Hartford. Shipbuilding became active, and .at the "mouth of Scantic," as the junction of that stream with the Connecticut about eight miles north of Hartford was called, a thriv- ing industry grew up. Remnants of the magnificent forests of pine and oak from which supplies were obtained still exist along the tributary streams. The authentic record of "The Brig*^« 28 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE built at Windsor in East Side of y« River in y° year 1749 to Eben^ Grant Dr," reads in some items as follows: "1748, Sept"- 15 to help Draw y« Keil with 5 Cattle & }^ ptRum 002£-00-00." The brigantine was furnished with a quarter deck, and on April 28, 1749, a charge is made of " 1 - 00 - 00 knees for q'*' Deck"; and the same month Captain Grant charges the owners: "To myself a day to fetch up Long Boat & towe vessel to Hartford 01-10-00." Captain Fyly [i. e. Filley] appears to have superintended the fitting out of the vessel, and received on September 7, 1749, eighty pounds "to pay ye Rigers." The rigging cost three hundred pounds, and Mr. John Fyly received "£91-02-09 for building." Logs for the bilgeways cost £2 and the total expenses of construction were £939 13^. 9d. A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE The "settlement of Cargo March 13th, 1750," amounted to £2933 - Ish. - Id., New England funds, and the owners were Cap- tain Ebenezer Grant l/8th part, Mr. Ebenezer Bliss 3/16ths, Mr. Nathan Day l/16th, Mr. Allen McLean l/16th, Mr. David Bissell l/16th, Mr. Sam' Watson l/16th, Mr. Ebenezer Watson l/16th, John and Charles Gay lord 1/1 6th, John Laurence l/4th, and Ammi Trumble 1/1 6th. The brigantine's bill of lading shows twenty-seven casks of tobacco, over four thousand feet of lumber, and twenty-six horses on "y« proper Acco* and Risque of y« Shippers." The tobacco weighed 10,296 pounds, and on March 23, 1750, the vessel left New London for the West Indies under command of William Filey "for this present voyage." "The hb- erty of trade" was £15 05. Qd.y and 30 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE on May 21, 1750, returned the owners £701 0^. Id. at Barbadoes. The amount of tobacco shipped on various vessels indicates more extensive deaHngs in this product than has been credited to the period. "Tobac° shyped on y« Brig° OHve Hez. CoUiar master for Barbad% Nov. 12, 1751," amounted to thirty casks, containing 12,664 pounds. On November 12, 1752, the brigantine OHve received a cargo of 12,764 pounds of tobacco for the Barbadoes, and the same month 12,749 pounds were "pressed for Schooner Ann and shipped." In the list of growers are to be found the names of most of the Windsor families. The Wolcotts, Ellsworths, Bissells, Stough- tons, Grants, Talcotts, all grew the "weed" for commercial purposes. Captain John Ellsworth, who married Annie Edwards, sister of the renowned Jonathan, sold 31 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE Captain Grant 1130 pounds on November 21, 1752, the total amount purchased be- tween November 15 and 23 being 26,110 pounds. This tobacco was pressed into casks for shipment, which cost twenty -five shillings each, and contained about four hundred pounds apiece, and this year the cost of labor for packing was three shill- ings per hundred. This little fleet of vessels was subjected to various regulations and restrictions of trade, of which Captain Grant makes quaint and suggestive mention. New London was then a favorite port of entry, and thither on December 13, 1752, he made a journey to "Discharge Schooner Ann," and records *'pd to Naval Officers £l-lQsh.-Od.;' "Bill for Pilotage & Sun- dry 14-09-9," "cash pd to Mr. Hall for Duty and Cleaning Vessel £540-10-0." Some information is obtainable as to the 32 r^ \^ < ^ ^^x ^ X ' \ '^ ^ t ^ ■ nS' s \v \- N- \ \ N S- X. \ \ >-v^ \ -sW- X ■^^ \ \ V V Ni > X :^ V ^ ^ ■\ V:. nO \\. N i\ \- X \J A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE cost of vessels engaged in the commerce. A schooner built at Hartford by Mr. John Filey in 1750 is estimated as follows: "Tunnage97at £20 £1940-00-00," "al- lowance for launching was £60-00-00;" and for altering from a sloop to a schooner £38 125. was charged to the vessel's account. "Bill for Riging £849-075/i.-6(Z.," while Mr. Poyson for £87 Is. Sd. furnished an anchor. To make the sails Mr. AUin charged £81 16^. 9d., and the total cost of construction was £4840 65. 9d. Of this the ironwork by Burnham was £549 45., and the "Duck" for sails cost £368 10s. Labor and sundry articles go to make up the remainder. Two top- masts in New London cost £9 17^. in 1751. These figures indicate the depreciated condition of currency. 33 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE Some idea of exchange is obtained from these accounts: In 1753 Mr. Grant paid "PhilKps 4 Dollars -9-0-0." The credit of Boston was good. A payment of storage -4£- 165. "Boston money" is carried out in the account-" 4£ - 165.- Od." Numerous vessels are mentioned in this East Windsor trade: "The Sloop Speedwell, Freeman master, for Barbadoes in 1753;" the brigantine Olive, Samuel Olcott, master; "Scooner Ann, William Filey, master. Brig. Peggy in 1749." John and Jonathan Simpson of Boston were merchants to whom Captain Grant sold tobacco to the amount of 3045 pounds. On April 13, 1753, and later he "bought of ye Simpsons In Boston, (1) Bar" 4d. Nails 46 M at Ssh. - £51 - 15sh. old tenor." "2J^ dozi^ Middle length scythes cost 41-17-6 "60lbs. of steel 10- 0-0 34 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE "and a Grindstone 3-00- "all in old tenor. " Two half Bar" Powder cost 48 - 00 - 00 " and 7 Rolls of Duck 182-00-00 " Formerly tobacco was raised in a very crude manner, principally upon local fer- tilizers, the ordinary stable and hog ma- nures being used as a stimulant; while so late as 1826 the method of hanging the crop was by winding wisps of straw around the plants, which were hung opposite each other in pairs upon poles from twelve to fourteen feet in length. The tobacco for exportation was largely packed in casks in a manner similar to that practiced by the Virginia planters. About 1850 the use of a coarse twine made of jute or hemp was the common method of suspension, the plants being put on either side of a pole, with the but- end projecting an inch or two above the S5 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE pole and fastened by a turn of the twine, which was carried across the pole to the corresponding plant until the whole line was filled, the tobacco being usually hung in what may be called a criss-cross method, in order to give plenty of air space, for the purposes of curing, the plants not being placed exactly opposite to each other. For the last fifteen or twenty years, with the exception of tobacco raised under tents where the leaves are picked from the plant without cutting the stalk, the method has been to string from five to six plants on a lath four feet in length. This is accomplished by inserting one end of the lath into a light frame, and