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HARTrORD IN HiSTOPY, 
 
 A SCRIES or PAPERS 
 
 RESIDENT 7\UTHOR5. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 V 
 
 WILLIS I. TWITCH ELL, 
 
 PRINCIPAL OF THE ARSENAL SCHOOL, 
 
 HARTEORD, CONN. 
 

 26851 
 
 Copyrighted, 1899, by 
 Willis I. Twitchell. 
 
 TWO OOPIKS RECSIVBD, 
 
 HARTFORD: 
 Press of The Plimpton Mfg. Co. 
 
 ':^ ^ 
 
of 
 
 flDr- ifrebedch f. Barrowe, 
 
 wbo for fort^stwo isears wag 
 tbe iprincipal of tbe 
 
 3Brown Scbool, Ibarttorb, 
 
 tbis book is 
 
 2lfEcctionateli2 2)ct)tcatcD. 
 
 ^/^ 
 
^ CONTENTS. ^ 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction 9 
 
 Table of Anniversary Dates 12 
 
 The Geographj^ and Geology of Hartford 13 
 
 By W. H. C. Pynchon. 
 
 The Indians of Hartford and Vicinity 23 
 
 By Willis I. Twitchell. 
 
 The Dutch in Hartford 39 
 
 By Charles F. Johnson. 
 
 Thomas Hooker and the Settlement of Hartford 49 
 
 By WiLLisTON Walker. 
 
 Hartford the Birthplace of the Written Constitution... 66 
 By Joseph H. Twichell. 
 
 Social Lifie and Customs 82 
 
 By Edwin P. Parker. 
 
 Hartford the Keeper of Connecticut's Charter 99 
 
 By W. DeLoss Love. 
 
 Hartford the Capital 117 
 
 By Henry C. Robinson. 
 
 Hartford in Literature 134 
 
 By Annie Eliot Trumbull. 
 
The Public Buildings of Hartford ; 156 
 
 By Caroline M. Hkwins. 
 
 Manufactures in Hartford 170 
 
 By P. Henry Woodward. 
 
 Historic Places in Hartford 184 
 
 B3' Arthur L. Shipman. 
 
 (See Map of Hartford, 1639-1798, facing page 9, prepared 
 especially for the above article, by A. L. Washburn, 
 , Del.) 
 
 The Influence of Hartford in Public Affairs 197 
 
 By Charles Hopkins Clark. 
 
 Hartford in the Revolution 207 
 
 By Mary K. Talcott. 
 
 Hartford in the Civil War 221 
 
 By Ira E. Forbes. 
 
 Our City Government 235 
 
 By William Waldo Hyde. 
 
 The Duties of Citizenship 250 
 
 By Charles Dudley Warner. 
 Index 259 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 HARTFORD is rich in a history profitable for 
 study. This is fully recognized in the an- 
 nals of our county, state and nation, and 
 in the writings of our best historians. 
 
 If the material found in these larger works 
 were adapted to the use of schools, there would 
 be little excuse for this book. But it is not, and 
 the purpose of the authors of '' Hartford in His- 
 tory " has been to tell the story of our city's life 
 in a way to interest and instruct the young. 
 
 Primarily it is intended as a reading book 
 for the school room, but that will make it none 
 the less valuable in the family circle. The chil- 
 dren of to-day are ' ^ reading to learn ' ' as well 
 as learning to read, and whatever is profitable 
 for them will be of interest and value to the 
 adult. To him, the teacher, and the advanced 
 pupils of the class, the bibliography given ^11 
 be suggestive of a broader course of reading. 
 
 Local history, as one of the studies of a pub- 
 lic school curriculum, has a double value. It 
 forms a logical basis for the study of the broad- 
 
1639 - 
 
 F< 
 
 QOHMl 
 
 I 
 
 Or/yifta/ tiifhwo/s art shewn in HCAVY LINCS 
 ana /ti^hy^ays /»ta out since /S39, nvith aofc 
 ef /oyot/f, /n OOTTCD U/^eS. 
 
 >.z,. w asihbum , pel. 
 
 £as«il upon, suruei/ of 
 
Hartford's Anniversary Days* 
 
 November 9, 1635— Arrival of the Adventurers. 
 
 May 10, 1637— Departure of Troops for Pequot War. 
 
 Janttary J4, J639— Framing of the First Written Constitu- 
 tion. 
 
 April 23, 1662— Charter granted by Charles II. 
 
 October % J662— Charter received and Hartford made 
 Capital by Legislative Act. 
 
 October 31, J687— Charter hidden in the Oak. 
 
 June 29, J775— Washington's First Visit to Hartford, com- 
 memorated by Tablet on Wadsworth Elm. 
 
 September 2t, J 780— Meeting of Washington and Rocham- 
 beau. 
 
 May 29, J 784— City Charter granted by the State Legisla- 
 ture. 
 
 December IJ, J 844— Anaesthesia discovered by Dr. Horace 
 Wells. 
 
 September J7, J879— Battle-Flag Day. 
 
The Geography and Geology of Hartford. 
 
 By W. H. C. Pynchon. 
 
 THE eastern and the western portions of the 
 State of Connecticut contain little that is 
 of great geographical or geological interest 
 as compared with the central portion— the re- 
 gion in which Hartford hes. The rugged hills 
 which compose the western, and, in a lesser de- 
 gree, the eastern area, are formed of rocks re- 
 sembling in many respects the group to which 
 granite belongs— rocks which are very ancient, 
 dating far back into the early history of the 
 world. The riyers which flow among these hills 
 haye open yalleys, showing that the portion of 
 the land above sea-level has been practically un- 
 changed for ages. But in the central portion of 
 the State these ancient highlands sink down 
 into a broad trough running from Long Island 
 Sound far up into Massachusetts, and this 
 trough is filled with rocks of much later date— 
 whose history is one of the most interesting to 
 be found in the great book of nature. 
 
 Long ago, before man lived upon the earth, 
 —when huge reptile forms, long since utterly 
 
 13 
 
14 Hartford in History. 
 
 passed away, clambered over the hills or 
 roamed along the muddy shores, — this trough 
 was filled by a great lake or an arm of the sea. 
 Into its quiet Avaters ran streams from the sur- 
 rounding hills, bringing down into the lake mud 
 and sand from the land over which the^^ flowed. 
 These sank to the bottom and formed there 
 beds of sand and clay. 
 
 Then a strange thing happened. Some- 
 where in this region, which is now so peaceful, a 
 volcano burst forth and rolled floods of molten 
 lava over the whole area. This lava turned 
 much of the water of the lake into steam, and, 
 spreading itself over the beds of land-waste at 
 the bottom, there cooled and hardened into 
 rock. Three times and more has the lake lain 
 in the trough, its bottom covered by beds of 
 cla^^ and sand, and three times has the lava 
 overflowed the region, for we find now in cen- 
 tral Connecticut three great sheets of volcanic 
 "trap" — as the rock is called — lying one above 
 another, each one resting on beds of clay, sand 
 or pebbles, now hardened into rocks known 
 respectively as "shale," "sandstone" and 
 ' ' conglomerate. ' ' 
 
 Now, how^ can we see these three layers of 
 lava, if they lie one above another? How is it 
 
The Geography and Geolog}' of Hartford. 15 
 
 that we can see more than the top one, even if 
 we should find that there is no land-waste on 
 top of that? It is in some such way as this: 
 Long after the last lava had hardened, the re- 
 gion w^as greatly disturbed and everything w^as 
 tilted, so that the sheets of lava and the rocks 
 lying between them, instead of hang horizontal, 
 sloped strongly to the east. Since then there 
 has been great wearing away of the land b^^ the 
 w^eathering of the rocks, and the streams have 
 carried away the land-waste to the sea. But 
 the trap is much harder than the sandstone 
 and shale, so that it stands up above the coun- 
 try in high ridges running north and south. At 
 the time that the rocks were tilted, thej^ were 
 also greatly broken, so that vast fragments — 
 miles in length — have beefi separated from each 
 other in different' parts of central Connecticut. 
 But for all this, the geologist finds plainly that 
 these fragments belong to three different sheets 
 of lava, w^hich mark three different periods of 
 volcanic action. 
 
 And now it may be justh^ asked, where in 
 the vicinity of Hartford can be found any of 
 these things which have been described? The 
 eastern side of the trough is to be seen in the 
 range of hills that forms the eastern horizon as 
 
16 Hartford in History 
 
 far as the e^^e can see. They are perhaps the 
 nearest at South Glastonbtir3^, and the visitor 
 will quickly see that their rocks are very differ- 
 ent from any to be found in the city of Hart- 
 ford. The western edo^e is to be recognized in 
 the great range of hills which runs on the west 
 of Southington, Plain ville and Simsbury, and 
 ^which ma3' be plainly seen from Talcott Moun- 
 tain. 
 
 The second volcanic eruption v^as apparent- 
 h^ the greatest, for it left a sheet of lava which 
 is in some places 500 feet thick. It is the up- 
 turned edge of this great sheet which forms the 
 various "mountains" of central Connecticut. 
 Good examples of these are Newgate Mountain, 
 where ''Old Newgate" prison is located; Tal- 
 cott Mountain; Farmington Mountain; the 
 ''Hanging Hills" of Meriden ; Lamentation 
 Mountain, northeast of Meriden; Durham 
 range, including Higby and Beseck Mountains 
 and "Three Notches;" Totoket Mountain, in 
 North Guilford, and Pond Rock, which is cut by 
 the Shore Line Railroad at Lake Saltonstall. 
 East and West Rocks, at New Haven, cannot be 
 reckoned among these, as their history seems to 
 be somewhat different from that of any of the 
 mountains mentioned. 
 
The Geography and Geology of Hartford. 17 
 
 Excellent examples for study may be found 
 within the city limits. Cedar Mountain, or 
 Newington Mountain, as it is sometimes called, 
 is probably a part of the second sheet of lava, 
 like the other mountains mentioned, while the 
 ridge on w^hich Trinit3^ College stands probably 
 belongs to the lava sheet formed by the third 
 eruption. At this place the city stone quarries 
 have laid bare the rocks, so that a careful study 
 can be made of both the trap and the shale 
 which lies under it. The floor of the quarry is 
 composed of the shale which was once mud or 
 clay, but has long since been hardened into 
 rock. In these rocks may be found the rain 
 prints and ripple marks \\^hich were made upon 
 the mud ages ago, before the lava rolled over 
 the region. As you go up the face of the cliff 
 you find where the great mass of lava or 
 '' trap," as it is commonly called, lies on top of 
 the shale, and at the point of contact of the 
 two you can see abundant steam-holes made by 
 the steam which was formed \vhen the fiery 
 mass rolled over the wet mud. 
 
 It may perhaps be asked what creatures 
 lived in those days ? Were there any fish in the 
 v^aters? Were there any animals upon the 
 land? There \v^ere fish, apparently much like 
 
18 Hartford in History. 
 
 those of the present time. In the rocks at a 
 number of places, notably at Westfield, at the 
 north end of Higby Mountain, and at Totoket 
 Mountain, in North Guilford, abundant scales of 
 fishes are found and in man3^ cases the remains 
 of the complete fishes so fully preserved that 
 they can be studied and described. But perhaps 
 the most remarkable remains of life, those which 
 are certainly the most famous, are the so-called 
 "Connecticut River Bird Tracks." These are 
 foot-marks left in the mud of the ancient shores 
 by the creatures that roamed over them long 
 ago. The mud has long since hardened into 
 shale, but the foot-marks remain intact to the 
 present time. They are found in various parts 
 of the valle3^, but probably' the most famous 
 localities are Turner's Falls, in Massachusetts, 
 and the great sandstone quarries at Portland, 
 Connecticut. 
 
 The tracks in many cases resemble those of 
 turkeys, but are often as much as a foot in 
 length. Careful study, however, shows that 
 the3^ belonged, not to birds, but to huge reptile 
 forms. Some of these appear to have walked 
 almost entirely upon their hind legs, since the 
 prints left by the small fore feet are onh^ occa- 
 sionallj^ found. The most famous collection of 
 
The Geography and Geolog}- of Hartford. 19 
 
 these tracks is to be seen at Amherst College. 
 Yale and Wesleyan universities have also excel- 
 lent collections, and some very good specimens 
 are to be seen at Trinity College. 
 
 There is one special localit\^ in the vicinity of 
 Meriden which should not be left unmentioned. 
 It is well known that in the early stages of a 
 great volcanic eruption vast quantities of ashes, 
 or, rather, fine dust, are thrown into the air 
 from the crater. These settle again to the 
 earth, sometimes at great distances, but they 
 fall thickest in the neighborhood of the volcano. 
 It was under such ashes that the city of Pom- 
 peii, at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, was buried. 
 Sometimes, also, blocks of half-molten rock are 
 cast into the air, falling to earth again among 
 the ashes. The overflow of lava is normally 
 one of the later phenomena of an eruption. At 
 a place in the low ridge in front of Lamentation 
 Mountain, now known far and wide as the Ash 
 Bed, this -whole story of an eruption may be 
 seen written in the rocks. At this place is a 
 great bed of volcanic ashes, now hardened into 
 a gray rock, and among them may be seen the 
 masses of rock which were cast out, red-hot and 
 smoking, by the forgotten volcano of long ago, 
 while above the whole lies the lava-sheet that 
 
20 Hartford in History. 
 
 \vas spread over the whole when the first iwry of 
 the eruption had subsided. The weathering and 
 the changes of the rocks have laid bare the 
 whole record, and it may be read plainl3' in the 
 low cliff which lies on the east of the New Haven 
 turnpike, about two and' a half miles north of 
 Meriden. There is some reason to believe that 
 the location of one, at least, of the ancient vol- 
 canoes Avas at Mount Carmel, north of New 
 Haven. Later investigation, however, offers a 
 second possible explanation of this locality. 
 
 Long after the days of the volcanic action — 
 when the surface of the land had assumed much 
 of its present form, but still ages ago— in the 
 time known as the Glacial Period, the region, in 
 common with nearh^ all the northern United 
 States, was covered by a great sheet of ice. The 
 ice moved steadily southward, grinding down 
 the surface of the country and carrying on the 
 rock -waste with it in its resistless march. 
 When finally the ice melted away, it left this 
 waste scattered everywhere, and it may now be 
 seen in the vast quantities of gravel and sand 
 that overspread the whole region. It is only 
 where the rocks project through this blanket of 
 waste, or where we dig down to them, that we 
 are able to study the real underlying structure 
 
The Geography and Geology of Hartford. 21 
 
 of the region. A good example of the scratches 
 which the glacier made upon the rocks as it 
 passed over them may be seen at the head of 
 Vernon street, in Hartford, just north of the 
 steps that lead down to Zion street. 
 
 Such is a very brief description of the won- 
 derfully interesting region in which Hartford 
 lies. This chapter gives but the barest outlines 
 of the strange history through which the area 
 seems to have passed. Therefore, for the use of 
 those who desire to follow the subject still 
 farther, there is appended a list of some few 
 publications on the subject which may prove 
 helpful. 
 
 PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 For a brief description of the geological 
 structure and history of the region, and for brief 
 notes on the fossil remains of fish : 
 
 Two Belts of Fossiliferous Black Shale in the Trias- 
 sic Formation of Connecticut. By W. M. Davis and 
 S. Ward Leper. Bulletin of the Geological Society of 
 America. Vol. II., pp. 415-430. 
 
 For an exhaustive account of the same : 
 
 The Structure of the Triassic Formation of the Con- 
 necticut Valley. By William Morris Davis. Seventh 
 Annual Report of the U. S. Geological Survev, 1888; pp. 
 461-490. 
 
22 Hartford in History. 
 
 Fossil Fishes and Fossil Plants of the Triassic Rocks 
 OF New Jersey and the Connecticut Valley. By 
 John S. Newburv. Monographs of the U. S. Geological 
 Survey. Vol. XIV. 
 
 Also: 
 The Ash Bed at Meriden and its Structural Relations. 
 Bv W. AI. Davis. Proceedings of the Meriden Scientific 
 Association. Vol. III., 1889, pp. 23-30. 
 
 For an explanation of geological terms : 
 LeConte's Compend of Geology. 
 
The Indians of Hartford and Mcinitv. 
 
 By Willis I. Twitchell. 
 
 WHEN I was a schoolboy, nothing interested 
 me more than the few stories about In- 
 dians which my reading books contained. 
 I liked to go with these children of the wood in 
 imagination as they traveled the forest trail in 
 search of game, shot the rapids in their frail 
 canoes, and at nightfall sat by the camp fire and 
 ate their meal of venison and fish. 
 
 The fleet-footed Uncas, running the gauntlet 
 or enduring with contemptuous scorn the suffer- 
 ings inflicted upon him b^^ his enemies ; Hiaw^a- 
 tha, the playmate of the tenants of the wood, as 
 he '' learned their names and all their secrets," 
 and the gentle-hearted Pocahontas, were to me 
 the heroes of a people whose strange life I liked 
 tostud3^ This is doubtless true of most school- 
 bo3^s, and it is hoped that this story of the In- 
 dians, who long 3^ears ago had their wigwams 
 where some of your houses are now, will be of 
 interest to the boys and girls of Hartford. 
 
 It is true that the Indians do not occup^^ a 
 large or very important place in the history of 
 
 23 
 
24 Hartford in History. 
 
 Hartford. This place was not the camping 
 ground of a Massasoit, did not suffer the mid- 
 night attack, the destruction of property and 
 the terrible slaughter of men, women and chil- 
 dren at the hands of the murderous Indian with 
 his torch and scalping knife, as did the towns 
 of Schenectad3^, Deerlield and Haverhill. But 
 there Avere Indians here, and Hartford was sur- 
 rounded by numerous hostile, warlike tribes, who 
 were a continual menace to her existence. 
 
 The reasons for her escape from a general 
 massacre are doubtless to be found in the hon- 
 orable treatment shown the Indians by the first 
 settlers of Hartford in purchasing their lands, 
 the wise forethought of her founders in making 
 laws to regulate trade between the Indian and 
 the white man, and their precaution to provide 
 an efficient watch and a guard against the mid- 
 night assault of these treacherous enemies. Cer- 
 tain it is that a satisfactory^ knowledge 'of the 
 history of Hartford must include the Indian. 
 
 When the Rev. Thomas Hooker and his 
 -partj came here in June, 1636, thcA- v^^ere wel- 
 comed by the occupants of the region, who were 
 known as the River Indians. This may seem 
 strange to you. The histories teach that the 
 Indian was the enemy of the v^hite man and 
 
The Indians of Hartford and Vicinity. 25 
 
 that during the Pequot and King Philip's wars 
 he tried to exterminate the EngHshman from 
 the land. Then wh3^ should the red man of 
 Suckiaug — for that was the Indian name of the 
 place we now call Hartford — welcome Thomas 
 Hooker? It was not because of love for his 
 w^hite neighbor over in the Massachusetts Ba\^ 
 Colony that he wished him to come here and 
 settle. 
 
 Then whj^? Let me tell you, for in the an- 
 swer to this question you will get a partial in- 
 sight into the Indian policy of the founders of 
 Hartford and learn how your forefathers wisely 
 made use of the condition of affairs that was 
 the cause of the welcome in making these first 
 owners of the soil serve them in their work of 
 colonization. 
 
 At first you will need to know the names 
 and location of some of the tribes and clans in 
 and about Hartford. The historian often uses 
 the name River Indians when referring to the 
 first inhabitants of this valley. The Indian 
 name for this tribe was Sequins. Their territory 
 was along both sides of the river, extending 
 from Haddam to a short distance above Wind- 
 sor. The chief sachem of this tribe was Sow- 
 heag, whose seat of government w^as first at 
 
26 Hartford in History. 
 
 Wethersfield and later located nearMiddletown. 
 This tribe was divided into sub-tribes, or clans, 
 each of which had its sagamore, who was sub- 
 ject to the chief sachem, Sowheag. The present 
 site of Hartford was occupied by the Suckiaug* 
 Indians. They were one of the sub-tribes of the 
 Sequins, and Sequassen, son of Sowheag, was 
 their sachem. 
 
 South of Hartford were the Mattabesets 
 and Wongunks; on the north, the Mattanag or 
 Windsor Indians ; the Tunxis clan, a sub-tribe 
 of the Suckiaug Indians, occupied the present 
 site of Farmington and vicinity; and to the east, 
 across the river, lived the Podunks and the Hoc- 
 canum Indians. These were the tribes who wel- 
 comed the white men to this valley and sold 
 them their lands during the first half of the sev- 
 enteenth century. 
 
 How many \vere there ? Writers who are 
 considered authorities on this subject differ as to 
 the size of the Indian population at this date. 
 One says that the River tribes could furnish two 
 thousand bowmen in 1670, and, of course, a 
 larger number at the earlier date of 1636. An- 
 
 *This name has a variety- of spellings — Sekioge, Sicaog, Suck 
 iage and Suckiaug. I have selected the orthography that con- 
 forms nearest to the Indian word it is derived from — sucki-auke — 
 which, according to Dr. J. H. Trumbull, means black earth, the 
 color of the soil of the Hartford meadows. 
 
\ 
 
 The Indians of Hartford and Vicinity. 27 
 
 other authority considens that six hundred war- 
 riors for the River Indians is a Hberal estimate. 
 This would make an Indian population of about 
 three thousand for the valley. But this, even, is 
 possibly too large an estimate, as the same 
 writer states that the entire aboriginal popula- 
 tion of the State could not have been more than 
 seven thousand. 
 
 And now that you have learned the names 
 and location of the clans of the Sequins, or River 
 Indians, their relation to each other and their 
 approximate numbers, let us consider the rela- 
 tion of this tribe to the other tribes of the State 
 and bordering States, for therein lies the cause 
 of the Indians' v^elcome to the white man. Had 
 you lived in Hartford, or Suckiaug, as it was 
 called at the time of w^hich we are writing, 
 you might have seen coming over the western 
 hills two old chieftains. Following them, you 
 would have seen these chieftains go to the sa- 
 chems of the different tribes along the river and 
 receive from each one a quantity of w^ampum. 
 Then you would have seen them turn westward 
 again and continue their march until the^^ had 
 reached the banks of the Hudson. Who were 
 these Indians and why did the Sequins yield so 
 readily to their demand for wampum ? 
 
28 Hartford in History. 
 
 They were representatives of the Mohawks, 
 a nation of the great Iroquois family, the most 
 powerful in war of all the Indians of eastern 
 North America. They had come to collect trib- 
 ute, for the Mohawks had defeated the Sequins 
 in battle and held them in subjection. To have 
 refused the payment of the tribute would have 
 meant war, defeat and destruction of their wig- 
 v^^ams, and the Sequins knew it. 
 
 And then you might have seen other chief- 
 tains coming from the opposite direction, whose 
 journey' had not been so long but whose mission 
 v^^as the same. They came from the powerful 
 Pequots, a branch of the Algonquin family, 
 whose seat of government, previous to the com- 
 ing of the white man, had been near Avhere 
 Albany now stands and^vhere they were knowm 
 as the Mohegan tribe. They had been driven 
 from their camping ground on the Hudson by 
 the more powerful Moha\vks and had taken 
 forcible possession of the Thames valley in this 
 State. The Pequots (destroA^ers or ravagers) 
 were fierce fighters, as their new name implies, 
 and in three successive battles they had defeated 
 the Sequins. Thus the Sequins were under trib- 
 ute both to the Mohawks and the Pequots. 
 They needed aid, and therefore thcA^ welcomed 
 
The Indians of Hartford and Vicinity. 29 
 
 the white man and sold him their land, for, ac- 
 cording to the Indian laws of warfare, the white 
 man who purchased their lands became their 
 ally. 
 
 But do not draw the conclusion that the In- 
 dians' need was the cause of the w^hite man's 
 coming to Suckiaug. He had other motiYCS 
 than those of philanthropy, although they w^ere 
 not antagonistic to the Indians' welfare. The 
 soil of the valle^^ was fertile, the fur trade of the 
 Indians profitable, and the Dutch, the rivals of 
 the English, who had made a settlement at 
 Suckiaug previous to the coming of the Hooker 
 party, w^ere destined to become the owners of 
 this fertile valley unless the English moved in 
 and occupied it. There were other reasons why 
 Mr. Hooker and his followers came here to 
 establish a nev^ settlement in the wilderness, but 
 thory will be given in other chapters. It is ours 
 to stud3^ the Indian and his relation to the first 
 settlers of Hartford. 
 
 It is gratifying to know that our forefathers 
 came into possession of their new home lands by 
 honorable purchase rather than by forcible 
 seizure. What the compensation was for these 
 lands-, nov^ so valuable, we know not, but it 
 probably consisted of cloth, axes, knives, kettles 
 
30 Hartford in History. 
 
 and fancy ornaments, articles of little value to 
 the English, but highly prized by the Indians. 
 The transfer of titles to this valuable site was 
 legal and just, according to the Englishman's 
 standard of justice, but no doubt he drove a 
 sharp bargain with the unlettered savage. 
 
 The boundaries of the land thus purchased 
 were nearly the same as those of Hartford of the 
 present day, except on the west, where the line 
 was six miles from the Connecticut River. The 
 Rev. Samuel Stone and Elder William Goodwin 
 acted as agents for theproprietorsof the colony, 
 ninet3'-seven in number, and made the purchase 
 direct from Sequassen, sachem of the Suckiaug 
 Indians. The original deed has been lost, but a 
 renewal for it, made in 1670, for a further con- 
 sideration " to near the value the land was 
 esteemed at before the EngHsh came into these 
 parts," is still preserved and may be found at 
 the library of the Historical Society. 
 
 Although Edmund Andros said: "A title 
 acquired from the Indians of unoccupied lands, 
 nominally conveyed to sharp whites, was no 
 better than the scratch of a bear's paw," yet 
 this deed, like the famous charter, survived his 
 royal government of 1687 and became the basis 
 of all future transfers of these lands. The Indi- 
 
The Indians of Hartford and Vicinity. 31 
 
 ans were removed to the South Meadows, the 
 same place allotted to them b^^ the Dutch. For 
 you must remember that the Dutch were here 
 before the English and that they, too, had pur- 
 chased the land from the Indians. However, it 
 was not from the Suckiaug tribe, but from their 
 conquerors, the powerful Pequots, that the 
 Dutch had secured their title to these lands. 
 
 And now, from this complicated state of 
 affairs, j^ou are certainly beginning to get an in- 
 sight into some of the causes of thePequot war. 
 The settlement of Hartford by the English, like 
 that of Windsor and Wethersfield and the build- 
 ing of the fort at Saybrook, had been made 
 without consulting the Pequots. Their enemies, 
 a weak tribe under tribute to them, had sold to 
 the English their lands and thus secured them 
 as allies. Unless the English could be exter- 
 minated from the valle3^, this meant that the 
 Pequots must lose their tribute from the Se- 
 quins and become subjects themselves to the 
 English. Murder and pillage began before the 
 colony was a j^ear old. ' Wethersfield, being 
 more accessible to the Pequot country, suffered 
 the most. There nine men were murdered and 
 tv^o girls carried into captivity bySassacus and 
 his warriors. 
 
32 Hartford in History. 
 
 A complete narrative of the Pequot war be- 
 longs to the larger history of the State, Here 
 we can speak only of Hartford's part in it. Of 
 the ninety" men sent to this war b^^ the three 
 river towns, Hartford furnished fort^^-two. The 
 Rev. Samuel Stone, assistant pastor of the Cen- 
 ter church, was the chaplain. Seventy friendly 
 Indians, led by the Mohegan chief, Uncas, went 
 as allies to the English, but little reliance could 
 be placed in them. 
 
 It was from Hartford that this little army 
 of one hundred and sixty started on its voyage 
 down the river in pink, shallop, pinnace and In- 
 dian canoes. This was the first of many similar 
 occasions when the people of Hartford have as- 
 sembled to witness the departure of her brave 
 sons for war, but none could have been more 
 solemn and impressive than this home leaving 
 of May 10th, 1637. Gathered on the river front 
 ere the mothers, wives and kindred of the 
 soldiers ; in the boats, laden with provisions and 
 implements of Avar, v^^ere the volunteers and 
 their Indian allies, all with bowed heads, w^hile 
 the Rev. Thomas Hooker commended them to 
 divine protection and bade the little army ''in 
 martial power to fight the battles of the Lord 
 and of his people." 
 
7'he Indians of Hartford and Vicinity. 33 
 
 Those were dark days for the infant settle- 
 ment, and the demand for courage, self-sacrifice 
 and wise management upon this little company 
 of pioneers in a strange land was great. The 
 departure of a majority of their able-bodied 
 men, their equipment in provisions and arms, 
 left the women and children open to an attack 
 by the lurking savage and called upon them to 
 exercise the strictest of economy. 
 
 But the war was waged to a successful 
 issue, the Pequots were exterminated and the 
 proprietors of the town showed their apprecia- 
 tion of the valiant service of the forty-two men 
 who went to the war by granting to them a 
 tract of twenty-eight acres of land, the allot- 
 ment to each individual being made according 
 to his rank, term of service, and possibly for 
 meritorious conduct in the field. It was known 
 as ^Soldiers' Field ; was bounded on the east by 
 the North Meadow creek and extended noi h 
 from the foot of Pleasant street to a point a 
 little above Canton street, at an average width 
 of thirtv-five rods. It is believed that this is the 
 
 *See paper, "Soldiers' Field and Its Original Proprietors," by 
 Mr F. H. Parker, at library of State Historical Society. 
 
 When at the librarv, ask to be shown the sword with which 
 Sergeant William Hayden is said to have cut an Indian's bow 
 string as he was about to shoot Captain John Mason. 
 
34 Hartford in Historj-. 
 
 first bounty paid to American soldiers for ser- 
 vice in AA^ar. 
 
 If you had lived in Hartford the next year 
 after the close of the war and gone to the meet- 
 ing house September 21st, you would have seen 
 a notable gathering of Indian chiefs and repre- 
 sentative members of the English colonists of 
 Connecticut. The Narragansett and Mohegan 
 Indians, who were allies of the English in the 
 w^ar, could not agree as to the disposition of the 
 Pequot prisoners. The convention was called 
 for the purpose of making a covenant between 
 the two tribes and the colonists. Miantonomi 
 represented the Narragansetts and Uncas was a 
 delegate from theMohegans. John Haynes and 
 Edward Hopkins, the first and second governors 
 of the colony-, respectiveh^ both residents of 
 Hartford, and Roger Ludlow, were empowered 
 to act for the colonists. The following terms of 
 agreement will show 3-ou that the white man 
 not onh^ became the Indian's victor in battle 
 but his arbitrator and lawmaker in civil life. 
 They provide : 
 
 1. ''That there shall be peace between the 
 tribes, and all former injuries and wrongs of- 
 fered each other remitted and buried." 
 
 2. "That if further wrong be committed by 
 
The Indians of Hartford and Vicinity. 35 
 
 either party they shall not revenge them, but 
 shall appeal to the English, who shall decide be- 
 tween them. If either party refuse to abide by 
 the decision, the English may compel submis- 
 sion." 
 
 3. '' The tribes mentioned agree to bring in 
 the chief sachem of the Pequots ; and for the 
 murderers known to haye killed the English, 
 they shall as soon as they can possibly take off 
 their heads." 
 
 4. ' ' Provides for the division of the Pequot 
 prisoners, who shall no more be called Pequots, 
 but Narragansetts and Mohegans." 
 
 But this did not end the trouble. The Nar- 
 ragansett plot of 1642 compelled our Hartford 
 forefathers again to renew their watchfulness 
 and strengthen their defenses against the In- 
 dians. It was discovered that the Sequins and 
 the Narragansetts had combined to destroy the 
 English. The General Court ordered that com- 
 munication be opened with the Bay colony for 
 the purpose of securing their aid ; that the clerk 
 be ordered to inspect the arms of the Train 
 Band ; that the inhabitants shall not allow any 
 Indians to come into their houses ; that the 
 magistrate alone may admit a sachem to his 
 house and he must not have more than two men 
 
36 Hartford in History. 
 
 with him ; and that a guard of fort^^ armed men 
 shall attend ever^^ Sabbath and lecture-day ser- 
 vice. 
 
 These precautions were effective, the plot 
 failed and the residents of early Hartford had 
 reason, as the^^ often have since, to be thankful 
 for the wise forethought and unity of action of 
 her lawmakers. But these men were accustomed 
 to making such laws. Had you been one of the 
 children of the Hooker partv and frequented the 
 town meetings, or the meetings of the General 
 Court, you would have heard the Indian ques- 
 tion frequently debated and learned that much 
 of the time of these two assemblies was taken in 
 passing laws regulating the relationship be- 
 tween the white man and the Indian. 
 
 According to these laws, every male citizen 
 over sixteen years of age, except certain civil and 
 church officers, was to serve his allotted time as 
 sentr\', ready to give the alarm, da^^ or night, from 
 his sentry box in the crotch of a tree, so tradition 
 says, at the approach of the marauding savage ; 
 the Indian must not use fire-ariTis,nor the white 
 man sell him gun or powder; the attendants 
 upon church services must be protected by an 
 armed guard ; the Indians were forbidden to 
 enter the town in squads or to visit it at night- 
 
The Indians of Hartford and Vicinity. 37 
 
 time, even singly; and the colonists were pro- 
 hibited selling them a dog, going to their 
 wigwams to trade, or settling among them in 
 the South Meadows, where the^^ were located. 
 
 These laws were principally in the interests 
 of the white man, but our forefathers also pro- 
 vided for the protection, education and civiliza- 
 tion of the Indian. In 1654 the General Court 
 ordered that : 
 
 ''Notwithstanding previous provision to 
 the same end had been made — it having failed 
 because there v^^as no interpreter — John yijnor 
 do come to Hartford and under the instruction 
 of Mr. Stone be prepared to interpret the 
 preaching of the gospel to the Indians." 
 
 B3' order of the church, delegates went 
 among the Indians periodicalh^ to teach them 
 the principles of the Christian faith. In 1657, 
 John Elliot, the famous apostle to the Indians, 
 came to Hartford and preached the gospel to 
 the Podunks, addressing them in their own lan- 
 guage. But the endeavors of this earh^ period 
 to elevate the Indian to the white man's stand- 
 ard of living w^ere Y^ry meagre, and correspond- 
 ingly unavailing. The Podunks' reph^ to John 
 Elliotts invitation to accept the gospel, was : 
 ''No; you English have taken awa^^ our lands, 
 
38 Hartford in History. 
 
 and now you want to make us a race of 
 slaves." 
 
 However, we have no reason to be ashamed 
 of the treatment that the Indians received from 
 the founders of Hartford. It was wise and 
 humane, when judged b^^ the standard of that 
 period. Had the nation done as well by the 
 first owmers of the soil, doubtless the " Century 
 of Dishonor" would have been limited in time 
 and degree, and the era of free education to the 
 Indian, the opening of the schools at Hampton 
 and Carlisle, would have been hastened. 
 
 The following books have been used in the 
 preparation of this article and are recommended 
 to the reader wishing to give the subject a 
 broader study : 
 
 Colonial Records of Connecticut. 
 
 Hubbard's Indian Wars. 
 
 Roger Williams' letters in the Publications of the 
 Narragansett Club. 
 
 Barbour's Connecticut Historical Collections. 
 
 Hartford in Olden Times, Scaeva. 
 
 Memorial History of Hartford County, J. H. 
 Trumbull. 
 
 Mather's Magnalia. 
 
 Johnston's Connecticut, in American Commonwealth 
 Series. 
 
 Mason's History of the Pequot War. 
 
 DeForest's Indians of Connecticut. 
 
 Connecticut Historical Society Collections. 
 
The Dutch in Hartford. 
 
 By Charles F. Johnson. 
 
 IN the fifteenth century, and indeed down to 
 our own time, the discovery of lands ''unoc- 
 cupied by Christian people" was held to en- 
 title the sovereign of the discoverer to the right 
 of occupation without an^^ reference to the 
 claims of the original inhabitants. Savages 
 had no rights that civilized people w^ere bound 
 to respect. So when in 1497 John Cabot and 
 his son Sebastian sailed along the main land of 
 North America from the Bay of the St. Law- 
 rence down to the Chesapeake Bay, possibly as 
 far as Florida, King Henry YII. at once assert- 
 ed sovereignty over the main continent of North 
 America, although the Cabots had made no 
 landing except in the northern part of what is 
 now the State of Maine. On this rather un- 
 certain foundation King James I. early in the 
 seventeenth century issued patents for the unex- 
 plored territory between the thirty-fourth and 
 forty-fifth parallels of latitude. One of these 
 was given to the Plymouth Company, and un- 
 der this the settlements in Massachusetts were 
 
40 Hartford in History. 
 
 made. As the country was unexplored, it can 
 readily be understood that the boundaries of 
 the territory granted in the patents were badh' 
 defined. Frequently the grants overlapped each 
 other and the lines ran indefinitely west into the 
 unkno^m \Aalderness, and disputes arose about 
 the right to certain tracts. 
 
 In 1609 Hendrick Hudson, an Englishman 
 in the service of Holland, entered the Bay of 
 Manhattan in, search of a passage westward 
 through the continent, by which he might reach 
 Asia or the East Indies. The North River he 
 took to be an arm of the sea and sailed up the 
 great channel till th^ increasing freshness of the 
 water convinced him that it was realh' a river. 
 He gave it the name of the Hudson and asserted 
 that his discovery gave Holland a right of 
 sovereignty superior to the shadowy claim of 
 England. A trading post was established at 
 the lower end of Manhattan Island, where the 
 Indians could exchange skins for beads and 
 knives. This vcas the foundation of the city of 
 New York. In 1614 Adrian Block and Corne- 
 lius Hendricksen built a small sloop at New Am- 
 sterdam, as the station was called, and sailed into 
 Long Island Sound and went up the Connecticut 
 at least as far as the present site of Hartford. 
 
The Dutch in Hartford. 41 
 
 Block gave names to the rivers and bays, calling 
 the site of New Haven ' ' Rodenburgh " or the 
 Red Hills, and the great river, the '^ Fresh Riv- 
 er." To Block Island he gave his own name. 
 On his report to the States General, or Congress 
 of Holland, a company ^was formed for trading 
 in the New Netherlands, as the newly discovered 
 territor\^ was called. This company was subse- 
 quently absorbed b^^ the Dutch East India 
 Company. The object of the enterprise Avas 
 primarily the purchase and exportation of the 
 skins of bears, otter, mink and wildcat. As no 
 considerable portion of the Dutch people were 
 persecuted on account of their religious organ- 
 ization, there was no reason why well-to-do 
 people should leave their homes and settle per- 
 manently in the wilderness, as many English- 
 men w^ere forced to do. However, by degrees 
 the Hollanders settled on the Hudson as far as 
 Albany and in the western part of Long Island. 
 In 1623 these Hollanders founded a trading 
 post at w^hat is still known as Dtitch Point, in 
 the city of Hartford, on the north side of Little 
 River, now known as the Park River. The 
 original site has been largely washed away bj^ 
 the floods. The first establishment was no 
 doubt a stockade or fence of stakes enclosing a 
 
42 Hartford in History. 
 
 rudely-btiilt "block house" or log house. By 
 1633 it had grown into a small fort with earth- 
 en w^alls (probably) enclosing several buildings 
 and provided w4th a small cannon. A ship-load 
 of bricks brought from Holland was used in the 
 construction, and it has been suggested that the 
 '^fort" was an earthwork with brick or stone 
 corners. On the other hand the bricks ma^^ have 
 been used for chimneys in the buildings within 
 the enclosure. One of these Dutch bricks was 
 found near the spot by Mr. Charles J. Hoadley, 
 the antiquarian. Others are doubtless covered 
 b^^ the mud in the Connecticut River. 
 
