^J^obbiii6 [UJa i L.: .'•o.^n FOR THi; ore DRED AND FfFTiHTH AN;'; FOLK, COMNi^CTiCUr, IN T. o / n^ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/robbinsbattellOOnewy r-^ fobbing fatten PREPARED FOR THE ONE HUN- DRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, NOR- FOLK, CONNECTICUT, IN THE YEAR NINETEEN HUNDRED AND TEN AUG ' 19f( ;^obbin8 Battell UNDER the shadow of this church, in the house built by Joseph Battell in 1799 for the recep- tion of his bride, the daughter of the first minis- ter of this town, was born, on April 9, 1819, Robbins Bat- tell, the seventh of the nine children of Joseph and Sarah Robbins Battell. He was educated at the school of Dr. Hall at Ellington, and was graduated from Yale College in the class of 1839, and married Ellen Ryerson Mills of Newark, New Jersey, their brief married life being spent in the house now known as the Parsonage. After the death of his father the subject of this sketch resided for many years continuously in the ancestral home, and later in New York, caring for family and other interests. He was for many years a member and treasurer of this church, also treasurer of the Greenwoods Turnpike Com- pany, the faithful and gratuitous agent of Yale College in the care of its extensive real estate holdings in northwest- ern Connecticut, Colonel of the Litchfield County Militia, President of the Norfolk Savings Bank, a trustee of the Connecticut Hospital for the Insane at Middletown, a 1:33 immi^m mm corporate member of the American Board for Foreign Missions, President of the Connecticut Historical So- ciety, and for some decades until disqualified by age Judge of Probate for the District of Norfolk, an office in which his judicial temperament and wise counsel com- posed strife and prevented suits at law. He was chosen a delegate to the Peace Congress which was convened at Washington in 1861 to preserve the Union without war, and used every efifort to overcome secession. His was not the vaunting patriotism which proclaimed its fervor by blatant and public proclamation. Without slavish fear of majorities that were in the wrong, truth and right were placed above party and country. The times demanded men of strong minds, great hearts, true r""^ faith, and ready hands, and when war came President Lincoln had no stancher supporter than the peace dele- gate, ready and glad to give his every resource for the defense of the cause he believed to be right. Unofficially he was one of the most trusted advisers of Connecticut's war governor Buckingham, who earnestly solicited him to accept the colonelcy of a regiment, which for family reasons was declined. He served this town for several sessions in the Legislature, and was elected Comptroller of the State, an office he resigned, not feeling that he could conscientiously perform its duties. Several times he was offered nominations equivalent to election for the highest offices in the gift of the State, when nominating conventions still sought men, having not yet descended to the manners and morals of the cockpit. But he early heeded the advice of Henry of England's cardinal min- ister, discharged ambition, the sin by which the angels fell, and enlisted happiness and contentment. A profound lover of nature in its elementary forms, he warmly loved his native hills, and was the first to direct attention to the elevated points of this county, causing roads and paths to be constructed to its moun- tain-tops. With other volunteers, by a long and patient process of hand leveling, the highest point in Connecticut was fixed on Bear Mountain, Salisbury, where many years later the head of the party erected a rough but imposing monument with an inscription omitting his own name and concluding with that of the hard-working mason who had surmounted the difficulties of the situa- tion. Requested by the exploring party to give his name tooneof thehighestmountainsintheState, with character- istic modesty and appreciation he named Mount Brad- ford, in Canaan, in honor of the surveyor of the expedition. The welfare of this town was ever dear to his heart, and he justly deserved the title "Father of Modern Norfolk," given by the press at the time of his death. Under his direction the interior of this church was renovated, the adjoining chapel built, and the town cemetery enlarged and greatly beautified. The Robbins School was founded in honor of the first pastor of this church, with the wise condition that it might be closed by his followers if in their judgment it should at any- time have outlived its usefulness. The unique and monumental manuscript diaries of his uncle Thomas Robbins were edited, printed, and presented to the li- braries of the country. At a large financial loss a hotel was built, tracts of land bought and resold at nominal prices to attract desirable summer settlement. Origi- nally a farmer, he was ever mindful of the needs of this rural community, and bred American, Russian, and Arabian horses of the most renowned families, to better the native stock, and imported from Scotland the first herd of polled Angus cattle brought to America. With the assistance of but a handful of citizens and against a large majority, he fought valiantly for the preserva- tion of the green on which this church stands and faces, when the heavy blight of so-called railway improvement threatened desecration. In this State, Yale University was the largest beneficiary of the gifts givenjn associa- tion with other members of his family. The chapel begun by his brother was completed and later enlarged, the chair of music endowed, leading to the foundation of the present department, several literary scholarships started, and the library enriched by gifts of books on special subjects. Many institutions in the Union bene- fited by his wise philanthropy. Among the first to recog- nize the future value of Tuskegee Institute to civilization and good citizenship, he was in its early history one of its principal and to this day almost unknown benefactor. Greater than all were the little kind acts and charities daily and silently passed between man and man, un- heralded and unsung. As he walked abroad, greeting with equal and gentle courtesy the President of the United States or the humble laborer at the roadside, even strangers involuntarily reached for their hats, the magnetism of his presence, the tones of his voice vibrant with sympathy, revealing that here was a man to be respected, a brother to be loved. Hand in hand with the civic virtues inherited from his ancestor Governor Bradford walked the love of art, the innermost fountain of his life, bequeathed to him by his French ancestor Dr. Francis Le Baron, whose ro- mantic marriage he caused to be recorded in pictorial art by a distinguished painter. Love and knowledge of painting, developed many years after middle life, mani- fested itself by a collection of works by American artists, at one time the largest of this nature in the land. The adviser and inspirer of men of genius, he launched Thomas Hovenden on the career which but for his pre- mature and accidental