placing upon the other end a spear-shaped steel tip which easily penetrates the stalk, about two inches from the but-end. The laths after being filled are generally trans- 36 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE ferred to other frames in the field until removed to the curing shed. The introduction of modern fertilizers has done much to improve the quality, and in fact now the growth has become one of such accurate adjustment that it is possible to so fertilize it as to produce almost any shade or weight of crop desired. This method of cultivation practically insures the soil against exhaustion from repeated crops. There are several tracts of land from one to ten acres in extent upon which the writer knows that tobacco has been grown consecutively for over thirty years, while the testimony of the owners is emphatically to the point that in weight and quahty the crop on the average has improved and in many cases the soil requires less fertilizing than formerly. Tobacco is a surface feeder, and does 37 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE not sap the land like corn, rye, grass, or potatoes. A most interesting experiment was tried by the late Major F. W. Grant of South Windsor, who detailed the results to the writer. A tract of about five acres of land was carefully ploughed, harrowed, and fertilized up to a high point for tobacco cropping. Upon one-third of the tract tobacco was set out, another third was devoted to Indian corn, and the remain- ing third to potatoes, the result being very heavy and profitable returns from all the crops. In the fall of the same year the entire tract was uniformly ploughed and har- rowed, and without further fertilizing sowed to rye and a heavy coat of herd's grass and red top. The next season the rye was harvested, yielding a heavy return from the portion which bore the tobacco, 38 a: Interior Views of Warehouse showing Process of Casing Tobacco. Page 36 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE a fairly good return from the portion from which the potatoes had been taken, and a Hghter return from the corn tract. The stubble was cut and the tract was then left as grass-land, from which hay was harvested for several seasons. The re- turns of the latter from the portion of the tract devoted to corn failed first to give good results, the potato land came next in order, and the portion devoted to to- bacco was producing a good crop of hay some time after it became necessary to restock the potato and corn land for herd's grass. The experiment clearly demon- strated that the tobacco took less from the soil than the other two crops. Among other commodities shipped from East Windsor were pipe staves, pork, rye, Indian corn, oats, and a good many horses, a "large brownish bay shipped to Barbadoes in December, 1750, was valued 39 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE at £150, Roan Dutch mare £40, a Dark- ish Roan £90." Passing from the consideration of these especial features of the community, other phases of East Windsor local life attract our attention. The parish east of the river was from 1694, for a period of sixty- three years, under the ministry of Rev. Timothy Edwards, father of the cele- brated Jonathan. We find from the rec- ords that: In 1720 one hundred and forty people were assessed for taxes to support the church on the east side of the Connecticut River. Among these Roger Wolcott was assessed on an estate of 115 pounds; Si- mon Wolcott 124 pounds; Henry Wolcott, 105 pounds; Grace Grant, 156 pounds. Grace Grant was the widow of Samuel Grant, Jr., and the mother of Ebenezer to whom reference has been made. Samuel 40 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE Grant, Jr., was the grandson of Matthew Grant, the historic town clerk of Windsor. Ebenezer was fitted for Yale College by Mr. Edwards, and in the account of his tuition frequent charges against his mother appear on Mr. Edwards' book. In this connection it is an instructive feature of colonial life to consider the immense edu- cational work undertaken by that hum- ble minister. Twenty-three young men studied with Mr. Edwards, some of them from other towns, and many of them afterward entered and graduated from Yale College. Among the best known was Alexander Wolcott, son of Governor Roger Wolcott, who in 1729 came, to use the quaint language of Mr. Edwards, "to be instructed in the tongues, namely, to be further instructed for the revival of his learning." For this tuition Governor Wolcott paid Mr. Edwards in X730 four 41 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE shillings and one pence. Among other names we find those of Abijah Skinner, Joseph Newberry, John Anderson, John Wolcott, Aaron Bissell, and Isaac Stiles. The latter afterward graduated from Yale, and was the father of President Stiles of Yale College. On January 8, 1728, Samuel Talcott, Governor Talcott's son, came for instruction in the Latin tongue. I'he list also includes the famous Jonathan. The houses of these colonists may be considered as divided into three classes, proportioned to the wealth and social distinction of their ov/ners. Of those now standing in this community, a lean-to house built in 1725 on the east side of Main Street known as the Eph. Grant house, and nearly opposite the present residence of Mr. Roswell Grant, may be taken as a fair type of the average farm- house at the time of Mr. Edwards' labors. 42 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE A typical house of what may be called the more advanced condition of the people is still standing, and was built by Dr. Matthew Rockwell, who was at one time engaged to marry Mary Edwards, sister of Jonathan; nearby the Grant mansion, so called, on the west side of Main Street, still standing on the ancestral acres granted to Samuel Grant in 1680, represents the highest social condition of a prosperous farmer merchant of the same period. The Grant house was constructed as it now stands principally by Ebenezer Grant, the merchant to whom we have referred, although the rear part is supposed to be much older and to go back as far as 1684. The peculiarity of many of these older houses consists of the fact that usually the cellar was on the north side, and ex- tended only under one-half of the house. That is the case in the Ephraim Grant 43 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE house, and was also the case in the old Verstille house, which was at one time occupied by Mr. Perry, Timothy Edwards' colleague. It was also a distinguishing feature of the several houses built about the same time in the neighboring town of East Hartford, and in many of them also the north room was always the better finished of the lower rooms, and very often located over the cellar. There was at one time a turbulent spirit abroad in Mr. Edwards' parish, so in one of his sermons he particularly notes the decline in courtesy which should be ex- tended by young people to their elders, and remarks that the young men do not raise their hats to