 For the purpose of satisfying the aboriginal 
 tribes and gaining their good will, and perhaps 
 with the idea of getting a color of title, the 
 settlers, both English and Dutch, were in the 
 habit of hujmg for a nominal consideration 
 land from the Indians. In 1633 Jacob Van Cur- 
 ler, commissary of the post, acting under the 
 command of Wouter Van Twiller, director or 
 governor of the New Netherlands, bought of the 
 Pequot Indians certain lands described as a 
 " flat called Suckiage (or black earth) one league 
 dowm from the river a third of a league wide to 
 the Highland and be3^ond the Hill upwards ex- 
 tending to a little stream." The price paid was 
 
The Dutch in Hartford. 43 
 
 *'one piece of duftell* 27 ells long, 6 axes, 6 kettles, 
 18 knives, 1 sword-blade, 1 pair of shears, some 
 toys and a musket." The land must have cov- 
 ered most of the present city of Hartford. It 
 will be noticed that the title of the Dutch by dis- 
 covery and purchase \vas as good as that of the 
 English. Their weakness was that they did not 
 occupy and cultivate more than a small portion 
 of the land, their primary object being not col- 
 onization but the purchase of furs. 
 
 This fort w^as called the '^ House of Hope." 
 In translations it is variously called " Fort Good 
 Hope," and the *' Dutch House, the Hope." In 
 1633 it sheltered quite a number of people, in- 
 cluding women and children, in all possibly 
 thirty souls. It was surrounded by a "bouwerie" 
 or cultivated farm and garden of about twenty- 
 five acres. After the arrival of the English col- 
 om^, claiming under the English king and later 
 under a deed from the River Indians, disputes 
 arose as a matter of course, and the Dutch seem, 
 as the weaker party, to have been restricted to 
 the ''bouwerie" and perhaps interfered wdth 
 even within its limits. The land records of the 
 town of Hartford preserve the record of the 
 
 *DuflFell is a heavy woolen fabric. "Good duffel graj- and 
 flannel fine." — Wordsworth, "Goody Blake and Harry Gill." 
 
44 Hartford in History. 
 
 property finally appropriated when the Dutch 
 left. The records mention "36 acres in the 
 South Meadows," including without doubt the 
 present site of the Colt works, three acres on 
 the north side of Little River and an island in 
 the great river. We may fairly conclude that 
 this was the Dutch ''bouwerie" or "plantation." 
 The English colony under the leadership of 
 their pastor, the Rev. Thomas Hooker, arrived 
 overland from Cambridge in 1636. They came 
 to make homes in the Connecticut Valley, and 
 acquired an Indian title from Sequassen, chief of 
 the River Indians, for the territory bounded by 
 the river from Windsor to Wethersfield and run- 
 ning six miles back. In the midst of this, lay the 
 Dutch fort and "bouwerie." The Dutch claimed 
 that the Pequots were the masters of the River 
 Indians and that the River Indians had ac- 
 quiesced in the transfer of the land to them. It 
 Avas of course impossible that friction should 
 not result. Each considered the other as en- 
 croaching and petty collisions over disputed 
 lands ensued, resulting in broken heads and bad 
 feelings. Both parties seem to have acted with 
 forbearance, however, and as the English were 
 much the more numerous credit must be given 
 them that bloodshed did not follow. Tliev wor- 
 
The Dutch in Hartford. 45 
 
 ried along as well as the\^ could till 1649, when 
 the commissioners of the united colonies decreed 
 that foreigners should be prohibited from trad- 
 ing with the Indians. The reason for this decree 
 was doubtless the fear that the Indians might 
 acquire muskets and ammunition. Next 3^ear 
 both parties petitioned that the boundaries of 
 their jurisdiction might be settled. In conse- 
 quence commissioners from the English colonies 
 met Peter Stuy vesant, governor of New Amster- 
 dam, at Hartford. The conference Avas courte- 
 ously conducted and resulted in making the 
 Little River the boundary between the contend- 
 ing parties. But in 1653 war was being waged 
 between Holland and England and the American 
 colonies were authorized by Parliament to open 
 hostilities against the Dutch. Captain JohnUn- 
 derhill, bearing a commission from the Prov- 
 idence Plantation, came to Hartford and pasted 
 the following notice on the doors of the '' House 
 of Hope": 
 
 ''I, John Underbill, do seize this house and 
 land for the State of England, by virtue of the 
 commission granted bj^ the Providence Planta- 
 tion." 
 
 Soon after, the General Court of Connecticut 
 sequestered the Dutch property in Hartford by 
 
46 Hartford in History. 
 
 its own authorit3\ In a few months after this 
 peace was declared ; the Dutch, or nearh' all of 
 them, moved to New York. Underhill conve^-ed 
 the real estate to two citizens of Hartford and 
 the name ' ' Dutch Point ' ' was about all that re- 
 mained to testify to the former occupation of 
 land in the city of Hartford by citizens of Hol- 
 land. 
 
 Some of the Hollanders living at the '* House 
 of Hope " were men of superior education. Cas- 
 per Varleth, Gysbert Opdyck, Go vert Locker- 
 man and David Provoost were all men of sub- 
 stance and became prominent citizens of New 
 Amsterdam. The Hollandish race is closely 
 allied to the Anglo-Saxons and its members pos- 
 sess many of the sturdy virtues of their kindred 
 on the other side of the channel. The common 
 idea of the Dutch as phlegmatic, corpulent boors, 
 stupefied and stultified by tobacco, is absurd. 
 It resulted from Washington Irving's amusing 
 caricature in "Knickerbocker's Historv of New 
 York." The Dutch settlers would have added a 
 very valuable element could they have been in- 
 corporated into the Hartford Colony. Less 
 energetic and determined than the English Puri- 
 tans, thcA^ were no less courageous and capable, 
 and more courteous and social. But such a 
 
The Dutch in Hartford. 47 
 
 mixture could not well result at that time. The 
 Puritans, even the liberal Puritans of Hartford, 
 wanted no citizens not of their own church and 
 blood. The^^ persistently crowded the Dutch 
 out, and we must give them great credit that 
 they did not resort to more violent and arbi- 
 trary means than they used. Without great 
 self-control and a strong sense of justice, two 
 rival colonies in the wilderness, far from all the 
 restraints of civilization or the fear of being- 
 called to account, would have come at once into 
 armed conflict. That they did not do so at Hart- 
 ford speaks well for both Dutch and English, 
 but especialh^ well for the stronger party. Hol- 
 land had long been a refuge for the persecuted 
 Puritans of England, audit is possible that some 
 of the leading men of the Hooker Colony cher- 
 ished grateful feelings towards that country, but 
 even that would detract little from the honor 
 due them for treating Dutchmen whom they re- 
 garded as intruding on their heritage with sub- 
 stantial justice while they were alone with them 
 in the wilderness for t\venty years. 
 
 The following books are recommended to 
 those who desire to give additional study to the 
 subject, The Dutch in Hartford : 
 Memorial History of Hartford County. Vol. I., chap. H. 
 
48 Hartford in History. 
 
 Trumbull, B,, History of Connecticut. Vol. T. (edition of 
 1898 is the best.) 
 
 Colonial Records of Connecticut. Vols. I.-III. 
 
 Brodhead,J.R., History OF THE St ATE of New York. Vol. I. 
 
 O'Callaghan, E. B., History of New Netherland. Vol. I. 
 
 Palfrey, J. G., History of New England. Vol. HI. 
 
 Documents Relative to the Colonial History of New 
 York, passim. 
 
 Memorial History of the City of New York. Vol. I. 
 
 Winsor, J., Narrative and Critical History of America. 
 Vols, in.-iv. 
 
 New York Historical Society: Collections, second series, 
 Vol. I. (translations of several Dutch tracts.) 
 
 Smith, W., History of the Province of New York. 
 
 Johnson, Ellen P., The House of Hope, or the First of 
 Connecticut's Settlers. 
 
Thomas Hooker and the Settlement 
 of Hart ford- 
 
 By WiLLiSTON Walker. 
 
 TO UNDERSTAND the reasons which led the 
 founders of Hartford to leave their English 
 homes and to cross the Atlantic to what 
 was then a wilderness scantily occupied by 
 Indian tribes, we must picture to ourselves a 
 very different state of affairs from that which 
 exists in England or in the United States to-day. 
 Now, in both these countries, in spite of the fact 
 that the older nation still has an established 
 church, men can worship God in whatever way 
 seems best to them, provided that they do not 
 trespass on the rights of their neighbors in so 
 doing. In both countries, moreover, bodies 
 composed of representatives chosen by the votes 
 of a large proportion of the people themselves 
 now have a decisive voice in almost all impor- 
 tant political questions. 
 
 But it was not so when the founders of 
 Hartford left England. The sovereigns of the 
 Tudor line which ruled England from 1485 to 
 1603, of whom the ablest were King Henry 
 
 49 
 
50 Hartford in History. 
 
 VIII. and Queen Elizabeth, have often been called 
 absolute rulers. The description is essentially a 
 true one, for, though Parliament then existed 
 much in the same form that it now does, its 
 power was slight, while the wishes of the sov- 
 ereign were almost certain to be carried out, so 
 great Avas the royal authority. Under Henry 
 VIII. the English Church had rejected the control 
 of the Pope, and, aided by Parliament, had rec- 
 ognized the King as its administrative head. 
 After some alternations of the parties in control 
 of English ecclesiastical affairs under Edward 
 VI. and Alary, that church had been constituted 
 by Elizabeth substantially as it now exists in 
 England, with a prescribed form of worship in 
 the English language and essentialh^ the same 
 officers that it had possessed while recognizing 
 the authoritv of the Pope. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth insisted upon a uniform 
 type of worship in all parts, and b3' all inhab- 
 itants, of her kingdom. There was nothing ex- 
 ceptional in this requirement, for the same 
 demand was made in all countries of Europe, at 
 the time when she began her reign, though the 
 forms of Avorship to which conformity was re- 
 quired were not the same in all lands. Alore- 
 over, in the various changes which the English 
 
Thomas Hooker and the Settlement of Hartford. 51 
 
 Church underwent, too little care was taken to 
 see that the clergymen were learned and worthy 
 men. ^lanj of them were so, but some were 
 not. Grounds for criticism and for objection on 
 the part of those who did not agree with the 
 great Queen in her religious policy therefore ex- 
 isted from the opening years of her reign. Alany 
 of the people of England were more ardently 
 Protestant than Elizabeth, and conscientiously 
 believed that some features of the organization 
 and worship of the Church of England which she 
 supported were wrong. Not a few of the Puri- 
 tans, as these objectors to Elizabeth's impositions, 
 were nick-named b3^ reason of their strictness of 
 belief and practice, held that the Bible la^^s down 
 rules showing how the church ought to be or- 
 ganized and governed, and that to fail to follow 
 these rules there supposed to be found is a sin. 
 
 These men and women sought to modif\^ the 
 usages of the Church of England so as to make 
 that institution more nearly what they believed 
 that a church ought to be, to enjoy the preach- 
 ing that the3^ preferred, and to have everywhere 
 a learned and worthy ministrj^ But Elizabeth 
 and her advisers vigorously repressed all depar- 
 ture from the forms of worship and of organiza- 
 tion which she approved. 
 
52 Hartford in History. 
 
 Thus Opposed by the government, the Puri- 
 tan partA^ developed two sections. One of these 
 was small and radical, called the Separatists, 
 because they believed that good people should 
 separate at once from the Church of England 
 and organize churches themselves on what the^^ 
 held to be the Biblical model. The other section, 
 the Puritans proper, was large and compara- 
 tively^ conservative. Though holding substan- 
 tially the same views as to worship as the 
 Separatists, they believed in a national church 
 and looked to slow agitation and governmental 
 action to introduce the reforms the^^ desired. 
 Both sections were rigorously repressed by 
 Elizabeth and her clerical advisers. 
 
 When the great, arbitrary and popular Queen 
 died in 1603, and was succeeded by James I., of 
 the house of Stuart, son of Mary, Queen of Scots, 
 the Puritans and Separatists alike hoped for 
 favor from the new monarch. In this expecta- 
 tion th&y were grievously disappointed. A Sep- 
 aratist company, worshipping at Scroob\^ in 
 Nottinghamshire and including Rev. John Rob- 
 inson, William Brewster and William Bradford, 
 was compelled to flee for safety to Holland in 
 1607 and 1608, from which land they emigrated 
 to America in 1620, settling at Plymouth in 
 
Thomas Hooker and the Settlement of Hartford. 53 
 
 December of that year. These Scrooby Separa- 
 tists and their associates are known as the Pil- 
 grims in New England story. 
 
 But, while some of the Separatists thus earh^ 
 left their home land, most of the Puritans proper 
 remained in England. James I., far from grant- 
 ing the religious changes that they desired, har- 
 assed their preachers as Elizabeth had done. 
 James, unlike Elizabeth, was himself personally 
 unpopular. This unpopularity was increased 
 b^^ his assertion of what was called the " divine 
 right of kings "parties claiming that his power 
 came from God in such a sense that he was in no 
 way responsible to his people for its use. Fur- 
 ther grounds of disfavor were his preference for 
 unworthy favorites, his arbitrary taxation, his 
 refusal to allow Parliament to discuss important 
 questions of public concern, and a foreign polic3^ 
 totalh^ at variance with the wishes of the vast 
 majority of his subjects. 
 
 James I. died in 1625, and was succeeded b3^ 
 his son, Charles L, a man of fewer talents though 
 of more outward polish than James, but fulh^ as 
 absolute in his conception of the authorit^^ that 
 a king should enjoy and even more arbitrary in 
 his acts. Under certain friends and servants of 
 Charles L, notabh^ William Laud, whom the 
 
54 Hartford in History. 
 
 King caused to be appointed bishop of London 
 in 1628 and archbishop of Canterbury in 1633, 
 the Puritans were more vigorously persecuted 
 than they had been at any time before, the ob- 
 ject being to secure perfect conformit^^ to legal 
 requirements in the worship of God throughout 
 England. Puritan ministers were fined, impris- 
 oned, or compelled to seek safety in flight. At 
 the same time Charles quarrelled with his parlia- 
 ments even more bitterly than his father had 
 done; and, in 1629, resolved to dispense with 
 parliamentary aid altogether, in order to rule 
 and tax as he pleased without interference. 
 
 The result of this attitude on the part of the 
 King and his supporters and agents was that 
 many who desired religious reforms and consti- 
 tutional government in England (and tliCA^ were 
 in general the same people who sought both 
 these changes), planned to cross the Atlantic to 
 New England, whither the Pilgrims had already 
 shown the way. These men and women were 
 not actuated in this resolution by any abstract 
 love of general liberty. They had no thought of 
 founding in the new world a community where 
 every one could do as he pleased so long as he 
 did not interfere with the rights of his neighbors. 
 They had not advanced as far at that. Thev 
 
Thomas Hooker and the Settlement of Hartford. 55 
 
 believed that they were unjusth^ oppressed both 
 b^^ church and state in England. They wished a 
 more democratic government in church and 
 state ; and the\^ wanted to go where they could 
 be on English soil and yet be free to found the 
 institutions which seemed to them right. That 
 those institutions have proved exceedingly 
 favorable to libert3^ in general is due to the 
 strongh^ democratic element which the founders 
 of New England infused into them. This 
 element in time has developed its natural fruit- 
 age in such freedom as we enjoy. 
 
 Resolved for these reasons to leave their 
 native land, some of the Puritans crossed the 
 Atlantic under the leadership of John Endicott, 
 landing at Salem, Alass., in September, 1628. 
 While these emigrants were la^nng the founda- 
 tions of this colony, many Puritans in England 
 became interested in the enterprise, and a ro^^al 
 charter was obtained, in March, 1629, organiz- 
 ing some of these men into a colonizing company 
 ^the ''Governor and Company of the Massa- 
 chusetts Ba3^" Under the auspices of this com- 
 pan^^ many emigrants \vere speedily sent across 
 the Atlantic. Rev. Francis Higginson and Rev. 
 Samuel Skelton with a party of about four hun- 
 dred came to Salem in 1629. In 1630, John 
 
56 Hartford in History. 
 
 Winthrop, Sir Richard Saltonstall, Isaac John- 
 son, Thomas Dudley, Simon Bradstreet, John 
 Wilson, George Phillips, John Warham, Roger 
 Ludlow, and other Puritan clergymen and la^^- 
 men of character and prominence crossed the 
 Atlantic. No less than a thousand inhabitants 
 were added that ^-ear to New England, and the 
 towns of Boston, Dorchester and Watertown, 
 in Massachusetts, were settled. With the com- 
 ing of these conspicuous emigrants, the charter 
 and government of the Massachusetts company 
 was transferred to New England, which was 
 thus assured from the first a large measure of 
 self-government. All Puritan England followed 
 the fortunes of the enterprise with eager interest ; 
 and many, encouraged by the success of their 
 friends, determined to cross the ocean as they 
 had done. 
 
 One such company of acquaintances actuated 
 by a common purpose, principallj^ from the 
 county of Essex, in England, reached New^ Eng- 
 land in 1632, and settled first in what is now 
 Quinc3% Alass., from which place in August 
 of the same A-ear it removed to Cambridge, 
 Mass., then known as Newtown. This com- 
 pany, though b^^ no means including all who 
 aided in the foundation of Hartford, or, indeed, 
 
Thomas Hooker and the Settlement of Hartford. 57 
 
 all the inhabitants of Ne\\i:own, formed the 
 nucleus, in a certain sense, of the later settlers 
 of Hartford. The company of immigrants was 
 anticipating the arrival as its minister of a man 
 whom many of them had knovsrn and reverenced 
 in England, Rev. Thomas Hooker, to whom 
 Connecticut owes more than to any other of its 
 early citizens, 
 
 Thomas Hooker was born, probablv in 
 1586, at Marfield, a hamlet in Leicestershire, 
 England. He graduated at the strongly Puri- 
 tan Emmanuel College of Cambridge University 
 in 1608, and, after holding a fellowship in that 
 college for some years, he settled at Esher, in 
 Surrey, till, about 1625, he became a "lecturer" 
 at Chelmsford , in Essex. From this region many 
 of the associates v^ho settled at the Nev^ Eng- 
 land Cambridge in 1632 were to come, doubt- 
 less through his influence. A "lectureship," as 
 it v^as styled, w^as a salaried appointment as 
 preacher supplementary to the legal incumbent 
 of the parish. Its income was derived usualh^ 
 from the gifts of the generous, for the "lecturer " 
 had no claim to the ordinary church tithes and 
 taxes recognized by the State. Manj^ such "lec- 
 tureships " were founded by the Puritans to 
 secure the preaching that they desired, but 
 
58 Hartford in History. 
 
 which the regular ministry, supported by gov- 
 ernment authority, did not provide. At Chelms- 
 ford, Hooker preached with great popular 
 encouragement till, about the close of 1629, the 
 opposition of Bishop Laud made his further 
 labor impossible — an opposition which com- 
 pelled him, in 1630, to fly for safet3' to Holland. 
 From Holland he set forth for New- England, by 
 w^ay of his native countr^^, in 1633, reaching Bos- 
 ton on September 4th of that A-ear. In Hooker 
 early Connecticut was to have not mereh' a 
 powerful preacher and moulder of religious opin- 
 ion, but a far-seeing statesman, of more demo- 
 cratic tendencies than any other of the founders 
 of New England, who perceived clearly that the 
 people are the ultimate source of all rightful 
 governmental authority, and was able to im- 
 press this thought on his associates. His life in 
 Hartford embraced but eleven years, for he died 
 July 7, 1647 ; but these A'-ears saw the founda- 
 tions of Connecticut laid. 
 
 We m^y well wish that a portrait of this 
 strong, far-sighted, courageous, humble-minded, 
 impulsive, yet self-controlled man had been pre- 
 served. We can not imagine him as other than 
 forceful in personal appearance, as he was evi- 
 dentl3^ in public address and in less formal inter- 
 
Thomas Hooker and the Settlement of Hartford. 59 
 
 course with his fellow-men. But, in the absence 
 of SiUy likeness of Hooker, the statue by Niehaus 
 of this leader among the founders of Connecti- 
 cut, which adorns the eastern front of the Ca]Di- 
 tol, probably gives as satisfactory a conception 
 of him as imagination and patient study of 
 family resemblances among his descendants and 
 of contemporary costume can evoke. 
 
 On the same vessel that brought Hooker to 
 New England two other men of much impor- 
 tance for the earh' history of Hartford were 
 passengers. These were Rev. Samuel Stone and 
 Mr. John Ha^^nes. 
 
 Samuel Stone, beloved enough of the early 
 inhabitants of Hartford to have the name of his 
 birthplace given to their Connecticut home, 
 was thirty-one years old at the time of his arri- 
 val in the New World. Like Hooker, he had 
 graduated at Emmanuel College of Cambridge 
 University. He had probably been a curate at 
 Stisted, near Chelmsford, at the time that 
 Hooker preached as "lecturer" in the last 
 named place. He had certainly held a Puritan 
 lectureship at Towcester, in Northamptonshire, 
 till about the time that the invitation of Hook- 
 er's w^aiting friends in New England led him to 
 embark with that minister as Hooker's future 
 
60 Hartford in History. 
 
 lifelong associate. A man of great clearness of 
 thought and marked power in argument, of wit, 
 and quickness as well as strength ofmind, he was 
 a leader of force, though not of the ability or of 
 the conciliatory skill of Hooker. He survived 
 the latter sixteen years, dying in 1663. 
 
 John Haynes from Copford Hall, in Essex, 
 was a "gentleman " in the then somewhat tech- 
 nical sense of that word. He was a man of 
 large property and much executive force, whose 
 talents v^^ere at once recognized in New England, 
 he being chosen governor of Massachusetts in 
 1635, and of Connecticut every alternate year 
 from 1639 till his death in 1654. All three of 
 these men of influence in the beginnings of Hart- 
 ford were buried in the old Hartford graveyard, 
 and monuments commemorative of them may 
 be seen within its enclosure near the rear of the 
 First (Center) Church. 
 
 Soon after the arrival of Hooker and Stone 
 at Cambridge, Mass., they were chosen, on Oc- 
 tober 11, 1633, respectively '^ pastor " and 
 "teacher" of the infant church of that commu- 
 nity ; while William Goodwin, a man of much 
 influence then and in the early history of Hart- 
 ford, held the office of " ruling-elder," and Andrew 
 Warner that of " deacon." The founders of New 
 
Thomas Hooker and the Settlement of Hartford. 61 
 
 England believed that the Bible pointed out 
 these officers as those suitable for a local church. 
 And th^j believed, also, that the onlv proper 
 organized form of the Christian church was in 
 self-governing local congregations, composed of 
 men and women of religious character, united by 
 a covenant, electing their own officers and 
 administering their own affairs. This theory, 
 which made each congregation in some sense a 
 local republic, was warmly defended by most of 
 the founders of Hartford, and has contributed 
 much to the political development of New Eng- 
 land. The right of voting was, however, never 
 confined to church-members in Connecticut col- 
 ony, as it was for a time in Massachusetts and 
 Ne\v Haven colonies. 
 
 Thus, b^^ October, 1633, the future settlers 
 of Hartford had become in a true sense an 
 organic body, having its own definite leaders 
 and members. Not that all dwellers in theNew- 
 tow^n, which was soon to be known as Cam- 
 bridge, were to come to Hartford. Far from it. 
 The early New England settlers often shifted 
 from one communit3^ to another, much as the 
 inhabitants of towns in our extreme west do to- 
 day. But a corporate institution, the local 
 church of which Hooker, Stone and Goodwin 
 
62 Hartford in History. 
 
 were the officers, united many of them together. 
 A common reverence and affection for their 
 strong men like Hooker, Haynes, Stone and 
 Goodwin knit together the whole community. 
 So that when, in May and June, 1636, the main 
 body of the one-time inhabitants of Cambridge 
 made their journey to Hartford, whither some 
 of their associates had gone the 3^ear before, it 
 was not as a haphazard company of settlers 
 such as gather in a newly opened mining camp, 
 but as those already associated into one fellow- 
 ship in ecclesiastical concerns and in allegiance 
 to well-known leaders. 
 
 Of the causes and circumstances of that emi- 
 gration and settlement a later paper in this 
 series treats in detail. Desire for more room, 
 fears lest the Dutch should possess the Connec- 
 ticut valley, the attractions of a pleasant loca- 
 tion and of a fertile soil, wishes for greater 
 independence than could be enjoyed in close 
 proximity to other colonial leaders with whom 
 the^^ were associated in Massachusetts, and a 
 freer and more democratic conception of the 
 State than that which the founders of Massa- 
 chusetts held, all contributed to the important 
 decision to which Hartford owes its origin. 
 
 They were a picked body of emigrants. Im- 
 
Thomas Hooker and the Settlement of Hartford. 6^ 
 
 pelled to their enterprise b^' motives in which 
 mercenary considerations had small share, the 
 founders of New England looked upon them- 
 selves, and were viewed b}^ a great part^- in the 
 mother country-, as the vanguards in a move- 
 ment for religious and political reform. The 
 importance of the work secured leaders for the 
 New England colonies of as conspicuous abili- 
 ties as England at that da^- could offer, and the 
 founders of Hartford were the peers of an^- who 
 then crossed the Atlantic. They had their 
 faults. They were not alwa^'S generous or 
 tolerant, as judged by the standards of the pres- 
 ent age. The\^ had their share of the supersti- 
 tions and prejudices of the land from which the^- 
 came and of the centur\' in which they lived. 
 But if we judge them b^- the standard of their 
 education, their country- and their time, which 
 is the onh' fair basis of criticism, we find them 
 liberal in their laws, democratic in their concep- 
 tions of government and generous in their pro- 
 visions for education. In a w^ord, they were in 
 advance of the generality- of their countrymen 
 of the home land; and their spirit was one 
 which was sure to make for increasing liberty' 
 in the communities which the\' founded. 
 
 But the cost in hardships and sufferings of 
 
64? Hartford in History. 
 
 planting Hartford and its sister settlements 
 was great. Comfortable homes, with all the 
 advantages of a long established social life, were 
 abandoned for the raw wilderness Avhere every- 
 thing had to be created anew. Peace and pro- 
 tection were surrendered for constant struggle 
 wdth the rude forces of nature and wearing 
 anxiet3^ b3^ reason of Indian alarms. Houses 
 had to be erected, fields subdued, cleared and 
 cultivated, orchards planted, roads cut, the 
 more outward elements of civilized life brought 
 into being ; while provision was also made for 
 military' protection, for the administration of 
 law, for education and for worship, — that is, for 
 those things which minister to what is best in 
 life. It was a great task ; and that the^- did it 
 so well, and with such lasting benefit to us, is 
 the chief cause why we honor the founders of 
 Hartford. 
 
 The following references are offered as sug- 
 gestions for further reading on the subject of 
 this paper: 
 
 Benjamin Trumbull, History of Connecticut. Vol. I., 
 chapters I. -IV. 
 
 G. H. Hollister, History of Connecticut. Vol. I., chap- 
 ter I. 
 
 Increase N. Tarbox, in the Memorial History of Hart- 
 ford County. Vol. I., 13-36. 
 
Thomas Hooker and the Settlement of Hartford. 65 
 Alexander Johnston, Connecticut. Pp. 1-82. 
 
 Charles M. Andrews, The River Towns of Connecticut, 
 in the Seventh Series of the Johns-Hopkins University 
 Studies in Historical and Political Science. 
 
 Charles M. Andrews, The Beginnings of the Connecticut 
 Towns, in the Annals of the American Academy of 
 Political and Social Science, for October, 1890. 
 
 George Leon Walker, Thomas Hooker. 
 
Hartford the Birthplace of the Written 
 Constitution. 
 
 By Joseph H. Twichell. 
 
 THE constitution of a State is that part of 
 its law by which the nature of its govern- 
 inent is fixed. For example, it determines 
 \vhether it is a monarchj^ or a republic. 
 
 It may be written, or it may be the way of 
 conducting public affairs established b^- custom. 
 Besides its constitution, a State has other laws, 
 which are continually added to, altered or re- 
 pealed. Its constitution is more permanent. 
 For the more than two hundred and fifty years 
 since Connecticut was founded, the principles of 
 its government have remained the same with 
 those embodied in its first constitution. 
 
 It is the story of that first constitution that 
 is told in this chapter. 
 
 On the 14th day of January, in the year 
 1639, the men of the Connecticut Colony, which 
 then consisted of the inhabitants of the three 
 towns of Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield, 
 came together in the Hartford meeting-house, 
 
 66 
 
Hartford the Birthplace of the Written Constitution. 67 
 
 which was on or near the site of the present 
 City Hall, to frame a government for themselves 
 and their people. They were in number about 
 two hundred. Among them ^were a few persons 
 of education; a few, also, v^ho ^were of some 
 considerable fortune ; but for the most part they 
 v^^ere humble in condition. All alike, they were 
 at this time in circumstances of no little hard- 
 ship. Within a twelvemonth they had suffered 
 from a famine in which the richest of them had 
 known what it was not to have enough to eat. 
 The^^ with their families had withdrawn from 
 the Massachusetts Colony and settled on the 
 lands the^^ occupied in Connecticut, in the sum- 
 mer of 1636. During the two and a half years 
 since, they had not been v^rithout a government, 
 but it w^as of a temporary nature, intended to 
 carry them along till they were ready to estab- 
 lish one that should be permanent. This, the 
 time having come, they now proceeded to do by 
 adopting a constitution of eleven articles — 
 called by them Fundamental Orders — that was 
 to be thence onward their supreme civil law. 
 Thus the^^ formed themselves, as they expressed 
 it, into "one Public State or Commonwealth." 
 That constitution is famous in history. The 
 reasons why it is so are to be described. But it 
 
Hartford in Hisiorv. 
 
 will be in order, first, to give a brief outline of 
 its contents : 
 
 Article First provided for the holding yearly, 
 in April and in September, of two sessions of a 
 legislature, or, as they named it, General Court. 
 At the first of these all the citizens of the colony 
 were to join in electing seven magistrates, of 
 whom the Governor was one, to remain in ofiice 
 for one j^ear. 
 
 Article Second stated the manner in which 
 this election should be conducted and decided. 
 
 Article Third laid down the rule by which the 
 magistrates to be voted for should first be nom- 
 inated. 
 
 Article Fourth defined the qualifications of 
 candidates for office; and, also, ordered that no 
 one should be chosen governor twice in succes- 
 sion. 
 
 Article Fifth ordered that to the September 
 session of the legislature the various towns 
 should send representatives to make laws and 
 attend to other public business ; also, that the 
 town representatives should be present at the 
 April session to act in such affairs if it were 
 necessar^^, after the election of magistrates was 
 over. 
 
 Article Sixth made it the duty of the Gov- 
 
Hartford the Birthplace of the Written Constitution. 69 
 
 ernor to issue notice, at the proper time, of the 
 regular meetings of the legislature; and gave 
 him, besides, the power, with the consent of a 
 majority of the magistrates, to call special meet- 
 ings of it. It also, in case of the neglect or re- 
 fusal of the officials to call any of these meet- 
 insrs, s^ave authority to the citizens themselves 
 to call it, and declared that when so called, its 
 doings should be lawful and binding. 
 
 Articles Seventh and Eighth prescribed the 
 number and the qualifications of the town rep- 
 resentatives and the manner in which they 
 should be elected. 
 
 Article Ninth required the town representa- 
 tives to come together in advance of the meet- 
 ings of the legislature to see to it that all had 
 been properly elected, and to arrange the busi- 
 ness that v^as to come before them when the 
 legislature opened. 
 
 Article Tenth made it necessary that the pre- 
 siding officer, four magistrates, and at least a 
 majority of the town representatives, should be 
 present at any meeting of the legislature to 
 make its acts lawful; and, also, set down the 
 things which the legislature had power to do. 
 
 Article Eleventh ordered that in the laA^ngof 
 taxes by the legislature, the share of the different 
 
70 Hartford in History. 
 
 towns should be fixed hy a committee of an 
 equal number of members from each town. 
 
 Such were the plain rules, that anyone can 
 understand, w^iich the fathers of the Connecticut 
 Colony agreed upon as the foundation of the 
 government of their new-born State. But 
 though t\\Qy were so few and simple, the adop- 
 tion of them was one of the most important 
 political events on record. Those eleven articles 
 wxre the first w^ritten constitution known to 
 histor3\ That assemblage in Hartford w^as the 
 first of its kind in the modern ages — a meeting 
 to provide a government for a people in which 
 their men all took part. More than that, it was 
 the first to claim and exercise the right of doing 
 such a thing without reference to a superior 
 human authority. While in the strict sense they 
 were British subjects, and would at a later 
 period so declare themselves, the only authority 
 for their action at this time which these men rec- 
 ognized, was, under God, their own will as 
 citizens. And the onh^ authority on which their 
 government asked to be obe^^ed was that same 
 w411 of the people which it expressed. As they 
 acted together on an equal footing in making 
 their constitution, so they w^ere to be on an 
 equal footing under its law^ afterwards. 
 
Hartford the Birthplace of the Written Constitution. 71 
 
 From the Connecticut constitution of 1639 
 dates the first actual application to civil govern- 
 ment of the principle at a later da.j laid down 
 in the Declaration of Independence, that '' gov- 
 ernments derive their first powers from the con- 
 sent of the governed." Nowhere else in the 
 world did a government of that character then 
 exist. In none of the American colonies was 
 there the like. The Pilgrim fathers of the Plym- 
 outh Colony had come nearest to it. In their 
 celebrated Mayflower Cabin Compact they gave 
 every man a vote in the election of magistrates. 
 At the same time, however, they expressly 
 acknowledged the King of England as their sov- 
 ereign ruler. The government of most of the 
 other colonies was such as was required hj a 
 royal charter, and in all of them the political 
 power w^as in the hands of a few persons. It 
 was in Connecticut that the " government of the 
 people, by the people, for the people " came into 
 being, and Hartford was its birthplace. 
 
 Regarding that illustrious work done so 
 long ago, by so small a number of ne^" settlers 
 in a wilderness, the question naturally arises : — 
 what did they themselves think of it ? Had they 
 an idea of its real greatness ? If by this it is 
 meant to ask whether the3^ foresaw the course 
 
72 Hartford in History. 
 
 of events in the future, and knew that in the 
 step forward in government w^hich thej^ took 
 they were leaders in the world's progress, the 
 answer must be that the^^ did not suspect how 
 great a \vork it was. They did not dream of 
 the wonderful history of the advance of political 
 freedom, the unfolding of which on the soil of 
 this new world and elsewhere the coming gen- 
 erations would witness. The object they had 
 immediately in view, on which their thoughts 
 were bent, was to frame the government that 
 was wisest and best for their own little commu- 
 nity of less than a thousand souls. It was with 
 this humble aim before them that the\^ did what 
 to later times is so remarkable and worthy of 
 honor. 
 
 Yet in one way thcA^ well understood Avhat 
 they were doing. They were distinctly aware 
 that the government the^^ framed was in some 
 points different from any with which they were 
 acquainted ; that the principle of authority on 
 which it was based was new. Their purpose 
 Avas to make it a government resting alone on 
 the will of the people, or what is called a democ- 
 racy. This is clearl3\ pro ved by the constitu- 
 tion itself, as, for example, in the Sixth Article, 
 where, in case the official authorities should 
 
Hartford the Birthplace of the Written Constitution. 73 
 
 neglect or refuse to call the legislature together 
 as the law commanded, the citizens themselves 
 were given power to do it. 
 
 But there are circumstances in their history 
 a little further back which show the same in a 
 very unmistakable manner; which show, in fact, 
 that the chief reason why they came to Connec- 
 ticut was to be free to have such a government. 
 
 On their first coming over from England a 
 few 3^ears previously, the^^ had joined the Mass- 
 achusetts Colony, where they settled the towns 
 of Cambridge (then called Newtown), Dorches- 
 ter and Water town. The government of that 
 colonj^ had from the outset, by the charter it re- 
 ceived from King Charles I., been in charge of a 
 small class of men called freemen (or, as we 
 should say, voters), of whom, out of the several 
 hundreds of men in the colon^^, there were, at 
 first, but twenty. None but thcA^ had a voice in 
 public affairs. They onU^ could elect magis- 
 trates, who must be taken from their own num- 
 ber. The3^onh^ had power to admit new voters. 
 Some they did admit, but not many. At the 
 time the people v^ho settled in Cambridge and 
 afterwards in Hartford arrived in Massachu- 
 setts, in 1633, when the colony there was three 
 years old and had grown to a population of 
 
74 Hartford in History. 
 
 nearly five thousand, there were no more than 
 three hundred and fifty of them in all; and, as it 
 ^was, the^^ had even less share in the government 
 than the charter allowed them. According to 
 that charter it was their right to take part in 
 making laws for their colony and in managing 
 its other general interests. But soon after the 
 colony landed the\^ had been induced to give up 
 that right, and confine their action as voters to 
 the election of a board of twenty magistrates 
 called Assistants. Out of their own number, 
 these magistrates then chose the governor and 
 the lieutenant-governor, and w^ith them carried 
 on the affairs of the colony as they saw fit. So 
 that the government of Massachusetts, in those 
 days, was not a ''government of the people, by 
 the people, for the people," but a government of 
 the many by the few, or v^hat is called an oli- 
 garchy. And this in the judgment of most of the 
 leading men of the colony was the only form of 
 government that was sensible and safe. They 
 were good and true men, but that was their 
 opinion. Foremost among them was John Win- 
 throp. He was of a noble, unselfish spirit, ever 
 devoted to the public welfare, but he did not be- 
 lieve in having the people rule themselves . It was 
 a sa^^ng of his that in a communit\^ "the best 
 
Hartford the Birthplace of the Written Constitution. 75 
 
 part is alwa^^s the least, and of that best part 
 the wiser part is always the lesser. ' ' It seemed 
 to him, therefore, that a select fewr ought to do 
 the governing. And that view" for quite a while 
 prevailed in Massachusetts. Some of the voters, 
 however, and more and more of them as time 
 went on, did not agree with it, and were not 
 content to have so nearly all the pov^er left in the 
 hands of the magistrates. Soon they began to 
 complain of it, and to ask that their rights 
 under the charter should be restored to them. 
 This demand the magistrates resisted, but 
 though they were forced to yield to it in the end, 
 the contest between them and the voters about 
 it lasted many years and gave the colony a 
 great deal of trouble. 
 