death might have been one of the greatest in American art. Scores of men and women in every walk of life received education and advice. The dead were not forgotten, as testified by the monument raised by citizens of this State, at his initiative, over the l7l hitherto unmarked, neglected, and forgotten grave of Connecticut's poet Percival, sleeping in the far West. Gifted with that gentle tinge of melancholy which finds lodgment in every poetic soul and which is the principal source of every true musical nature, it was in the making of music, constructive and executive, that Robbins Bat- tell excelled. In college before the days of organs he played the flute in the choir, and was the principal factor in musical matters. For the greater period of his life the devoted chorister of this society, the echoes of his noble bass voice will long linger within these walls. One of the conductors and leading spirits of the Litchfield County Musical Association, organizer and sole sup- porter of the many classical concerts given on Norfolk r^ Green, he laid the foundations for the present flourish- ing musical activities in the county. His compositions have been embodied in many church books ; the stirring choral "Sweet is the Work" has been chosen as the festival hymn of the Litchfield County Choral Union. From the mouths of returning slaves and freedmen he noted the songs of slavery, full of simple faith and pathos, which will bear fruit presently in the work of a celebrated composer. As an authority on bells he was without a peer in this country, always giving expert ad- vice gratuitously. He personally superintended the manufacture and tuning of hundreds of bells, and pre- sented to churches and institutions many peals, including that in the steeple of this building, which rings blessed requiems to his memory in music of his composition. A man is great in a human sense by his material achievements and accomplishments, but the greatest legacy which he leaves to the world is the impress which his high character may have made on his fellows. Robbins Battell was a man of many sides, well possessed of the greatest essentials of true manhood, yet so silent and modest concerning self that an analysis of his char- acter would have been well-nigh impossible had he not unconsciously furnished the key in these words : "Had I my life to live over again, with such slight knowledge as I may have gained, I would become an humble laborer in a primitive and ignorant farming community where by word and example I might perhaps help to raise its mem- bers to a higher standard of life in material and spiritual matters ; and could I but implant one better thought into a single soul, life would not have been lived in vain." Prophets and saints have proclaimed love as the divine attribute; latter-day philosophers have hailed sympathy and gentleness as the great forces which changed the better part of the world two thousand years ago. The character of Robbins Battell was built on humility, use- fulness, sincerity, elimination of self, and, above all, on sympathy, which brought with it an infinite compassion for others akin to holiness. As these attributes waxed strong, the baser elements mixed and molded in him, as in every man, were cast out, and life was dedicated to his fellow-men— the greatest of all religions, that of the Son of God, whom he served, not by creeds or with book and bell, but with the free impulse of his soul. A rare and solitary soul, which may have been sent into this world like that of the man of Assisi and the man of Milan, as an outpost and exponent of the time to come aeons of ages hence, when the earth and all the people thereof shall have been divested of materialism, and spir- itualism shall reign alone over the brotherhood of man. Let us enter for a moment the studio of the author of England's modern creed, "Lead, kindly Light," as the great limner of character paints in words : "It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say he is one who never in- flicts pain. He is mainly occupied in merely removing the obstacles which hinder the free and unembarrassed actions of those about him, and he concurs with their movements rather than take the initiative himself. His benefits may be considered as parallel to what are called nature— like an easy-chair or a good fire, which do their share in dispelling cold and fatigue, though nature pro- vides both rest and animal heat without them. The true gentleman in a like manner avoids whatever may cause a jar or a jolt in the minds of those with whom he is cast — all clashing of opinion, or collision of feeling, all re- straint, or suspicion, or gloom, or resentment— his great concern being to make every one at their ease and at home. He has his eyes on all his company, he is tender toward the bashful, gentle toward the distant, and merci- ful toward the absurd; he can recollect to whom he is speaking; he guards against unseasonable allusions, or topics which may irritate; he is seldom prominent in conversation and never wearisome. He makes light of favors while he does them, and seems to be receiving when he is conferring. He never speaks of himself, ex- cept when compelled, never defends himself by a mere retort, he has no ears for slander or gossip, is scrupulous in imputing motives to those who interfere with him, and interprets everything for the best. He is never mean or little in his disputes, never takes unfair advan- tage, never mistakes personalities or sharp sayings for arguments, or insinuates evil which he dares not say out. From a long-sighted prudence he observes the maxim of the ancient sage, that we should ever conduct ourselves toward our enemy as if he were one day to be our friend. He has too much good sense to be affronted at insults, he is too well employed to remember injuries, and too indolent to bear malice. Nowhere shall we find greater candor, consideration, and indulgence. He is a friend of religious toleration, and that not only because his philosophy has taught him to look on all forms of faith with an impartial eye, but also from the gentleness and effeminacy of feeling which is attendant on civilization. He is patient, forbearing, and resigned on philosophical ■mmmm principles ; he submits to pain because it is inevitable, to bereavement because it is irreparable, and to death be- cause it is his destiny." This was the man, thus he lived and thus he died in the early hours of the twenty-sixth day of January, 1895, in the house where he was born. Sustained to the very parting of the ways by that supreme intellectual vigor which had been his in the trials and sorrows of life, with mercy in his heart and charity on his lips, his last words, like those of the lonely man of Nazareth on the cross, were not for self, but for the welfare of others. A simple stone marks his place of rest. On it is graven his truest memorial— two words, which in the pigments of the stars he wrote on the hearts of his fellow-men; Robbins Battell. D23 r^ LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS niinvi 014 076 184 9 ,