their elders when they meet them on the street. This tendency toward a laxity of manners attracted the attention of so distinguished a commenta- tor as Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth, who .44 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE in his memoranda preserved by his son and transmitted for the edification of future generations, deplores the fact that "there has been developed an indifference in those things which tend toward the development of the better side of human nature and to the cultivation of the spirit of gentlemanly forbearance and courtesy between brethren." A glimpse at these New England homes from 1680 to 1750 exhibits on the whole a very large variety of conditions. There were some families in whom the spirit of worldliness was so deeply entrenched that the greatest self-sacrifice of a devoted pastor and the solicitude of friends were alike indifferently received. Mr. Ed- wards' sermons offer interesting sugges- tions relative to the condition of the church and the community where he labored. The manuscripts bear notes of the various 45 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE circumstances under which they were de- livered, — times of mourning, thanksgiv- ing, fasting, and drought. In 1748 he makes the following note upon a sermon: "East Windsor, on a fast day, kept by many of the inhabitants of this place, namely, of this church and society, by my desire, in a time of very great and sore drought, to seek to God for rain. "August 30, 1748." Another has a memorandum: "East Windsor on a lecture day, March 6, 1705-6." Then on September 30, 1711, he quaintly observes that the sermon was preached ," being the next Sabbath after my return home and after my sickness in the camp, when I went, one of the chap- lains to our regiment in our expedition, etc., this year, being much better than I had been while abroad, and still in a recovering way." 46 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE On November 24, 1744, he makes note of preaching a Thanksgiving sermon on the day appointed by Governor Law, and an interesting and touching example of his fidelity to his work is suggested by the memorandum attached to a sermon which he notes as preached at Captain John Ellsworth's house at a religious meeting. Mr. Edwards' power as a preacher, which descended in an intense degree of eloquence and logical force to his son, made him conspicuous as one to whom neigh- boring churches turned for spiritual relief. In 1712-13 he prepared a sermon to be preached in Middletown, a discourse on the death of a minister, and also in 1704-05 an elaborate sermon on sacrament day. These are not the studied efforts of great occasions, but the common preach- ing of pastoral duty for God's glory in a 47 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE humble New England hamlet. In 1694 the church at Suffield had fallen into a disturbed and dissonant condition. In October of that year Mr. Edwards preached an elaborate sermon at the church, and remarks that it was a fast day, in which he rebukes with fearless and forcible eloquence the hypocrisy and sinful- ness of that community, — a sermon which it is well worth studying with reference to one particular point, that although this educated, stern, and fearless man never hesitated to rebuke evil or to differ from his neighbors or to reproach those in high places, who justly deserved it, he says, that " God is wont in his judgments to remember mercy and doth not commonly stir up all his wrath against his people, and therefore this should oblige them to repent of their sins against Him, and un- feignedly with all their hearts to turn 48 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE toward Him, and with the spirit within them to seek Him early." While we are not informed as to the particular delinquencies of the people of SufBeld, that there must have been some special reason for Mr. Edwards' long and careful arraignment of their weaknesses is apparent from the third application of the sermon which we are now considering, in which he says: "Have not you, ye people of this town, the inhabitants of this place, for some years been under the awful angry frowns of Heaven, and are you not so now.f*" And again he reminds them more especially with respect to some awful and sad expressions and touches of divine anger peculiarly and immediately con- cerning themselves, that "God had cut them short in the fruit of the year, as well as their neighbors and that for some years he cut you short also in the ordinance of 49 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE his Gospel, so that in a more awful way than your neighbors round about you, have you not been awfully damned in the ways of God's providence?" In 1709 he preached a sermon to his own people on a day of thanksgiving, being the next week after a public fast, "upon the account of our fatal disappointment in our expedition against the French and Indian enemies, Wednesday, third of No- vember, 1709." In 1741 the community was afflicted with what Mr. Edwards terms the "throat distemper." On No- vember 29 of that year he preached a sermon which he delivered on the "second Sabbath after Enoch Morris lost his son of about eleven years, and the last of the children by the throat distemper." A carefully prepared sermon of Mr. Edwards' contains this memorandum in his handwriting: "East Windsor, May, 50 Rear View of the Ephraiin Grant House, South Windsor. Pag^e 78 Old Aaron Bissell Tavern as it was at the close of the Revolutionary War. Pa^^e 72 Front Hall of Grant House showing Wainscot and Panelling. Pa^e 74 Sword carried by Colonel Stoughton in the Revolutionary War, and Flint-lock Musket, six feet long, with which the last Indian killed in East Hartford, was shot, about 1750 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE 1712, on the second article of the writing drawn up by the ministers of Hartford, Windsor and Farmington, A. D., 1711, and solemnly and generally engaged to on the east side of the river at Windsor. The article is this, namely: We will care- fully watch any signs of irreverence in the worship of God and of profanation of his glorious and fearful name, by causeless imprecations and rash swearing, or in any other way in which it is or may be taken in vain," — a topic which may well commend itself to the present gen- eration of ministers as one to be fre- quently enlarged upon in this year of grace 1910. Neither was there anything in Mr. Edwards' whole ministry of that tem- porizing policy by which the church has too often been compromised at the ex- pense of the principles upon which it was 51 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE founded by Him whose kingdom is not of this world. Mr. Edwards appears to have been ever ready to contribute from his book-shelves such reading as would help his neighbors. He makes the memoranda in April, 1726: "Lent Sergeant Rockwell the 'Medita- tions of a Saint seeking after Christ,' with another book concerning the