 It was ^while this contest was going on that 
 the band of emigrants from England, of which 
 the Rev. Thomas Hooker was leader, and which 
 was usually called "Mr. Hooker's Company," 
 reached Boston and settled in Cambridge, 
 near by. It presently appeared that in the dis- 
 pute concerning government, the ne^wcomers 
 v^ere on the side of the people. This was largeh- 
 due to the influence of Mr. Hooker. One of the 
 early historians of New England, William Hub- 
 bard, says that after his coming "it was ob- 
 
76 Hartford in History. 
 
 served that maiw of the freemen grew to be 
 very jealous of their liberties. ' ' 
 
 What Thomas Hooker's views of govern- 
 ment were, and how unlike those of most of the 
 chief men in Massachusetts, ma^^ be learned from 
 various sources. Thus, for instance, they are 
 clearty stated in a letter he once wrote from 
 Hartford to John Winthrop. It was in answer 
 to one he had received, in which Mr. Winthrop 
 had earnestly expressed his conviction that it 
 was best and safest that the few should govern. 
 Mr. Hooker, with equal earnestness, declared his 
 different conviction in these words : " In matters 
 of greater consequence, which concern the com- 
 mon good, a general council chosen by all, I con- 
 ceive, under favor, most suitable to rule and 
 most safe for relief of the whole." 
 
 But there was an occasion on which, in pub- 
 lic, he professed his faith in the doctrine ot 
 political liberty in a manner more striking still. 
 In the spring of 1638 the colonists of Connecti- 
 cut met in Hartford to consider the question of 
 government on \srhich the^^ took their memo- 
 rable action in the following year. And there 
 Thomas Hooker preached them a sermon on the 
 subject before them. His text was from the 
 book of Deuteronomy^, the first chapter, the 
 
Hartford the Birthplace of the Written Constitution. 77 
 
 thirteenth vense: ''Take j^ou wise men, and un- 
 derstanding, and known among 3^our tribes, and 
 I will make them rulers over you." In the 
 course of this sermon, notes of v^hichwere taken 
 down b3^ Henr^^ Wolcott of Windsor, and have 
 been preserved, the preacher said such things as 
 these : 
 
 "The foundation of authority is laid firstly 
 in the free consent of the people." 
 
 "The choice of public magistrates belongs 
 unto the people, hj God's own allowance." 
 
 ' ' They who have power to appoint officers 
 and magistrates, it is in their power, also, to set 
 the bounds and limitations of the power and 
 place unto which the^^ call them." 
 
 "The lesson (he said in closing) is to per- 
 suade us, as God hath given us liberty to take 
 it." 
 
 It is plain that the ideas so expressed could 
 not be reconciled with those that prevailed in 
 the Massachusetts Colony. Had Thomas 
 Hooker vs.nth his political principles remained in 
 that colony, he would have been compelled to 
 take a stand against the contrary principles on 
 which the government there was conducted. 
 This he and his associates who shared his 
 opinions, did not like to do. The prospect of 
 
78 Hartford in History. 
 
 strife was unwelcome to them ; the more so as 
 those with whom they would have to contend 
 were men whom, personally", they esteemed and 
 honored. So that not long after their arrival 
 they made up their minds to seek some other 
 place to make their home. They had heard 
 from explorers of desirable fair lands lying to 
 the southward on the "Great River," as the 
 Connecticut was called ; and by and by they 
 asked the colony' authorities to permit them to 
 go down and occupy them. The reasons they 
 gave for their request were three: First, that 
 there was not room enough for them in Cam- 
 bridge. Second, "the fruitfulness and commo- 
 diousness of Connecticut," and the danger that 
 if the English did not settle it, somebody else 
 would. Third, "the strong bent of their spirits 
 to remove thither," which really meant their 
 wish to go away from Massachusetts. Connec- 
 ticut was outside the bounds of the territory 
 that belonged to the Massachusetts Colon3^ 
 There was no royal charter to dictate a form of 
 government to its settlers. To all intents and 
 purposes it was an open country that anyone 
 might inhabit who chose, and be free. 
 
 To the granting of the petition of "Mr. 
 Hooker's Company" there was great opposi- 
 
Hartford the Birthplace of the Written Constitution. 79 
 
 tion, and no wonder. It was known that if the 
 Cambridge people moved to Connecticut, those 
 of Dorchester and Watertown, who, also, 
 strongly objected to the rule of the magistrates, 
 would join them. The departure of so many 
 from the young colony would be a ver3^ serious 
 loss to it. Every effort was put forth to per- 
 suade them to stay, and they did, for a time, 
 think of giving up their plan: but only for a 
 time. While they hesitated, the controversy 
 about government that was disturbing Alassa- 
 chusetts broke out afresh and became fiercer 
 than ever. They were soon again convinced 
 that their best course was to withdraw. In- 
 deed, the matter had gone too far to be arrested. 
 Small detachments from the three discontented 
 towns began to make their way to Connecticut 
 alone. In another year the project of emigra- 
 tion was resumed. Dorchester and Watertown 
 now sent in their petitions to the authorities for 
 permission to go. They might, the answer was, if 
 they would not quit Massachusetts. But that 
 would not do at all. The time had come ; the 
 preparations were made; and, leave or no leave, 
 in 1636 the most part of the people of those 
 towns set out on their journey by sea or through 
 the wilderness, and by the end of the summer of 
 
80 
 
 Hartford in History 
 
 that year were d'wellers on the banks of the Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 It deserves to be remembered that the 
 mother colon^^, though displeased with them for 
 forsaking her, and never consenting to it, yet 
 when it could not be prevented parted from 
 them with kindness and showed friendship to 
 them afterwards. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the main object 
 of their departure was to secure for themselves 
 and their posterity the benefit of a free govern- 
 ment. That object was accomplished in their 
 adoption of the Connecticut constitution of 
 1639. Into it were woven those principles of 
 civil liberty and equality- which its framers be- 
 lieved in; for the sake of which they chose to 
 go apart b\' themselves. 
 
 What the Connecticut fathers thus did in 
 their early days was, as has been justly said, 
 ^'the most far-reaching political work of mod- 
 ern times." It has been helpful to the cause 
 of freedom in all the generations since. It 
 did much to prepare the way for the founding, 
 one hundred and fifty ^^ears later, of our na- 
 tional Republic ; and it had an important influ- 
 ence in shaping the Constitution of the United 
 States. 
 
Hartford the Birthplace of the Written Constitution. 81 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 History of Hartford County (J. H. Trumbull). 
 Johnston's Connecticut (American Commonwealth 
 Series) . 
 
 Palfrey's History of New England. 
 
 Winthrop's History of New England. 
 
 250th Anniversary of the First Church in Hartford 
 (Walker). 
 
 250th Anniversary of the Adoption of the First Con- 
 stitution OF Connecticut (Published by the Connec- 
 ticut Historical Society. 
 
Social Life and Customs. 
 
 T 
 
 By Edwin P. Parker. 
 
 HE people of Hartford, in the olden time, 
 were few in number and straitened in cir- 
 cumstances. Their means of communica- 
 tion with other settlements were slight and 
 difficult. Their privileges of education and cul- 
 ture were meagre, and the limitations of their 
 social life were narrow. The isolation, the pri- 
 vations, and the perils of their "wilderness con- 
 dition " made their struggle for subsistence and 
 securit^^ a serious one, but they were a sober, 
 frugal, industrious, virtuous and religious peo- 
 ple, and however austere their beliefs and severe 
 their laws may have been, they doubtless found 
 no little happiness amid the hardships of their 
 lot. 
 
 Their homes were chiefl^^ along what are 
 now Front, Arch, Sheldon, Main, Elm, Governor 
 and Buckingham streets. The original log huts 
 of the settlers were soon replaced b^^ framed 
 buildings, mam' of which were commodious and 
 comely. These houses, which seem to have been 
 
 82 
 
Social Life and Customs. 83 
 
 an invention of New England, sometimes were 
 large square buildings, with a one-story '* ell " in 
 the rear, and having four large rooms on the 
 main floor built around and connected by fire- 
 places with the great central chimney. Plain, 
 rectangular houses, with two or three rooms, 
 and sleeping arrangements in the garret or attic, 
 and frequently with the roof sloping in the rear 
 to the first stor^^ or lower, were more common. 
 With few exceptions these houses were imper- 
 fectly finished and scantily furnished. The con- 
 veniences for housekeeping were rude and 
 limited. Stoves and carpets were unknown. 
 Forks w^ere not in use at table, but napkins were 
 abundant. Stools supplied the lack of chairs. 
 Feather beds, bolsters and pillow^s for the high, 
 corded, and curtained beds, and for the "trundle- 
 bed " as well, were a necessit3% for the colonial 
 house at its best estate was tedioush^ cold dur- 
 ing the winter. The spacious kitchen, wath its 
 great fireplace, its side oven, its broad mantel, 
 its chimnej^ closets, its long, suspended poles, 
 upon w^hich hung various articles of food or 
 clothing, was or din ariW the living-room. Tall, 
 red, basket-bottomed chairs and a high-backed 
 settle were features of the room. A two-leaved 
 table with a drawer in one end, a small "light- 
 
84 Hartford in History. 
 
 stand" between the windows for the Bible and 
 the work-basket, a canopied cradle, seldom 
 empty, and a spinning wheel were generally 
 there. In the other and less used apartments, 
 ^whether parlors, halls, or "spare rooms," were 
 bureaus, chests of drawers, clocks, bedsteads of 
 impr sing appearance, quaint chairs and mirrors, 
 framed family registers and shining fireside 
 utensils. An appendage to the kitchen w^as the 
 " dresser room," with its lower shelf for wooden 
 ware ; a broader shelf for bowls, platters, por- 
 ringers and pewter ware ; a grooved upper shelf 
 for plates on edge ; a top shelf for the tea set ; 
 and closets near the floor w^hose doors were 
 fastened by wooden buttons. 
 
 The table Avas furnished with substantial 
 fare. There w^as an abundance of game, fowl, 
 fish, and of fruits and vegetables in their season. 
 Indian meal prepared as bread or porridge, suc- 
 cotash, baked beans, bread of wheat or r\^e, and 
 puddings fearfully and wonderfully made, were 
 common articles of food. One "playne supper 
 but of exceeding relish " was " warm r\'e loaves 
 Avith butter and honey and bowds of sweet milk 
 and roasted apples." Butter and cheese were 
 luxuries, and churns are seldom mentioned in 
 the inventories of estates in earlv Hartford. 
 
Social Life and Customs. 85 
 
 Coffee and chocolate were little used before 
 1683, and the earliest mention of tea in the 
 household is in 1695. It was for some time 
 later a great luxury-, even to the wealthier peo- 
 ple. The beverages of the people, besides water 
 and milk, were cider, beer, perry, and syrups 
 and cordials made from berries, and wm^ and 
 rum as could be afforded. Under regulation of 
 law, tobacco T^^as smoked. 
 
 As early as 1641 Hartford had a bell-ringer 
 and town-crier, and every morning, an hour be- 
 fore daybreak, his bell was rung in the streets. 
 It was expected that some one must be up to 
 make a light in ever^^ house fifteen minutes after 
 this early signal. As matches were unknown 
 it was the custom to cover the fire on the heart 
 for preservation until the ensuing morning, not 
 was it uncommon for people whose fire had 
 gone out during the night to goto the neighbors 
 for a live coal. 
 
 Later the meeting-house bell was rung daily 
 at noon and again at nine o'clock in the evening, 
 and this evening bellw^s the signal for all sober 
 householders to rake up the fire and prepare for 
 rest. 
 
 Agriculture was, of course, the chief means 
 of occupation and of subsistence. Wheat, corn. 
 
86 
 
 Hartford in History 
 
 rye, barley, oats, hemp and flax Avere cultivated, 
 and one of the first objects of every householder 
 was to get a vegetable garden in good order and 
 an orchard in fruitful condition. Each man v^^as 
 in some measure his own mechanic, although 
 tools were imperfect, and each house-mistress 
 was in about the same measure the designer 
 and the maker of domestic garments. But the 
 trades v^ere represented by the carpenter, the 
 blacksmith, the tanner, the wheelwright, the 
 shoemaker, the saw^^er and the weaver. The 
 storekeeper was a notch higher in the social 
 scale than the artisan. He sold everj^thing that 
 the people required, as he could procure it, from 
 nails to dry goods, from candy to codfish, and 
 took his paA^ in "produce" when money w^as 
 lacking. His dingy, musty store was a favorite 
 resort, at evening, for the male gossips and the 
 petty politicians of the village. The farmers 
 raised cattle, swine, sheep, goats and poultry, 
 but their horses were comparatively few and in- 
 ferior. Vehicles for riding were scarce, for there 
 were few roads, and journeys v^^ere made afoot 
 or on horseback. The cattle were marked by 
 peculiar crops and slits of their ears. The price 
 of both labor and commodities was regulated 
 bj^ law. There were saw-mills and grist-mills. 
 
Social Life and Customs. 87 
 
 Articles of commerce were com, skins, leather, 
 pipe-staves, deal-boards, pork, beef, wool, cider 
 and biscuit. They produced all the materials 
 for boats, ketches, shallops and trading vessels, 
 and sent their ventures in due time to Boston, 
 to New York, to Newfoundland, to Barbados, 
 to Jamaica, and occasionally to Fayal and 
 Madeira, bringing back clothing, tools, sugar, 
 nails, glass, cutlery, wines and liquors. Spin- 
 ning wheels made music in most households, and 
 there \vas prodigious industr3^ of knitting 
 needles. 
 
 There was a weekly market in Hartford, and 
 a fair in May and September, and once a v\reek 
 and twice each year Hartford became a mart for 
 the surrounding country. The fairs were festi- 
 val days. 
 
 "We are a poor people," so the record runs. 
 ''For the most part we do labor in tilling the 
 ground, and by the time a year's labor and 
 travail have gathered some small parcel of pro- 
 visions, it is transported to Boston, and there 
 half a crown v^dll not produce so inuch goods of 
 any sort as tenpence will in England." 
 
 The dress of the people -was plain, but com- 
 fortable, and not v^dthout picturesque features. 
 A common dress of w^omen was a blue and white 
 
88 Hartford in History. 
 
 linen waist, with short sleeves, joined to a skirt 
 of serge, and a white apron. The goodwife 
 w^ent abroad for visiting or to meeting attired 
 in a short gown of "sad stuff," laced in front, 
 with a white kerchief about her neck and bosom, 
 with mits covering the forearm and bits of rib- 
 bon here and there. The wealthier ladies of 
 quality appeared, on good occasion, in flowing 
 brocades, or with gowns of cashmere or silk, 
 with embroidered stomachers, silk scarfs and 
 fine laces. A petticoat of woolen stuff or of bro- 
 cade or silk, according to rank, was often worn 
 by ladies. Clothing of leather was much worn 
 by laborers and vServants. Coarse, firm, home- 
 spun cloth of linen and wool served for better 
 garments. The magistrate, the deputy, and 
 such as were distinguished by comparative rank 
 or wealth, had richer and gayer clothing. The 
 village tailoress went from house to house, to 
 cut and make up the ruder clothes, while for the 
 richer folk traveling tailors sold and fashioned 
 their finer goods. Excess of apparel was de- 
 clared to be unbecoming and inconsistent with 
 the gospel, and the authorities were at much 
 labor and pains to regulate dress, not merely so 
 as to discourage expense and waste, but so as 
 to make the garments of the people correspond 
 
Social Life and Customs. 89 
 
 to their social rank and estate. Certain laws or 
 orders concerning this matter were not to apply 
 to magistrates or officers of the colony, or to 
 their ^aves and children, or "to such whose 
 quality and estate have been above the ordinary 
 degree, though now decayed." One function of 
 dress was to classify people according to their 
 rank and wealth. Women prosecuted for wear- 
 ing excess of apparel — laces or silks — were dis- 
 charged on proof that their husbands were 
 worth a certain amount of money, or that the^^ 
 themselves had been " brought up above the ordi- 
 nary ranke." But all the attempts of the fathers 
 to regulate this matter according to their curious 
 notions were of little avail. The good people, 
 as they could afford it, hastened to improve and 
 enrich both their houses and their garments, 
 and before the seventeenth centur^^ had closed, 
 brighter, ga3^er, costlier st^des of dress, as also 
 new and beautiful forms of household furniture, 
 began to prevail. 
 
 The church was the central institution of 
 the community. The first meeting-house, some 
 portion of which was used awhile as an arsenal, 
 stood in the spacious square where the freemen 
 annually gathered to choose public officers, and 
 near by it stood also the school-house, the sign- 
 
90 Hartford in History. 
 
 post, the market, the jail, the pillory and the 
 stocks. On each Lord's day, at nine o'clock in 
 the morning and at two o'clock in the after- 
 noon, the people assembled for worship in the 
 rude, uncarpeted, un warmed meeting-house. 
 Seats on the floor were assigned to householders 
 according to their rank and dignity. The lower 
 classes sat in the galleries. The sermons were 
 long, the prayers were unstinted, and the psalm- 
 singing was unmelodious. Children were taken 
 to the meeting-house for baptism ver\' soon 
 after their birth, and it is recorded that on some 
 such occasions the weather was so severe that 
 ice formed in the baptismal bowl. The boys 
 gave no little trouble, and, if caught misbehav- 
 ing in or about the meeting-house, were liable 
 to public rebuke and correction. 
 
 During the interval between morning and 
 afternoon Avorship, there was another kind of 
 meeting, during which the affairs of the neigh- 
 borhood were freely discussed, and no end of 
 gossip, social and political, prevailed. This was 
 the great social exchange of the community. 
 
 The tithing-man, whose chief dutA^ was to 
 preserve good order in the church during divine 
 service, and to enforce the observance of the 
 Sabbath, had his hands full with sleepy saints. 
 
Social Life and Customs. 91 
 
 indifferent sinners, and mischievous youth. He 
 must needs look after ^^oung people illegally 
 walking together on the Sabbath, after 
 strangers at inns, after travelers, after such as 
 "lye at home" or "linger without doors at 
 meeting time," and after "all sons of Belial 
 strutting about, setting on fences and otherwise 
 desecrating the day." 
 
 Funeral services were attended with scant 
 religious ceremony. The bell was tolled, prayer 
 was offered, and devout men quietly bore the 
 dead, laid upon a bier and covered with a pall, 
 to the place of burial. Verses, mournful and 
 eulogistic, precursors of the later tombstone 
 poetry, were often fastened to the bier, or circu- 
 lated among friends. But the funeral was a 
 social event, and brought together the entire 
 neighborhood. After its solemnities were com- 
 pleted, refreshments were served to the bearers 
 and friends, and, if tradition may be trusted, the 
 exhortation, " Give strong drink unto him that 
 is residj to perish and wine unto those that be 
 of heavy hearts," was ooeyed with more zeal 
 than discretion . David Porter, of Hartford , was 
 drowned in the year 1678, and the bill for the 
 expenses of the recovery and burial of his body 
 included liquor for those who dived for him, for 
 
92 Hartford in History. 
 
 those who brought him home, and for the jury 
 of inquest. Eight gallons and three quarts of 
 ^aneand a barrel of cider were purchased for his 
 funeral. His winding sheet and coffin cost 
 thirty shillings, but the liquor used at his funeral 
 cost more than twice that sum. 
 
 This use of strong liquors at funerals contin- 
 ued until a comparativel3^ recent time, and was 
 not abandoned without strong protests against 
 so inhospitable a reformation. One old gentle- 
 man remarked, with bitterness, that "Temper- 
 ance had done for funerals." 
 
 It maj^ be added that the somewhat free use 
 of Avine, rum, toddy, and other spirituous 
 beverages, was customary with all sorts and 
 conditions of men in the olden time, and at ordi- 
 nation dinners and ministerial assemblies as 
 well as at house-raisings and on training days, 
 great quantities of liquor were consumed. The 
 virtue of total abstinence from strong drink had 
 not then been so much as discovered, although 
 intemperance was regarded with some latitude 
 as degrading and sinful. 
 
 It was the custom in Hartford and vicinity, 
 on the occasion of a funeral, to muffle with nap- 
 kins all ornaments, mirrors and pictures in the 
 house of sorrow, and often the front window 
 
Social Life and Customs. 93 
 
 shutters were kept closed and tied with black 
 for several months. Gloves were freely furnished 
 and sent to friends on such occasions, and 
 mourning rings \vith curious decorations and 
 mottoes were also distributed. 
 
 Courtships and marriages came under a cer- 
 tain degree of official supervision, and no per- 
 sons were joined in marriage by ministers until 
 about 1684, when the General Court granted 
 permission to ordained ministers to marry such 
 as desired religious services. Unmarried adults 
 were regarded askance. The ^dower and the 
 widow made haste to wed again, and the young 
 people were married early and, sometimes, often. 
 Bachelors w^ere badgered, and at one time were 
 compelled to pay a certain fine to the town for 
 living alone. We read of one " antient maid" 
 who v\ras twenty-five years old. 
 
 The good people of olden time had their 
 curious superstitions. Comets created alarm. 
 Eclipses v^ere regarded as portentous. Houses 
 were invaded and disturbed by Satan's imps. 
 Diabolical enchantments and Indian sorceries 
 were apprehended. Lights in the burying ground 
 and on the marshes were frightful. Spinning 
 wheels, sleds, and weather vanes were bewitched. 
 Broken mirrors were fateful. If a garden toad 
 
94 Hartford in History. 
 
 was killed, the cows would give bloody milk. 
 Bushes must be cut at a certain quarter of the 
 moon. Chairs in a row indicated company ap- 
 proaching. Soot taking fire on the chimney 
 back betokened foul weather. The baby was 
 carrried upstairs for the first time with gold 
 and silver in his hand, to bring him wealth in 
 the world. Scarlet was laid on his head to keep 
 him from harm, and necklaces made of the teeth 
 of animals were placed about his neck for the 
 ''easy breeding of his teeth." 
 
 The amusements of the young people were 
 under somewhat rigid restrictions. Dancing, 
 card-playing, bowls, shuffleboards and play- 
 acting were prohibited. Instruments of music 
 other than the drum, fife, trumpet and jews- 
 harp werenot sanctioned. Butthere were house- 
 raisings, corn-huskings, quilting-parties, apple- 
 bees, sheep-shearings, maple-sugar-makings, pic- 
 nics, sleigh-rides and hilarious assemblies at 
 w^eddings and parties. There were athletic 
 sports. Election da\^s, thanksgiving days, train- 
 ing days, or general musters, and commence- 
 ment days were seasons of various and general 
 merrymaking. One singular custom v^as that 
 of celebrating '* Nigger Election." A black man 
 was chosen to hold sway over his colored breth- 
 
Social Life and Customs. 95 
 
 ren, and his election was celebrated with great 
 gaiety and feasting. At a later date dancing 
 so prevailed that even * ' ordination balls ' ' were 
 given in Connecticut and in the vicinity of 
 Hartford. 
 
 Some curious customs which have entirely 
 passed away were then in vogue. It w^as not 
 uncommon to steal away the bride at a wed- 
 ding, and make a feast at the expense of the 
 bridegroom. Another custom, just the reverse 
 of bride-stealing, is recorded. Just before the 
 happy pair joined hands, the bridegroom quitted 
 his place, w^hen the bridesmen ^^ould follow, 
 seize and drag him back to his post of duty. 
 
 The people were then more dependent upon 
 each other, and were more neighborly in certain 
 significant ways. If one family had some table 
 luxury, a portion of it would most likely be 
 sent to a neighbor as " a taste of our dinner," 
 and the compliment was sure to be reciprocated 
 in due time. This neighborly feeling was man- 
 ifested in the assistances rendered and in the 
 kindly attentions exchanged between families. 
 If one was building a house or barn, his neigh- 
 bors came to drive a pin or a nail, or do some 
 little act of helpfulness, in token of friendly feel- 
 ing and good will. If some good wife was ill 
 
96 Hartford in History. 
 
 and behind in her household affairs, helping- 
 hands were not w^anting for her relief. And in 
 the custom of visiting and watching with the 
 sick, we may see a beautiful aspect of the life of 
 the olden daj'-s. It has been well said that '4f 
 the chief foundation of the New England Com- 
 monwealth was religion, the second certainly 
 was neighborliness." 
 
 The school was theoretically next to the 
 church in the estimation of our forefathers, but 
 the care and culture of it were often sadly 
 neglected, notwithstanding the legal require- 
 ment of ever^' towm containing thirty families 
 to maintain such an institution for teaching 
 children to read and write. The dominant idea 
 seems to have been that the children should be 
 taught "reading and other learning, and to 
 Know their duty toward God and man," — a 
 good idea, if somewhat vague. Very little is on 
 record in respect to the earlier schools, but the 
 school-mistress preceded the school-master, and 
 taught the children out of the New England 
 primer and from the hornbook. She taught to 
 "behave," to be mannerly, to be respectful and 
 dutiful to parents, to elders, to magistrates, and 
 especiall3^ to ministers. The school-master did 
 not spare the rod, and seldom spoiled the child. 
 
Social Life and Customs. 97 
 
 The schools ^vere kept during part of the year, 
 for three or four months. Boys and girls learned, 
 both at home and at school, much more than 
 book-lore, and it is well they did, for many men 
 and women of the second and third generation 
 were unable to write their names. They had a 
 thorough industrial training, in the field or in 
 the kitchen, and religion was mixed wth all 
 their education, from the alphabet, upward and 
 onward. 
 
 Whatever may be said of the ''blue la^ws " 
 of Connecticut, it is certain that the code, writ- 
 ten or unwritten, according to which court and 
 church attempted to regulate domestic and so- 
 cial life, was a severe and rigid one. The orders 
 for the observance of the Sabbath v\.^ere strict, 
 but not much more so than those which per- 
 tained to dress, to the use of tobacco, to amuse- 
 ments, to the teaching of children and the train- 
 ing of servants, to the contempt of parents, to 
 idleness, and to many other things. Family 
 w^orship was strictly enjoined, and negligent 
 heads of households were liable to punishment. 
 All persons boarding or sojourning in families 
 must attend the worship of these families, and 
 submit themselves to ''domestical government 
 therein." And 3^et the people of Hartford, in 
 
98 Hartford in History. 
 
 those da^^s, though their conditions of life w^ere 
 hard and narrow, though the beliefs prevalent 
 among them and the restrictions under which 
 they acted were austere and rigorous, Avere by 
 no means sour, glooms- or unhappy. Their 
 lives were sustained b^^ a lofty purpose, cheered 
 b3^ faith and hope, lightened by mutual helpful- 
 ness, and sweetened b3^ domestic affections. 
 They found life abundantly worth living. There 
 were doleful deacons, mournful ministers, and 
 frowning magistrates, but there were hearty, 
 healthy, sunny, good people in abundance, older 
 and 3^ounger, sane of mind and sound of heart, 
 kind and neighborly, who would not in the least 
 have understood some modern commiserations 
 of their lot. 
 
 In 1647 a lad3' wrote to her friend concern- 
 ing some pieces of goods for gowns, saying: 
 " She have three pieces of stuff, but I think there 
 is one you would like for ^-ourself. It is pretty 
 sad stuff, but it have a thread of white in it." 
 
 It may be, as has been said, that those 
 people fashioned the whole fabric of their lives 
 out of ''pretty sad stuff," but the fabric they 
 fashioned was stout and strong and serviceable, 
 and the threads of white are ever3^where visible 
 in it. 
 
CHARTER OAK. 
 
Hartford the Keeper of Connecticut's 
 Charter. 
 
 By W. DeLoss Love. 
 
 THE youth of Hartford have heard some- 
 thing about Connecticut's charter. Some 
 of them have seen it, framed in carved oak, 
 hanging in the office of the Secretary of State 
 at the Capitol. It is written in black letter 
 characters, on three skins of parchment, and its 
 ornamental heading fittingly displays the pic- 
 ture of Charles II., the King of England, who 
 granted it on the 23d of April, 1662. It is the 
 most famous document in our colonial history, 
 and our most interesting traditions gather 
 about it. The children who go to see it will 
 ask such questions as these : Why did our fath- 
 ers want this charter? What did they do to 
 obtain it ? Who went to ask it of the King ? 
 When and hov^ ^was it brought to this country ? 
 What rights did it secure to them? How did 
 they try to keep it when Governor Andros was 
 sent to take it from them ? Of what value has 
 it been to their descendants? The town of 
 
 99 
 
100 Hartford in History. 
 
 Hartford has a prominent place in the story 
 which answers all these questions. 
 
 The Connecticut Colony, under the consti- 
 tution adopted in 1639, set up an independent 
 government. This was the creation of the peo- 
 ple who were well satisfied with the manner in 
 which it conducted their public affairs. The^^ 
 wanted, however, a charter in which the King 
 would recognize and confirm their right of 
 self-government. Moreover, their colony had 
 no definite bounds. The Say brook fort and 
 the lands upon Connecticut River had been 
 bought in 1644 of George Fenwick, who also 
 agreed to convey to the colony all the land 
 between Saybrook and Narragansett River, if 
 it came into his power. He acted in this for the 
 patentees. Lord Say and Sele, and others, who 
 had received a large tract by grant from the 
 Earl of Warwick. This was called the ''Old 
 Patent." It had, however, never been legally 
 assigned to the colonists. They had no copy of 
 it and did not know what privileges it con- 
 ferred. So they wanted a royal charter to 
 establish their title, define their bounds and give 
 them the right of jurisdiction. 
 
 Our fathers considered carefully how they 
 could obtain such a charter. It was not until 
 
Hartford the Keeper of Connecticut's Charter. 101 
 
 Charles II. was seated on the throne that they 
 thought the time had come to present their peti- 
 tion. Accordingly the General Court, meeting 
 at Hartford, March 14, 1661, determined to 
 send an address to the King, declaring them- 
 selves his loyal subjects and utilize the occasion 
 to further their purpose. This address ^^as 
 drawn up by their governor, John Winthrop, 
 and, with a petition stating their case, ^was ap- 
 proved on the 7th of June. They chose the Gov- 
 ernor to present these to His Majesty, and he 
 was authorized to expend £500 in his mission. 
 His letter of credit is among the framed exhibits 
 in the State library. Other colonies would 
 have been glad to avail themselves of his ser- 
 vices at court, but he did not wish to embarrass 
 his cause with other matters. So, with "no 
 small motive," he slipped down the river from 
 Hartford for New Amsterdam ( New York ) , 
 v^hence he sailed on the 23rd of July in the 
 Dutch ship De Trouw, which Governor Stuyve- 
 sant had kindly detained for his convenience. In 
 the autumn w^e find him safely arrived at Lon- 
 don and established in lodgings at Mr. Whit- 
 ing's house, in Coleman street, near St. Stephen's 
 Church. 
 
 The honor of securing the Connecticut char- 
 
102 Hartford in History. 
 
 ter belongs almost wholly to John Winthrop, 
 whose portrait may be seen in our State li- 
 brary. He had been born to his honored Puri- 
 tan father, FebruarA^ 12, 1606, at Groton Hall, 
 Suffolk County, England. After completing his 
 course at Trinity College, Dublin, studying law 
 in London, engaging in the naval service and 
 traveling in the East, he came to New England in 
 1631, and had gained a large acquaintance with 
 colonial affairs. Although less conspicuous, he 
 was as remarkable a man as his father, the 
 Massachusetts governor, whose talents and vir- 
 tues he inherited. He was first elected governor 
 of Connecticut in 1657, and thereupon he was 
 invited to remove from New London and dwell 
 in Hartford, to which end the "housing and 
 lands " of the late Governor John Haynes, on the 
 corner of Arch and Front streets, were offered 
 him. After 1659 he was our governor for eight- 
 een years, until his death, and he spent much of 
 his time in Hartford. There were some good 
 reasons why he might hope for success at court. 
 He had been appointed governor for one year 
 under the "Old Patent" in 1635, and his patron. 
 Lord Say and Sele, was high in favor with 
 Charles II. This nobleman was friendly to the 
 colonists. Through him they hoped to obtain 
 
Hartford the Keeper of Connecticut's Charter. 103 
 
 the assistance of the Earl of Manchester, to 
 whom the^^ sent a letter. The Connecticut Col- 
 on^^ had also these advantages : It had not then 
 been accused of sheltering the judges of Charles 
 I., there ^^ere no commercial enemies to oppose, 
 it had not been given to the publication of con- 
 troversial tracts in England, and in no wav had 
 it made its Puritanism offensive. Thus the just 
 cause of a loyal colony ^^as in the hands of a 
 v^^ell-favored gentleman. He had with him a 
 draft of the charter the colonists wished to 
 secure. It is said also that he had an extraordi- 
 nary ring, once given to his grandfather by the 
 King's father, which he graciously presented to 
 His Majesty at an auspicious moment. At all 
 events, John Winthrop opened the King's heart 
 and hand . The charter was granted . Our ' ' rights 
 and privileges ' ' v^^ere committed by a skillful 
 hand to the parchment sheets, and on the 10th 
 of May, 1662, the great seal of England, im- 
 pressed in dark green wax, w^as attached at the 
 bottom. A duplicate was also made — the same 
 except in some details of spelling or capitals — 
 which Governor Winthrop carried w^hen, in due 
 time, he returned to New England. In the hall 
 of the Connecticut Historical Society the boys 
 and girls wall see a box of peculiar shape, covered 
 
104 . Hartford in History. 
 
 with leather and Hned with the discarded sheets 
 of a history of Charles II., which was made for 
 the charter's protection. In this the precious 
 document w^as kept for many years. The His- 
 torical Society has been the custodian of this box 
 since 1840, and has also some fragments of the 
 seal. The painting of Secretary George W3dlys, 
 hanging near, shows this box on the table. It 
 is now inclosed in a case, and within it is exhib- 
 ited what remains of the so-called duplicate 
 charter, about which something will be said 
 presently. 
 
 We may be almost certain of the wa^^ in 
 which Governor Winthrop sent the original 
 charter from London to Hartford. He had 
 friends who were about to return home — the 
 agents of the Massachusetts Colony — Mr. Simon 
 Bradstreet and Rev. John Norton, who had also 
 come with a lo^^al address in hope of making 
 secure their own charter, then in jeopardy. The 
 new ship Society, built and owned in Boston, 
 Christopher Clark, master, had brought them 
 on her first voyage, and now was ready to re- 
 turn. So to them Winthrop committed his 
 treasure in its leather-covered box, knowing it 
 v^ould be safe. They arrived at Boston, Septem- 
 ber 3, 1662. What should they do with it then ? 
 
Hartford the Keeper of Connecticut's Charter. 105 
 
 The commissioners of the United Colonies met 
 there the next da^^. Among them were two 
 Hartford magistrates, Samuel Wyllys and John 
 Talcott, the treasurer, the third and the eleventh 
 patentees named in the document; they w^ere 
 the proper persons to receive it. Without doubt 
 it v^as delivered to them, for the commissioners' 
 records tell us that this charter, which had come 
 by "the last ship," vyras read and discussed at 
 their meeting. When they separated, Wyllys 
 and Talcott returned to Hartford, arriving in 
 time for the session of the General Court, con- 
 vened on the 9th of October. The record of that 
 da^^ is : '' The Pattent or Charter was this day 
 publiquely read in audienc of ye Freemen, and 
 declared to belong to them and their successors, 
 and ye freemen made choice of Mr. Willys, 
 C[apt]: John Talcot and Lt John Allyn to take 
 the Charter into their Custody, in behalf of ye 
 Freemen, who are to haue an oath Administered 
 to them by the Generall Assembly, for ye due dis- 
 charge of the trust committed to them." John 
 Allyn also lived in Hartford, and so three Hart- 
 ford magistrates became the keepers of the char- 
 ter, to v^hom the Assembly requested Winthrop 
 to deliver the duplicate also vs^hen he arrived the 
 follov^ing spring. He had arranged to have the 
 
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 oxpouscs paiii \\\ wheat ami |hms. w hieli thov'ol 
 onists inmiodialvlx l>vi;an t(> v'olU\>l al \c\v l.oti 
 lion tor sliipuuMit. V\w pn>poi tion <>l llariloul 
 was tioarlv ouolourtli. wliioh wouM have luvii 
 J»(H> bushels i>t w heat ami :\00 bushels ot peas, 
 riuis havius^ their liberties seeure, o\\\ laiheis 
 appiunteil a Thauksi^iviuL: via v. (>ett>l>er l.'l», 
 UUVJ, as ilie leeoni deelares, '* parlieularlv for 
 the li'ooil stKvess (nul liath i^iveu to iheeudeav- 
 ors ot iMir Hoiu>»eil (utveruor iu v»btaiuiuL: oui' 
 Cliartei oi His Majesty i>ur Sovereii^u." 
 
 The ehai ler erealeil a eorporat iiMi. to l>e ail 
 uiinisteretl ou L\>inuvtieut soil, et»tupose<l ol" 
 uiueteeu patentees ami their eUvleil assoeiates, 
 io whom the rii^hts o( s^overumetit alroMily 
 assuuied were eoutinueil. The bi»uuilarics there- 
 in tixeil iuelmleil a narrow belt ot" territory. 
 Siutth ol' the Massaehusetts line auil evtemliuL; 
 troni " \arn\L:aueel t Ivmv oi\ the baist lo the 
 vSouih Sea ou the West." This i;ave them the 
 ilisputed IVipiot lamls. the territory oi the New 
 Uaveti Colony aiul a eiMuitry. eui iu iwi> bv 
 New \\>rk. stretehiui; awav westward i>e\ou(l 
 their knowledge. I'tuler this patent the eolo- 
 i\ists lived happily tor a ipiarter eeutury . 
 
 On the \\H\\ i>riKvember. lt»S(>. there arrived 
 at r^ostvMi Sir bMnnuul Audros. bearim; a ri>val 
 
llniLloi'l I lie Ki-cfjcr ni C t/iuiccLicuC >> Churl tr. 107 
 
 commission as Oovcruor of New Jin^land. The 
 K\r\^, Charles II., had annulled the Ma«K/ix.'hu- 
 setts charier before liis rjeath. A new ^<}Vi^rn- 
 ment had been set u]) by James I J., including all 
 of northern New lingland, which Andro«, suc- 
 ceerling f>urlley, had now come to ^<}vcrn, add- 
 in;< Connecticut to it, ife was ol an honorable 
 fVimily of the isle of Ouernsey, had tn:rvc(\ in the 
 wars and had been from 1074- to 1081 thep(ov- 
 ernor of New VorkjCr^mmissioned by the Duke of 
 Vork before he became James JI. The Connec- 
 ticut colonists had f>ecome ;<x:rjuainU'd with him 
 when he was their nei;^hbor, for in 1075 he had 
 come to Saybrook, claimin;^ jurisdiction west of 
 Connecticut River under the Duke's patent, an<l 
 they had withstood him in military array, our 
 brave Hartford captain, Thomas Bull, bein;< in 
 command. He had now come to New En^\iin(\ 
 under royal authority to consolidate the colo- 
 nies in one (\<)m\n\<)n. This was the Kln'^'h 
 political policy. He maxli: war on charters at 
 home as well as abroad. Andros was not a 
 tyrant, though he was not the character of man 
 theMass^ichusetts Puritans wanted. He was a 
 loyal member ^jf the Church of P^ngland, and 
 sought to make room for his opinions without 
 regard to the established prejudices andcustoms. 
 