experiences of a Scotch minister." And on June 6 he "lent Brother Whitman one of Jona- than's books concerning Christianity or some such subject by a German divine." In May he "lent neighbor Rockwell a book called 'The Pious Soul Seeking after Christ, in a hundred meditations,' with another called 'Pillars of Salt.'" Joseph Skinner, who seems to have been exceedingly handy as an all-round man, appears on Mr. Edwards' account book in the shape of a credit by a turkey 52 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COIVOIERCE and by a dozen pigeons. Wild pigeons were exceedingly numerous, and are fre- quently entered up in the local memoranda as a portion of household stores. On August 27, Mr. Edwards credits Joseph Skinner by drawing a tooth for his daugh- ter Esther, and by drawing a tooth for Abigail, one shilling; September 19, by drawing a tooth, one shilling, which pre- sumably was one of the pastor's molars, as he makes no suggestion as to whom it belonged. May 7, 1726, Lucy Edwards lost a tooth at the same skilful hands, and on June 14, 1727, Joseph Skinner again extracted a tooth for Lucy, and stopped long enough to varnish two chairs, for which the pastor credits him two shill- ings and eightpence. August 3, 1727, he is quaintly credited by "a dozen and half of pigeons, and a dozen more, and half a dozen more, in all three dozen, one shill- 53 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE ing and threepence." Possibly this extra brushing, varnishing, and tooth pulling had reference to the coming wedding of Esther, who married the Rev. Samuel Hopkins of West Springfield, Mass. This was the second wedding of Mr. Edwards' daughters, the second daughter Eliza- beth having married Colonel Jabez Hunt- ington of Windham, June, 1724. Although Mr. Edwards had a farm which was given to him at the time of his settlement and on which his father had built him a house, yet the increased ex- penses of a large family and the depre- ciation in the purchasing power of the currency reduced him at times to con- siderable extremities. In 1735 Mr. Ed- wards' salary was one hundred and thirty -five pounds, but his family was ex- pensive, and the provision for the marriage of his daughters had drawn heavily upon 54 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE his income. In a blank space on one of his sermons he states what he calls " a case,'* as follows: "Whether a minister wanting wherewithal comfortably to live in the world and provide for his family, and that not through the inability of the people, and after much painstaking in the use of proper means, hath no prospect of the supply of that want by those whom he serves in the work of the ministry, may not on that account lawfully leave his people and remove." At this time Mr. Edwards had been for forty-one consecu- tive years pastor of the East Windsor Church. One can hardly look back through the decades to that solitary scholar in a wilderness and be entirely unmoved at the pathos of the situa- tion. And he indeed is a lesson to those who in the home work at times feel that the stress of circumstances, combin- 55 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COM^IERCE ing with the opportunities for larger pay, tempt them strongly to hie from parish to parish. At this time he makes some comparisons between the cost of living in 1735 and 1694, the year of his settlement. He refers to land, and says that Deacon Drake told him that land when he came there was worth four pounds in money, and now it is seven times as dear. When he came, he says a good large deerskin was dressed for four shillings and sixpence in money, and now such^a skin, his neighbors tell him, would cost four pounds in the hair. He says rum was sold in former years in Hartford for four shillings for the single gallon; now he hears that it is eigh- teen shillings a gallon, which leads him to the conclusion that rum is nine times as dear as it was when he settled among them. Then after referring to the ad- vanced cost of sugar, labor, rye, pork, and 56 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE wheat he pauses in his twenty-first memo- randum to consider quaintly the cost of negro labor, and to quote his own lan- guage: "negro was formerly 90 pounds; my negro was; now 200 pounds for a negro woman." Mr. Edwards had two negro slaves or servants; one he bought from Governor Wolcott, and another was purchased from an unknown source, and frequently he loaned or hired them out to his neighbors for a moderate compensation. Connecticut had been settled nearly sixty years when Windsor became a con- spicuous and far-reaching influence in the state. Other causes had combined with the first great cause to force a steady stream of immigration to New England, and a consideration of the condition of England from 1680 to 1724 seems neces- sary to a proper understanding of the 57 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE social and political conditions of Windsor. The revels of the court following the Restoration and the sharp alternations of a fluctuating power for a long time per- mitted in England one day free speech and free writing, and on the morrow closed by censorship the press and the voice of con- tributors by imprisonment in the Tower. Persecutions drove men to New England whose hearts were more or less hardened by repeated blows of fortune, so that to properly make just comparisons between various elements in the colonies we must look at the home land. Here a genera- tion had been born. Truly, indeed, it had come to the fullness of its manhood under the impulse which energized and strength- ened the first settlers ; but another genera- tion mingling with the new-comxcrs from England were taking their places among the rank and file, so that the forces in 58 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE church and state were sometimes in a warring and discordant attitude. To cor- rect these the colonies originated a re- markable legislative code, and the names of Ludlow, Haynes, Warren, Edwards, Wolcott, the Ellsworths, Grants, Loom- ises, and a host of Gideons and Barachs, of which time will fail to tell, had assumed the reins of government and massed the forces of a far-reaching Christian civiliza- tion. We must not wonder that there were stern and relentless minds among these colonists, — some of them were fresh from England at a time when London Bridge was ornamented with mouldering heads of state criminals, when there was nothing like a daily paper pub- lished in England, the only source of general information to the people being the occasional news letters and London Gazette, the latter issued two days in a 59 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE week, and timidly venturing to record only such doings of government as a relent- less censorship permitted. So closely su- pervised was it that on November 16, 1685, not a word appears in its columns about the trial and acquittal of the seven bishops. At this time there was scarcely a printer in the kingdom outside of the universities and at the capital, a condition which ex- tended its baleful repression over a quarter of a century, so that in 1724 there were thirty -four counties in England where there was no printer, and of those counties one was Lancashire. The cultivation of the female mind in the seventeenth century, to use the words of Macaulay, "seems to have been almost entirely neglected in England," and even slow as was the communication between the colonies and the mother country, it is impossible for us to believe that the 60 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE effect of this depressing and debasing social condition in England was not keenly felt in the colonies. We turn, therefore, with the more admiration to these men of the wilderness whose school laws, whose pauper laws, whose laws on the domestic relations, whose enactments concerning trade among themselves, constitute a code of admirable proportions. From a day when English masters beat their pupils, and husbands of decent women were not ashamed to whip their wives, when books were in so small a demand in the then prosperous town of Birmingham, Eng- land, that Michael Johnson, father of the noted Samuel Johnson, could supply from a temporary booth in the market-place in a few hours the total demand, we turn with admiration to the wisdom of the Connecticut colonists. The legislature of Connecticut, however, 61 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE had kept a careful watch over and antici- pated any tendency toward extravagance in dress, and on May, 1676, the General Court passed the following act: "Whereas excess in apparel amongst us is unbecom- ing a wilderness condition and a profession of the Gospel whereby the rising genera- tion is in danger to be 'indangered' which practices are testified against in God's holy Word, it is therefore ordered by this Court and authority thereof, that what person whatsoever shall wear gold or silver lace or silver buttons, silk ribbons, or other costly superfluous trimmings, or any bone lace above three shillings per yard, or silk scarfs, the list makers of the respective towns are hereby required to assess such persons so offending, or their husbands, parents or masters under whose government they are, in the list of the states, at 150 pounds each." 62 :■«!.,-' ,-«»«• Detail of the front hall of the Grant House showing Original Furniture and the ancient clock, fnge 74 •tl -^ A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE One may well stop to query what the domestic scene would be in 1910 if the husband were directed specially by law to investigate the exact cost of his wife's wardrobe, and should actually investigate and report to the assessors. The character of the East Windsor population and the multiplicity of its affairs is illustrated by the occupations of some of the more prominent citizens. Deacon Job Drake was a tailor; Samuel Grant, the son of old Matthew Grant, was a carpenter and proprietor of a cider mill; Nathaniel Bissell owned a cider mill and was a ferryman and shoemaker; Peter Mills, Jr., was a tailor; Samuel Elmer was a weaver; Thomas Marshall, a wheel- wright; the local blacksmith was Thomas Burnham; John Wolcott was a brewer; the East Windsor brickmaker was Simon Drake; and later, in 1725, we find that 63 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE Jabez Colt was weaving cloth for Mr. Edwards. Some reference having been made to the difficulty in curbing and restraining the manners of Mr. Edwards' parish, and as the east and west parishes of Windsor were practically identical in this respect, it may be interesting to quote the opinion of Chief Justice Ellsworth, that most distinguished son of old Windsor, who at the age of forty-seven years says, ac- cording to memoranda made by his son, that when he was a boy "all ate upon wooden trenchers, that manners were then coarse and such that would now in many respects prove disgusting, that men in Windsor formerly assembled together in each other's houses and would drink out a barrel of cider in one night." In the year 1741 occurred the remark- able awakening and revival of spiritual 64 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE interest which very generally stirred Mr. Edwards' parish, and at the same time witnessed the strained relations between the pastor and the people regarding mat- ters which at the present day we should consider extremely trivial. When the town was first settled the dangers incident to occasional Indian in- cursions and the difficulty of communica- tion between distantly separated families prevented the development of a close so- cial union, but it is remarkable to observe the fidelity with which these sturdy settlers forced themselves to attend divine service, often under circumstances of actual distress and vast inconvenience. So late as June 30, 1706, Solomon Andross killed one of several Indians who broke into his house. Several attempts were made to divide the parish, and a vast amount of discus- sion, flavored with some printed comments 65 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE in the line of alleged poetry, contributed to keep the matter at fever heat. At the same time Jabez Colt, whom we will re- call as a weaver, mixed up the warp and woof of his complaint in the following metrical wail, to show why the meeting house on the east side of the river was not conveniently located. We select from the fifteen or twenty stanzas one as follows: '^ One other reason yet there is which I will unfold, How many of us suffer much, both by the heat and cold. It is four milds which some of us do go Upon God's holy Sabbath day in times of frost and snow. Two milds we find in Holy Writ a Sabbath day's journey be But wherefore then are we compelled for to go more than three ? " The productive power of this commu- nity is beyond calculation. Its perennial 66 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE streams have fertilized distant and un- known fields, and from an unremitting source of supply through two hundred years have made fruitful waste places touched by their refreshing waters. He who enters into and comes to an understanding of that simple life and its labors, views its sacrifices, and feels the spirit of its aspirations and sympathizes with its toilers, will feel the fullness of its force and stand like a privileged visitor on the threshold of national greatness. We of to-day may well imitate the slow and cautious policy of the fathers. One can scarcely read the humble pream- bles of their early legislation without feel- ings of deep pathos. They left untouched none of the fountains of human blessings, and if at times their legislation is particu- lar and sometimes minute, it was based 67 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE upon the desire that all should share equally in the laws and participate fully in the benefits of civil liberty. The salvation of New England from materialism, and if of New England, of the nation, and if of this