108 Hartford in History. 
 
 This of course gave serious offense and aggra- 
 vated the legitimate disappointment at the loss 
 of their patent. If there is any stigma attach- 
 ing to the actors in this war on New England 
 charters, it belongs to Edward Randolph, the 
 collector of His Majesty's customs at Boston. 
 As to Connecticut he had submitted, July 15, 
 1685, six ''Articles of Misdemeanor" against 
 the colony, claiming that they had "made laws 
 contrary to the laws of England," had couA^erted 
 fines to their own use, had enforced an oath of 
 fidelity without that of supreme allegiance, had 
 denied the free exercise of religion to churchmen, 
 had failed to administer justice in their courts 
 and had excluded loA-alists from office. These 
 charges were made to justify two writs of quo 
 warranto issued against Connecticut, July 8, 
 1685, both served after the return-day had 
 passed. The colonists had resisted as they could 
 — appealing to the King and appointing as their 
 agent William Whiting, a London merchant, 
 son of a Hartford gentleman and the host of 
 John Winthrop, in Coleman street, years before. 
 All was done to no purpose. 
 
 Sir Edmund Andros, having established his 
 authority at Boston, wrote Governor Robert 
 Treat, of Connecticut, December 22, 1686, say- 
 
Hartford the Keeper of Connecticut's Charter. 109 
 
 ing, "I am commanded and authorized by His 
 Majesty, at my arrival in these parts, to receive 
 in his name the surrender of your charter, if 
 tendered by you." Thereupon the General As- 
 semblvw^rote a letter to the Earl of Sunderland, 
 Secretary of State, which proved to be the most 
 important document in their case, for though it 
 expressed a preference for union v^ith Massachu- 
 setts as a final resort, it was construed in Eng- 
 land, and designedly no doubt, to be a "request 
 of being annexed to the Bay " and hence a sur- 
 render. This it surely was not. Andros did not 
 so interpret it. He continued his measures to 
 "induce " the colonists " to make surrender " as 
 he had been instructed to do. The delivery of 
 their charter as an act of surrender would have 
 answered his purpose instead of a vote. Our 
 Connecticut fathers were resolved not to do 
 either. They would submit if they must, but 
 never surrender. Having, however, an order from 
 the government, based upon a misinterpretation 
 of the above letter, Andros set out for Hartford, 
 October 26, 1687, to assume authority. Some 
 gentlemen of his council, and sundry blue-coats, 
 trumpeters and red-coats made up his escort. 
 
 The town of Hartford at this time was only 
 a scattered village, having about 1,200 inliab- 
 
110 Hartford in History. 
 
 itants. Its taxable estates amounted to only 
 £18,118, though it was the wealthiest town in 
 the colony. In the General Assembly it was 
 naturalh^ influential, having in that body 
 Major John Talcott, Captain John Allyn, Ensign 
 Nathaniel Stanle^^ and Mr. Cyprian Nichols ; and 
 the most of the rest being in one wa^^ or another 
 connected with Hartford families. Throughout 
 the colon3^the sentiment was strongly averse to 
 a surrender of the charter, as the documents 
 sho^^, but there were some who foresaw the 
 final issue and questioned the wisdom of a con- 
 test. Among these ^vere Major Talcott and 
 Captain Alhm, the secretary. This opinion, 
 which they expressed to the Assembly, March 
 30, 1687, called forth another and decisive vote 
 against surrender. Doubtless also this awak- 
 ened suspicion concerning them, for at the meet- 
 ing on the 15th of June, sundry of the court 
 desired the charter brought into their presence, 
 Avhich apparently satisfied them as to their 
 faithfulness as keepers. The secretary, how- 
 ever, made such a record as to excuse himself if 
 it did disappear, for he wrote: *'The Governor 
 bid him put it into the box again and lay it on 
 the table, and leave the key in the box, which he 
 did forthwith." It \vas useless, these men saw, 
 
 I 
 
Hartford the Keeper of Connecticut' s Charter. Ill 
 
 to urge expedienc^^ upon the freemen of Connec- 
 ticut, committed to an obstinate affection for 
 their charter. 
 
 It must have been toward night, the 31st of 
 October, \vhen Governor Andros, having trav- 
 eled that day from Norwich, crossed the river at 
 Wethersfield ferrv and with the escort of the 
 county troop entered Hartford, where he was 
 greeted with becoming honors. Some conference 
 was held that evening between him and the 
 General Assembh' in their chamber — the second 
 floor of the meeting-house. We are sure they 
 \vere a serious company of Connecticut fathers 
 Avho sat b^' candle light about the ro^^ally- 
 attired Sir Edmund. He onh^ wanted a vote or 
 an act of surrender ! What happened ? Trum- 
 bull says : "The charter was brought and laid 
 upon the table." "The lights were instanth' 
 extinguished, and one Captain Wads worth, of 
 Hartford, in the most silent and secret manner, 
 carried off the charter and secreted it in a hollow 
 tree." " The candles were officioush^ re-lighted, 
 but the patent was gone." Such is the tradi- 
 tion, which he recorded a century'- ago. So far 
 back as 1780 the tree was known and then 
 "esteemed sacred " as that in which the charter 
 Avas concealed. Every schoolboy knows where 
 
112 Hartford in History. 
 
 it stood before the Wyllys mansion. Governor 
 Roger Wolcott, who was then nearly nine years 
 old and had distinct recollections of other mat- 
 ters of that time, who also had every oppor- 
 tunity to learn the truth later, in 1759 wrote in 
 his memoir: "They ordered the charters to be 
 set on the table, and, unhappih- or happih^ all 
 the candles were snuffed out at once, and when 
 the^^ were lighted the charters were gone." He 
 told President Stiles, five A^ears later, that 
 Nathaniel Stanley took one charter and John 
 Talcott the other ''from Sir Edmund Andros in 
 the Hartford meeting-house, the lights blown 
 out." Our historians are agreed in the belief 
 that Connecticut's charter was hidden in the 
 famous oak at some time during that trouble- 
 some period. When this hiding occurred, which 
 charter was hidden and who hid it, are nuts of 
 that Halloween night for the historians to 
 crack. The natural harmony of accounts and 
 traditions is, that Stanley, who was an active 
 promoter of the revolution in 1689, took the 
 original charter in the darkness and Talcott 
 passed the duplicate out to Wadsworth, not 
 then a member of the Assembly. Either charter 
 may then have been hidden a short time in the 
 oak standing near the mansion of one of the 
 
Hartford the Keeper of Connecticut' s Charter. 113 
 
 authorized keepers. Some think that this hiding 
 occurred the previous June, when the Secret ar\' 
 left the charter on the table as ordered. One or 
 the other may have been later in the keeping of 
 Andrew Leete, of Guilford, as the tradition is. 
 The colonial records show that Wadsworth se- 
 cured the duplicate charter in that ''very trouble- 
 some season " and was thereafter the custodian 
 of it, for which "faithful and good service" he 
 was rewarded in 1715 with twenty shillings. It 
 is certain that on the evening w^hen some super- 
 stitious persons were wont to believe that 
 "devils, witches and other mischief-making be- 
 ings are all abroad," the charter of Connecticut 
 v^as spirited away, and it was not Sir Edmund 
 Andros who did it. Most important is it for us 
 to note that the sentiment of Hartford must 
 have been strong against any surrender to have 
 made such a daring procedure of one or more of 
 its townsmen possible or safe. 
 
 Which of the charters \vas the original ? 
 The other was the duplicate and the one once in 
 Captain Wadsworth's keeping. In a legal sense 
 both ma3^have been so regarded. The surrender 
 of either would have answered the purpose. 
 The one at the Capitol is now so considered, 
 and mav have been received as such a fe^v vears 
 
114 Hartford in History. 
 
 after the Revolution on account of its well-pre- 
 serA^ed condition. As to which was the original 
 in the historical sense, the clue is found in the 
 meaning of the words " P^ fine five pounds," 
 which were appended to one, as proA-en by sev- 
 eral early manuscript copies. The Historical 
 Societ3^ has a certified "Copy of the original 
 charter remaining in the Secretary's Oflftce," 
 October 30, 1782, which has these words. As 
 they are lacking in the charter at the Capitol, 
 they must haA^e been on the fragment Avdth the 
 Historical Society. It is uoaa'- determined bA^ the 
 entry in the accounts of the clerks AA^ho receiA^ed 
 the payments for patents, that this clause noted 
 the fee on the original charter and not the price 
 of the duplicate.* Therefore the Historical 
 
 *An examination recently made b^- an expert, Mr. Hubert Hall, 
 F. S. A., of Her Majestj-'s Public Record Office, has brought to 
 light the entry in the accovmts of the Clerks of the Hanaper, made 
 at the granting of the charter, and communicated to the Connec- 
 ticut Historical Society in his letter of October 26, 189S. It is as 
 follows : 
 
 Sabbati, decimo die Maii [1662] 
 De Carta Gubernat[oris] et Societat[is] Coloniae de 
 Connecticut inNovaAnglia in America de con[ces- 
 sione] sibi et successoribus, ..... viij li. ix s. 
 De fine inde, . . . v li. 
 De Carta de Duplicamen ear[un]dem l[itte]rar[um] 
 
 paten[tium] xx s. iiij d. 
 
 Translation. 
 Saturday, the tenth day of May [1662] 
 For the Charter of the Governor and Company of the 
 Colony of Connecticut in New England in America 
 of grant to them and their successors, . . . viij li. ix s. 
 For the fee thereupon, . . . v li. 
 For the Duplicate Charter of the same letters patent, xx s. iiij d. 
 
Hartford the Keeper of Connecticut'' s Charter. 115 
 
 Societ^^ has the one which was first brought 
 over and accepted by the freemen, and if Wads- 
 worth hid the one he secured in the oak it was 
 that now framed in the Capitol. Whatever 
 may have been the stor^^of this fragment, it was 
 brought to light by a pupil of the Hartford 
 Grammar School, in 1817, who saw the mother- 
 in-law of the South Church minister about to 
 put it into a bonnet. It had been given her b^^ 
 the daughter-in-law of George Wyllys. He res- 
 cued it and 3'ears afterwards found out what 
 his old parchment was. This 3^outh was John 
 Bo3^d, in 1858 elected secretary of Connecticut. 
 
 At the time the charter was hidden no one 
 supposed it would ever be revived. Those who 
 did it in no wise thought they had thus saved 
 their government, but onh' themselves from a 
 surrender. Andros assumed authority, coiumis- 
 sioned magistrates and united Connecticut to 
 the dominion of New England. After two years, 
 however, a revolution came on. He was im- 
 prisoned at Boston, and finally sent home to' 
 England. Meanwhile William and Mary 
 ascended the throne. Then Connecticut, on the 
 9th of May, 1689, brought out its sacred char- 
 ter and resumed its former government. His 
 Majesty graciously allowed this continuance of 
 
116 Hartford in History. 
 
 their ''rights and privileges," which were judged 
 in law not to have been invalidated ; and 
 although repeated attempts were made later to 
 have the charter revoked, it stood until 1818, 
 v^hen it was made the basis of the ne\v constitu- 
 tion. 
 
 The boys and girls of Hartford have another 
 interest in Connecticut's charter. After the Rev- 
 olution, the State ceded its claims to those un- 
 known lands of Winthrop's time to the United 
 States, excepting a tract 120 miles in breadth 
 on Lake Erie. This was called the Western Re- 
 serve. In 1795 this tract was sold for $1,200,- 
 000, with which our School Fund was 
 established, a precious legacy for the children to 
 protect as the fathers did the charter. 
 
 TT J Charter Oak fell on the 21st of August, 
 1856 — eight hundred years old they say — and 
 part of its hollow trunk is in our keeping ; but 
 its scion on our Bushnell Park has been growing 
 strong these fift^- years. So the blessings of a 
 good government are perpetuated and passed 
 on from generation to generation. 
 
•■^u 
 
■^**~ti» ■■ 
 
 
 T-- 
 
 *;,- .- 
 
 «i: =: 
 
 .^Sr" ,' ' 
 
 
Hartford tlie Capital. 
 
 By Henry C. Robinson. 
 
 THE Latin word caput, a head, has been 
 serviceable to our language in producing 
 useful substantives and adjectives, verbs and 
 adverbs. Its own derivation is doubtful. Many 
 scholars find it in the Greek Kecf>aXy. When the 
 Avord capital was first applied to a city as a seat 
 of government, it is not eas^^ to discover. The 
 Latin \vord Capitolinus, from which our capital 
 is derived, was applied to the temple of Jupiter 
 Maximus, and then to the three hills which 
 made the one Capitoline hill. Here the Roman 
 senate met, and in all the Roman provinces 
 there was a capitol for the worship of Jupiter. 
 Quite likeh^ the word capital, as defining gov- 
 ernmental headquarters, is derived from the 
 earlier use of its cognate word capitol. Webster 
 defines capital as the chief city of a State, its 
 metropolis, and quotes Macauley in this use of 
 the word. Of course this definition would not 
 exactly fit its meaning in general modern use 
 and in the scope of this article. The chief city 
 of the State of New York, its metropolis, is 
 
 117 
 
118 
 
 Hartford in History 
 
 NcAv York ; its capital is Albany. The chief city 
 of Illinois, its metropolis, is Chicago ; its capital 
 is Springfield. 
 
 When our good fathers came down into this 
 valle^^ to find larger freedom and give scope to 
 broader views than they left behind them in 
 Massachusetts, they settled in Newtown (some- 
 times spelled, in the ancient records, Newton 
 and New Towne), Dorchester, and Watertown. 
 Soon after the settlement of these plantations, 
 the General Court changed the name of New- 
 town to Hartford, which was also spelled in 
 several wa^^s, of Dorchester to Windsor, and of 
 Watertown to WA^thersfield, since euphonized to 
 Wethersfield. The first General Court was held 
 at Newtow^n-, in April, 1636. Its members were 
 Roger Ludlow, Mr. Steele, Mr. Phelps, Mr. 
 Westwood and Mr. Ward. A session was held 
 in Dorchester, and another in Watertown, soon 
 after. Three other sessions were held the same 
 3^ear at Newtown. At the session in Feb- 
 ruary of this 3^ear, old style, the boundaries of 
 the towns were fixed by the General Court, and 
 their names changed. On the 14th of January-, 
 1639, the people of the plantations met at 
 Hartford and adopted their Fundamental Or- 
 ders, which is the first written constitution in 
 
Hartford the Capital. 119 
 
 human history adopted by a free people, in the 
 name of no sovereign but themselves, and ac- 
 knowledging no allegiance but to God. 
 
 The sessions of the General Court, called for 
 by this sacred instrument, were usually held at 
 Hartford, and Hartford at once became practi- 
 calh-- the capital of the colony. 
 
 For many years there was little difference 
 between the three original towns in wealth and 
 population. Hartford and Windsor were some- 
 what more populous and wealthier than Weth- 
 ersiield. Why one community should grow, and 
 another, its neighbor, show no gain, or perhaps 
 even show a loss, is a question easy to ask and 
 sometimes difficult to answer. Forecasts of 
 future growth, made by the ^4sest seers, have 
 not infrequently proved vain. Sixt^^ years ago 
 there was strife in Michigan between the two 
 small towns of Detroit and Monroe for prece- 
 dence. The strife continued for a term of years, 
 and the disappointed land owners of Monroe 
 looked in astonishment at the greater progress 
 of their neighbor. By the census of 1890 De- 
 troit has more than two hundred thousand in- 
 habitants and Monroe less than six thousand. 
 The different outskirts of the little city of Chi- 
 cago were sharp rivals for a quarter of a century, 
 
120 Hartford in History. 
 
 and why some of the districts grew, while others 
 were stagnant, it was difficult, at the time, to say . 
 Indeed, for many years Chicago itself held Mil- 
 waukee in wholesome dread, as a coming great 
 rival western metropolis. When the friends of 
 Duluth, upon Lake Superior, asked for congres- 
 sional aid, and painted the future of their port 
 in rosy colors, Mr. Proctor Knott, in a speech in 
 Congress, which is now almost a classic, derided 
 the commerce of the "unsalted sea," and made 
 merry over the future of the city. If you will read 
 his witty speech again, you will find many sen- 
 tences which describe in satire the conversion of 
 the Avilderness into business centres, and which 
 to-day may be read as the language of prophec3\ 
 
 In a less striking way we might show the 
 unlooked-for growth and the unlooked-for deca- 
 dence of many of our Connecticut towns. Hart- 
 ford was central, and its grist mill was conven- 
 ient. Perhaps these two causes contributed 
 much to making it practically the capital before 
 it became so by law. 
 
 In 1662, Connecticut secured from Charles 
 II. a royal charter. It was adroith^ drawn and 
 adroitly obtained, for which high praise belongs 
 to Governor Winthr op. Its provisions were not 
 unlike the provisions of the old constitution, and 
 
Hartford the Capital 121 
 
 were altogether satisfactory^ to the self-govern- 
 ing people of Connecticut ; indeed, its terms were 
 nearly all prepared by Connecticut and her skill- 
 ful representative. The charter became opera- 
 tive, from the colonial point of viev^, by the act 
 of the people assembled at Hartford. As the 
 record puts it: "Patent of charter publiquely 
 read in audienc of ye Freemen and declared to 
 belong to them and their successors." — Col. Rec. 
 Vol. I., p. 384. Judge Swift wrote later that 
 ''the application of the people for this charter 
 and their voluntary acceptance of it gave efficacy 
 to the government it constituted, and not the 
 royal signature. ' ' 
 
 Dr. Hoadle^^ thinks that the original charter, 
 after the session of the Assembh^ in June, 1687, 
 when it was, by order of the Governor, left in its 
 box upon the table, was taken away by 
 Nathaniel Stanley and John Talcott. Scholars 
 have argued that the instrument which Captain 
 Wadsworth seized after Sir Edmund Andros had 
 been left in the dark, and which was secured in 
 the Oak, was a duplicate. The late Mr. John 
 Boyd, of Winsted, rescued two-thirds of a sheet 
 of it from the open scissors of good Mrs. Bissell, 
 who was just giving it shape as a new spring 
 bonnet. The latest investigations seem to sup- 
 
122 Hartford in History. 
 
 port the theor^^ that the instrument which is 
 preserved in the Secretary's office is the duplicate 
 and that the fragment in the rooms of the His- 
 torical Society is the original. The difference is 
 chiefly material as a matter of curiosity, as the 
 instruments are undoubtedly contemporaneous. 
 The charter conveyed to the good people of the 
 Connecticut colony- not only their own terri- 
 tory, but also that of New Haven. Until the 
 delivery of the charter of 1662, the two colonies 
 ran upon many similar lines of government and 
 self-government. New Haven insisted upon 
 church membership as a prerequisite to the free- 
 man's oath. She placed less reliance upon the 
 voice of the people and more upon the utter- 
 ances of Scripture. 
 
 The story of the conflicts of the two colonies 
 is an interesting one. New Haven made a brave 
 fight against the inevitable. The charter virtu- 
 ally put an end to her struggle for independence. 
 On the 9th of October, 1662, the General Assem- 
 bly, by which new name the General Court was 
 to be known under the charter, passed the fol- 
 lowing law: "It is enacted and decreed by the 
 Freemen, that ye Town of Hartford for future 
 shal be the settled place for the convocation of 
 the Generall Assemblv, at all times, vnles it be 
 
Hartford the Capital 123 
 
 vpon occasion of epidemicall diseases, sickness, 
 or ye like." This was the first legislative act 
 which made Hartford the fixed capital of the 
 colony. The early practice of holding the Gen- 
 eral Court and the elections at Hartford had 
 been continued as a matter of convenience and 
 usage. 
 
 When the two colonies were fin ally united in 
 1665, Connecticut had fourteen, and New Haven 
 six, towns. In 1701, New Haven was made an 
 associate capital with Hartford by the follow- 
 ing vote of the General Assembly : 
 
 " Whereas the Generall Courts and Courts of Assistants 
 have formerly in a constant way been holden at Hartford 
 in the months of May and October annually: It is now 
 ordered and enacted by the Deputy Governour, Councill 
 and Representatives in Generall Court assembled : That the 
 Generall Court and Court of Assistants shall be holden at 
 Hartford in the month of May onely from ytar to year, and 
 that the Generall Court and Court of Assistants that for- 
 merly hath been accustomed to be kept at Hartford in the 
 month of October shall be annually kept at Newhaven at 
 the time accustomed for the sitting of those courts, viz. the 
 Court of Assistants on the first Thursday in the month of 
 October, and the Generall Court on the second Thursdaj^ in 
 the same month, any lawe, usage or custometothe contrary'- 
 notwithstanding." 
 
 In addition to this vote, it was also voted 
 that the records and books should be trans- 
 
124- Hartford in History. 
 
 mitted to New Haven at the October session, 
 and they were carried in little trunks studded 
 with brass-headed nails, which are still in exist- 
 ence, and in the custody of the State Librar^^ 
 The October session, 1712, was held at Hart- 
 ford, because the transportation of the records 
 was deemed to be ** prejudicial" to them. The 
 Ma^" session, 1713, however, re-established the 
 rights of New Haven. 
 
 The Constitution of 1818, our present con- 
 stitution, continued the double capital feature 
 of the State, and required sessions of the General 
 Assembly to be held in alternate 3xars at Hart- 
 ford and New Haven. The inconvenience of this 
 s^^stemwas endured because of New Haven's sen- 
 sitiveness, which had not abated from the time 
 of the enforced union, and which was stimu- 
 lated b^^ the act of 1701, by which that beauti- 
 ful city was made a joint capital. But the same 
 logic of events was w^orking to put an end to a 
 SA^stem of two capitals for so small a State, a 
 s^^stem which provoked many jests outside of 
 the commonwealth, and criticisms as man3^, if 
 not so sharp, as those which our present unique 
 and undemocratic system of legislative represen- 
 tation receives from the rest of the world. The 
 State houses were too small, and the New Haven 
 
Hartford the Capital. 125 
 
 building was unfortunate in its stucco material, 
 which was constanth^ dropping off, and whose 
 repair made an unattractive constellation of 
 patches. Efforts were made at several times 
 for such a change in the constitution as would 
 make Hartford the sole capital. Any change in 
 the constitution requires a majority vote in the 
 House of Representatives, and at the next ses- 
 sion a two-thirds vote of each house and then a 
 majority vote by the people. It was not diffi- 
 cult to get the first legislative action in favor of 
 a single capital, as the geography and traditions 
 of a majority of the towns favored the claims 
 and arguments of Hartford. But the second 
 stage was quite another affair. An interior his- 
 tory of these struggles, written accurately, 
 would make interesting reading. At one time 
 two votes in the lower house from a northwest- 
 erly town in the county, with a voting list of 
 about two hundred, were cast against Hartford, 
 to everybody's surprise. It was discovered that 
 the intelligent lawmakers from that town had 
 been persuaded b^^ a distinguished lobbyist in 
 the neighborhood, whose retainer by New 
 Haven had not been suspected, that the loss of 
 its capital character by New Haven would stop 
 the running of trains on the Canal Road, then 
 
126 Hartford in History. 
 
 SO called, and that the wood lots of one of the 
 representatives, which were worth $25 an acre, 
 would consequently shrink in valtie. The change 
 of these two votes made the defeat of the amend- 
 ment sure. In a later contest, when fourteen of 
 the twent\'-one votes in the Senate seemed as- 
 sured, to the intense surprise of the Hartford 
 enthusiasts, a senator in the neighborhood of 
 the cit^^ voted in the negative. His uncharitable 
 neighbors found an explanation for his A-ote in 
 his receipt, soon after the session, of an elegant 
 new carriage, valued at two thousand dollars, 
 from one of the fine manufactories of which New 
 Haven has alwa^^s been justly proud. The car- 
 riage was thought by his aforesaid uncharitable 
 neighbors to be more expensive than the sena- 
 tor's means, or previous experience in vehicles, 
 would justify. 
 
 But the inevitable came in October, 1873, 
 when the people ratified the constitutional 
 amendment which made Hartford the sole cap- 
 ital. The total vote of the State was: Yes, 
 36,853; No, 30,685. The vote of New Haven 
 was: Yes, 32; No, 10,156; and of Hartford: 
 Yes, 6,916; No, 9. 
 
 It appeared from the returns that the vote 
 of New Haven was peculiar — in one or more of 
 
 1 
 
Hartford the Capital. 127 
 
 the districts the negative vote exceeded the 
 number of registered voters. This provoked 
 sharp comment in the newspapers which had 
 championed the claims of Hartford, and the 
 w^ord fraud was written in man^^ sizes of type. 
 In the discussion, little attention -was given to 
 the vote in Hartford. While in no Avard in 
 Hartford was the registration exceeded, it is 
 noticeable that in two of the wards the entire 
 vote was polled. That there could be a gather- 
 ing of the freemen, from which neither necessary 
 absence nor indifference would detain an in- 
 dividual voter, perhaps nobody was prepared to 
 believe. The importance of partisan scrutiny, 
 and challenge at the polls, is obvious from the 
 experience of popular suffrage in New Haven 
 and Hartford on this occasion. In January, 
 1879, the first session of the General Assembh^ 
 was held in the new State House. 
 
 Going back to the beginnings of the colony, 
 we find that the meeting-house of the First 
 Church had a court chamber where the General 
 Court was held. The election sermons, delivered 
 with vigor and at great length by some eminent 
 divine, commenced with the earliest sessions of 
 the General Court and continued until 1830, 
 when thev were abolished. The custom re- 
 
128 Hartford in History. 
 
 niained in force in Massachusetts for a half 
 century longer. In the year 1720, the first 
 State House was finished and stood on Court 
 House square, so-called, now City Hall square. 
 It was in this building that the Council met on 
 the dark da^^ in 1780. An adjournment was 
 proposed, as the general belief was that the day 
 of judgment was at hand. Old Abraham Daven- 
 port objected to the adjournment, and said: 
 "That day is either at hand or it is not ; if it is 
 not, there is no cause for adjournment ; if it is, I 
 choose to be found doing m^^ dut^-. I w^ish, 
 therefore, that candles may be brought." 
 
 In 1783, the State House was partly burned 
 during the celebration of peace. It cost £750, to 
 which the town of Hartford contributed £250. 
 The next State House in Hartford, which is now 
 known as City Hall, Avas built in 1792. It cost 
 $52,480, of which the town of Hartford paid 
 $3,500, and the countyof Hartford $1,500. Our 
 present constitution was adopted in that build- 
 ing in 1818. General Lafayette and Presidents 
 Monroe, Jackson, Polk, Johnson and Grant were 
 received within its walls. The first State House, 
 which was built in New Haven, w^as erected in 
 1763, on the Green, fronting Temple street. 
 Another State House was built in New Haven, 
 
Hartford the Capital. 129 
 
 in 1830, and when Hartford was made the 
 single capital, the State presented the building 
 to the city of New Haven. The 1874 session of 
 the General Assembh^ w^as the last one held 
 there. The first session of the General Cotirt 
 at New Haven, in 1701, was probably held in 
 the church on the Green. In 1720 the Assist- 
 ants met in the Yale College library room. Soon 
 after 1728 the count3^ court-house was built in 
 New Haven and the Legislature probabh^ met 
 there until 1763. The present capitol was 
 erected upon grounds purchased of Trinit^^ Col- 
 lege by the citv at a cost of $600,000, and the 
 city also contributed $500,000 to the expense 
 of the building. 
 
 The second article of our constitution provides 
 that each of the three powers of government 
 shall be confided to a separate magistrac3% to 
 ^t: '* those w^hich are legislative to one; those 
 ^which are executive to another; and those 
 which are judicial to another." A similar dis- 
 tribution of the powers of government is com- 
 mon to all modern constitutions. This stately 
 building provides a home for all these magis- 
 tracies. The Legislature has its halls for the 
 Senate and House of Representatives and its com- 
 mittee rooms ; The Governor, Treasurer, Secre- 
 
130 Hartford in History. 
 
 tary and Comptroller have their chambers, and 
 the Supreme Court of Errors has a beautiful 
 room opening to the west. The commissions — 
 railroad, educational, insurance, labor, etc. — are 
 all provided with proper accommodations. 
 Upon its walls and in its halls are found memo- 
 rials of several of the State's most eminent 
 patriots, and the precious flags of the regiments 
 which honored the State in the civil war, and 
 the figure-head of the old Hartford, are treas- 
 ured in appropriate cases. 
 
 The capable and patriotic citizens, under 
 whose watchful care this beautiful and appro- 
 priate building was erected, have received, and 
 should continue to receive, the gratitude of our 
 cit3^ and State. It is believed that the construc- 
 tion of the edifice, from basement to summit, 
 was unstained b\- the touch of jobberj-, corrup- 
 tion, speculation, or fraud. All the members of 
 the commission are entitled to a share of this 
 honor — it is not invidious, however, to say that 
 he who was most activeh' and constantly en- 
 gaged in the construction should be especialh^ 
 remembered, our distinguished fellow -citizen, 
 venerable in our esteem, honorable in our pride, 
 and warm in our affections, the Hon. Alfred E. 
 Burr. The onU' remaining trace of the old 
 
Hartford the Capital 131 
 
 double capital svstem is found in the conven- 
 tions of the ^reat political parties which are 
 held in alternation at Hartford and New Haven. 
 It remains to add a few words of Hartford 
 as the capital, in the Macauley use of the word, 
 the chief citv of a State. In this respect the 
 honors are still divided between the two fair 
 cities of Hartford and New Haven. New Haven 
 excels in population, is the home of a noble 
 national universitv, is a seaport and is a manu- 
 facturing centre. Her graceful elms and senti- 
 nel rocks add to her other many natural 
 charms. She is the principal home of a great 
 railroad system, and excels in many another 
 metropolitan feature. 
 
 Hartford has attractive parks, unsurpassed 
 schools, institutions of benevolence, learning and 
 relioion. Her architecture in churches and 
 soldiers' arch, and public buildings, her beautiful 
 homes and busy factories, her daily journals, 
 worthy competitors with the best, her leader- 
 ship in the liberal professions and in insurance 
 and banking, her manufacture of bicycles and 
 fine machinerv, her excellent trolley and steam 
 railroads, are all significant of the industry, in- 
 telligence, morahty, enterprise, benevolence and 
 wealth of her people. It is left for other chapters 
 
132 Hartford in History. 
 
 in this volume to show the history and standing 
 of the Capital City in literature, and business, 
 and man 3' other things. 
 
 In all the activities of life, educational or 
 commercial, in the fine arts, useful arts and 
 religion, the record of local history is one to fill 
 her citizens ^th pride. To mention names of 
 men who have been eminent as statesmen, 
 authors, inventors, mechanics, philanthropists, 
 educators, merchants, judges, law^'-ers, divines, 
 journalists, ph^-sicians and surgeons, specialists 
 in the treatment of the need^^, the insane, and 
 the deaf and dumb, is unnecessary and unwise 
 in the purposes of this article. It is due, how- 
 ever, to the stor^' of Hartford to suggest, that, 
 from the days of Hooker and Ludlow to the 
 present moment, our city has never lacked wise 
 and energetic leaders, and, better still, a hearty 
 and enthusiastic people, sensitive to the honor 
 of Hartford, alive to the progress of humanity-, 
 guided b3^the best and most advanced thoughts 
 of Christian civilization, social refinement, and 
 political development. The people have been 
 united and harmonious in action, have given 
 freely of the work of their hands, and of the 
 money accumulations of their thrift, to answer 
 to every call of patriotism, whether the flag of 
 
Hartford the Capital. 133 
 
 the hour was Old Glor^^, or the Three Vines, or 
 the Hart fording the stream. 
 
 REFERENCE BOOKS. 
 Connecticut Colonial Records. 
 Connecticut Legislative Journals. 
 
 Bi-Centennial Celebration of Connecticut Legisla- 
 ture. 
 Constitutions and Charters of Connecticut. 
 
Hartford in Literature. 
 
 By Annie Eliot Trumbull. 
 
 ^^npHE character and scholarship of its found- 
 I ers," says Mr. Pancoast, in his ** Intro- 
 duction to American Literature," " made 
 New England the most intellectual of all the 
 Colonies." Even a casual view of the colonial 
 civilization proves the truth of this statement 
 and renders plain the lines so sharply drawn be- 
 tween these New England colonies and those 
 farther south, in their relation to literature. It 
 is no wonder then that upon Hartford, the cen- 
 ter of much political and religious agitation — 
 that sign and evidence of independent thought — 
 should have been set, from the first, the seal of 
 literar\^ promise and literar\^ achievement. If 
 the attempt were made to review all the men 
 and women connected, continuously or inciden- 
 tally, with literature, whose birthplace or some- 
 time residence this city has been, a chapter of the 
 prescribed length of this one could be little else 
 than a catalogue of proper names. For a glance 
 over the two hundred and fifty years of her his- 
 tory would seem to indicate that not only one in 
 
 134 
 
 I 
 
Hartford in Literature. 135 
 
 every ten inhabitants, but every stranger tran- 
 siently^ ^thin her gates, has contributed some- 
 thing to that literary atmosphere, her boast and 
 her distinction. It is almost a necessity there- 
 fore to make some sort of classification in order 
 to gain anything like a clear idea of the develop- 
 ment of this literary tendenc3^ as something 
 apart from the city's financial and mercantile 
 prosperit^^ : but it w^ill not be possible to 
 separate those who are, strictly speaking, na- 
 tives of Hartford, from those who have chosen 
 to make it their home, nor can the number of 
 years of their residence be taken into account, 
 for influence upon a community is something not 
 to be reckoned by months or j^ears. The group- 
 ing, therefore, must bear some relation to the 
 nature of the production, and the conditions 
 under which it is put forth, although the 
 boundaries of any such groups must cut one 
 another here and there, since few writers con- 
 fine themselves absolutely to one form of art. 
 For convenience we will divide the writers we 
 have to consider into three periods, the Early, 
 the Middle and the Later. The first will include 
 all those born before 1800 ; the second, those 
 born between 1800 and 1820, whose work is 
 finished ; and the third, those whose birth ^vas 
 
136 Hartford in History. 
 
 subsequent to 1820, as well as others who are 
 still, in 1898, pursuing their literar3' labors in 
 one form or another. 
 
 Really antedating that which we would 
 call the Earh' period, is a name prominent in 
 Hartford and colonial annals — that of Thomas 
 Hooker (1586-1647). First preacher, he was 
 also first author and first publicist, and it is 
 by no means only upon that which, as a 
 Hartford divine has said, is "in some sense 
 Mr. Hooker's most distinguishing and abiding 
 monument," the sermon on democracy, that his 
 claim to literary distinction rests. Neither this 
 nor other of his long list of published sermons 
 belongs to thedepartmentof literature, since, ac- 
 cording to Dr. Walker, he was unwilling to give 
 his time to work which he considered somewhat 
 aside from that to which he had been called — 
 "saw none of them 'through the press' and 
 though authorizing the issue of some of them, 
 imparted to none the advantage of an author's 
 customary review^." The one exception which 
 w^e ma^^ consider as a distinctively literar}' con- 
 tribution, is his "Surveyof the Summe of Church 
 Discipline," and in this, differing mightih^ from 
 the writers of a later day, he professed it "be- 
 yond his call to please the niceness of men's pal- 
 
 j^ 
 
Hartford in Literature. 137 
 
 ates, with any quaintnesse of language. ' ' Never- 
 theless, it affords an excellent illustration of 
 what w^as Thomas Hooker's style— forceful, pic- 
 turesque, often involved, but permeated with 
 the illumination of a glowing faith. 
 
 After his death w-e pass over a hundred 
 years, during which no name appears upon 
 which it is necessary to dwell, the written re- 
 mains of that period being confined to homi- 
 letics, the somewhat colorless entries of official 
 records, and curious and not too intelligible cor- 
 respondence, all of which need the reviving touch 
 of the historical imagination to kindle them 
 into interest. About the middle of the 18th cen- 
 tury, we come upon a group of men w^ho did 
 more than am^ others to establish the promi- 
 nence in letters w^hicli Hartford has ever since 
 retained. The "Hartford Wits" were a few 
 trained men who, giving their time and strength 
 to literature, both in a periodical called the 
 "Anarchiad," and in various tracts, produced 
 in rapid succession, satire, verse, pasquinade 
 and serious prose, of which much remains to the 
 present day as evidence of their talent and 
 facility . 
 
 John Trumbull (1750-1831) w^as, perhaps, 
 the most gifted of the galaxy. President Moses 
 
138 Hartford in History. 
 
 Coit T^'ler has much to sa_v of his marvellous 
 precocity and various aptitudes. A native of 
 Westbury, he began the study of Greek and 
 Latin at the age of five, at which period he may 
 be said to have definitely decided upon the pro- 
 fession of letters, and he was prepared to enter 
 Yale College at seven. Fortunatelv he was 
 pronounced a little ^^outhful even for the joys of 
 Freshman A^ear and postponed his entrance un- 
 til 1763. A tutor, after graduation, and later 
 a student in the Boston office of John Adams, he 
 came to Hartford in 1781 and became one of 
 the club of which the other members were 
 Humphreys, Barlow and Hopkins, and which 
 busied itself, to great effect, in the politics of the 
 time. Later, made State Attorney, he took an 
 active part in public affairs for thirty- years. 
 Thus the most stirring period of his life was 
 spent in Hartford and much of that period in 
 the service of literature. Always ready to break 
 a lance in the cause of liberty, his wit and bril- 
 liancy saved him from the rej^roach sometimes 
 attending reformers. From the day when, with 
 Dwight,he struck for the honor of the elegancies 
 of literature as opposed to the heavier scholastic 
 pursuits, through his attack upon the giant 
 ''Dulness," as well as through the political 
 
Hartford in Literature. 139 
 
 essays published before the outbreak of the Rev- 
 olution, to the most famous of his satires, " Mc- 
 Fingal," he deals telling blows for liberty and 
 reform. "McFingal," a poem in four cantos, 
 in which the Tory cause is inade ridiculous by 
 its defense in the mouth of the hero, and in 
 which wit is sometimes injured by coarseness, 
 was a slashing attack, directed b3^ patriotism, 
 guided by humor and stinging with sarcasm, in 
 the cause which was that of ever^^ New England 
 patriot. 
 