nation, then the speedy help for all people, is yet to be found in these her ancient towns, — these abiding places of that stern and magnifi- cent faith which has left its impression on state and national councils. These little churches just now so feebly nourished will yet live to see the refluent force of their generosity return from the Orient to en- large and beautify the places from which it went forth. The Bible holds no uncer- tain place in the hearts of many to-day, and here where once it was a basis and a part of common school instruction, here again New England manhood shall receive a new vitality and the common people 68 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE shall yet hear it gladly. Here the charity that commenced at home in the legisla- tion in 1700 will yet adorn the glorious temple of its ancient faith. It is a false construction of language, a fallacious, a pernicious abandonment of principles, a weakening of every muniment of title to nationality, and a hateful blow at the leaders of our ever-extending civilization when through cowardice or for lack of faith the Bible is shut out of the common schools and closed to the eager and sus- ceptible minds of youth. If these Con- necticut towns suffer to-day any decad- ence, any abatement of their moral force and intellectual strength, it is because they have forgotten the teachings of the fathers and substituted for the simple and direct influence of the Bible upon educa- tion, the evasive, the uncertain, and almost pernicious doctrines of a let-alone policy. 69 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE Let it be restored and made a part of our educational system. Restore it now, be- fore the foundations laid by the fathers crumble into indistinguishable fragments, — restore it and leave its influence without other comment than its benign words carry with them. We send it to the heathen, and rejoice at their coming into the light. We make it the basis of education from Cape Town to the frozen zone. Grand triumphs of the century are based upon it. It is the handmaid of civilization throughout the world. Merchants take it to the Orient; missionaries carry it into every quarter of the globe; we send it by thousands of copies into the dominion of the Sultan; and print it on American presses in Constantinople. We translate it into every language where Christian charity touches mankind, and then stul- tify the work by banishing it from the 70 Rear view of the Ephraim Grant House showing peculiar reinforced chimney Page 78 Present Appearance of the birthplace of Jonathan Edwards, South Windsor, Connecticut. Page 79 One of the old Pitkin Houses in East Hartford, Connecticut. I\ige S5 Burial-place of Timothy Edwards, South Windsor, Connecticut. Page 78 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE schools of our children in this wide and ever-extending domain of the fathers. It was to Connecticut that Daniel Web- ster paid his distinguishing tribute in the United States Senate when he spoke of her as "that State so small in territory but so distinguished for learning and talent, Con- necticut," and at the same time referred to Oliver Ellsworth, her distinguished son, as "a gentleman who had left behind him on the records of his Government and his Country proofs of the clearest in- telligence and of the utmost purity and integrity of character"; and it is worthy of remark that Mr. Ellsworth's bearing and character were such when he was in France that the Emperor Napoleon, then First Consul of France, was so impressed by his meeting with him that he said, "We shall have to make a treaty with that man." 71 n OME reference to the homesteads of the period we are considering may properly close this transient view of the business routine of the colonists. The accompanying illustrations will give a fair idea of the prevailing architecture of the New England homes from about 1700 to the close of the Revolutionary period, as they were then occupied by the people of Old Windsor, east of the Con- necticut River. Among the conspicuous houses of that era was the Captain Aaron Bissell tavern, a picture of which is subjoined. This was a famous place of rendezvous for the or- ganized militia during the Revolutionary 72 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE period, and an order of Colonel Lemuel Stoughton is extant in which they are notified to "rendezvous at Aaron Bissell's tavern." This building was about forty-five feet in length and thirty-five feet in width, with an ell extending to the west, contain- ing the kitchen and living room of the proprietor and his family, over which was the ball room, so-called. The tavern stood on the west side of Main Street, facing the east, at what is now known as East Windsor Hill, and was located on the old stage route from Hartford to Springfield; the route not being wholly discontinued until about 1876, when railroad facilities east of the river did away with this slower method of conveyance. The room in the southeast corner of the building, entered through the portico, was the old tap room or bar room, and was 73 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE fitted in a simple but convenient manner for dispensing the small variety of liquors then handed out to the casual wayfarer. It was open upon the north side and looked out upon an ample lounging room with a wide fireplace and the usual appointments of a colonial inn. Among the substantial houses of the neighborhood was the house built by Ebenezer Grant, and still standing in a good state of preservation on the same side of the street about half a mile below the Bissell tavern. To quote Mr. Grant's own language: "Memorandum for Ma- terials for my House. Began in 1757 and finished in 1758." The accompanying illustration shows the detail of the door- way and the general appearance of the front of the house. The interior finish of the front hall is also shown, the brass clock having been in the old house since 74 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE 1765, and bears date on the brass work, 1670. The substantial character of the work upon the house may be inferred from some items taken from Mr. Grant's ac- count book. Tomas Sad Jr bill for getting stone £9 01s 93^d Math^ Grant do with him 8 08s 2.0 Carting 60 load stone from hill at 5s 15 00 00 9 boatloads stone from ye Falls at 10s viz. 3 days, 4 iq qO Carting 30 load from Scantick at 18d 2 05 00 30 load in my old seller 7 lo 00 3 load Haydens stone and carting and boating I 00 00 Will™ Buckley bill for hewing 23 17 06 71 12 5y2 To digging seller and laying wall 7 00 00 78 12 53^ To ye frame with ye [Lahor] about £40 00s OOd To ye raising, dinner, etc., 5 00 00 Masons bill 29 06 06 Tending mason 4 18 00 34 4 6 To 26000 brick at 20s 26 00 00 To 14000 cedar shingles at 20s 14 00 00 75 10 05 00 4 10 00 97 10 00 8 08 00 19 12 00 6 00 00 7 00 00 : 9 00 00 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMI^IERCE To 2050 cedar clapboards at 5£ To 1500 sawed white pine do at 6£ To 37000 board 10 white pine at 3£ ye rest yallo at 5£ To 14000 lath at 12s To 14 HHd of Ume stone at 28s To a bar' of linseed oyle at 4s per gal. 120 lbs, white lead at lid per lb., and do. Spanish white at 3d per lb. To 3 boxes of window glass at 3£ per box 9 To 16000 8d nails at 9s and 4 lbs. 10s cash for Double tens, 10 00 00 To a bar of tens and 14000 4d nails at 4s and 45000 lath nails at 3s 9 11 00 To brads To Gray's bill of joynering To Aaron Grants for do To Abiel Grant do To Josiah Pinny do To Isaac Clark "1757. Raised my house June 24. Aaron J/^ day to nail lap studs." The Matthew Rockwell house, built before 1750 and, as the story goes, erected by Rockwell as a home for himself and 76 46 11 07 47 19 3 19 6 8 16 07 04 2 09 03 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE prospective bride, who was to have been Mary Edwards, a sister of the renowned Jonathan, presents the peculiarity of hav- ing all the lower sash one row of lights smaller than the upper sash through the whole house, and is the only building in the neighborhood that exhibits that dis- tinguishing feature. In this house the cel- lar was finished on the south side and was about ten by twenty feet in dimension, paved with brick, with a large fireplace in the center, with an oven, — there being no oven, as was ordinarily the case, on the main floor. While some attempt was made at architectural decoration on the exterior of the house, the cornice being very heavy and projecting about twenty inches, the interior finish was exceedingly plain, but substantial. Another old house in the immediate vicinity, known as the Ephraim Grant 77 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE house, stood on the east side of the street, and was removed to make way for a mod- ern structure during the year of 1909. This house was built before 1740, and the two views herewith give a very clear idea of the lean-to building of that period. The ceilings were very low, only about six and one-half feet between joints, and the windows were originally glazed with diamond-shaped panes which gave place during the Revolutionary period to small six by eight glass. A half mile below was the old burial ground, and the tomb in the foreground of the accompanying illustration is that of Rev. Timothy Edwards. The other illustration shows all that remains of the homestead where Jonathan Edwards was born, in 1703. The well- curb in the foreground marks the original well of the homestead. The old house 78 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE stood a little to the northwest of the well and facing Main Street. The building shown in the photograph has no relation whatever to the Edwards' property. A house illustrating very conspicuously the substantial character of the homes of the wealthiest citizens was built by Colonel Joseph Pitkin in 1726, in East Hartford, about four miles below East Windsor Hill. This was constructed after the old scribe rule plan by which each stud or piece of timber was marked or scribed for the particular place it was to occupy. The sills were of oak, forty-one feet long, eight by ten inches, with the wide face laid upon the underpinning. The super- structure, which was thirty by forty-one feet, was supported on oak posts nine by nine inches at the bottom and ten by fifteen inches at the top, being mortised about half- 79 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE way up to receive the cross beams of white oak eight by twelve inches which were heavily tennoned into the posts and se- cured by three one and one quarter inch oak pins. These beams were thirty feet long and carried all the weight of the second floors, without any studding to support them from end to end. The house was entered upon the south side by stepping over the sill on to a floor laid upon loose joists, dropped a sufficient distance so that the floor came a little above the level of the bottom of the sill, the latter being neatly cased and boxed with a plain finish while a double door gave access to the front hall on the east. The cellar was built of stone and oc- cupied a portion of the north half of the building, which faced the east, making a cellar about fifteen by thirty feet. In many old houses the north room was finished 80 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE better than the south room — this was true of the buildings herein mentioned. The interior finish of the rooms was heavy paneHng of native yellow and white pine, a portion of which still remains. The doors were generally of two panels, the upper panels being twenty -two inches wide by thirty-six inches long, the lower about twenty-two inches square, with wide bevels inserted in the gains cut in the center of the framework of the door, which were supported and hung upon wrought-iron H. L. hinges. This house was lathed with rived cedar lath averaging about Ij^ inches in width and 43^ feet long, and was plastered with a mixture of clay and hair, which after being smoothed over was subjected to two or three coats of whitewash. The structure was heated by five large fireplaces, — one opening into the kitchen, 81 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE containing a spacious oven, and the others devoted to the purpose of heating the living room and chambers. Several of the sleeping apartments were furnished with high-post tester beds, the posts of which were mortised into the floor for stability, and extended to the ceiling, supporting a framework from which was draped the heavy curtain which could be drawn to insure warmth and protection from the bitter New England weather. Some idea of the splendid forests which supplied the material for building at that period, may be gathered from the fact that the garret floor of this Pitkin house, which was thirty by forty feet in area, required only twenty-two boards to cover the thirty feet in width, the lumber being about fifteen feet long. The floors were laid with a ship-lap and spiked to the joist by heavy, wrought-iron 82 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COIMMERCE nails. The house was studded with three by four oak studs, mortised into the sills and plates, to which were nailed sheath- ing boards, the edges of the boards being beveled so as to make a tight joint, and then reinforced by an inner sheathing upon which the laths were nailed to receive the inside finish of plaster. The summers, which extended from north to south through the center of the house, were heavily dovetailed into the beams, and were about eight by twelve inches of heavy yellow pine. From- the outside beams to the summers three by four oak joists were laid to support the floor. The main plates were seven inches square, of white oak, forty-one feet long; the upper ends of the posts which were ten by fifteen, were halved and cut down so that the plates dropped in upon the top of the posts and there securely pinned and framed. 