 The author of the '' Columbiad," Joel Bar- 
 low (1755—1812), came to this city when he 
 was about twent^^-eight and spent five 3'ears 
 here, editing Dr. Watts's psalms, writing ''The 
 Vision of Columbus," and incidentally publish- 
 ing a newspaper. While pursuing his studies 
 at Yale, he fought the British during vacation ; 
 studying law for awhile after graduation, he 
 abandoned it for theology and became a chap- 
 lain ; member of Congress from Georgia, agent 
 for a bubble land company-, a partisan of the 
 Girondists in France and a critic of aristocratic 
 government in England ; consul at Algiers un- 
 der Washington, a cosmopolite in Paris and a 
 manorial proprietor in the District of Columbia, 
 Joel Barlow remains one of the most picturesque 
 
140 Hartford in History-. 
 
 figures in our early history, and it was in Hart- 
 ford, as we have seen, that he composed "The 
 Vision of Columbus," later polished and devel- 
 oped into the "Columbiad," perhaps the most 
 ambitious poetical composition of the New 
 World. 
 
 Colonel David Humphreys (1753-1818), a 
 member of the legislature from his native town 
 of Derby, and thus often living in Hartford, was 
 a third member of the little group which op- 
 posed the "progress of dulness." In military 
 and diplomatic life for many years, he died after 
 serving his countr\' for the last time as officer in 
 the war of 1812. His poems, like his life, were 
 notable for patriotism. "An Address to the 
 Armies of the United States" is one of them. 
 
 Dr. Lemuel Hopkins (1750-1801) completed 
 the literary^ club. He wrote chiefly a kind of 
 satiric verse, which, while not to be considered 
 as poetry, added to the caustic flavor of the 
 "Anarchiad," and the "Echo," specimens of the 
 journalistic literature of the day. 
 
 But the most familiar name of this time is 
 not that of one of the Hartford Wits, but that 
 of a man who, born in Hartford, long outlived 
 them, and of one whose work is known to thou- 
 sands who never heard of theirs. A scholar, 
 
Hartford in Literature. 141 
 
 rather than a hterary man, was Noah Webster 
 (1758-1843), the compiler of the dictionary, 
 and yet one whose labors are so closely allied 
 to literature that the^^can not be left out in any 
 mention of such achievements. Although the 
 results of his efforts to establish the regulations 
 of an American language, b^^ dictionary' and 
 spelling book, have been largely set aside as too 
 arbitrary, and the lexicon that bears his name 
 is by no means that which he bestowed upon 
 the country, his aim was no unworthy one, and 
 it brought about the first of a valuable series of 
 similar attempts. 
 
 Close at hand, ready to carry on the tradi- 
 tion, comes a second group of writers, most of 
 them born in the last decade of the 18th century, 
 either in Hartford or in some neighboring place 
 which looked to Hartford as a center of thought 
 and action. Chief among the poetically inclined 
 was Lydia Huntley Sigourney (1791-1865), 
 who for more than fifty years made this city 
 her home. Although later critics must consider 
 most of the eulogies pronounced bA' her contem- 
 porar\' admirers upon Mrs. Sigourney 's verse 
 too exalted, she remains a conspicuous and 
 interesting figure in the literary history, not 
 only of Connecticut, but of the country, A 
 
142 Hartford in History. ' 
 
 woman of undeniable gifts and great industry, 
 unselfishly devoted to the benefit of her kind, 
 she had an imagination to perceive the beautiful 
 and the picturesque, and a graceful facility, with 
 occasionally an unusual felicity, of expression. 
 She was considered especialh^ happy in her " oc- 
 casional" poems, and seldom failed to respond 
 to the very numerous demands upon her for this 
 sort of verse. 
 
 Born a few years after Mrs. Sigourne^^ but 
 dying many years before her, at the age of 
 thirty-two, John G. C. Brainerd (1796-1828), a 
 native of New London, but editor of the " Con- 
 necticut Mirror," in Hartford, contributed no 
 small share to Connecticut's prestige. Brain- 
 erd' s feeling for nature, his command of musical 
 form, the correctness of his ear, and, more than 
 all, his often distinctly and unmistakably poetic 
 phrase, mark him as a writer of genuine endow- 
 ment, upon whom time might have bestowed a 
 Irrger strength and a wider fame. 
 
 Emma Willard (1787-1870), devoted to 
 and prominent in the cause of the higher educa- 
 tion of women, and the author of the song 
 "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep," received 
 much of her early education in Hartford and 
 was a friend of Mrs. Sigourne}^ 
 
Hartford in Literature. 143 
 
 Of this time, too, were Samuel G. Goodrich 
 (1793-1860), better known as ''Peter Parley," 
 Theodore D wight, Jr., both writers on miscella- 
 neous subjects, and Carlos Wilcox (1794-1827), 
 one of the long line of Hartford clerg3^men who 
 have profitably given much of their time to 
 general literary work, while John P. Brace 
 (1793-1872), coming here from Litchfield and 
 remaining here about thirty years, not only ex- 
 erted an important influence upon the educa- 
 tional methods of his time, but y^rote two 
 novels of early New England life. 
 
 With the beginning of the second or Middle 
 period it will be more convenient to attempt a 
 further classification, namely, one distinguish- 
 ing those to whom literary value is but second- 
 ary, an incidental effect of professional labors 
 whose vital value lies in other directions, and 
 those to whom, to quote Professor Johnson, 
 "form is the criterion of literature," in other 
 words, the poets, the writers of fiction, essays 
 and for the daily press. 
 
 With the very beginning of the Middle pe- 
 riod, and following naturally after Mr. Brace in 
 this connection, though preceding him as a 
 teacher, comes Catherine Beecher (1800-1878), 
 a progressive woman, before the term threat- 
 
li-i Hartford in History. 
 
 ened to become meaningless — a teacher, a wint- 
 er, a loYcr of the practical and the intellectual, 
 though with perhaps no over-powering affec- 
 tion for the ideal. A voluminous composer, she 
 printed work chiefly on educational and domes- 
 tic matters. While touching on these two, 
 w^hose efforts towards a wider education were 
 so conscientious and so successful, we may in- 
 clude Avhat must necessarily be a brief mention 
 of Dr. Henry Barnard, whose name is synon^^- 
 mous with that of education in Connecticut, 
 and whose consistent labor for it has extended 
 through the years of a happih^ prolonged life, 
 and has embraced, among other earnest activi- 
 ties, the publication of over 800 treatises upon 
 special subjects. 
 
 Of men belonging to the learned professions 
 who have found time to turn aside into the paths 
 of pure literature, the names of James Dixon 
 (1814—1873) and Henry C. Deming (1815— 
 1872) occur in the Middle period as contempo- 
 raries in such w^ork. Both were lawyers, and 
 both impressive speakers ; the former wrote 
 verse with ease and precision, and five of his 
 sonnets are preserved in Leigh Hunt's ''Book 
 of the Sonnet"; the latter accomplished some 
 French translations and a life of U. S. Grant. 
 
Hartford in Literature. 145 
 
 Isaac W. Stuart (1809 — 1861), a contemporary, 
 though not a lawyer, wrote a Hfe of Nathan 
 Hale and one of Governor Trumbull, the florid 
 style of which latter book has not prevented its 
 acceptance as authority. 
 
 George H. Clark (1809—1881), belonging 
 to this Middle period, w^as a writer of the 
 '' Knickerbocker " and the author of a volume of 
 poems called " Undertow." 
 
 With the historical writers of the Later 
 period, should be mentioned James Hammond 
 Trumbull (1821— 1897), who, with conscientious 
 scholarship and by means of independent in- 
 vestigation, did much to elucidate many epi- 
 sodes of New England historA^ notably in his 
 editorship of the Colonial Records of Connecti- 
 cut, a "Letter from Thomas Hooker," and his 
 book, " Blue Laws True and False." 
 
 John Fiske, the brilliant historian and 
 essaA^st, though now distinctively of Massa- 
 chusetts, was born in Hartford, and is one of 
 those who was admitted to the bar, though he 
 never practiced, while Henry C. Robinson, in a 
 crowded legal career, has found time, not onh^ 
 for numerous addresses on other than profes- 
 sional lines, but to make contributions to the 
 constitutional historv of the State. 
 
146 Hartford in History. 
 
 Hartford has claimed and enjo^^ed the dis- 
 tinction of pulpits filled by men of exceptional 
 power, men esteemed not only as pastors and 
 bishops, but of mark in literature and citizen- 
 ship. It were a pity had it been otherwise in a 
 city founded by Thomas Hooker. Two years 
 later than Catherine Beecher, with whose name 
 we began the Middle period, was born a man 
 whose influence remains to-day a powerful fac- 
 tor in the city which he made his home, and an 
 influence felt far beyond the limits of Hartford 
 theology and Hartford letters. A native of New 
 Preston, but living in this city from 1833 until 
 his death, Horace Bushnell (1802—1876) left 
 his stamp upon the progressive tendencies of his 
 time in every department to which he gave his 
 attention, and made his name representative of 
 much that passes current as distinctiveh^ of New 
 England's best, in liberal, imaginative and en- 
 kindled religious thought. That his stud3^ w^alls 
 did not shut out the interests of practical and 
 farseeing good citizenship, is witnessed b^^ the 
 park that bears his name, rescued from the 
 degradation of ugliness and disorder to be a 
 center of beauty and refreshment. 
 
 Another clergyman w^hose position in liter- 
 ature is due tootherthan strictly clerical labors. 
 
Hartford in Literature. 147 
 
 was Robert Turnbull (1809—1877). Born in 
 Scotland, but a Hartford pastor for many years, 
 a man of wide information, trained perceptions 
 and a fine culture, he wrote not only for period- 
 icals, but was the author of a number of books, 
 among which are '^The Genius of Scotland'* 
 and "The Genius of Italy." 
 
 Nathaniel J. Burton (1824—1887), the suc- 
 cessor of Dr. Bushnell, wrote a series of Yale 
 lectures, which, with other addresses, have 
 made a volume abounding in the wonderful 
 felicity of language, power of expression and 
 divining imagination that made his pulpit utter- 
 ances so notable. These endowments, together 
 with those of a wonderful voice and an inspir- 
 ing presence, rendered him a preacher whose 
 oratorical gifts made a profound and lasting 
 impression. Like him, Dr. Edwin Pond Parker 
 and the Rev. Joseph Hopkins Twichell are known 
 to a wider public than that of their congrega- 
 tions and their city. Both eloquent preachers. 
 Dr. Parker has written a history of '' The Second 
 Church of Hartford" and added several fine 
 hymns to our collections, and Mr. Twichell is 
 the author of a ''Life of John Winthrop," and 
 the editor of some of the Winthrop letters, being 
 master of a picturesque and forcible style, nota- 
 
148 Hartford in History. 
 
 bly happy in phrase and epithet, which is espe- 
 cially eifective in dealing with episodes of our 
 early history. 
 
 Dr. George Leon Walker, a later comer, but 
 not an alien, has made most valuable contribu- 
 tions to literature, in the "Life of Thomas 
 Hooker" — of whom he is the lineal, clerical suc- 
 cessor — and the histor^^ of his church, and in the 
 *' Religious Life of New England," a book of 
 searching and eloquent analysis. The Rev. 
 William DeLoss Love has added to the evi- 
 dences of the historic research of our clergymen, 
 his authoritative work on "Fast and Thanks- 
 giving Days in New England," while Rev. Sam- 
 uel J. Andrews has written a standard " Life of 
 Christ." 
 
 It is an interesting fact that so many 
 bishops of the Episcopal Church, who, at one 
 time or another, have held a cure in this city, 
 have blended with their professional duties that 
 taste for literature which has led to greater or 
 less distinction in its pursuit. To the Early 
 period belongs Bishop Doane, the father, (1799 
 -1859), the author of "Softly now the Light 
 of Da3%" a professor at Washington, now Trin- 
 ity, College ; to the Later, his son, the present 
 Bishop Doane, and the bishops George Burgess 
 
Hartford in Literature. 149 
 
 (1809-1866) and Arthur Cleveland Coxe (1818 
 —1896). All of these have printed verse, and the 
 present esteemed incumbent of the Connecticut 
 bishopric, the Rev. John Williams, has also con- 
 tributed to general literature. 
 
 Returning now to the beginning of the Mid- 
 dle period and reviewing those who are literarA' 
 men b^^ preference, we find among the poets the 
 name of George Denison Prentice (1802—1870), 
 though one perhaps more ^deh^ known as that 
 of a v^it. He had a turn for graceful and unaf- 
 fected verse, and wrote a life of Henrv Clay. He 
 was succeeded as editor of the New England 
 Weekly Review by John Greenleaf Whittier 
 (1802-1892), who remained here two years, 
 and who is too widely known to require more 
 than this brief reference. 
 
 More emphatically may Hartford call hers 
 the first poet of her Later period, Henry Howard 
 Brownell (1820-1872), whose verse attracted 
 the attention of Farragut and w^on Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes' eulogy. The companion of 
 Farragut in the battle of Mobile Bay, he was 
 also its laureate, and his lyrics are full of the 
 thrill of action. 
 
 The poems of Rose Terry Cooke (1827-1892) 
 have met with a narrower recognition than her 
 
150 Hartford in History. 
 
 New England stories, but not from lack of the 
 truest poetic quality. Alany of them, among the 
 most familiar of which are the *' Two Villages " 
 and the "Trailing Arbutus," suffice to mark 
 her gift as that of undeniable genius. Of living 
 poets Hartford can claim Edmund Clarence 
 Stedman, by right of birth, although that lead- 
 ing critic, as well as poet, has made his home so 
 long in another city that to it belongs the dis- 
 tinction of his stirring verse and penetrating 
 criticism; Frances Louisa Bushnell, whose verse, 
 limited in quantity, is of the finest, most musical 
 and most convincing quality ; Richard Burton, 
 whose two volumes of poems have proved his 
 possession of the power of melodious expression ; 
 and Charles F. Johnson, whose book shows the 
 versatility of his poetic, as his volume of essays 
 proves that of his critical, faculty. 
 
 The first name in the list of fiction writers 
 must be the universalh^ recognized one of Har- 
 riet Beecher vStowe (1812-1896). A woman of 
 hereditar3^ and personal power, of remarkable 
 gifts of literary expression, of tenacious moral 
 purpose and inspired imagination, the author of 
 "Uncle Tom's Cabin," was not only a great 
 writer of fiction, but also the conscious instru- 
 ment of patriotic forces. So long a most impor- 
 
Hartford in Literature. 151 
 
 tant part of the literary circle of Hartford, she 
 must ever remain one of its most revered and 
 striking figures. 
 
 We have already- mentioned Mrs. Cooke's 
 poems ; her stories of New England life continue 
 to hold their place among the increasing num- 
 ber of delineations within the same province, by 
 their irresistible humor and keen observation 
 which sees, below the surface, the drama of a 
 restricted existence. 
 
 Charles Dudley Warner, now the vSenior 
 member of the Hartford circle, with the distinc- 
 tion of novelist and essayist, is a prominent fig- 
 ure in American letters. A resident of Hartford 
 since 1860, he became editor of the " Courant " 
 in 1867, and in 1870, wrote for its columns the 
 series of papers afterwards published and widely 
 known as " yiy Summer in a Garden." 
 
 Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain), 
 whose fame as a humorist has extended beyond 
 the knowledge of English speaking peoples, has 
 made his home in Hartford for a number of years, 
 and it is here that his " Innocents Abroad " was 
 published and much of his literary work done, 
 including "The Gilded Age," which was written 
 in collaboration with Mr. Warner. 
 
 Frederic B. Perkins is the author of a novel 
 
152 Hartford in History. 
 
 and some short stories, as well as of other tech- 
 nical publications. 
 
 Annie Trumbull Slosson, the author of 
 "Seven Dreamers," has found for herself a do- 
 main, which, while lying within the region so 
 extensiveh' cultivated of New England pecu- 
 liarities, reveals a distinctive quality in its oddi- 
 ties. Her characters have almost always a 
 touch of mysticism that differentiates them 
 from the more familiar types. 
 
 Mary Abigail Dodge (Gail Hamilton), (1830 
 —1896), was, in the fifties, a teacher in the High 
 School, and is still remembered as an inspiring 
 visitant. 
 
 Among essayists and miscellaneous writers 
 of the Later period, we have already spoken of 
 Mr. Warner and Mr. Clemens. Here belongs 
 Henry Glay Trumbull, long a resident of Hart- 
 ford, who, in addition to what he has contribu- 
 ted to the press, has published several volumes 
 belonging rather to general literature than to 
 the treatment of special subjects. The book of 
 a brother, Gurdon Trumbull, belongs in the 
 scientific rather than the literar^^ department, 
 though written for the general reader. 
 
 Frederic Law^ Olmsted, better known as a 
 landscape gardener, devoted some time to the 
 
Hartford in Literature. 153 
 
 making of books in the early part of his career, 
 and should have mention among those writers 
 whose birthplace and early home was in this 
 cit3% although transferring their later activities 
 to other scenes. Three of these books, which 
 were those of observation and comment attend- 
 ing a trip through the Southern States, while 
 published some time before the Rebellion, were 
 issued in London, under the title of ^ ' The Cotton 
 Kingdom," in 1861. Written, not as a contri- 
 bution to the literature of partisanship, but as 
 a record of facts, this volume became an import- 
 ant and valuable document in the controversies 
 leading to the Civil War. 
 
 In the composition of dramatic literature, 
 William Gillette is conspicuous, his brilliant and 
 successful pla^^s having met a wide appreciation 
 in this and other countries. 
 
 In a review of this length, there is no space 
 to even mention many single volumes contribu- 
 ted by Hartford writers to one department of 
 letters or another, such as "Maximilian and 
 Carlotta," by John M. Ta^dor, and the "Life 
 of Oliver Cromwell," by Dr. George H. Clark, 
 and there are, as well, many writers for the peri- 
 odical press, of stories, essays and verse, to 
 whom it is impossible to refer except in this 
 
154 Hartford in History. 
 
 general way. Journalism in Hartford might 
 well have a chapter of its o\vn, since none can 
 do more than the editor to bring about a com- 
 mon acceptance of a high literar\^ standard. 
 From the days of the "Anarchiad" and the 
 "Echo," of Barlow, Hopkins, Humphreys and 
 Trumbull, the succession has been continued 
 through Brainerd, Prentice, Whittier and 
 Warner. Some of these men were in the cit^^ for 
 only a short time, but each one contributed his 
 share to the maintenance of this high standard 
 and of the exacting expectations of a critical 
 community'. There is among the leading repre- 
 sentatives of Hartford press of to-da3' a full 
 recognition of these responsibilities, making it 
 still conspicuous for the literary character of 
 much of its production. Mr. Alfred E. Burr, one 
 of the leading and one of the oldest editors of 
 the State of Connecticut, has been the owner 
 and editor of the Hartford " Times " since 1841, 
 and has made it a paper of pronounced individ- 
 uality and able and fearless political expression, 
 in the accomplishment of which he has been 
 effectually aided by his brother and other mem- 
 bers of the staff. 
 
 The "Courant," a newspaper having the 
 distinction of uninterrupted publication since 
 
Hartford in Literature. 155 
 
 1764, has been for some 3^ears under the editorial 
 management of Mr. Charles Hopkins Clark. The 
 ability of his editorship and the A^ersatility and 
 brilliancy of his pen have been widely recognized 
 and acknowledged. His associate, Mr. Charles H. 
 Adams, is not only a journalist who commands 
 an incisive and powerful style, but is a v^riter of 
 verse notable for its imaginative grace. 
 
 The faculty of Trinity College and that of 
 the Theological Seminary have afforded, and 
 continue to afford, men of ability, which is dis- 
 played in their written treatment of subjects 
 belonging to their various departments. All 
 these elements confirm and attend the inclina- 
 tion towards literary expression and apprecia- 
 tion, now as ever, such potent factors in the 
 atmosphere of this New England city. 
 
The Public Buildings of Hartford. 
 
 T 
 
 By Caroline M. Hewins. 
 
 HE PUBLIC BUILDINGS of Hartford 
 belong — 
 
 I. To the Nation. 
 
 II. To the State of Connecticut. 
 
 III. To the County of Hartford. 
 
 IV. To the City of Hartford. 
 V. To Corporations. 
 
 I. The Federal Building, erected by the 
 United States Government, is in City Hall 
 Square. On the first floor is the Post Office, one 
 of the few in this countr^^ which more than pays 
 its own expenses. It is a busy place, for mails 
 are coming in and going out all day and nearly 
 all night in the wagons that are loaded and un- 
 loaded at the back entrance. On the second 
 floor are rooms for government officials — the 
 United States District Attorney, the Clerk of the 
 United States Court, the United States Commis- 
 sioner, the Judge of the United States Court, and 
 the Collector of the United States Internal Reve- 
 nue. On the third floor are a United States Court 
 
 156 
 
The Public Buildings of Hartford. 157 
 
 Room, and rooms for the grand and petit jury 
 and the Custom House officials. Not many 
 years ago, if a firm in Hartford imported goods 
 from other countries, they were not allowed to 
 come to this cit3' until they were ''cleared" — 
 that is, until the duties on them were paid at 
 the New York Custom House. Now they are 
 sent direct to the care of the Hartford Custom 
 House, and kept in "bonded warehouses," near 
 the river, until the^^ are paid for ; or, if the^^ are 
 books for public libraries, or other articles which 
 are allowed to come in free of duty, until the 
 importer declares that they are for public and 
 not private use. 
 
 II. The Capitol, of which we read in an- 
 other chapter, belongs to the State. The State 
 Arsenal, the row of buildings on two sides of a 
 square at the corner of Main and Pavilion 
 street, w4th its cannon and balls in the yard, is 
 used as a storehouse for arms and military 
 clothing and supplies, and for fourteen 3^ears 
 after the Civil War was a place of safety for the 
 Connecticut battle flags, until they -were carried 
 in procession to the Capitol, in 1879. 
 
 III. The Hartford County Court House 
 Building, the large red-brick edifice overgrown 
 with iv3^ at the corner of Trumbull and Allyn 
 
158 Hartford in History. 
 
 street, is used by the County Commissioners, 
 theSheriff of the County and the Superior Court. 
 The County Jail is in Seyms street. 
 
 IV. In October, 1806, a young girl took 
 her first journey from Norwich to Hartford. It 
 is onl\' fort\' miles, a two-hours' trip now by 
 rail ; then it lasted all day by stage. She wrote 
 in her journal, " The State House is a most ele- 
 gant building of brick, with a loftj- portico, 
 commanding from its second story a grand 
 prospect of the town, with its numerous abodes, 
 its fertile back country, and the river with its 
 shipping. The pavement, in diamond-shaped 
 pieces of w^hite and chocolate-colored marble, is 
 fine, and the Council-chamber so large that we 
 were pigmies in it. There are the seats for the 
 Governor and Council, but what most riveted 
 my attention w^as a portrait of Washington, 
 rather larger than life, in a splendid frame, sur- 
 rounded with curtains and festoons of crin\son 
 satin."* It was in this building, on the Dark 
 Day of 1780, when the other members of the 
 Legislature thought that the Day of Judgment 
 had come, that Abraham Davenport said: *'I 
 am against an adjournment. The Day of Judg- 
 ment is either approaching, or it is not. If it is 
 
 *Sigourney, Letters of Life. 
 
The Public Buildings of Hartford. 159 
 
 not, there is no cause for an adjournment; if it 
 is, I wish to be found doing my duty. I ^vish, 
 therefore, that candles may be brought."* Or 
 as Whittier has told it in verse : 
 
 " This may well be 
 The Day of Judgment which the world aw^aits ; 
 But be it so, or not, I only know. 
 My present duty, and my Lord's command 
 To occup3^ till he come. So at the post 
 Where he hath set me in his providence 
 I choose, for one, to meet him face to face, — 
 No faithless servant frightened from my task, 
 But ready when the Lord of the harvest calls ; 
 And, therefore, with all reverence, I would say 
 Let God do his work, we will see to ours. 
 Bring in the candles." f 
 
 The old State House, now City Hall, belongs 
 to the City of Hartford, and in it are the 
 Mayor's office, and the office of the Cit3^ Treas- 
 urer, City Auditor, City Marshal, Water Board, 
 City Surve^^or, Health Commissioners, Building 
 Inspector, Sealer of Weights and Measures, and 
 Street Commissioners. The Board of Aldermen 
 meets in the old Senate Chamber, and the Com- 
 mon Council in the old Representatives' Hall. 
 
 The High School, in Hopkins street, was 
 built in 1882—3, to take the place of a school- 
 
 *D wight, Travels, v. 3, p. 498. New Haven, 1822. 
 t Whittier, Abraham Davenport. 
 
160 Hartford in History. 
 
 house destroyed by fire one cold, windy night, 
 and was supposed to be large enough for the 
 needs of the school for a long time to come. 
 Within the last few years, however, the number 
 of pupils has increased so rapidly that a large ad- 
 dition has been erected, including a gymnasium 
 and manual-training department. The classical 
 department of the school ^was once the Hopkins 
 Grammar School, and was founded in 1638. 
 
 Copies of all wills and deeds of land in the 
 City of Hartford are kept in the Halls of Record 
 at the corner of Pearl and Trumbull street, 
 where voters must be registered and prove them- 
 selves able to read. The offices of the Town and 
 City Clerk, City Collector, Registrars of Voters, 
 Judge of Probate, Board of Relief, Board of Select- 
 men and Board of Assessors are in this building. 
 
 Y. The young girl who made the record in 
 her journal about the old State House was 
 Lydia Huntley, afterwards Mrs. Sigourney, 
 who wrote many graceful verses, and lived in the 
 large white house with pillars that stands on 
 the west side of the railroad overlooking Bushnell 
 Park. This house, sixty years ago, was far out 
 of town. President Barnard, of Columbia Col- 
 lege, spoke of it as Mrs. Sigourney 's ''elegant 
 suburban residence," when he spent a summer 
 
The Public Buildings of Hartford. 161 
 
 there in 1832 while he was a teacher in the 
 large building a little farther up the hill, now 
 called the American School for the Deaf. When 
 Miss Huntley taught a school for girls, she had 
 a little deaf-mute pupil, Alice Cogswell, who 
 had lost her hearing before she was four Axars 
 old. One day when Alice was plajdng in the 
 garden of her father's house in Prospect street, 
 where the building of the Hartford Medical So- 
 ciet\^ now stands, a 3^oung student, Thomas 
 Hopkins Gallaudet, taught her how to spell the 
 word hat with her fingers. She afterwards 
 learned other words and sentences both from 
 him and Miss Huntley, until her father, encour- 
 aged by her progress, began to urge that a school 
 for deaf-mute children might be established in 
 Hartford, in order that she need not be sent to 
 an institution in London or Edinburgh. Mr. 
 Gallaudet, after a year spent in studying and 
 visiting schools for the deaf in England, Scot- 
 land and France, came back to Hartford in 
 1817 and opened the school, which was moved 
 to its present site in 1821, and has had many 
 thousand pupils from all over New England, 
 who have been taught to lead useful lives. 
 
 In the foreground of the Gallaudet Memorial 
 Window in the Center Church is a figure of 
 
162 Hartford in History. 
 
 Christ healing the bHnd, deaf and dumb boy, 
 and in the background are the old house and 
 garden in Prospect street, a cherry tree, a roAV 
 of holh^hocks, and the Bolton hills in the dis- 
 tance, like the scenes of every-day life in which 
 the old Italian masters used to paint their Holy 
 Families, saints and angels. 
 
 It was not until the School for the Deaf had 
 been established for many years, that the need 
 w^as felt in Hartford of a school for blind children 
 too young, or young men and women who had 
 lost their sight when too old to go to the Perkins 
 Institution in Boston. The Kindergarten for 
 the Blind is in Asylum avenue beyond Wood- 
 land street, and the Institution for the Blind, 
 where mattress-making, typewriting and other 
 occupations are taught, is in Wethersfield ave- 
 nue, near the Wethersfield line. Through the 
 training received in them man}^ pupils, who, if 
 kept at home would lose their minds from lack 
 of employment, are able to support themselves 
 and find happiness in work. 
 
 Miss Huntley's first visit to Hartford was 
 in an old house that stood in a large garden on 
 the corner of Main and Athen^um street. This 
 house had belonged to Jeremiah Wadsworth, 
 who was Commissary-general in the Revolu- 
 
7^he Public Buildings of Hartford. 163 
 
 tion, and is said to have been the place where 
 Washington heard of Arnold's treason. It is 
 certain that he and Rochambeau met there to 
 discuss plans for the campaign of Yorktown. 
 Daniel Wadsworth, the son of Jeremiah, lived 
 the latter part of his life in the house on the 
 south-west corner of Prospect and Athenreum 
 street, and about 1840 gave the land where his 
 father's house stood for the Wadsworth Athe- 
 naeum, built with money contributed by the 
 citizens of Hartford. At first, the middle of the 
 building contained an art gallery, the north 
 wing the library of the Young Men's Institute, 
 from which books might be taken for three dol- 
 lars a year, and the south wing the library and 
 collections of the Connecticut Historical Societ3^ 
 About 1860, after the death of David Watkinson, 
 who left about $100,000 to found a library of 
 reference, an addition was built on the south- 
 east. Still, Hartford had no free circulating 
 library or free art gallerj^, like many other cities, 
 until 1892, when $250,000 was given by a few 
 generous friends of education on condition 
 that $150,000 should be contributed by others 
 in large or small sums. Public-spirited women, 
 AA^orkmen in the factories, school children and 
 old residents of Hartford who had moved away, 
 
164 Hartford in History. 
 
 gave whatever the^^ could, from a few cents to 
 thousands of dollars, and when the daily papers 
 announced that more than $400,000 had iDeen 
 secured, there was general rejoicing. 
 
 Let us go into the Wads worth Athenaeum, 
 first stopping to look at the tablet placed by the 
 Sons of the American Revolution on the Washing- 
 ton Elm in front, and a statue of Nathan Hale, 
 by E. S. Woods, a Hartford sculptor, on the lawn . 
 The Athenaeum is built of a ^^ellowish granite 
 which takes a beautiful color in the sunlight, 
 and came from a quarry in Eastbur^^ that was 
 exhausted just before the building was finished. 
 For this reason the portico is of wood. The 
 style of the Athen^um is known as Perpendicu- 
 lar, like that of many buildings in England four 
 or five hundred years old. On the right of the 
 entrance-hall is a room belonging to the Con- 
 necticut Historical Society, where there is an 
 exhibition of birds, eggs, stuffed mammals and 
 Indian relics, to collecting which Dr. William 
 Wood of East Windsor Hill devoted man^^ years 
 of his life. On the second floor in the front part 
 of the building are the studio of the Hartford 
 Art SocietA^, where lessons in drawing and 
 painting are given, an Art Galler^^ and the hall 
 of the Connecticut Historical Societv. In the 
 
The Public Buildings of Hartford. 165 
 
 Art Gallen^ is what is sometimes called the 
 finest portrait in the United States, a large, 
 full-length likeness by Sir Thomas Lawrence, of 
 Benjamin West, the little Quaker boA^, who, the 
 school reading-books used to sa^^, pulled hairs 
 out of his cat's tail to make a paint-brush. In 
 later years he became so famous an artist that he 
 was chosen President of the Ro^^al Academ3^ in 
 London. Another interesting portrait is of 
 Peter Livingston, of New York, by Sir Henrj- 
 Raeburn, a great Scotch artist, w^ho painted Sir 
 Walter Scott and other famous men. '^Autumn 
 Gold" is by George Inness, one of the great 
 American painters, and '' The Plain of Barbizon," 
 a beautiful twilight scene b^^ Davis, who has 
 lived many 3^ears in France. Those of you who 
 like historical pictures will enjo3^ the live scenes 
 from the Revolution, by Trumbull, one of our 
 earliest Connecticut artists, and "The Battle of 
 Mobile Baj'," a scene on the flag-ship Hartford, 
 by Over and, an English painter. 
 
 The hall of the Connecticut Historical Society 
 is full of interesting relics, a few of w^hich are the 
 Mayflower chest, the shirt that Colonel Ledyard 
 wore when he was killed in the Fort Griswold 
 massacre, the clothes in which Jeremiah Wads- 
 worth was presented to Louis XVI. and Marie 
 
166 Hartford in History. 
 
 Antoinette, and a letter from Israel Putnam, 
 who, however well he could fight, could not 
 spell, for he sends his ''beast Respeacts " and 
 speaks of a *'tabel," a "par of shoos," "lym- 
 juice" and a "batel." There are high-heeled 
 shoes and old embroidery, Eg^^ptian gods and 
 Indian arrow-heads, General Putnam's tavern 
 sign, Revolutionar3^ powder-horns, and por- 
 traits of men of the last century in wigs and 
 lace ruffles. A door at one end of the hall leads 
 into the library of the Connecticut Histori- 
 cal Society, where there are books on town 
 history and famih^ genealogy, besides a collec- 
 tion of Bibles and large old books made b^^ Dr. 
 Robbins, the first librarian, ^vhose portrait is at 
 the east end of the room. We can go from this 
 library or from the Art Galler^^ through a hall, 
 to the Watkinson Librar^^ a large, high room 
 finished in oak, and full of books that the more 
 you study and the older you grow the more 
 interesting you will find. There are books in 
 this library which are not in the great libraries 
 in Boston and New York, and students often 
 come from other cities to consult them. 
 
 The staircase that goes do\vn from the door 
 of the Watkinson Library leads to a hall opening 
 into Athenaeum street, on the north side of the 
 
The Public Buildings of Hartford. 167 
 
 building. Near the entrance on one side is the 
 door of the large free reading room of the Hart- 
 ford Public Library, open from eight in the 
 morning till ten in the evening ever\" week-day, 
 and from one till half-past seven on Sundays. 
 In the hall, reading-room and a smaller hall at 
 the back, is the Brooks collection of arms, war 
 and Indian relics. The Hartford Public Library 
 is opposite the reading-room, and is free to 
 everyone old enough to write, who can bring a 
 friend whose name is in the Directory, or, if a 
 child, his or her father or mother, to sign a card 
 promising good care of books or payment for 
 them if lost or injured. There is a corner for 
 bo3^s and girls, and a special book-list for them. 
 A reference-room leading from the library has 
 books to help in their school-work, and th^y 
 have onlj^ to ask, to be taught how to use the 
 card-catalogue and books of reference. The 
 city appropriates a yearly sum for the Library, 
 and it also has an income from gifts and be- 
 quests. It helps the schools in ever3^ possible 
 way, and is part of the educational s^^stem of 
 Hartford. 
 
 Trinity College, on a hill south-west of the 
 city, used to stand on the site of the Capitol 
 and was called Washington College when first 
 
168 Hartford in History. 
 
 founded. It has interesting collections of min- 
 erals, fossils and casts from skeletons of prehis- 
 toric animals, open every week-da3\ 
 
 The Hartford Theological Seminary, in 
 Broad street, near Farmington avenue, has a 
 museum of curiosities from India, Japan, the 
 South Sea Islands and remote parts of our own 
 country, including small images in the costume 
 of Hindu men and women. It is also open every 
 week-day. 
 
 The Retreat for the Insane, at the corner of 
 Washington street and Retreat avenue, has 
 been in existence for sevent^'-five years. At the 
 time it was opened it was the custom to treat 
 insane patients harshly, to chain them or keep 
 them in cages, and the Retreat was one of the 
 few hospitals in this country where milder 
 methods were practiced. The grounds are open 
 to visitors every week-da\^ 
 
 The Hartford Hospital, at the corner of Jef- 
 ferson and South Hudson street, has a fund 
 from the State, but most of its support comes 
 from gifts and bequests. A training-school for 
 nurses is connected with it, and its usefulness 
 increases everj^ year. Across Jefferson street is 
 the Old People's Home, \vhere men and women 
 more than sixtv vears of ag^e are allowed to 
 
 I 
 
The Public Buildings of Hartford. 169 
 
 live the rest of their Hves on pa^^ment of a thou- 
 sand dollars. 
 
 The Young Men's Christian Association, at 
 the corner of Pearl and Ford street, has classes 
 in manual-training, drawing and High School 
 studies for young men, and one of the best gym- 
 nasiums in the country. 
 
 The Good Will Club, in the building in Pratt 
 street that was once the Hartford Female Semi- 
 nary, of which Catherine Beecher, Mrs. Stowe's 
 sister, was the principal, is a place where hun- 
 dreds of boys spend pleasant evenings. The 
 Union for Home Work, in Market street, and 
 the City Mission, in Pearl street, are engaged in 
 helping and teaching men, women and children 
 to help themselves. 
 
Manufactures in Hartford. 
 
 By P. Henry Woodward. 
 
 DURING the colonial period the business of 
 Hartford was mostly confined to agricul- 
 ture and trade. Located at the head of 
 navigation for ocean sailing vessels, the town 
 was a leading center of distribution for the 
 region stretching northward toward the sources 
 of the Connecticut. 
 
 Earh^ attempts to introduce manufactures 
 gave little promise of the development that 
 began about the middle of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. Some failed, some dried up and some 
 moved away to become firmly rooted in other 
 soil. 
 
 In 1788 the first woolen mill in the countrj^ 
 was built on Little River, near the foot of Mul- 
 berry street. General Washington delivered his 
 first inaugural in a suit made from its cloth. 
 But the people were too poor to buy the product 
 at remunerative prices. After a struggle of six 
 years the company was dissolved. 
 
 Among the manufactures that flourished 
 more or less for sixt^^ A^ears after the Revolution 
 
 170 
 
Manufactures in Hartford. 171 
 
 may be mentioned silver and Britannia ware, 
 bells, cordage, pottery, watches, tanning, coop- 
 erage, ship-building, friction matches, engrav- 
 ing, etc. 
 
 In manufactures Hartford attained its first 
 notable success in the production of books. The 
 city took the lead in selling by subscription, and 
 for a long period held the first place in the trade. 
 The Civil war gave a great impetus to the busi- 
 ness. Sales of one hundred and fifty or two 
 hundred thousand copies of single works were 
 not uncommon. Canvassers penetrated all our 
 outlying settlements, and by their efibrts helped 
 to create an appetite which only books can sat- 
 isfy. At one time fifty thousand agents were 
 employed by local publishers. 
 
 In the production of cotton and woolen 
 goods, paper and specialties, Hartford began 
 early to utilize the water-power of other towns, 
 supplying both capital and direction. Before 
 entering on an industrial career distinctively her 
 own, she was compelled to wait for the advent 
 of the steam engine. Most of her large enter- 
 prises trace their lineage to the foundry and 
 machine shop. 
 
 In 1820, Alpheus and Truman Hanks came 
 to Hartford, and, starting with a small foundry, 
 
172 Hartford in History. 
 
 built Up a business that in the hands of their 
 successors became famous forty years later. 
 They made the first successful cast-iron plow in 
 the United States. At the outset the^^ ran by 
 horse-power, but in 1828 set up a fine steam 
 engine made by Daniel Copeland, who had a 
 machine shop on the opposite side of Commerce 
 street. After various changes the firm Avas in- 
 corporated in 1853 as The Woodruff and Beach 
 Iron Works, with a capital of $225,000. The 
 company was especially noted for the excellence 
 of its engines and boilers. During the war it 
 furnished marine engines for the "Pequot," the 
 "Nipsic," the "Mohican," the "Kearsarge" 
 which sank the cruiser Alabama, and for other 
 naval vessels. 
 
 In 1834, Levi Lincoln, with his son, George 
 S. Lincoln, started on Arch street a small ma- 
 chine repair shop. Previously the father had 
 been manager of The New England Card Com- 
 pany, a local concern that at one time employed 
 nine hundred women and children, scattered 
 over a wide area, in setting the wire teeth of 
 the cards used in the manufacture of woolen 
 and cotton goods and for other purposes. While 
 so engaged he perfected a machine for doing the 
 work ^which ruined the domestic industrv. He 
 
Manufactures of Hartford. 173 
 
 invented the hook and e3^e machine, which 
 brought wealth to others, but not to himself, 
 and the molasses gate still in use in almost the 
 original form. Since 1885 the business, now 
 grown to large proportions, has been owned 
 and managed by Charles S. Lincoln and his 
 sons Charles P. and Theodore M. 
 
 The advent of Colonel Samuel Colt marked 
 a turning point in the industrial growth of the 
 city. The revolver of his invention had been 
 used effectively b^^ Texans in their struggle for 
 independence and b^^ our troops against the ter- 
 rible Seminoles in the swamp fights of Florida, 
 but not until the Mexican war were its merits 
 adequately acknow^ledged by the military boards 
 of the United States army. After heroic strug- 
 gles his hour of triumph had come. Thencefor- 
 ward success flowed in with a rush till then un- 
 equaled in the histor3^ of American manufac- 
 tures. In 1852, Colonel Colt bought a large tract 
 on the Connecticut River, within the city limits, 
 which he enclosed with a d^^ke that affords both 
 protection against the highest freshets and a 
 spacious driveway. The armor3^, begun in 
 1854, was ready for occupancj^ in 1855. Quick 
 to discover and generous in rewarding merit, 
 Colonel Colt gathered around himabody of men 
 
174 Hartford in History. 
 
 remarkable alike for skill and fidelity. It was 
 the constant aim of the establishment to reach 
 the best attainable results b^- the most efllicient 
 means. The armory became a training school 
 in applied mechanics where absolute excellence, 
 even if beyond human reach, was still the onh- 
 standard. Young men caught the enthusiasm 
 for mechanical perfection, and later in works 
 under their own control inspired others to 
 pursue like ideals. Here under such teachers as 
 E. K. Root, Samuel H. Bachelor and Horace 
 Lord were educated, in part, Francis A. Pratt, 
 Amos Whitney, George A. Fairfield, Charles E. 
 Billings and others, leaders trained to tolerate 
 no remediable imperfection. It is this enthusi- 
 asm for excellence that has won for Hartford its 
 high place in manufactures. 
 
 After the Alexican war, orders for the pistol 
 came in swelling streams, not only from power- 
 ful empires, but from loneh- frontiers and from 
 remote outposts of civilization. While project- 
 ing colossal schemes Colonel Colt died suddenly, 
 January 10, 1862. His work survives less in 
 the armory, which arose like magic, than in the 
 aspiration for excellence that has since been the 
 essential feature of our industrial creed. 
 
 In January, 1836, Newton Case and E. D. 
 
Manufactures in Hartford. 175 
 
 Tiffany founded the present Case, Lockwood & 
 Brainard Co. The memorable panic of 1837 
 made severe the earh' struggle for existence. 
 Encouraged by signs of reviving trade, the firm, 
 three 3^ears later, bought the stereot\^pe plates 
 of the Cottage Bible, a commentar\^ in two 
 royal octavo volumes, of which the3^ sold over 
 two hundred thousand copies. Here, too, for 
 the first fifteen years, Webster's Unabridged 
 Dictionary was printed and bound, as well as 
 school books in large quantities. James Lock- 
 wood entered the partnership in 1853, and 
 Leverett Brainard in 1858. The association of 
 Messrs. Case, Lockwood & Brainard remained 
 unbroken till the death of Mr. Lockwood, in 
 1888. Mr. Case followed in 1890, in his eight^^- 
 fourth year. He was long a trustee and devoted 
 friend of the Hartford Theological Seminary, to 
 which he made large bequests. He had already 
 provided the funds for building the Case Memo- 
 rial Librar3^ and for adding thousands of vol- 
 umes to its collections. In 1874, the business was 
 incorporated under a special charter from the 
 State. Its capital is $400,000. The president, 
 Mr. Brainard, was elected mayor of Hartford in 
 1894. This is one of the largest and best equipped 
 printing establishments in New England. 
 
176 Hartford in History. 
 
 In 1845 Plim^ Jewell, Sr., came from New^ 
 Hampshire to Hartford and ran a tan^-ard on 
 land now embraced in Bushnell Park. Three 
 years later he began making leather belts. He 
 and four sons successiYely taken into the part- 
 nership did much to substitute this means for 
 the conveyance of power in place of the nois}^ 
 costh^ and cumbersome system of gearing before 
 prevalent. Thefactor^^, bought in 1863, has since 
 been enlarged from time to time directh' and by 
 the addition of new buildings. Under a special 
 charter The Jew^ell Belting Company was organ- 
 ized in 1883, as successor to the partnership of 
 P. Jewell & Sons, with a capital of $1,000,000, 
 owned by the family and a few employees. The 
 concern has tanneries in the oak-growing re- 
 gions of Georgia and Tennessee, whence its sup- 
 plies of leather are drawn, and also has a branch 
 factor\Mn Detroit. Even before thew^ar the firm 
 was making belts from thirty-six to forty inches 
 in width, though Avhen the fact was told in 
 England, with a discount of one-third from the 
 reality, the statement was received incredu- 
 loush^ Since then the size has been doubled. 
 A late product, 118 feet long and weighing 
 3,208 pounds, transmits tw^o thousand horse 
 powder. 
 
Manufactures in Hartford. 177 
 
 In the summer of 1860 Francis A. Pratt and 
 Amos Whitney opened a small machine shop, 
 and did so well that two years later, on admit- 
 ting to the partnership Monroe Stannard, each 
 of the three contributed $1,200. Those were 
 halcyon da3^s, for in 1865, with their own re- 
 sources and credit, the^^ erected a building of 
 four stories, containing forty thousand square 
 feet of floor space. The plant no^w covers about 
 five and a half acres. 
 
 Beginning with the manufacture of machine 
 tools, gun tools and tools for the makers of 
 sewing machines, the concern has broadened its 
 lines till the mere catalogue of its products fills 
 hundreds of pages. Here the resources of science, 
 art and skill have been devoted to the task of 
 embodying the ideal in the real. Its imprint to 
 the informed mind signifies simplicity, strength, 
 precision, elegance, durabilit^^ and complete 
 adaptation of means to ends. 
 
 During four years, beginning in 1862, net 
 assets grew from $3,600 to $75,000. The Pratt 
 & Whitney' Compan3' was incorporated in 1869, 
 with a capital of $350,000, increased to $400,- 
 000 in 1873, and to $500,000 in 1875, mostly 
 from profits. 
 
 In this shop as the fruit of years of effort 
 
178 Hartford in History. 
 
 was elaborated the "comparator," a machine 
 for giving correct measurements within a limit 
 of one-fifty-thousandth of an inch. The accu- 
 rac}' thus attained introduced a new era in in- 
 dustrial uniformity, precision and economies. 
 The company has found a large market in for- 
 eign countries. 
 
 In 1878, Colonel Albert A. Pope, of Boston, 
 contracted with The Weed Sewing Machine 
 Company to make a small lot of bicycles. He 
 came at an opportune moment, for a little later 
 the sewing machine business was reduced to 
 great straits b\' excessive competition and 
 vicious methods of conducting sales. The 
 bicycle soon ceased to be regarded as a sort of 
 toy for big bo3^s and men. When its utihties 
 were recognized, the inventive and mechanical 
 talent of the factory was devoted to its im- 
 provement. The demand broadened so rapidly 
 that the need of a larger plant became impera- 
 tive. Accordingly, in 1890, Colonel Pope and a 
 few associates bought the stock of the Weed and 
 organized The Pope Manufacturing Company 
 on a capital of $1,000,000, increased in 1893 to 
 $2,000,000. Having purchased The Hartford 
 Rubber Works, the company has since increased 
 its floorage over sevenfold, making here tires 
 
Manufactures in Hartford. 179 
 
 for its own use and for the general trade. It has 
 built a separa;te factory capable of turning out 
 a million feet of nickel-steel, seamless tubing per 
 month. This plant has been much admired for 
 its completeness. Through The Hartford Cycle 
 Company, a machine equally durable, but less 
 finished, is sold at three-fourths the price of the 
 Columbias. In January, 1898, the floor space 
 of the entire plant reached 780,670 square feet, 
 the equivalent of 17.91 acres. The number of 
 hands varies with the seasons, but the maximum 
 exceeds three thousand. 
 
 Drop forgings, it is said, v^ere introduced 
 into this countr^^b}^ Colonel Samuel Colt, but at 
 first the devices were crude and the results un- 
 satisfactory. Largeh^ through the improve- 
 ments and inventions of Charles E. Billings, 
 president of The Billings & Spencer Company, 
 the industry has been raised from a lowly posi- 
 tion to its present dignit3^ By this process bars 
 of iron, steel or copper can be hammered into 
 required forms with quickness and precision. In 
 two dies the form of the article to be forged 
 is cut, one-half in each. The base is then keyed 
 to the anvil and its counterpart to the hammer 
 of the drop. Where the form to be produced is 
 complicated, red hot bars are passed through 
 
180 Hartford in History. 
 
 a series of dies. Held in place b^- strong frames, 
 hammers weighing from 400 to over 2,000 
 pounds fall from one to six feet. A few rapid 
 blows complete the process. The rough forg- 
 ings are then passed on to other departments 
 of the shop to be finished, polished and assem- 
 bled into tools. The works have been repeatedly 
 enlarged. The compan^^ not onh- makes its 
 own hammers and dies, but equipments for 
 other shops. 
 
 The Hartford Machine Screw Company was 
 organized in 1876. On automatic machines orig- 
 inally contrived b3^ Christopher M. Spencer, but 
 since greath^ changed and improved by new in- 
 ventions, the company turns out screws for 
 machine work from the largest sizes to others 
 so minute that to the unaided eye they resemble 
 grains of dust. The efficiency of the SA^stem in- 
 creases with the diminution of the size. Finan- 
 cially this is one of the strongest industries in 
 the United States. 
 
 The Pratt & Cad3^ Compan^^ from asbestos 
 make valves for controlling steam and for other 
 purposes. The enterprise began humbh'-in 1878, 
 was incorporated in 1882, and now has a large 
 plant and a capital of $400,000. The Johns- 
 Pratt Company- was formed in 1886, to make 
 
Manufactures in Hartford. 181 
 
 an asbestos compound for packing and for elec- 
 trical insulation. 
 
 Organized in 1873, The Plimpton Manufac- 
 turing Companj^ built its factory on Pearl street 
 in 1886. The works have a capacity for turn- 
 ing out over three millions of envelopes per day, 
 and are also fully equipped for job printing and 
 bookbinding. From paper so made as to avoid 
 waste, envelopes are cut, hundreds at a time, 
 with each fall of the knife. The sheets, placed in 
 bulk upon the table of the machine, are picked 
 up singly by tireless fingers, gummed, folded, im- 
 pressed with the printed request to return to 
 the writer, and (at the government works 
 with the postage stamp also) counted in 
 packages of twenty-five each, and delivered at 
 the outlet ready for boxing. Most of the im- 
 provements Avhich render the machines so pre- 
 cise and effective have been made on the premises 
 and are protected by patents. Stamped envel- 
 opes for the United States have been made here 
 in a separate building under the same general 
 management since 1874. 
 
 The Caligraph having started in Nev^ York 
 City in 1880, and moved to Corry, Penn., two 
 years later under the stimulus of a liberal dona- 
 tive, came to Hartford in the spring of 1885, in 
 
182 Hartford in History. 
 
 a state of collapse. The change wrought won- 
 ders. By our skillful workmen the machine was 
 radically improved. Under good management 
 the debts were paid, the patent and royalty ac- 
 counts extinguished, and the weary stockhold- 
 ers were astonished to receive yearly dividends 
 of forty, fift\' and even a higher rate per cent. 
 As the majority of these lived elsewhere, they 
 cared little for the bridge that had carried them 
 safeh^ over the abyss, and hence accepted a 
 tempting offer for the property from a syndi- 
 cate. Its rescue from death, however, we may 
 still claim as a proof of local skill. John M. 
 Fairfield, under whose management the cure 
 took place, has organized another company on 
 a solid capital of $60,000, that is turning out a 
 typewriter, intended to meet exacting require- 
 ments, at low prices. 
 
 The Smyth machines for sewing books by 
 thread and for making bookcases at a fraction 
 of former cost, are marvels of ingenuit3\ About 
 one-half of the product is sold abroad. 
 
 The mattresses, metallic bedsteads and car 
 seats made by The Hartford Woven Wire Mat- 
 tress Company should be mentioned as among 
 recent contributions to comfort and health. 
 
 The Capewell Horse Nail Company, capital 
 
Alanufactures in Hartford. 183 
 
 $400,000, by automatic machinery makes nails 
 for shoeing horses. These are highly finished, 
 ductile, and stiff enough to penetrate the hardest 
 hoof The machines, the invention of George J. 
 Cape well, are protected by over thirtj^ patents. 
 
 The William Rogers Manufacturing Com- 
 pany, the pioneer in applying the art of electro- 
 plating to table-ware, has a large domestic and 
 foreign trade. A later arrival. The Barbour Silver 
 Company, has so prospered that it has already 
 more than once materially enlarged its isictory. 
 
 The oldest manufacturing concern in the 
 city, and the oldest in its line in the United 
 States, was founded by Normand Smith, in 
 1794. It soon took a leading place in making 
 saddler^' and harness goods, and for over a cen- 
 tury has moved onward steadily and successfully, 
 without deviation from its chosen field. 
 
 Our allotted space is too small to speak of 
 many enterprises that w^ell deserve mention. 
 Their notable prosperity is due to high stand- 
 ards, reinforced b^^ the presence of highly edu- 
 cated talent and an abundance of skilled labor. 
 
Historic Places in Hartford. 
 
 By Arthur L. Shipman. 
 
 ANEW country- is generally entered b^^ its 
 water waA^s, and when people settle it the^- 
 first occupy a site where a river comes into 
 the sea or where a stream enters a river. So 
 when the Dutch first sailed up the Connecticut, 
 or, as the\^ called it, the "Fresh River," and 
 found the Little River entering it fi*om the west- 
 ern hills, there they decided to settle and to 
 build a fort. Ten years went by before the plan 
 was carried out. In 1633 the flag of Holland 
 was flying over a little house called "Good 
 Hope,'' built on \vhat we know as "Dutch 
 Point." 
 
 It does not look to-day much as it looked 
 then, for the river has moved gradually west- 
 w^ard, and it is hard to imagine the pear-shaped 
 peninsula of those earh^ days rising from be- 
 tween the clear rivers, with the low green mead- 
 ow^s above and below and the forest-covered 
 hills stretching out behind. The Dutch were 
 not destined to hold the river, even though the^- 
 had secured a principal point of defense on its 
 
Historic Places in Hartford. 185 
 
 banks, for John Holmes, of Ph^mouth, in the same 
 year, passed by the fort and built a trading house 
 at Windsor. Englishmen are not apt to 
 abandon what they have a good chance of re- 
 taining, and the people who followed John 
 Holmes were of that stamp. The fort did not 
 frighten them, and the Dutch were shut into a 
 few acres of land about the fort, and, finally, in 
 1653, even these were confiscated by the colony. 
 But the *' Point" remains "Dutch," and how- 
 ever hideous it is in appearance to-day, please 
 remember it is the oldest historic spot in Hart- 
 ford. 
 
 During the two years following 1633 and 
 John Holmes' settlement at Windsor, the Massa- 
 chusetts Bay people came in scattered parties to 
 Hartford and vicinity and settled. They were 
 squatters, but those in Hartford had some sort 
 of a town organization when Mr. Hooker's com- 
 pany came in the summer of 1636. It ^\^ould be 
 interesting if we could know exactly how Hart- 
 ford looked to them when they completed their 
 long journey' through the wilderness. I imagine 
 that they forded the river above the bridge and 
 camped near North Meadow Creek, and then 
 some of the party may have walked up the hill 
 with the original settlers and learned when they 
 
186 Hartford in History. 
 
 reached the head of Morgan street that they 
 were on Sentinel Hill. We know that the land 
 was at least fifteen feet higher then than now, 
 and that it was called Sentinel Hill because a 
 sentrj^ watched there for marauding Indians. 
 We could have looked with them down the 
 slopes of the hill and have seen the little log 
 huts clustered together, perhaps near the foot of 
 Ferry street, which had rudely sheltered the 
 colonists of the preceding years. Shortly after 
 their coming, the proprietors secured from 
 Sequassen, the Indian chief, a deed of the land 
 between Wethersfield on the south and Windsor 
 on the north, the west line being about six 
 miles west of the river. Let us walk with them, 
 down Sentinel Hill on the wa3^ to the Little 
 River and stop at the plateau, which was the 
 scene of the public life of the town for many 
 years. It was first called "Ye Square," or 
 " Meeting House Green," but is now known as 
 Cit\^ Hall Square. We might have seen in the 
 distance, perhaps, the beginnings of the stock- 
 ade, or ' ' Palisado, ' ' on the north side of the Little 
 River, where the northern abutment of the stone 
 bridge stands. This was built to protect the 
 crossing from Indians and from the Dutch at 
 Good Hope. But we will not go farther than 
 
Historic Places in Hartford. 187 
 
 the Square just now, . for there are some spots 
 within its limits \vhich we wish to mark as 
 memorable. We must leave the first party, 
 however, but the Square is still here, although 
 its limits are smaller than the first settlers de- 
 signed. If we stand on Main street at the south 
 side of the alley south of the Hartford Trust 
 Company building, we shall be on the south- 
 western corner of the square. The northern 
 boundar3^ is a short distance south of Kinsley 
 street. 
 
 We must stop before the entrance to the 
 marble block. No. 11 Central Row, for here 
 stood the first meeting-house. I have followed 
 tradition and Dr. Hawes' statement here, but it 
 seems more probable that the first meeting- 
 house was near Dr. Hooker's own house. We 
 know that it was later given to him for a stable. 
 It was as difficult to move a log house as to build 
 another. Besides, a stable to be valuable to the 
 pastor, ought to have been convenient. Dr. 
 Hooker's house v\ras on the corner of School 
 street (now Arch) and Meeting House Alley. 
 You must know that a church was a very im- 
 portant place in our ancestors' opinion ; and, be- 
 sides, a church was not only used for religious 
 services, but was the meeting place of the people 
 
188 Hartford in History. 
 
 for all public purposes, and it was before or near 
 this building that the freemen adopted the 
 famous constitution of 1639, the world's first 
 written constitution. When thej^ said " We the 
 inhabitants and residents of Windsor, Hartford, 
 and Wethersfield * * * do therefore associate 
 and conjoin ourselves to be as one public state 
 or commonwealth," the foundation principle of 
 the United States of America was laid down. 
 The handwriting is pretty hard to read, but the 
 meaning of the language has grown clearer ever 
 since. 
 
 If we walk out to the eastern end of the 
 post office lot, we shall stand near the site of 
 the second meeting-house, built in 1649. In the 
 second story of the church the General Assembh'- 
 met, and it was here perhaps that they assem- 
 bled when the Royal Governor Andros de- 
 manded the surrender of the charter in 1687, 
 and suddenly out went the lights and out ran 
 Joseph Wadsworth with the precious charter 
 under his arm. Joseph AVadsworth lived ''up 
 neck ; " that is, on Windsor avenue. 
 
 Perhaps the General Assembly were at 
 Zachariah Sanford's tavern, where the Church 
 of the Redeemer now stands, when the charter 
 was secreted, w^e can not tell positivelj^ to-da3\ 
 
Historic Places in Hartford. 189 
 
 If we had been about the Square in the fifty 
 years following the settlement, we should have 
 seen the soldiers gathering to take boat against 
 the Pequots, under John Mason, who refused to 
 leave Connecticut, even for a major-generalship 
 in Cromwell's army. Poor Cromwell ! he had 
 to do the best he could in New Haven, and took 
 a man named Desborough in Mason's place. 
 We might have seen Mr. Hooker, the pastor, 
 and Mr. Stone, the teacher of the church, com- 
 ing up Meeting House Alley with their flowing 
 robes and steeple hats. Meeting House Alley 
 met the Square at its south-eastern corner. 
 The building of The Travelers Insurance Com- 
 pany covers the ground now. In 1693 we 
 should have seen the train-band lined up when 
 Fletcher tried to read his proclamation, and 
 heard Captain Wadsworth say, "I will make 
 the sun shine through you if you interrupt the 
 proceedings any further, sir." We should have 
 seen the soldiers assembling to march against 
 King Philip (1675); later, hurrying to the rescue 
 of Deerfield (1704), and again mustered to sail 
 to Louisburg (1745), and to march to Ticon- 
 deroga (1775). 
 
 The schoolhouse stood north and east of 
 the church, and when the news of the repeal of 
 
190 Hartford in History. 
 
 the Stamp Act came in 1766, the boys and 
 young men rushed to get powder at the school- 
 house to celebrate the event, and in the excite- 
 ment exploded the powder, wrecking the build- 
 ing and killing and injuring many of their 
 number. 
 
 Had we visited Hartford in and about 1780, 
 ^we should surely have put up at the Bunch of 
 Grapes or Bull's Tavern. The building was a 
 rambling structure (you can see a picture of it 
 in the rooms of the Connecticut Historical So- 
 ciety), and stood on Alain street, south of 
 Asylum street. Quite a number of distinguished 
 persons have spoken of its hospitable accom- 
 modations, and Lafayette was given a dinner 
 there in 1784. 
 
 In September, 1780, Washington, Knox, 
 Hamilton and Lafayette came up Main street 
 Avith their escort, and the French officers who 
 walked up State street, met in the Square, and 
 subsequently planned the campaign which ended 
 at Yorktown. One maybe very sure that it was 
 a proud day for young Lafaj^ette ; proud as he 
 must have been of Washington, his friend, and 
 of his country, France, and carrying withal 
 pardonable self-satisfaction in that the alliance 
 was largeh' due to himself. 
 
Historic Places in Hartford. 191 
 
 The first court house, built in 1719, gave 
 place in 1796 to the present building, now called 
 the City Hall. It is not a building to be ashamed 
 of in its proportions and design, and there are 
 very few things which happened within its walls 
 of which we have reason to be ashamed. Its 
 most memorable assembly was the Hartford 
 Convention. The year 1814 was a time of in- 
 tense excitement throughout New England. 
 The majority of the people were ver^^ much 
 opposed to the war of 1812, and delegates of 
 the New England States met in the present 
 chamber of the Board of Aldermen to consider 
 the questions of the day. We hear flings at the 
 Hartford Convention. Sometimes it takes more 
 courage to stop than to go ahead, and let us be 
 glad that in Hartford the delegates found that 
 counsels of moderation were wiser than ram- 
 pant Kentucky resolutions. 
 
 The front of the building is the east side, 
 and, although the open gallery has been since 
 enclosed, one can imagine the former governors 
 as they stood between the pillars and addressed 
 the people in the triangular green below, where 
 the post office now stands. 
 
 Proceeding down Main street, w^e must 
 stop at the First Church. It stands on part of 
 
192 Hartford in History. 
 
 the old town burying lot, and behind the church 
 is a remnant of the lot. Hats off, here ! we are 
 where the mortal remains of the best men of 
 the seventeenth century rest. Massachusetts 
 Bay men are said to have been the choicest of 
 old England. Here lie the choicest men of Mas- 
 sachusetts Bay. They are our fathers— not alone 
 ours, but of thousands over the land. The 
 whole country has reason to rise up and call 
 them blessed. 
 
 Before we cross the street, look up at the 
 south half of the City Hotel and recall that here 
 met the first school for the deaf and dumb in 
 America, and down the street, over Fenn's fur- 
 niture store, Noah Webster wrote a large part 
 of his dictionary'. 
 
 When we cross to the east side of the street 
 Wadsworth Elm and the site of the house of 
 Jeremiah Wadsworth is before us. The Athe- 
 nasum now stands there. Wadsworth was Dep- 
 uty Commissary-general of the Continental 
 Army, and later agent of the French army for the 
 United States. The house welcomed within its 
 hospitable walls every traveler of note from 
 abroad, and many of the famous men of the 
 Revolution — Washington, Hancock, Greene, La- 
 fayette, Rochambeau, Chastellux — were its hon- 
 
Historic Places in Hartford. 193 
 
 ored guests. Here the unconquerable Putnam 
 was at last conquered by his fatal disease. 
 Read the tablet on the elm, and then let us walk 
 south toward the stone bridge. Look up at 
 Daniels' dam ; it checks the water where one of 
 Hartford's earliest mills stood. For two hun- 
 dred and fifty 3^ears grain has there been turned 
 into meal. We can not stop now to tell about 
 the shops which used to stand on a former 
 bridge, and the confiscation by the Continental 
 Congress of the property where the Frank- 
 lin market stands, for the Tor\nsm of the 
 owner. We must turn at the Second (South) 
 Church (Buckingham street formerh^ ran on 
 both sides of it) and walk down Charter Oak 
 street, which was Charter street until after the 
 oak fell. Charter Oak Place cuts into the old 
 Wyllys property, and just on the edge of the 
 hill stood the famous tree. The tablet does not 
 exactly mark the place, for in the center of the 
 street, opposite the tablet, rose the center of the 
 hollow trunk. Twent^^-one people could stand 
 there under cover. 
 
 Thus far we have followed the path of 
 Joseph Wadsworth as he sped with the precious 
 manuscript in 1687. If we turn toward the 
 east we shall pass by Governor street. It used 
 
194 Hartford in History. 
 
 to be Cole street, but so many governors lived 
 on it that it received a more appropriate name. 
 We shall come, if we foUo^w Charter Oak ave- 
 nue, to a part of the dyke. That surely is a 
 historic spot, v^hich shows the bold conception 
 and perseverance of one of Hartford's greatest 
 benefactors, Samuel Colt. He rescued for Hart- 
 ford by his system of dykes two square miles of 
 land, and healthwise made the whole city a 
 much more desirable living place. 
 
 Now we can see the location of the Dutch 
 House of Hope, and imagine Adrian Block sail- 
 ing up the river with his little high-decked boat, 
 and think of John Holmes passing Iw in his 
 sloop unmindful of its threatening cannon ; and 
 if we turn and walk to the South Green we can 
 try to pick out the tree where the sentinels used 
 to perch and watch for the signaling flash of 
 powder from Sentinel Hill. 
 
 We might walk out to Rocky Hill, where 
 criminals were executed, the gibbet being swung 
 over the edge of the precipice. But let us turn 
 toward Bushnell Park, and think what it was 
 before the city took up Horace Bushnell's proj- 
 ect. It was cut by a railroad ; the depot v^as 
 at the foot of Mulberry street ; miserable build- 
 ings stood on its undulating surface, now made 
 
Historic Places in Hartford. 195 
 
 beautiful by trees, fountains and lawns. At the 
 stepping stones our oldest mill, Matthew Allyn's, 
 formerly stood, and Trinit^^ College, formerly 
 Washington College, was built where the State 
 Capitol rises. 
 
 To tell of the interesting things in the Cap- 
 itol itself would take a long chapter. You must 
 see the charter in the library'-, the battle flags 
 and the figurehead of Farragut's famous flag- 
 ship, ''The Hartford." It seems unfortunate that 
 it is re-gilded and polished anew. Do not forget to 
 look at the statues and bas-reliefs over the east 
 ern entrance, and learn the names and history 
 of the men prominent in war and statesman- 
 ship, to whose memory they were erected ; and 
 when you walk across the park on your way 
 back to City Hall Square, see the statue of 
 Horace Wells, and read the tablet on the Corn- 
 ing Building. The old building is gone, but it 
 stood on the south-east corner of Asylum street, 
 and the room was in the second story, second 
 from the corner, that was the scene of the price- 
 less discovery of anaesthesia. No man ever gave 
 to humanit3^ a more blessed gift than Horace 
 Wells. 
 
 In leaving Bushnell Park, we remember that 
 the park system of Hartford is being developed, 
 
196 Hartford in History. 
 
 and let us go to Riverside Park, which ought to 
 have been named Soldiers' Field. The lots 
 granted to Hartford's soldiers for their service 
 in the Pequot War lay west of Riverside Park— 
 a tract of about twenty-eight acres running to 
 the top of Meadow Hill, or Winthrop street, on 
 the west, as far as Village street on the south, 
 and east as far as the railroad track. The con- 
 quest of the Pequots in 1637 was one of exter- 
 mination, but it was absolutely necessar^^ for 
 the securit^'^ of the young colony. 
 
 There are many spots of historic interest 
 which I have overlooked or lacked the space to 
 mention. Visitors to Hartford will alwa^^s 
 look for the homes of Mark Twain and Mrs. 
 Stowe. Travelers will alwa^-s inquire where ' ' My 
 Summer in a Garden" was written. They will 
 like to see Mrs. Sigourney's house, and where 
 our great insurance companies first started a 
 business which has increased to such mighty 
 proportions ; where the oldest living newspaper 
 in the country w^as first given to eager, but dig- 
 nified readers. You might find these and other 
 things for yourselves, but, from what I have 
 already written, ought we not to love and cher- 
 ish Hartford and its historic spots ? 
 
The Influence of Hartford in Public 
 Affairs. 
 
 By Charles Hopkins Clark. 
 
 THE influence of Hartford in public affairs has 
 been felt in many directions. But there is 
 no question as to what event in the his- 
 tory of the town has had the most effect upon 
 the world. In 1639 the people of Hartford, 
 Wethersfleld and Windsor met here and adopted 
 the "Fundamental Orders," which united their 
 towns in one State. These orders were un- 
 doubtedly inspired by the Rev. Thomas Hooker, 
 and thej' declared that the supreme power of 
 the common^vealth laj^ in those whom the peo- 
 ple themselves might choose. The adoption of 
 that constitution had more to do with human 
 history than anything else that ever happened 
 here. The Declaration of Independence reas- 
 serted its principles ; and the rise of democracy, 
 the growth of republics, and the progress of the 
 people in the past two centuries can be traced 
 in no small measure to that one act of the 
 pious, wise and self-respecting men who settled 
 this town and established the State of Con- 
 
198 Hartford in History. 
 
 necticut. Along with this political self-assertion 
 have come free speech and free thought, and with 
 these the wonderful discoveries in science that 
 have worked such changes in human society. 
 
 The charter obtained in 1662, by John 
 Winthrop, from King Charles IL, reaffirmed the 
 principle of self-government, which pervaded 
 the "Fundamental Orders," and granted to the 
 people the right to choose their own officers 
 without reference to the King. This charter 
 merged the independent government of New 
 Haven in that of Connecticut, and, at first, 
 there was much indignation, but the later judg- 
 ment is that the result has been advantageous 
 to all concerned. The counties of Connecticut 
 were established in 1666, the territory of the 
 colony having become so large by the consolida- 
 tion as to call for subdivisions for convenience 
 in details of government. This charter of 1662 
 was in force from its grant until 1818, when 
 the present State constitution was adopted. 
 
 In 1686, King James II. sent Sir Edmond 
 Andros from England to act as governor of New 
 England. Andros arrived in Hartford, October 
 31, 1687, and held a meeting in the court cham- 
 ber, which was on the second floor of the meet- 
 ing-house. There he undertook to obtain pos- 
 
The Influence of Hartford in Public Affairs. 199 
 
 session of the charter of 1662, which it was 
 contended had been revoked by the royal order 
 annexing Connecticut to Massachusetts. He 
 never secured the document. The candles which 
 lighted the room went out, and in the darkness 
 Joseph Wads^vorth carried the charter away 
 and hid it on theWyllys premises in an oak tree, 
 which from that time became famous as the 
 Charter Oak. The tree stood until August 21, 
 1856, but the usurpation by Andros lasted only 
 until Ma\^, 1689, when the people resumed their 
 self-government under the charter. The episode 
 of the Charter Oak has taken its place in history 
 as an illustration of the independent spirit of 
 Connecticut citizenship. The tree stood very 
 near the spot marked by a marble slab on Char- 
 ter Oak hill. 
 
 The legislative government of Connecticut 
 Avas comprised in two branches. The people of 
 the colonj^ elected assistants or deputies to one 
 branch, irrespective of town lines, and the peo- 
 ple of the towns elected fellow townsmen as 
 representatives in the other branch. The assist- 
 ants or house of deputies became later the 
 Senate. Town representation and popular rep- 
 resentation were thus combined. When the 
 constitutional convention of the United States 
 
200 Hartford in History. 
 
 was in session, in 1787, a deadlock developed 
 over the problem of how to protect the small 
 States and yet at the same time to recognize 
 the people. The wa^'^ out was found in the so- 
 called ** Connecticut Compromise," which gave 
 each State two members of one legislative body, 
 the Senate, and apportioned the membership in 
 the other legislative bod3^, the House, according 
 to population. This scheme was founded upon 
 the dual method of the Connecticut government. 
 Our own scheme has, however, since adoption, 
 been much changed. At present the towns do 
 not all have the same representation nor are the 
 senatorial districts now so arranged as to be of 
 equal population. The matter has entered into 
 politics and belongs here only in its historic 
 bearings. But the influence of Hartford in pub- 
 lic affairs can not be properh^ set out without 
 reference to the large part pla3^ed b^^ the Con- 
 necticut Compromise in securing for the people 
 of this countr^^ their present constitution, which 
 has been the admiration of all students of gov- 
 ernment since its adoption. But for this com- 
 promise the constitution would probabh^ have 
 failed of acceptance. The balance of power thus 
 effected secured its adoption and has proved a 
 national safeguard. 
 
The Influence of Hartford in Public Affairs. 201 
 
 A famous incident in the political history 
 of Hartford was the Hartford Convention, for 
 years referred to v^ith reproach, and usualh^ as 
 if it was distinctively a Hartford affair. The 
 call for it v^as issued bA^ the Legislature of Mas- 
 sachusetts, and of the twent^^-six members 
 twelve were from Massachusetts, seven from 
 Connecticut, four from Rhode Island, two from 
 counties of New Hampshire, and one from 
 Windham County, of Vermont. Of the entire 
 twenty-six only one, Mayor Chauncey Good- 
 rich, v^as from Hartford. They were in session 
 from December 15, 1814, to Januar^^ 5, 1815, in 
 the State House, now the City Hall. The reso- 
 lution of the Massachusetts Legislature was as 
 follows : 
 
 Resolved, That twelve persons be appointed as dele- 
 gates from this commonwealth to meet and confer with 
 delegates from the other New England States or any other, 
 upon the subject of their public grievances and concerns ; 
 and upon the best means of preserving our resources ; and 
 of defence against the enemy ; and to devise and suggest for 
 adoption by those respective States such measures as they 
 maj' deem expedient; and also to take measures, if they 
 shall think proper, for procuring a convention of delegates 
 from all the United States, in order to revise the constitu- 
 tion thereof, and more effectually to secure the support and 
 attachment of all the people, by placing all upon a basis of 
 fair representation.. 
 
202 Hartford in History. 
 
 The invitation, sent out under this resolu- 
 tion by the President of the Senate and Speaker 
 of the House of Massachusetts, expressly de- 
 clared that the action of the convention was not 
 to be " repugnant to their obligations as mem- 
 bers of the Union." The "public grievances" 
 were many and serious. The war of 1812 had 
 been forced upon the countr\' against the vote 
 and sentiment of New England by the interior 
 States, not so interested in commerce or so in- 
 volved in the danger of invasion ; and the loss 
 of trade and the peril to homes had fallen upon 
 those who had opposed the struggle from the 
 first. They naturally smarted under such a turn 
 of affairs, and, when they found the force of the 
 general government exerted so much to their 
 disadvantage, these former advocates of a strong 
 central government became zealous in favor of 
 the rights of the States. The detailed story of 
 their troubles is too long to give here. There is 
 no doubt that there was much grumbling and 
 some loose talk of a peaceful separation at the 
 time. (Jefferson himself in 1804 wrote that it 
 was immaterial whether we remained one con- 
 federacy or broke in two.) The report made by 
 the convention was not inflammatory and could 
 not be called disloyal. In respect of separation. 
 
The Influence of Hartford in Public Affairs. 203 
 
 it declared that, if the Union was to be dis- 
 solved, the step must be taken in peaceable 
 times with deliberate consent, and that the ob- 
 jections to *' precipitate measures" were "con- 
 clusive. ' ' A certain secrecy that was maintained 
 about the convention contributed to its unpop- 
 ularity, which, however, lay primarily in the in- 
 tensity of feeling that alwa^^s marks war times. 
 The high character of the members of the Hart- 
 ford Convention seems to have increased the 
 hostility to it, instead of abating it. The Hon. 
 Simeon E. Baldwin, one of the Connecticut au- 
 thorities on historical matters, has written in 
 the ''New Englander" that— 
 
 "The history of the Hartford Convention and of the 
 fall of the Federal party goes far to demonstrate the real 
 attachment of the people, both in and out of New England, 
 to the national government.'' 
 
 Beside contributing sixteen governors to 
 the State government and sending seven sena- 
 tors and twenty congressmen to the general 
 government at Washington, Hartford has had 
 four members of presidential cabinets — ^John M. 
 Niles, Postmaster-general under Van Buren; 
 Isaac TouccA^ Attorney -general under Polk and 
 Secretary of the Navj^ under Buchanan ; Gideon 
 Welles, Secretary of the Navy under Lincoln 
 
204 Hartford in History. 
 
 through the Civil War, and Marshall Jewell^ 
 Postmaster-general under Grant. 
 
 In commercial affairs, Hartford takes espe- 
 cial prominence through its vast insurance in- 
 terests. One of its fire insurance companies is 
 the oldest in the country, another is the largest, 
 and the average of them all is larger than the 
 average of those of any other place in the coun- 
 try. Thory insure, in round numbers, $2,500,- 
 000,000 of property. The life insurance com- 
 panies also have an immense business in which 
 all the country is interested, and the first acci- 
 dent insurance company in the United States 
 was established here. The oldest and largest 
 savings bank in the State is in Hartford, estab- 
 lished in 1819. The savings banks of Connecti- 
 cut are mutual associations, which take the 
 small savings of the thrifty and invest and care 
 for them and return the earnings at intervals, 
 deducting only the cost of doing the business. 
 They have been an important factor in social 
 life in this part of the country'. All around the 
 world Hartford is known for its Colt revolvers 
 and Gatling guns, which, it will be admitted, 
 have at times exerted great influence in public 
 aft airs. 
 