83 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE The king rafters, which were five by six inches and about twenty-two feet long, of white oak, were placed edgeways, and each one framed in and over the plate on to the outside portion of the posts which finished even with the plate. About half- way from the plate to the peak of the roof, string-piece rafters, four by five, of white oak, were framed into the king rafters so as to support the ordinary rafters of the roof from the peak to the eaves, and served the purpose of purlin plates. In making some repairs upon the house a stock of clean square edged lumber was removed, measuring fully twenty-six and a half inches in width, indicating the splen- did quality and size of the pine timber that once clothed the uplands and slopes of the lower Connecticut Valley. Over each fireplace a beveled, heavy pine panel about four feet by twenty-six 84 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE inches was framed into the wainscoting, and some of the rooms were ornamented with rude landscape paintings. The garret door was made of two pieces of board rived and split out from native yellow pine. The heavy material of the structure of the house was mostly hewn. The Pitkins in 1684 and later owned saw mill privileges on the Hockanum River from which the finishing lumber was doubtless obtained. Another house located in East Hartford, also originally built by the Pitkins, is shown in the following cut, and is a type of the substantial character of the build- ings which succeeded the original shacks and smaller dwellings of the first settlers. But, after all, the contents of the deserted garrets and dilapidated chambers which remain, furnish the most complete picture of the domestic life of the period. 85 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COIVOIERCE The subjoined illustration is a photo- graph of a letter written by Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth to Mr. Roswell Grant, of East Windsor, and the following memo- randa from the old records are indicative of the homely life of the dwellers in the wilderness. The following quotation from Captain Lemuel Stoughton's papers contains a suggestive bit of pathos as to the strain under which the colonies were laboring after the Revolutionary struggle with the mother country was fully under way: "East Windsor, April 21, 177. "We the Subscribers being convened by orders for ye Great & important purpose of furnishing our Proportion of men for the Continental! Army & notwithstanding the encouragement heretofore made by ye Hon''^' Continental! congress and this State and town; there appears a backwardness we the subscribers therefore considering ye necesaty of our furnishing our coto are willing and promis to pay to Capt. James Harper and Capt. Lemuel 86 iZ ^2'^^ C^'-" fritr , .O^i \ :-^< ■ (-. '". A' 1/ Ln'-^CL -^'i^l. '^;hJL,zr^i'\.CLttqnL CL ttqn L ^ / T;>^:./- Facsimile of letter of Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth to Captain Roswell Grant, of East Windsor, during the sessions of the Constitutional Convention Pag-e S6 ^£Z^^K/C-^ \ ■ L Facsimile of " Pen Knife "Letter of General Washington, /'a^? i A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE Stoughton ye sums we annex to our names Provided there is a number sufficient appears and enlists to make up quota to be required for three years or during the war, and we order sd Harper and Stough- ton to collect forthwith and pay said sums to those so enlisting." Then follow the names of eighty -five resi- dents of East Windsor, including Bissells, Stoughtons, Barbours, Munsills, Aliens, Osborns, Loomises, Stileses, Blodgetts and Priors, the document being endorsed on the back by David Trumbull and John Ellsworth. This sample of what the old garrets of East Windsor now disclose is but a modi- cum of what might have been found by the antiquary fifty years before the remodeling of the old houses and the removal of families had taken place. In a memorandum in Captain Lemuel Stoughton's handwriting, dated at Scantic, the 10th of April, 1776, he itemizes the 87 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE labor in carrying on the manufacture of "Salt Petre," which was used as a basis for the gunpowder supply. However, it is not the particular value of any one item disclosed by the antiquary, but the whole picture of colonial life, as unfolded from these homely records of the ancestors, that is worth preserving. With their perusal comes an ever-growing ven- eration for the men and the women who thought out, molded and transmitted to posterity our fundamental principles of civil, political and religious liberty. To dissociate religion and its salutary influ- ences on the administration of law from law making is a strong tendency of modern times; but it is calculated to undermine the foundations of the magnificent con- stitutional guarantees framed by the colonists in a spirit of reverence for the God of Nations. Indifference to religious 88 A CORNER STONE OF COLONL\L COMMERCE restraint will bring ruinous consequences, a long train of corroding evils upon our civilization, and produce moral wastes throughout our borders. In leaving this little group of state- builders, whose anticipations for the future were seemingly so small compared with the tremendous results of their labor, we can hardly do better than to present a fac-simile of one of General Washington's letters in which he hopes a Mr. Bayley can furnish him with a penknife. It is interesting to note minute particulars of the strong men who made up national life and nurtured its infancy so every word from Washington's pen whether pertaining to questions of government or to the common daily routine should be treasured by all true Americans. Out of the cobwebbed garrets from which we have exhumed the notes of this book, we 89 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE come upon this valuable evidence — that the greatest of Americans was simply and plainly human, again illustrating the fact that great characters are never be- yond the finite needs and daily calls of their humble associates. There was small thought in the minds of the humble craftsmen who built their merchant sloops at the mouth of the Scan- tic that they were founding a commerce looking far beyond the little shallops of that day to the mighty fleet of American merchantmen now bearing that commerce into the ports of farthest India; and still less was the thought in the mind of the country's leader that his urgent demand for a penknife was but the exponent of the tremendous industrial forces which send the products of our country all over the world and challenge mankind to rival them in every branch of material develop- 90 A CORNER STONE OF COLONIAL COMMERCE ment. The attics and the garrets of that period of the Scantic sloop-builders were holding in their keeping records of the mighty forces which now unloosed have made American commerce and American honor a synonym for national integrity in every department of human effort. 91 SEP 20 1911 One copy del. to Cat. Div. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 110 563 2 «