 The discover3^ of anaesthesia took place in 
 
The Influence of Hartford in Public Affairs. 205 
 
 Hartford, December 11, 1844, and its effect in 
 lessening physical suffering and advancing the 
 science of surgery can not readily be overesti- 
 mated. It was a blessing to the world. Dr. 
 Horace Wells, of Hartford, was the discoverer. 
 He attended an exhibition of laughing gas given 
 December 10, 1844, b^^ Dr. Colton, for public 
 amusement. Seeing that persons under the in- 
 fluence of the gas did not notice personal inju- 
 ries, he concluded to try its effect for practical 
 purposes. Accordingly^, next day he took the 
 gas himself until he became altogether uncon- 
 scious, and then Dr. J. M. Riggs drew one of his 
 teeth. Dr. Wells, when he recovered conscious- 
 ness, did not know that the operation had been 
 performed. Thus he made the discovery of the 
 practical use of anaesthetics and risked his life in 
 proving it. The Wells tablet on Main street 
 marks the site of the building where the experi- 
 ment was tried, and the statue of Dr. Wells on 
 Bushnell Park indicates the appreciation by the 
 public of his services for mankind. His claim to 
 the discovery has been contested, but a full in- 
 vestigation of the facts and dates proves con- 
 clusiveh^ his right to the honor. 
 
 In literary and educational matters, Hart- 
 ford has alwa^^s taken a leading position, as is 
 
206 Hartford in History. 
 
 shown by another chapter in this history. Trin- 
 it3^ College and the old Hopkins Grammar 
 School and Hartford High School have sent out 
 many graduates who have been men of influence 
 through the country; and Hartford men and 
 Hartford families are found all over the United 
 States. From early days, Hartford has been 
 active in colonizing other parts of the cotmtry, 
 and no small part of her influence in public 
 affairs is the work of Hartford men in the places 
 where they have made their homes and carried 
 the training and traditions of the historic town 
 that was founded by Thomas Hooker in 1636. 
 
 REFERENCES. 
 Colonial Records of Connecticut, Vol. I. 
 Connecticut Historical Society's Collections, Vol. I. 
 Trumbull's Memorial History of Hartford County. 
 History of the Hartford Convention, by Theodore 
 
 Dwight. 
 Connecticut, b^- Alexander Johnston. 
 Insurance in Connecticut, bj^ P. H. Woodward. 
 Notes on the History of An.esthesia, bv James Mc- 
 
 Manus, D. D. S. 
 American Quarterly Review, March, 1834. 
 New England Magazine, March, 1834. 
 North American Review. July, 1834. 
 Harper's Monthly, July, 1862. 
 New Englander, March, 1878. 
 International Dental Journal, January, 1895. 
 
Hartford in the Revolution. 
 
 By Mary K. Talcott. 
 
 BEING so far removed from the sea coast, 
 Hartford suffered none of the rigors of ac- 
 tual warfare during the Revolution. The 
 attempted invasions of Tryon and Arnold were 
 beaten back long before they reached the interior 
 of the State, and the only armed foreign troops 
 the people of Hartford saw were their French 
 allies, who passed through the town on their 
 way to join the American army on the banks of 
 the Hudson. English soldiers were brought to 
 Hartford as prisoners in large numbers, as it 
 was considered a safe and suitable place for con- 
 fining them, and also Tories under suspicion, 
 and several English officials, as the Governor of 
 the Bahamas. 
 
 One of the most brilliant exploits of the 
 whole war, and one of its earliest successes, v^as 
 planned in Hartford — the capture of Ticonder- 
 oga. Several individuals seeing the great need 
 of artillery and stores, and know^ing that the 
 forts on Lake Champlain contained plentiful 
 supplies, planned this expedition. Samuel 
 
 207 
 
208 Hartford in History. 
 
 Holden Parsons, Silas Deane, Colonel Samuel 
 Wyllys and several others consulted together 
 and raised funds, obtaining a loan of £300 from 
 the colony treasurer, for which their individual 
 receipts with security were given. The commit- 
 tee collected sixteen men in Connecticut and then 
 proceeded to Berkshire county, Massachusetts, 
 where forty or fift^' volunteers were added to 
 their small number. At Bennington, Vermont, 
 they were joined b^- Ethan Allen, Seth Warner 
 and nearly one hundred volunteers. At Castle- 
 ton, Vermont, Ethan Allen, a native of Litch- 
 field, Connecticut, was chosen commander; 
 James Easton, a native of Hartford, was second 
 in command, and under these leaders the little 
 army proceeded to surprise the fort atTiconder- 
 oga, which was captured Alay 10, 1775, by this 
 small force of New Engl and ers. The citizens of 
 Connecticut, unaided by any other colom^, had 
 taken the initiative in conquering the forts on 
 Lake Champlain, capturing the garrison and 
 carrying the prisoners and munitions of war to 
 Connecticut. Among the prisoners was Captain 
 Skene, son of Major Skene, governor of Ticon- 
 deroga. Crown Point and Montreal, who was 
 afterwards captured also and brought to Hart- 
 ford. The father and son were kept in an honor- 
 
Hartford in the Revolution. 209 
 
 able captivity in a private house in the West 
 Division (now West Hartford). While there 
 ^'they together took leave of the Town without 
 Liberty," as the Connecticut Courant expresses 
 it. The^^ were recaptured and with other pris- 
 oners kept in closer confinement. Other forts 
 were taken on Lake Champlain, and about fifty 
 prisoners, including several officers, were brought 
 to Hartford in May, 1775. Later in the 3^ear 
 Major Christopher French, H. M. 22nd regi- 
 ment, w^as sent to Hartford for safe keeping. His 
 journal, w^hich he left behind him at his flight, in 
 1776, gives many details of the life in Hartford 
 at that time. At first the officers were allowed 
 considerable liberty. Major French speaks of 
 driving in a sleigh to visit Governor Skene in the 
 West Division, and of going to Middletown to 
 attend the services of the Church of England, as 
 none were maintained in Hartford. But they 
 appear to have indulged in freedoms of behavior 
 which gave offense, and in the summer of 1776 
 thej^ were placed inclose confinement in the gaol. 
 In May, 1776, the people of Hartford were much 
 disturbed by the election of Governor Skene's 
 negro as governor of the blacks. This custom 
 of electing a governor, in imitation of the 
 whites, had been observed by the negroes for a 
 
210 Hartford in History. 
 
 number of years, and the fortunate individual 
 was always treated with great attention and 
 respect by his colored brethren. Governor Cuff 
 saw fit to resign, and appointed Governor 
 Skene's man as his successor, without holding 
 an election. This excited uneasiness in the pub- 
 lic mind, lest there might be some plot on the 
 part of the British officers, and a committee was 
 appointed to investigate the matter. Governor 
 Skene's lodgings were searched and his papers 
 examined, but the investigation seemed to prove 
 that the affair was only meant as a compliment 
 to a stranger. In the latter part of 1776 two of 
 the English officers escaped, and in this flight 
 Major French was assisted by the Rev. Roger 
 Yiets, the Episcopal clerg^^man at Simsbury, for 
 which oifense Mr. Yiets was tried and sentenced 
 to pay £20 to the State and suffer one year's im- 
 prisonment. The private soldiers were appar- 
 ently encouraged to pursue trades and to receive 
 wages therefor. In 1777 about two hundred 
 English officers and soldiers, captured at Prince- 
 ton, were brought to Hartford, and the com- 
 mittee in charge of prisoners gave permission to 
 two of the officers to give instruction in arith- 
 metic, geometry, trigonometry, and in music on 
 various instruments — the violin, flute, French 
 
Hartford in the Revolution. 211 
 
 horn, etc. It is probable that skilled teachers in 
 these arts and sciences were rare, and such an 
 opportunity would be eagerly embraced by the 
 youth of Hartford. After the surrender of Bur- 
 go^me, in October, 1777, a number of his 
 soldiers, among them several Hessian officers, 
 were sent to Hartford. A Hartford man. Major 
 Thomas Y. Seymour, a very brave and gallant 
 officer of light dragoons, was detailed to take 
 charge of General Burgoyne himself, after the 
 surrender, and conduct him to Boston, and per- 
 formed this duty so gracefully and acceptably 
 that the general presented him with his hand- 
 some leopard-skin saddle-cloth and holsters, 
 v^ith the pistols, also, and these were long pre- 
 served by his family. 
 
 In December, 1776, a detachment of fourteen 
 men under the command of an ensign and one 
 sergeant were ordered to keep guard about the 
 prison in Hartford, to prevent intercourse be- 
 tween the prisoners within and the Tories ^th- 
 out. 
 
 The selectmen of Hartford petitioned the 
 General Assembly, January 8, 1778, that the 
 prisoners of war might be removed to some 
 other place, complaining that the continuing of 
 the prisoners in this town Avas attended with 
 
212 Hartford in History. 
 
 tnan^Mll effects ; that the public stores and mag- 
 azines were greatly exposed ; that intelligence 
 was communicated to the enemies of the countr3'; 
 that the prices of the necessaries of life — wood, 
 bread, meat and clothing — were much increased 
 by the British officers and their servants, "who 
 do not stick at an^^ sum to obtain the same; " 
 and that there was danger of their forming 
 combinations with the blacks to injure the lives 
 and property- of the people. A number of the 
 Tory prisoners were confined in the mines at 
 Newgate, in Simsbury, from the beginning of 
 hostilities, and man3^ more were sent there dur- 
 ing the last years of the conflict. On May 18, 
 1781, the Tories then imprisoned there, to the 
 number of about twenty-eight, broke jail, killed 
 one of the guard, wounded others, and escaped. 
 But nearly all were recaptured and taken back. 
 In 1781, Congress applied to Governor Trum- 
 bull for the use of the mines as a prison "for the 
 reception of British prisoners of war, and for 
 the purpose of retaliation." But the termina- 
 tion of the war prevented the plan from being 
 carried into effect. 
 
 That the residents of Hartford at that date 
 felt themselves to be living in the midst of war's 
 alarms is shown by an examination of the State 
 
Hartford in the Revolution. 213 
 
 Records, and the columns of the "Connecticut 
 Courant." The chief supervision of affairs was 
 exercised by the Committee of Inspection. This 
 body was substantially identical with the Com- 
 mittee of Correspondence and Observation, ap- 
 pointed by the town, December 20, 1774, ^when 
 a meeting was held to express the s^'^mpathy of 
 the inhabitants "with our brethren of Boston 
 and the Massachusetts Bay," though the reso- 
 lutions open with words of loA^alty to the 
 Crown. During the early days of the Revolution 
 it was the universal custom to speak of the 
 "ministerial forces" and the "ministerial meas- 
 ures against America," as if the King were not 
 responsible for the doings of the ministers of the 
 Crown. This polite fiction shows the dying 
 struggles of the feeling of personal loyalt^^ and 
 later in the war all titles were dropped, and the 
 King was mentioned as plain "George." The 
 Committee of Inspection controlled everything 
 and everybody. No person could be allowed to 
 come from any of the neighboring colonies to 
 settle in Hartford without delivering to the 
 committee a certificate from the committee of 
 the city from whence he came, that he was 
 friendly to the rights and liberties of America. 
 No person could travel from town to town ex- 
 
214 Hartford in History. 
 
 cepting those well-ktjown and esteemed to be 
 friendly to the American cause, and military 
 officers and soldiers, without a permit, and any- 
 one who could not produce such a permit, could 
 be arrested and committed to jail. The Com- 
 mittee of Observation were also expected to ob- 
 serve the conduct of all members of a patriotic 
 society called the Continental Association, 
 banded together not to use English goods, or 
 to give aid and comfort of am^ kind to the 
 enemy. If any violated the rules of the Associa- 
 tion, the committee were to publish the cases in 
 the newspapers, and break off all dealings with 
 him or her. If any person by writing or speak- 
 ing should defame or libel any of the resolves of 
 Congress, or of the General Assembly, and should 
 be duly convicted thereof, he could be disarmed 
 and rendered incapable of holding any office, 
 civil or militarA^ and might be further punished 
 by imprisonment or fine. In December, 1775, 
 two merchants having been convicted by the 
 committee of having sold merchandise at an 
 unusually high price, contrary to the rules of 
 the Continental Association, the committee re- 
 solved that no one should have any further 
 trade with them until the^- made satisfaction — 
 practicalh^ a boAXOtt. In March, 1776, the 
 
Hartford in the Revolution. 215 
 
 Committee of Inspection met at the State House 
 and set certain prices for West India goods, so 
 that the merchants should not take advantage 
 of the scarcity of supplies, as rum, 3s. 9d. per 
 gallon; New England rum, 2s. 4d. per gallon; 
 coffee, lOd. per pound, etc. It was also resolved 
 that the inhabitants be as sparing as possible 
 in purchasing English or India goods, and to 
 speedily engage in the manufacture of woolen 
 and linen cloths. Occasionally we read of con- 
 victions for indulging in tea-drinking, and the 
 punishment was severe. Stories are yet told in 
 some families of indulgence in the drink that 
 ''cheers j^et not inebriates " on the sly, and ho^^ 
 the teapot and teacups w^ere deposited under the 
 bed on the approach of the officers of the law. 
 
 The women were formed into an association 
 called the " Daughters of Liberty," and its chief 
 object appears to have been to assist each other 
 in observing the self-denying ordinances required 
 by the patriotic spirit of the time. In the Wol- 
 cott Papers may be found a set of resolutions 
 promulgated by the "Ladies of Hartford." 
 Unfortunately there are no signatures. The fair 
 patriots declare that they do not approve of the 
 use of "foreign gewgaws and fripperj^," and 
 they consider the servile imitations of foreign 
 
216 Hartford in History. 
 
 fashions as one of the circumstances which op- 
 erate to embarrass and distress the countrv-, 
 and they therefore subscribe to the following 
 articles: That thev will not purchase or wear 
 any superfluous articles of dress ; that they will 
 not purchase silks, muslins, expensive hats, etc., 
 except a single suit for a wedding, or for mourn- 
 ing, but for the future would only wear in visits 
 and in public places such articles as they had on 
 hand, or newly-purchased calicoes ; that they 
 will reduce the number and price of articles 
 v^hich furnish their tables ; that they will not 
 attend a public or private assembly oftener than 
 once in three weeks, and that they will use their 
 influence to diffuse an attention to industr^^ and 
 frugality, and to render these virtues rejDutable 
 and permanent. 
 
 In 1775 the "Courant" contains a request 
 to the Daughters of Liberty to save carefulh^ all 
 linen and cotton "Raggs" of an^^ kind, coarse 
 as well as fine, as thej^ were so much needed for 
 making that most necessary' article, paper, '' and 
 if they are not saved the Streams of Intelligence 
 will soon fail." The paper mill in that part of 
 East Hartford now Burnside was a very impor- 
 tant institution, and its destruction by fire in 
 1778 was considered a great misfortune to the 
 
Hartford in the Revolution. 217 
 
 public, as well as to the owners, and a lottery 
 was started to aid in rebuilding it. 
 
 Several executions of spies and deserters 
 took place in Hartford, and drew throngs of 
 people together. The most noted of these occa- 
 sions perhaps was the execution of Moses Dun- 
 bar for high treason, in having received a com- 
 mission from General Howe, and enlisting men 
 for the enemy's forces. The Rev. Dr. Strong 
 improved the occasion by a discourse in the 
 North Meeting House (the Center Church) to 
 the spectators, while the Rev. Mr. Jarvis, of 
 Middletown, preached a sermon to the prisoner 
 in the jail. 
 
 From the beginning of the war embargoes 
 were laid by the General Assembly on various 
 articles, including all kinds of provisions, and 
 linen and woolen cloth. On the 29th of Febru- 
 ary, 1780, twent3^-nine persons were appointed 
 to be Inspectors of ProAdsions, to detain and 
 secure any embargoed provisions ^vhich they 
 might suspect w^ere intended to be carried out 
 of the State. 
 
 The most picturesque event in the Revolu- 
 tionary annals of Hartford is the meeting of 
 Washington and Rochambeau, which took place 
 September 21, 1780. General Washington ar- 
 
218 Hartford in History. 
 
 rived in town first, and was received by the 
 Governor's Foot Guard and a company of ar- 
 tillery ; a salute of thirteen guns was fired, while 
 crowds of people shouted and cheered. He was 
 escorted to the house of Colonel Wadsworth, 
 which stood where the Athenaeum now stands. 
 Count Rochambeau crossed the ferry from East 
 Hartford and walked to the public square, ac- 
 companied by his suite. Washington came up 
 Main Street, accompanied by Governor Trum- 
 bull, Colonel Wadsworth, General Knox and 
 other prominent officers. As the two tall, fine 
 looking commanders-in-chief advanced towards 
 each other on the public square, bowing repeat- 
 edh% an eve- witness said it was like the meeting 
 of two nations. The interview of the two com- 
 manders was held at the house of Colonel Wads- 
 worth. The following year, 1781, Washington 
 and Rochambeau met again, but the conference 
 took place at Wethersfield in the W^ebb House. 
 In consequence of the plans decided upon at that 
 time, the French arm^^left Rhode Island in June, 
 and marched across Connecticut, stopping in 
 Hartford on the way. After the victorious cam- 
 paign of Yorktown, the French army again 
 passed through Hartford en route to Newport. 
 They encamped in East Hartford, and the name 
 
Hartford in the Revolution. 219 
 
 of Silver Lane is derived from the kegs of silver 
 v^hich were opened there for the purpose of pay- 
 ing the troops. 
 
 In 1776, when the English troops attacked 
 New York, Connecticut furnished a number of 
 regiments for Washington's army. From Hart- 
 ford went several companies of foot and three 
 regiments of light horse. At different periods 
 during the war new levies of troops were en- 
 camped in Hartford for the purpose of filling the 
 ranks and drilling, and General Gates' division 
 of the Continental Army was stationed in Hart- 
 ford for some time in 1778. In 1779, at the 
 time of the British attack on New Haven, a train 
 of artillery w^as sent into the State from Spring- 
 field at the request of Governor Trumbull. Three 
 brass field-pieces were halted at Hartford, and a 
 company of fifteen men was enlisted to exercise 
 themselves in their management. This company' 
 acquired, under the direction of Colonel Heze- 
 kiah Wyllys, considerable skill in the use of the 
 field-pieces, and held themselves in readiness to 
 march to the defense of the countr3^ 
 
 The treaty- of peace with Great Britain was 
 signed at Versailles, January 20, 1783, but the 
 news was not known in Hartford until the 27th 
 of March, at seven o'clock a. m., when Colonel 
 
220 Hartford in History. 
 
 Wadsworth received a letter from Philadelphia^ 
 dated March 23, containing the information. 
 The news was received w^ith great joy. The 
 '' Connecticut Courant " says : ''As the express 
 came solely to bring the news, and we had no 
 doubt of its being true, the inhabitants of this 
 town manifested their extreme joy by the firing 
 of cannon, ringing of bells, and in the evening 
 fireworks and illuminations." 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV. 
 
 State Records of Connecticut, I. and II. 
 
 Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society^ 
 I., containing Papers Relating to the Ticonderoga Expe- 
 dition, and Major French's Journal. 
 
 R. R. Hinman's Connecticut in the Revolution, 
 
 Memorial History of Hartford, I. 
 
 R. H. Phelps' Newgate of Connecticut. 
 
 Files of the Connecticut Courant. 
 
Hartford in the Civil War. 
 
 By Ira E. Forbes. 
 
 THE election of Abraham Lincoln as Presi- 
 dent in November, 1860, was regarded by 
 the country at large as an event involving 
 the abolition of slavery in the States v^hich re- 
 tained the system at that time. On the day 
 after the national election the withdrawal of 
 the Southern States from the Union was advo- 
 cated throughout South Carolina. That State 
 formally seceded in December. The States of 
 Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisi- 
 ana and Texas united with South Carolina in 
 revolt and organized the Southern Confederac3^ 
 A constitution was adopted in which slavery 
 was incorporated as the organic law. 
 
 President Lincoln was inaugurated March 
 4, 1861. Connecticut v^as given a place in his 
 cabinet by the appointment of Gideon Welles, of 
 Hartford , as Secretary of the Nav3\ The threats 
 of the South against the Union culminated April 
 12, 1861, in the bombardment of Fort Sumter. 
 The fort, commanded by Major Anderson, of the 
 United States arm^^ capitulated April 13. The 
 
 221 
 
222 Hartford in History. 
 
 attack on Fort Sumter became the signal for war 
 North and South. The States of Virginia, Ten- 
 nessee, Arkansas and North CaroHna joined the 
 rebeUion. Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and 
 Delaware sided with the North. Two days 
 after the fall of Fort Sumter, President Lincoln 
 issued a call for 75,000 troops for the suppres- 
 sion of the revolt. This call was received with 
 great enthusiasm in Connecticut. Governor 
 Buckingham lost no time in responding for Con- 
 necticut's quota. His summons for troops was 
 issued April 16. On the day after a public meet- 
 ing was held here which moulded Hartford's in- 
 terest in the struggle that was destined to last 
 four 3^ears. Lieutenant-governor Julius Catlin 
 presided, and the Rev. Dr. Joel Hawes, of the 
 Center Church, offered the praj^er atthe meeting. 
 The leading citizens took part in the demon- 
 stration. Joseph R. HawW, Albert W. Drake 
 and Joseph Perkins were the first to offer their 
 services in support of the Union cause at the 
 front. The First Connecticut regiment was 
 organized by April 20, and rendezvoused at New 
 Haven. Two da^^s before that event Governor 
 Buckingham issued the call for the Second Con- 
 necticut. Within five daj^s after the attack on 
 Fort Sumter the bankers of this city offered the 
 
Hartford in the Civil War. 223 
 
 Governor a loan of half a million dollars for meet- 
 ing war expenses. The women w^ere as patriotic 
 as the men. They offered their services in caring 
 for the sick and providing for the wounded on 
 the same day that the First regiment w^as sent 
 into camp at New Haven. This w^as the begin- 
 ning of a work that occupied a large number of 
 women and children here through the war. The 
 children aided in preparing bandages and lint 
 for the wounded in the field. Mrs. S. S. Co wen, 
 sister of General Robert O. T^^ler, was the guid- 
 ing spirit in the work. Mrs. Joseph R. Hawley, 
 a niece of Harriet Beecher Stov^e, cared for the 
 soldiers at the front. Her great service w^as in 
 aiding the sick and dying Union prisoners of 
 war as they were conve3^ed through the lines 
 from Southern prisons during the first months 
 of 1865, at Wilmington, N. C. The loss of her 
 lifew^as attributable to the scenes and exposures 
 of this period. The grave of Mrs. Haw^le\' in 
 Cedar Hill cemetery is annually decorated with 
 flowers by the Grand Armv. 
 
 The First Connecticut regiment of three- 
 months' men left for the seat of war, Alay 10, 
 1861. George S. Burnham, of Hartford, was 
 colonel, and General Hawley w^as in the line, 
 holding the captaincx- of the first company. In 
 
224 Hartford in History. 
 
 a reconnoissanceof the regiment, June 16, under 
 General Dan T^der, George H. Bugbee, of Hart- 
 ford, was wounded at Vienna, Va. He was the first 
 Connecticut man wounded in the ^war. Major 
 Theodore Winthrop, of New Haven, was the first 
 Connecticut man killed in the war. He was in 
 the Seventh New York Militia, and was serving 
 as an aid on the staff of General Benjamin F. 
 Butler, when he fell at Big Bethel, June 10, 1861. 
 Captain James Harmon Ward, who was killed 
 while in command of the Potomac flotilla, June 
 27, 1861, was the first naval officer from Hart- 
 ford vyrho gave his life for the Union. 
 
 There were three Connecticut regiments in 
 the first important engagement of the Civil war. 
 In the first battle of Bull Run, Hartford was 
 represented in the First and Third regiments. 
 These troops were among the last to leave the 
 field, bearing themselves with courage through- 
 out the engagement. The first regiment en- 
 listed in this State under the call for three 3^ears' 
 troops was the Fourth Infantr)^, which became 
 the First Connecticut Heavy Artiller3\ Coh nel 
 Levi Woodhouse, of this city, was its first com- 
 mander. He had served in the Mexican war 
 under Governor Thomas H. Se^^mour. Colonel 
 Robert O. T3'ler, a West Point graduate, sue- 
 
Hartford in the Civil War. 225 
 
 ceeded Colonel Woodhouse. He brought the 
 First to a high state of discipline and made it 
 one of the foremost artiller^^ commands in the 
 Union Sirraj. At the battle of Fredericksburg, 
 in December, 1862, Colonel T^der commanded 
 the artillery of the center grand division. He 
 was at the head of the artillery- reserve at Get- 
 t^^sburg, and was brevetted major-general for 
 gallant conduct at Cold Harbor. He received a 
 sword of great value from the citizens of Hart- 
 ford, and a vote of thanks from the Legislature. 
 General Tyler died in Boston, Dec. 1, 1874. 
 Captain Charles E. Bulkele^', a graduate of Yale 
 College, and a member of this noted regiment, 
 died, February 13, 1864, while in command of 
 Battery Garesche in front of Washington. He 
 was the brother of Governor Morgan G. Bulkeley 
 and of Lieutenant-governor William H. Bulke- 
 ley, both of whom served in New York regi- 
 ments. Judge Henry E. Taintor left Yale College 
 in order to join this celebrated command, and 
 received his diploma from the university on 
 account of services at the front. 
 
 General Griffin A. Stedman began his brief 
 but brilliant career in the Fifth Connecticut. He 
 was a graduate of Trinity College. From the 
 Fifth he w^as transferred to the Eleventh Con- 
 
226 Hartford in History. 
 
 necticut. At Antietam, after the death of Col. 
 Henry W. Kingsbury, he succeeded to the com- 
 mand of the regiment. He led the charge at 
 Antietam bridge, which General Burnside had 
 been ordered to capture and hold at all hazards. 
 General Stedman met death in front of Peters- 
 burg, Va., d^nng on the field at the age of 
 twenty-six. He was the soul of chivalry. No 
 nobler offering was made on the altar of patri- 
 otism during the war. His commission as brig- 
 adier-general "was despatched to him from Wash- 
 ington the same da3^ on which he fell at the 
 head of his troops. Judge E. E. Marvin and 
 Major E. V. Preston were also distinguished 
 members of the Fifth. Major Preston was ad- 
 vanced to a paymastership in the army, and 
 disbursed millions of dollars during the war. 
 At the end of hostilities his accounts balanced 
 to a cent. Judge Marvin commanded the signal 
 corps guard on the top of Thoroughfare Moun- 
 tain, when the first invasion of the rebel army, 
 under General Lee, was signaled to the Union 
 forces. At the battle of Cedar Mountain, Aug. 
 9, 1862, the Fifth fought with distinguished 
 valor, meeting the enemy in a hand to hand 
 conflict. In that engagement its colors were 
 lost. The men around them were cut down bv 
 
Hartford in the Civil War. 227 
 
 a merciless fire from the rebel guns. Years after- 
 wards through the intervention of Major Preston 
 the colors were restored to the regiment bj^ the 
 government authorities in Washington, as no 
 stain of dishonor had been attached to them in 
 the desperate encounter at Cedar Mountain. 
 
 The Seventh Connecticut was known as 
 General Hawley's regiment through the war. 
 Its colors w^ere the first of the Union army to be 
 unfurled in South Carolina after that State's 
 act of secession. Albert W. Drake, who entered 
 the service with General Hawley, became the 
 colonel of the Tenth Connecticut. He gave his 
 life for the country, d^ang June 5, 1862, at the 
 age of twenty-eight. Henry W. Camp, of this 
 city, whose life was written after the war by 
 Chaplain H. Clay Trumbull, in "The Knightly 
 Soldier," was the adjutant of the Tenth. He 
 was a Yale graduate, an officer of undaunted 
 courage, and the ideal of honor. 
 
 Captain William H. Sackett, who led his 
 company in the Eleventh regiment in the famous 
 charge at Antietam bridge, under Colonel Sted- 
 man, fell at Petersburg. He was an officer of 
 daring spirit. When Captain John Griswold, 
 son of Governor Roger Griswold, of Lyme, was 
 shot down at the head of his company, in the 
 
228 Hartford in History. 
 
 middle of Antietam River, while charging the 
 enemy's works, Captain Sackett took his place. 
 
 The Twelfth Connecticut was called the 
 Charter Oak regiment. Henry C. Deming, who 
 was mayor of the city at the time the command 
 w^as organized, became its colonel. General L. A. 
 Dickinson, who since the war has served as post- 
 master of the city, was a line officer in the com- 
 mand. Colonel Deming was the onW chief mag- 
 istrate of the city who served in the field. Three 
 veterans of the war, however, have held the 
 office of ma\'or since Colonel Deming's da3^ 
 They are Morgan G. Bulkeley, John G. Root 
 and Henr^' C. Dwight. 
 
 Colonel Frank Beach, a Hartford West Point 
 graduate, commanded the Sixteenth Connecticut 
 at Antietam. The field and staff included Lieu- 
 tenant-colonel Frank W. Chene3% Major George 
 A. Washburn and Adjutant John H. Burnham. 
 
 The battle of Antietam was the cause of 
 widespread sorrow in this locality. Many. who 
 v^entout from this city never returned from that 
 iield, v^here rivers of blood were shed. Nine 
 companies of the Sixteenth regiment, under com- 
 mand of Lieutenant-colonel John H. Burnham, 
 w^ere captured with the garrison at Plym- 
 outh, N. C, April 20, 1864. The colors of 
 
Hartford in the Civil War. 229 
 
 the regiment were not allowed to fall into the 
 hands of the rebels, but, torn into strips, were 
 carried by the men through Southern prisons for 
 months as a sacred trust. In 1879 the remnants 
 of these flags were collected from the veterans 
 throughout the State, embroidered on a white 
 silk ground work, and placed in the Battle Flag 
 corridor in the Capitol building. The prison- 
 ers of war from the Sixteenth were placed for 
 the most part in the stockade prison at Ander- 
 sonville, in Georgia, where 14,000 victims per- 
 ished during 1864. In this prison, which cost 
 the lives of so many Union men, were colored 
 soldiers, who had fought in the Union army in 
 Florida. The question of exchanging these col- 
 ored men became one of vital interest. The 
 rebels refused any cartel in which the negro 
 Unionists were to be included. Owing to the 
 great loss of life in the prison, a petition was 
 started, asking for an exchange without refer- 
 ence to the negro troops. In this connection 
 the sturdy character of the Connecticut men 
 displayed itself. One of the first sergeants in 
 the Sixteenth, Richard H. Lee, of Granby, be- 
 came the spokesman. He took the ground that 
 the government could not honorably ignore any 
 man, black or white, who ^wore the United 
 
230 Hartford in History. 
 
 States uniform. The speech bore fruit on the 
 spot. It touched the patriotism and the sense 
 of justice of every one who heard it. In keeping 
 with the line of thought presented b^^ Sergeant 
 Lee not a man of the Sixteenth regiment signed 
 the petition. Major Henry L. Pasco, of that 
 command, who w^as imprisoned at Milan, in 
 Georgia, was equally courageous. A number of 
 Union officers had escaped from the prison b^^ 
 tunneling under the stockade. The authorities 
 of the prison discovered one of these tunnels, 
 and Major Pasco was ordered b3^ a rebel officer 
 to fill it up. When Major Pasco refused to obey 
 the order, he was threatened with death on the 
 spot. As the Confederate drew his revolver 
 with the intention of executing the threat. 
 Major Pasco turned his back upon him. The 
 defiant Unionist w^as placed in the civil prison 
 by the side of a felon and kept there three days. 
 Major Pasco claimed the protection of the 
 American flag. In the end he was released and 
 sent back to his associates, who felt that his 
 courage was deserving of the highest approba- 
 tion. Major Pasco died here in 1882, and his 
 resting place in Cedar Hill cemetery is desig- 
 nated by a military monument. 
 
 The Twenty-second regiment was the first 
 
Hartford in the Civil War. 231 
 
 of the nine-months' troops called from this 
 State in 1862. It was commanded by Colonel 
 George S. Burnham, who had served at the head 
 of the first three-months' regiment. Charles A. 
 Jewell was adjutant, and John G. Root, who 
 became mayor of the oitj in 1888, was a promi- 
 nent line officer in the command. 
 
 The Tw^ent^^-fifth Connecticut was under 
 command of Colonel George P. Bissell. At the 
 battle of Irish Bend, in Louisiana, Colonel Bis- 
 sell led his men with great bravery. In this en- 
 gagement William E. Simonds, who became a 
 member of Congress from the Hartford district 
 after the war, was made a commissioned officer 
 on the field on account of personal gallantry 
 under Colonel Bissell. Judge Thomas McManus 
 was the major of the Twenty-fifth. 
 
 There were two colored regiments from this 
 State in the w^ar, the Twenty-ninth and Thir- 
 tieth. Hartford was represented in both of 
 them. The service of the colored men was in 
 no way lacking in courage or loyalty. 
 
 The medical corps of the army was aug- 
 mented by able and skillful practitioners from 
 Hartford. Dr. Henry P. Stearns, the distin- 
 guished authority on insanity, who has been at 
 the head of the Retreat for the Insane for vears, 
 
232 Hartford in History. 
 
 was the first surgeon who entered the service 
 from Connecticut. During a part of the war 
 he was on the staif of General Grant. Drs. 
 Melancthon Storrs, John B. Lewis, Nathan 
 Mayer and George C. Jarvis served through the 
 war, winning high position and honor in the field. 
 Dr. Mayer was in the city of Newbern, N. C, 
 through the yellow fever scourge that prevailed 
 there in 1864, having the medical department of 
 that military post in charge. It required as high 
 a type of braver\' to meet the scourge as would 
 be necessary in encountering the enemy in battle. 
 
 The Rev. Joseph H. Twichell, pastor of the 
 Asylum Hill Congregational Church, was the 
 chaplain of the Seventy-first New York, and a 
 man of undaunted heroism in the field. He 
 dared to go where men dared to fight, bearing 
 the ministrations of religion to the wounded 
 and the dying. 
 
 The Rev. H. Clay Trumbull, of Philadelphia, 
 was the chaplain of the Tenth Connecticut, and 
 cared for the men of that command with great 
 fidelity. 
 
 The chaplain of the Eighth Connecticut was 
 the Rev. John M. Morris, whose home in bo\^- 
 hood was in the neighboring town of Wethers- 
 field. He W'as the first man in his regiment \vho 
 
Hartford in the Civil War. 233 
 
 was wounded at Antietam, but he refused to leave 
 the field and remained with the troops through 
 the day. He was one of the forlorn hope en- 
 gaged in laying the pontoon bridge at Freder- 
 icksburg in the face of the rebel works w^hich 
 controlled the river front during the great battle 
 of December, 1862. 
 
 Colonel Robert W. Huntington, of the United 
 States Marine Corps, who commanded the first 
 American troops landed in Cuba during the war 
 with Spain, left Trinity College at the outbreak 
 of the Rebellion, enlisting in General Haw^ley's 
 three-months' company from this city. Admiral 
 Francis M. Bunce, of the United States navy, 
 and Major James B. Burbank, of the regular 
 arm^^, were both in the war from this city. 
 Commander Edward Terr^^, of the navy, was 
 also a brave officer, holding important commis- 
 sions through the war. 
 
 From the literary side Hartford was repre- 
 sented with distinction in the service by Henry 
 Howard Brownell, the war poet, and Henr^^ C. 
 Work, the most popular song writer of the war 
 era. Mr. Brownell v^as a graduate of Trinity Col- 
 lege. He was with Admiral Farragut on the flag- 
 ship Hartford, at Mobile Ba3^ and wrote "The 
 Bay Fight," one of the most stirring lyrics of 
 
234 Hartford in History. 
 
 the war. His death occurred in East Hartford, 
 October 31, 1872. The war song, "Marching 
 Through Georgia," was Mr. Work's most char- 
 acteristic production. This noted song writer 
 of the war died here in 1884, and is buried in 
 Spring Grove cemeter\^ His grave is decorated 
 by the Grand Army every year. 
 
 The town of Hartford spared no pains in 
 caring for the men who went to the war during 
 the four 3^ears. It also looked after the families 
 of destitute soldiers with the utmost considera- 
 tion and liberality. The benefactions of the 
 town were administered bj^ committees of citi- 
 zens. On the list were the names of Alfred E. 
 Burr, General Charles T. Hillyer, Calvin Day, 
 James G. Batterson, Judge Nathaniel Shipman 
 and Charles Cheney. 
 
 During the four 3^ears the town expended 
 $211,779.77 in bounties and compensation on 
 account of drafted men and substitutes. Not a 
 dollar of the mone\' that was spent in aid of 
 soldiers' families is included in these figures. 
 There is no wa^^ of ascertaining the amounts 
 that were spent in charity. The onh^ thing that 
 is known is that liberality towards the families 
 of soldiers, which w^ere found to be in need, w^as 
 unrestrained b^^ private or public criticism. 
 
Our City GoYernment. 
 
 By William Waldo Hyde. 
 
 THE original settlement of this neighborhood , 
 which we now call the city of Hartford, 
 began when the Dutch built a fort on 
 what is now known as Dutch Point, being the 
 point at the confluence of the Park and Con- 
 necticut Rivers. Subsequenth^ the English com- 
 ing up the river discovered the desirabilit3^ of 
 the present site of the city of Hartford, but per- 
 haps influenced by fear of the Dutch the^^^ went 
 further north and established themselves at 
 Windsor. It was not until 1636, when the Rev. 
 Thomas Hooker and a little band of his asso- 
 ciates made their v^ay across the country and 
 set up here a home for themselves, that Hart- 
 ford really began to exist. With their homes 
 along the bank of the Little River, where Arch 
 street nov^r runs, and their little church in the 
 rear of v^here our present post oflfice building 
 now stands, they laid the foundations of that 
 Hartford which Ave kno^v to-day. 
 
 To these early settlers the lands practically 
 belonged in common — not as in the Russian 
 
 235 
 
236 Hartford in History. 
 
 Commune — but while individual ownership was 
 recognized, the control rested in the vote of the 
 majority. The situation here varied greatly 
 from that in other parts of our country. Here 
 the vote of the majority could impose upon in- 
 dividual ownership a responsibility or liability 
 for such indebtedness as the majority sav^ fit to 
 incur; and this remains true to-day, so far as 
 towns are concerned. In a Connecticut town at 
 the present moment, the property of any indi- 
 vidual may be taken for any debt legally in- 
 curred by the town. 
 
 The management of the affairs of this old 
 town was conferred upon a number of men 
 selected by vote of the people, and who were 
 therefore called selectmen. This board ordi- 
 narily consisted of from three to five members, 
 and upon them rested the duties and responsi- 
 bilities of the management of the affairs of the 
 community. This state of affairs continued 
 until 1784, almost 150 3'ears after Thomas 
 Hooker and his associates arrived. It then ap- 
 peared that the growing population, the in- 
 creased business connection with the outer 
 world, required that Hartford should have a 
 revised method of government. A memorial 
 was therefore sent to the General Assemblv ask- 
 
Our City Government. 237 
 
 ing for a charter for a certain portion of the 
 towm of Hartford to provide a better govern- 
 ment. Acting upon this petition, the General 
 Assembly in 1784 passed an act incorporating 
 the cit3^ of Hartford and fixing the limits of the 
 proposed city as follows : ''Beginning at a place 
 called the Dutch ground, upon the high land on 
 the bank of the great river, on the southerly 
 side of said river as it now runs in the lot be- 
 longing to Thomas Seymour, Esq., and from 
 thence a strait line to the northwest corner of 
 Joshua Hempstead's dwelling house, thence a 
 westerly line to the northwest corner of James 
 Steele's dwelling house, from thence a north- 
 westerly course to the southwest corner of 
 James Shepherd's malt-house, from thence north- 
 erh^ a strait line to the upper mills, so called, 
 including said mills, thence northerl^^ in a 
 strait line to the northwest corner of Captain 
 John Olcott's dwelling house, including said 
 house, and from thence turning and running 
 due east a strait course to the great river." 
 This description includes what is practically 
 now the center of the city of Hartford. The 
 line above described began at a point a short 
 distance south of the confluence of Little River 
 and Connecticut River, near what is now known 
 
238 Hartford in History. 
 
 as Dutch Point, and thence ran in a westerl3^ 
 direction to the corner of Wetherslield avenue 
 and Wyllys street, and thence running along the 
 south end of the Httle park known to us as 
 South Green, thence the hne ran westerly near 
 or about the present layout of Jefferson street to 
 the southeast corner of Washington and Jeffer- 
 son street, thence northwesterly to a point in 
 the north line of Park street opposite the north 
 end of Squire street, thence northerh" running 
 just west of the Capitol along the ridge to a 
 point about three hundred feet north of the 
 office of the Park Superintendent on the west 
 side of Bushnell Park, thence northeasterly a 
 little west of the present layout of High street 
 to the corner of Belden street and Windsor ave- 
 nue, and thence easterly in a straight line run- 
 ning a little west of Avon street through about 
 the center of our present Riverside Park to a 
 point on Connecticut River which is about a 
 thousand feet south of the present railroad 
 bridge. The limits thus embraced about 1,700 
 acres, a little more than one-sixth of the present 
 area of the city. In the charter then granted, 
 rights were given to the ma3'or, aldermen, com- 
 mon council and freemen of the city of Hartford 
 to enact by-laws or ordinances as we nov^ call 
 
Our City Government. 239 
 
 them, pertaining to the management of the 
 affairs of that portion of the town of Hartford 
 included within the boundaries mentioned. 
 
 Many of the powers which had previously 
 been exercised by the selectmen of the town of 
 Hartford were, so far as the territory' included 
 within the above boundaries was concerned, 
 taken from them and given to the city corpora- 
 tion. 
 
 The passage of the act of incorporation oc- 
 casioned one very important change in the 
 responsibilities of the inhabitants of this terri- 
 tor^^ Before the incorporation of the city each 
 inhabitant of the town was liable in his indi- 
 vidual capacity for the debts of the town legalh^ 
 incurred ; but under the charter of the city the 
 responsibility for debts incurred by the act of 
 the mayor, aldermen and common council Avas 
 quite like that of the member of anj^ corporation 
 of a private nature. He could be assessed for 
 taxes and could be made to pa^^ such assess- 
 ments in order that the debts incurred by the 
 corporation might be paid ; but he Avas other- 
 wise free from responsibility^ so far as liability to 
 have his private property taken for the payment 
 of the debts themselves. If he paid all his taxes 
 as they might be assessed, his liability ended. At 
 
240 Hartford in History. 
 
 the time the first charter was granted the popu- 
 lation of the territor\^ included within the limits 
 of the new city was very small. Gradually, 
 however, as the years went by, the original 
 limits of the cit3^ were extended until to-day the 
 limits of the city are coincident with those of the 
 town ; and instead of a small territory bounded 
 on the Park River and the Connecticut River, 
 and having nothing west of Trumbull street 
 except farming land, we have a great territory 
 extending from Windsor line on the north to 
 the Wethersfield line on the south, from the 
 Connecticut River on the east to Prospect ave- 
 nue on the west, and including within its boun- 
 daries a population of from eighty to ninety 
 thousands of souls. 
 
 With this extension of limits, many new re- 
 quirements have arisen in the way of the grant- 
 ing of powers and the performance of duties in 
 the carr3dng on of the business of this great cor- 
 poration. The mayor, who at first was little 
 more than a presiding officer at meetings, has 
 become a great executive ofl&cer, who must be 
 prepared to act on matters of A^ast moment 
 both as to the ph\'sical and the financial devel- 
 opment of the city. He must be prepared to 
 give, if not the whole, at least the greater part 
 
Our City Government. 241 
 
 of his time each day to the consideration of im- 
 portant questions involving the welfare of thou- 
 sands of his fellow citizens. The treasurer, from 
 being the recipient of paltry sums, is nov^ the 
 custodian of millions of dollars. The collector 
 must have about him a large force of clerical 
 assistants to enable him to see first that the 
 moneys due to the city are collected, and second 
 that none of them are lost or wasted. Im- 
 portant commissions have become necessary: 
 a board of street commissioners, in whose hands 
 alone rests the disposition of almost a quarter 
 of a million dollars annualh^ ; a board of water 
 commissioners, charged with the duty of pro- 
 viding our citizens with an ample supply of one 
 of the greatest necessities of life, and caring for 
 propert3^ of the city which has involved the ex- 
 penditure of nearly two and three-quarter mil- 
 lions of dollars ; a health department, upon 
 whom is imposed the duty of caring for the san- 
 itary welfare of this great population ; a board 
 of park commissioners, charged with the obliga- 
 tion of providing for the v^elfare of our citizens 
 by the construction and maintenance of a 
 proper system of public parks ; fire commission- 
 ers, who, week after w^eek, strive to guard from 
 destruction our residences and business houses ; 
 
242 Hartford in History. 
 
 and police commissioners, whose duty is to pro- 
 vide for the safet\^ of hfe and propert3^ In this 
 AY ay, from the small beginning of 1784, when 
 the "Connecticut Courant," on June 1st, re- 
 ported that the General Assembly had passed 
 an act incorporating a part of the town of 
 Hartford and vesting it with the privilege of 
 framing by-laws for certain purposes specified 
 in the charter, Hartford has grown to a great 
 corporation with all its varied departments to 
 whose care the attention of many men other- 
 w^ise busily engaged in their own pursuits is 
 daily called. 
 
 It is somewhat difficult to make clear to 
 those who have not been brought into close 
 contact with the details of work in a municipal 
 corporation, the exact manner in which the 
 v^ork is done. It msiy be made most plain, per- 
 haps, In' the following suggestion : 
 
 The maj'or stands in the position of the 
 president of a corporation. The board of alder- 
 men and common council stand to him in the 
 position of directors in this great corporation. 
 The boards of commissioners represent assist- 
 ants giving their time and attention to aid the 
 mayor and his directors — the aldermen and 
 common council — in the performance of the du- 
 
Our City Government. 243 
 
 ties imposed upon them by the charter. All 
 important matters must of course first be pre- 
 sented to the common council. The\^ are then 
 referred in due form to committees appointed 
 b\^ themselves, or to the boards of commission- 
 ers, to be examined and reported upon. These 
 committees or commissioners carefully look into 
 the matters thus sent to them and make report 
 to the common council. When so presented they 
 are duh^ acted upon b^^ the common council, 
 who are at perfect liberty to accept or reject the 
 recommendations made. After the common 
 council has arrived at a decision, it remains for 
 the ma^'or to approve or disapprove. In the 
 city of Hartford the mayor's veto is not abso- 
 lute, but can be overruled b^^ a majorit^^ vote of 
 the common council. In fact, however, the com- 
 mon council generally supports its presiding 
 officer, and if he in the exercise of his wise judg- 
 ment determines that their recommendations 
 should not become law, and sends them a veto 
 giving his reasons for such determination, they 
 support him, realizing that he is and must be 
 held responsible for the results of the action 
 taken, and that therefore he is entitled to their 
 support. 
 
 In discussing the question of the growth of 
 
244 Hartford in History. 
 
 our city, nothing more important attracts at- 
 tention than the fact that some of the methods 
 which were entirely suitable for the conduct 
 and control of cit^^ affairs a hundred j^ears ago, 
 or even fifty or twentA^-five years ago, have 
 served their day and become obsolete, and 
 should be changed. There is, however, a great 
 danger that, when suggestions of change are 
 made, those whose dutAnt is to assist in making 
 such necessar^^ changes sit quietly by, and, with 
 the remark upon their lips that what was good 
 enough for their fathers is good enough for 
 them, refuse to consider or discuss the real prob- 
 lem presented. It seems to us, thinking to-day 
 of the efforts which have been made and the 
 time which has been spent in endeavoring to 
 eradicate well-known evils, and remembering 
 how those efforts have come to naught, and 
 that time has been wasted through the apathy 
 of those who should be most interested, and 
 their unwillingness to give the necessary atten- 
 tion to their consideration, that it is proper to 
 impress upon the youth who may read this 
 little book the fact that the evils which exist 
 remain for their injury only so long as those to 
 whom the law gives the right to take part in 
 eradicating the same insist upon neglect of both 
 
Our City Government. 245 
 
 their right and their duty. As the rising gener- 
 ation become men and women and are endowed 
 with the right to take part in the discussion of 
 and make active effort in municipal affairs for 
 or against cit^^ abuses, we urge upon them the 
 importance of fulfilHng their pubHc duties with 
 the same care that the^^do those of private busi- 
 ness or of private Hfe. 
 
 In discussing the municipahty of Hartford, 
 and in connection with the views just expressed, 
 it is interesting to note that during the more 
 than a centur3^ which has elapsed since its incor- 
 poration, it has not been generally considered 
 that the office of chief magistrate of the cit3^ 
 was a mere matter of personal preferment. Its 
 ma3^ors, from 1784 to 1843, were, with possi- 
 bh^ two exceptions, college graduates — men of 
 education who were \villing to undertake the 
 duties of the position in the hope of being of use 
 to the community rather than to themselves. 
 From 1784 to 1825, the mayor held his office 
 during the pleasure of the General Assembly, 
 and since then has held his office for two years, 
 b^^ election. Since 1843 we have had fewer 
 ma^^ors of collegiate education, but all have 
 been devoted to our city's interests. Thev have, 
 as a rule, been men of large personal interest in 
 
246 Hartford in History. 
 
 the progress of the city, and with large private 
 business interests, which the^^ were compelled in 
 a greater or less degree to ignore in order that 
 thcA^ might the better care for the welfare of 
 the city. It is a noteworthy fact that the 
 mayors of the city of Hartford have, some of 
 them, been highh^ honored b^^ the regard re- 
 ceived from distinguished men of this and other 
 countries. It is interesting to think how the 
 first ma3^or, Thomas Seymour, received as his 
 guest and the guest of the city of Hartford, the 
 Marquis de Lafayette; how Henry C. Deming, 
 William James Hamersley and Henry C. Robin- 
 son and others honored the city by accept- 
 ing the chair of mayor. It is within the 
 power of those who are coming forward to 
 assist in keeping up this good old fashion and 
 so act that the future may be worthy of the 
 past. 
 
 There are many things to be done to put the 
 management of this great municipal corpora- 
 tion in line with that of other corporations of a 
 private nature. If the \'Oung men who are nov^ 
 approaching manhood will assume in fact the 
 responsibilities which they assume in name, the 
 Hartford of the next centur3^ Avill occupy no 
 lesser position in the ca^cs of the world than 
 
Our City Government. 247 
 
 did the Hartford of the first half century of its 
 existence. 
 
 TOWN AND CITY OFFICERS. 
 
 The city is divided into ten wards. At the 
 annual election, held the first Monday in April, 
 the following city ofiicers are elected by the peo- 
 ple for a term of two years : mayor, town clerk, 
 treasurer, collector, auditor, marshal, one alder- 
 man from each ward (there are two, but they 
 are elected alternately, each for two years) and 
 four councilmen from each ward for a term of 
 one year. The town clerk, by virtue of his office, 
 is also cit3^ clerk. 
 
 The Court of Common Council elects the city 
 attorney, prosecuting attorney, port warden, 
 sealer of weights and measures and inspector of 
 milk and wood, committee on abatement of 
 taxes, rate maker, sixty-three city weighers, each 
 for a term of one year, and, for a term of two 
 years, the four members of the Board of Relief, 
 and the recorder of the City Court. 
 
 The Mayor appoints, and the Board of 
 Aldermen confirms, the following : the building 
 inspector for a term of two years, and, for three 
 years, the six members of each of the boards of 
 commissioners of charity, fire, health, police. 
 
248 Hartford in History. 
 
 street and water. The park commissioners 
 elect their own successors, w^hose election must 
 be certified to by the Mayor and approved b^^ 
 the Board of Aldermen. Each board of commis- 
 sioners elects its own clerk. The city surve^^or 
 and superintendent of streets are appointed by 
 the Board of Street Commissioners. 
 
 On the fourth Monday of April, the Board 
 of Aldermen is warned b^- the Mayor to meet 
 for the choice of not less than seventy nor more 
 than 150 jurors of the City Court. 
 
 The Aldermen and Councilmen have their 
 joint standing committees on amusements, 
 auditing, cemeteries, city buildings, claims, edu- 
 cation, fire, manufactures, municipal lighting, 
 nominations, ordinances, printing, public baths, 
 railroads, water works and ways and means, to 
 whom are submitted the several bills, each to 
 its appropriate committee, before they are acted 
 upon bj^ the members of the council. 
 
 The officers of the Town of Hartford are: 
 the town clerk, two registrars of electors, three 
 assessors, five selectmen, seven constables, six 
 grand jurors, five high school committeemen 
 and nine members of the board of school visit- 
 ors. These officers are chosen for a term of one 
 year, except the assessors and school visitors, 
 
Our City Government. 249 
 
 whose term of office is three years. They are 
 chosen at the anntial election in April, but do 
 not enter office until the following June. 
 
 The judge of the Police Court and his assist- 
 ant are chosen for a term of two years by the 
 General Assembly. 
 
 For further details, see Municipal Register 
 of 1898, pp. 7-11 and 680-688. 
 
The Duties of Citizenship. 
 
 By Charles Dudley Warner. 
 
 THE duties of citizenship are not discharged 
 by an enjoj^ment of its privileges. Nor are 
 the negative virtues of acquiescence and obe- 
 dience sufficient ; those are expected from every- 
 one. The good citizen takes an active interest 
 in the welfare of his city, and he should not be 
 content unless the city is better when he leaves 
 it than it was when he came into it. 
 
 Nor does the power and responsibility^ of 
 making the city better depend altogether upon 
 one's individual ability. In a certain sense the 
 reputation of the city is in the care of everyone 
 of its inhabitants, even the humblest. By neg- 
 lect or bad conduct he can injure its reputation. 
 Forit mustnot be forgotten that, however large 
 a city grows or however prosperous it is, its 
 character depends upon the character of its citi- 
 zens. He is not a good citizen of Hartford who 
 does an3^thing to impair its good name and its 
 splendid historical record. But the citizens, men 
 or women, are not doing their dut^', if they do 
 not strive to increase the honorable repute of 
 
 250 
 
The Duties of Citizenship. 251 
 
 the city and its progress in the highest civiHza- 
 tion. It is not enough that we should make it 
 bigger or richer than it is ; we must strive for a 
 higher ideal than material success. 
 
 No citizen can read the record of Hartford 
 in this volume without being proud of his inher- 
 itance in its history- and its good name. Its 
 founders were not only great men in planting 
 an orderly, prosperous and virtuous community, 
 but in organizing free institutions in this coun- 
 try, and in determining the very nature and 
 character of our national Union. Patriotic 
 love of Hartford, therefore, became patriotic 
 love of the Union. It was Thomas Hooker, our 
 first leader, who enunciated the doctrine that 
 "government derives its just power from the 
 consent of the governed." The lessons of pa- 
 triotism, of obedience to law, of thrift, of pubHc 
 spirit, inculcated by the founders, have made 
 Hartford what it is. Our inheritance puts upon 
 us great responsibilities. 
 
 One of the first lessons in this record of our 
 prosperity is integrity in business. Our growth 
 and prosperity have been very largely due to 
 our honorable dealing. The great insurance, 
 banking and manufacturing interests in and 
 under the control of Hartford owe their solid 
 
252 Hartford in History. 
 
 reputation throughout the country to the in- 
 tegrity and common-sense conservatism of their 
 managers. Any citizen w^ho departs from this 
 integrity not onl\^ injures the good name of the 
 city, but impairs its inost valuable capital. 
 
 The situation of Hartford, on a noble river, 
 in a valW of unsurpassed fertility and beauty, 
 amid scener\^ of uncommon variety and loveli- 
 ness, midway between two great cities, to which 
 it is easy of access, make it a most desirable and 
 favorite place of residence, either for business or 
 enjoyment. This situation places upon us the 
 responsibility of beautifying the city, and in 
 every wa^^ increasing its attractiveness. For in 
 this case, at least, beauty is a decided element in 
 our prosperit3\ The good citizen will, therefore, 
 not only have a care that his own residence, 
 factory, shop and place of business is most at- 
 tractive, but that the streets, roads and public 
 buildings shall notably add to the good appear- 
 ance of the city, and that its sanitary arrange- 
 ments shall insure, as far as may be, good health 
 in all quarters of the town. An essential part 
 of this beauty and of the good health of the 
 town is in the development of the noble system 
 of parks, so that every quarter of the city shall 
 have free space for popular recreation. 
 
The Duties of Citizenship. 253 
 
 Nor can we neglect our institutions and 
 as^dums of charity. We have a fine record in 
 these — the asj'lum for the deaf-mutes was the 
 first established in this country — but science 
 makes new discoveries and new demands every 
 day, and in order to hold our position we can 
 not aiford to be penurious in the provision for 
 the sick, the unfortunate and the dependent. 
 The modern hospital, for instance, which offers 
 facilities for the treatment of disease superior to 
 almost any private house, has not yet reached 
 its highest development in regard to the health 
 of the community. 
 
 But the duty of a good citizen is not dis- 
 charged when he has made his oitj beautiful to 
 the eye, wholesome as a place of residence, and 
 attractive by means of its neat and well-kept 
 houses. It must be a city with opportunities 
 for cultivation and refinement. The day has 
 gone by when mere phj^sical attractions suffice 
 in the development of a civilized city. 
 
 Of primary importance to the prosperity of 
 a city are its schools. This has alwa^^s been 
 recognized in Hartford. The facilities for ob- 
 taining a sound education in any city are gen- 
 erall3^ weighty in determining the residence of 
 those having families to educate. It therefore 
 
254 Hartford in History. 
 
 comes to pass that good schools in a cit}^ are 
 not inferior to any other attractions for the in- 
 coming of population. It is not the number of 
 schools that is most important, but their char- 
 acter. Of course any city is compelled for its 
 own preservation to have schools enough to 
 accommodate all those who are of school age, 
 but the intellectual and moral character of the 
 city depends upon the quality of the instruction 
 given in them, and it is almost entirely this mat- 
 ter of quality that makes the attraction of the 
 city for a very considerable portion of the pop- 
 ulation. ^' What sort of schools has the town ?" 
 is one of the most common inquiries of persons 
 contemplating change of residence. Besides, the 
 school is the foundation of the State, and there 
 is no higher concern for a citizen of Hartford 
 than the improvement of its schools year by 
 year. 
 
 Indispensable in the life of a great city in 
 these times are growing libraries, administered 
 so as to reach the humblest inhabitant ; muse- 
 ums, historical and industrial and scientific ; 
 galleries of painting, sculpture and of the fine 
 arts generally; and systematic means for the 
 cultivation of the taste for music. A library 
 can only meet the wants of a growing city by 
 
The Duties of Citizenship. 255 
 
 liberal contributions and the constant enlarge- 
 ment of its facilities. We have good libraries 
 to-da^^ ; if they are not greath^ enlarged thej^ will 
 not be sufficient ten years from now. Hartford 
 has enough works of art to make a notable gal- 
 lery if tliQj w^ere assembled ; the3^ would grad- 
 ually drift together if w^e had a place for them. 
 The same is true of a museum of objects of his- 
 toric association, of scientific interest, or of the 
 curiosities of other countries. Undoubtedly a 
 general taste for good music is as essential an 
 element in the civilization of a city as love of 
 flowers, of architecture, of beauty in any form, 
 or of good manners. We should not expect a 
 city dirty and shabby in appearance and devoid 
 of taste in am^ of the things named to have 
 good manners. 
 
 The duties of citizenship, therefore, in a city 
 with the histor\^ and advantages of Hartford, 
 are manifold. I have assumed that the good 
 citizen wull be on the side of law and order, and 
 that he will not leave the conduct of his local, 
 or State, or national politics, or as w^e should 
 say, generalh^ public affairs, to be managed by 
 the incompetent, or by men merely ambitious 
 for selfish purposes. Indeed a^ou can not con- 
 ceive a good citizen w^ho is indifferent to public 
 
256 Hartford in History. 
 
 affairs. True economy in city affairs is alwaj^s 
 the result of providence and foresight as well as 
 vigilance. In the hands of selfish men or incom- 
 petent men, extravagant expenditure in one 
 direction is usually accompanied b^^ niggardli- 
 ness in matters of the highest importance for 
 the welfare of the city. 
 
 Hartford has grown, gradually and without 
 much excitement of speculation, from its village 
 condition to a beautiful city of charming homes. 
 It has grown in solid business enterprises and 
 wealth at the same time. The virtues of indus- 
 try, thrift and integrity, which made it what it 
 is, are still needed to enable it to hold its posi- 
 tion, and to keep step with the advance of its 
 neighbors, not only in enterprise, but in civility 
 and refinement. Upon the bo3^s and girls now 
 in its schools will rest in a very few years the 
 responsibility of its character and reputation. 
 If they are not proud of it, if they are not jealous 
 of its honor and solicitous for its beauty, if 
 they are not intelligent, honest, industrious and 
 have not refinement of taste or of manners, it 
 will become, however large it may be, a vulgar 
 city. They can no more afford to be indifferent 
 to its beauty than to its business interests. For 
 a squalid and dirty city, and one without many 
 
The Duties of Citizenship. 257 
 
 of the elements of noble life, may become rich, it 
 never will be an agreeable place of residence or 
 one of which its citizens can be proud. 
 
 In its past history, as recorded in these 
 pages, Hartford has always furnished men who 
 were leaders in State and national politics ; 
 men of sagacity and integrity who have given it 
 a reputation for soundness in finance and for 
 good judgment in business enterprises ; men of 
 inventiveness and scientific training who have 
 made the city known the world over for ingenu- 
 ity and skill ; men enlightened and liberal who 
 have built up its noble institutions of education 
 and charity. And from the beginning it has had 
 an almost unbroken line of men and women 
 who were scholars and writers, and who have 
 made the reputation of the city for intellectual 
 cultivation not second to its reputation for en- 
 terprise and v^ealth. 
 
 It is impossible to have a beautiful city 
 unless the citizens, old and young, care for its 
 beauty ; for instance, the exquisite loveliness of 
 Bushnell Park, which is not anywhere excelled, 
 would be speedily ruined by the destructive 
 habits and vulgarity of men and women who 
 were not good citizens, and by the children who 
 are not growing up to be good citizens. It is 
 
258 Hartford in History. 
 
 also impossible that the cit3^ shall be long pros- 
 perous or an agreeable place of residence if the 
 children now in school are not growing np 
 honest and industrious and with some degree of 
 refinement. 
 
 No child is too young to be a patriot, or to 
 be taught the responsibilities of a good citizen. 
 And nothing is more evident than that the 
 future character of Hartford depends upon the 
 children in its schools. 
 
 
Jt INDEX. -Jt 
 
 Adams, Charles H., 155. 
 
 Allen, Ethan, 208. 
 
 Allyn, John, 105, 110. 
 
 Allyn, Matthew, 195. 
 
 Andrews, Charles M., 65. 
 
 Andrews, Samuel J., 148. 
 
 Andros, Sir Edmund, 30, 106, 109, 188, 198. 
 
 Athenaeum, Wadsworth, 163, 192. 
 
 Bachelor, Samuel H., 174. 
 
 Baldwin, Simeon E., 203. 
 
 Barbour Silver Co., 183. 
 
 Barlow, Joel, 139. 
 
 B^jrnard, Henry, 144. 
 
 Batterson, James G., 234. 
 
 Beach, Frank, 228. 
 
 Beecher, Catherine, 143. 
 
 Billings, Charles E., 174. 
 
 Billings & Spencer Co., 179. 
 
 Bissell, George P., 231. 
 
 Blue Laws, 97. 
 
 Boyd, John, 115, 121. 
 
 Brace, John P., 143. 
 
 Brainerd, John G. C, 142. 
 
 Brainard, Leverett, 175. 
 
 Brownell, Henry H., 149, 233. 
 
 Buckingham, William A., 222. 
 
 Bugbee, George H., 224. 
 
 BUILDINGS, PUBLIC, 156; of the Nation, 156; State, 157; 
 County, 157; City, 158 ; corporations, 161 ; as art galleries 
 and libraries, 164; reading rooms, 167; educational, 167, 
 169 ; for sick, 168. 
 
 Bulkeley, Charles E., 225. 
 
 Bulkeley, Morgan G., 225, 228. 
 
 Bulkeley, William H., 225. 
 
 259 
 
260 Index. 
 
 Bunce, Francis M., 233. 
 Burbank, James B., 233. 
 Burgess, George, 148. 
 Burnham, George S., 223, 231. 
 Burnham, John H., 228. 
 Burr, Alfred E.. 130, 154, 234. 
 Burton, Nathaniel J., 147. 
 Burton, Richard, 150. 
 Bushnell, Frances L., 150. 
 Bushnell, Horace, 146, 194. 
 
 Caligraph Co., 181. 
 
 Camp, Henry W.. 227. 
 
 Capewell, George J., 183. 
 
 Capewell Horse Nail Co., 182. 
 
 CAPITAL, THE, 117; derivation of word, 117 ; called Newtown, 
 lis ; why selected, 119 ; by legislative act, 122 ; conflict with 
 New Haven, 122, 124; associated with New Haven, 123 ; sole, 
 126 ; her State Houses, 128 ; as chief city, 131 ; prosperity of, 
 132. 
 
 Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., 175. 
 
 Case, Newton, 174. 
 
 Catlin, Julius, 222. 
 
 CHARTER, THE, 99, 121; why wanted, 100; how obtained, 
 
 100, 103; the duplicate, 103, 104; its custodian, 104; how 
 brought to Hartford, 104; boundaries fixed by, 106; cost of, 
 
 101, 106; demand for its surrender, 109; faithfully kept, 110; 
 brought into Assembly, 111 ; secreted. 111 ; the original one, 
 113 ; revived, 115 ; reaffirmed Constitution of 1639, 198 ; time 
 in force. 198. 
 
 Charter Oak, 116, 193, 199. 
 
 Cheeney, Charles, 234. 
 
 Cheney, Frank W., 228. 
 
 CITIZENSHIP, DUTIES OF, 244, 246, 247, 250; rest upon all, 
 250; demand integrity-, 251, sanitary cleanliness, 252, sup- 
 port of public institutions, 253, systematic means of culture, 
 254; for school children, 244, 256. 
 
 CIVIL WAR, THE, 221; call for troops, 222 ; financial support, 
 222; women's aid, 223; children's help, 223; departure of 
 troops, 223 ; colored troops, 229, 231 ; care for families, 234. 
 
Index. 261 
 
 Clark, Charles Hopkins, 155. 
 
 Clark, George H., 145, 153. 
 
 Clemens, S. L., 151, 196. 
 
 Colt, Samuel. 173, 179, 194, 204. 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF 1639, 66; character of its makers, 67; con- 
 tents, 68; the first, 70, 118; differs from Mayflower Com- 
 pact, 71 ; makers' estimate of, 71 ; compared with Charter of 
 Mass., 73 ; influence on National government, 80, 188, 197. 
 
 Constitution of 1818, 124; how amended, 125; provides three 
 powers, 129. 
 
 Cooke, Rose Terrj^ 149. 
 
 Copeland, Daniel, 172. 
 
 Counties, 198. 
 
 Court, First General, 118. 
 
 Cowen, Mrs. S. S., 223. 
 
 Coxe, Arthur C, 149. 
 
 Davenport, Abraham, 128, 158. 
 
 Day, Calvin, 234. 
 
 Deane, Silas, 208. 
 
 Deming, Henry C, 144, 228, 246. 
 
 Dickinson, L. A., 228. 
 
 Dixon, James, 144. 
 
 Doane, Bishop, 148. 
 
 Dodge, Mary Abigail, 152. 
 
 Drake, Albert W., 222, 227. 
 
 Dunbar, Moses, 217. 
 
 Durham Range, 16. 
 
 DUTCH, THE, 39; in New York, 40; coming of Adrian Block, 
 40 ; at Dutch Point, 41, 235 ; their fort. 42 ; purchase of 
 lands, 42; "bouwerie," 43 ; trouble with English, 44; leave 
 Hartford, 46 ; character of, 46. 
 
 Dwight, Henry C, 228. 
 
 Dwight, Theodore, Jr., 143. 
 
 Easton, James, 208. 
 Education, 96. 
 
 Fairfield, George A.. 174. 
 Fairfield, John M., 182. 
 Fiske, John, 145. 
 
262 Index. 
 
 French, Christopher, 209. 
 Fundamental Orders, 67, 198. 
 
 Gallaudet, Thomas Hopkins, 161. 
 
 GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY, 13; volcanic action. 14, 16, 19; 
 origin of trap rock, 14; citA' stone quarries, 17; Portland 
 quarries, 18; ash bed. 19; glacial period, 20; glacial 
 scratches, 21; 
 
 Gillette, William. 153. 
 
 Glacial period, 20. 
 
 Glacial scratches, 21. 
 
 Goodrich, Chauncey, 201. 
 
 Goodrich, Samuel G., 143. 
 
 Goodwin, William, 30. 60. 
 
 GOVERNMENT, CITY, 235; obligations of land owners, 236, 
 239; city limits, 237, 240; incorporation of, 237; duties of 
 officers, 240 ; as a corporation, 242 ; duties of citizens, 244, 
 246; character of officers, 245; election of officers, 247. 
 
 Griswold, John, 227. 
 
 Griswold, Roger, 227. 
 
 Haddam, 25. 
 
 Haraersley, William J., 246. 
 
 Hanging Hills, 16. 
 
 Hanks, Truman, 171. 
 
 Hartford Convention, 191, 201. 
 
 Hawes, Joel, 187, 222. 
 
 Hawley, Joseph R., 222, 223, 227, 233. 
 
 Hawley, Mrs. Joseph R., 223. 
 
 Hayden, William, 33. 
 
 Haynes, John, 59, 60, 102. 
 
 Hemstead, Joshua, 237. 
 
 Hillyer, Charles T., 234. 
 
 HISTORIC PLACES, 184; Dutch Point, 184; Sentinel Hill, 186, 
 194; Ye Square, 186; Palisado, 186; first meeting house, 187; 
 Sanford's tavern, 188; Meeting House Alley, 189; school 
 house, 189; Bull's tavern, 190; Court house, 191; First 
 Church, 191; Wadsworth Elm, 192; Charter Oak, 193; 
 Governor St., 193. 
 
 Historical Society, Rooms of Conn., 166. 
 
 Hoadley, Charles J., 42, 121. 
 
Index. 263 
 
 Hollister, G. H., 64. 
 
 Holmes, John, 185, 194. 
 
 HOOKER, THOMAS, 49, 235, 251; birth, 57 ; education, 57; 
 flees to Holland, 58; character, 58; statue, 59 ; reasons for 
 coming to Hartford, 29, 62, 78; views of government, 76; 
 as author, 136 ; his house, 187 ; dress of, 189. 
 
 Hopkins, Lemuel, 140. 
 
 Hubbard, William, 75. 
 
 Humphreys, David, 140. 
 
 Huntington, Robert W., 233, 
 
 INDIANS, 23 ; purchase of their lands, 24, 29 ; welcome white 
 man, 25, 28; location of tribes, 25; number, 26; relation of 
 Sequins to other tribes, 27; deed of land, 30; relation to 
 Dutch, 31, 44; departure for Pequot War, 32; convention, 
 34; Narragansett Plot, 35, education, 37. 
 
 Jarvis, George C, 232. 
 Jewell, Charles A., 231. 
 Jewell, Marshall, 204. 
 Jewell, Pliny, Sr., 176. 
 Johnson, Charles P., 150. 
 Johns-Pratt Co., 180. 
 
 King Philip's War, 25, 189. 
 Kingsbury-, Henry W., 226. 
 
 Lafayette, 190, 192. 
 
 Lake Saltonstall, 16. 
 
 Lamentation Mt., 16, 19. 
 
 Lee, Richard H., 229. 
 
 Leete, Andrew, 113. 
 
 Lewis, John B., 232. 
 
 Lincoln Iron Works, 172. 
 
 LITERATURE, 134; makers of, grouped, 135; of Hartford Wits, 
 137; McFingal, 139; Columbiad, 139; Anarchiad, 140; the 
 dictionary as, 141 ; classification of, 143 ; learned professions 
 in, 144; poetry, 149; in fiction and essay, 150; as patriotic 
 force, 150, 153; in drama, 153; in journalism, 154. 
 
 Lockwood, James, 175. 
 
 Long Island Sound, 13. 
 
264 Index. 
 
 Lord, Horace, 174. 
 
 Love, William DeLoss, 148. 
 
 Ludlow, Roger, 118, 132. 
 
 Machine Screw Co., 180. 
 
 MANUFACTURING, 170; introduction of, 170 ; of books, 171, 
 175 ; of cotton and woolen goods, 170, 171 ; the foundry, 
 171, 172; of marine engines, 172; of iron, 172; of revolvers, 
 173; as an educator, 174; of belting, 176 ; of tools, 177; of 
 bicycles, 178 ; of drop forgings. 179 ; of screws, 180 ; of valves, 
 180 ; of envelopes, 181 ; of typewriters, 182 ; of wire mat- 
 tresses, 182 ; of horse nails, 182 ; of silver ware, 183; of har- 
 ness goods, 183. 
 
 Marvin, E. E., 226. 
 
 Mason, Capt. John, 33, 189. 
 
 Massasoit, 24. 
 
 Maj-er, Nathan, 232. 
 
 Meriden, 19. 
 
 Morris, John M., 232. 
 
 McManus, James, 206. 
 
 McManus, Thomas, 231. 
 
 Negro Governors, 94, 209. 
 Newgate Mt., 16. 
 Newgate Prison, 16, 212. 
 New Haven, 20, 41, 128, 131. 
 Newington Mt., 17. 
 Nichols, Cyprian, 110. 
 Niles, JohnM., 203. 
 
 Olcott, John, 237. 
 
 Olmsted, Frederic Law, 152. 
 
 Parker, Edwin P., 147. 
 Parker, F. H., 33. 
 Parsons, Samuel H., 208. 
 Pasko, Henry L., 230. 
 Pequot War, 25. 
 Perkins, Frederick B., 151. 
 Perkins, Joseph, 222. 
 Plainville, 16. 
 Plimpton Mfg. Co., 181. 
 
Index. 265 
 
 Pope, Albert A., 178. 
 
 Pope Mfg. Co., 178. 
 
 Porter, David, 91. 
 
 Portland, 18. 
 
 Pratt & Cady Co., 180. 
 
 Pratt, Francis A., 174, 177. 
 
 Pratt & Whitney Co.. 177. 
 
 Prentice, George D., 149. 
 
 Preston, E. V., 226, 227. 
 
 PUBLIC AFFAIRS, INFLUENCE IN, 197 ; by adopting Funda- 
 mental Orders, 197; by securing Charter, 198; by keeping 
 Charter, 199; on Federal Constitution, 199; in Hartford 
 Convention, 201 ; by furnishing lawmakers, 203 ; commer- 
 cial, 204; discoverj', 205; educational, 205; colonizing, 206. 
 
 Putnam, Israel, 166, 193. 
 
 Randolph, Edward, 108. 
 
 Retreat for the Insane, 168, 231. 
 
 REVOLUTION, HARTFORD IN THE, 207; for English and 
 Tory prisoners, 207, 209 ; Ticonderoga campaign planned 
 here, 207; English prisoners as teachers, 210; petition for 
 their removal, 211 ; committee of inspection, 213 ; Daughters 
 of Liberty, 215 ; execution of spies and deserters, 217 ; the 
 French army, 218; furnishing troops, 219; news of peace, 
 219. 
 
 Riggs, J. M., 205. 
 
 Robbins, Thomas, 166. 
 
 Robinson, Henry C, 145, 246. 
 
 Rogers Mfg. Co., William, 183. 
 
 Root, E. K., 174. 
 
 Root, John G., 228, 231. 
 
 Sackett, William H., 227, 228. 
 
 Sanford, Zachariah, 188. 
 
 School for the Deaf and Dumb, American, 161, 192. 
 
 School Fund, 116. 
 
 Seymour, Thomas H., 224, 237, 246. 
 
 Seymour, Thomas Y., 211. 
 
 Shepherd, James, 237. 
 
 Shipman, Nathaniel, 234. 
 
266 Index. 
 
 Sigourney, LA'dia Huntlej', 141, 158, 160, 196. 
 
 Silver Lane, 219. 
 
 Simons, William E., 231. 
 
 Simsbury, 16. 
 
 Skene, Gov., 208, 209. 
 
 Slosson, Annie Trumbull, 152. 
 
 Smith, Norman, 183. 
 
 SOCIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS, 82; dwellings, 83; furniture, 
 8-i ; food, 84-; occupations, 85, 87; products, 86; dress, 87 
 the church, 89, 97; funerals, 91; marriages, 93, 95; supersti- 
 tions, 93; amusements, 94; schools, 96. 
 
 Soldiers' Field, 33, 196. 
 
 South Glastonbury, 16. 
 
 Southington, 16. 
 
 Spencer, Christopher M., 180. 
 
 Stanley, Nathaniel, 110. 
 
 Stannard, Monroe, 177. 
 
 Stearns, Henry P., 231. 
 
 Stedman, Edmund C, 150. 
 
 Stedman, Griffin A., 225, 227. 
 
 Steele, James, 237. 
 
 Stone, Samuel, 30, 32, 59, 60. 
 
 Stone quarries, 17. 
 
 Storrs, Melancthon, 232. 
 
 Stowe, Harriet Beecher. 150, 196, 223. 
 
 Stuart, Isaac W., 145. 
 
 Taintor, Henry E., 225. 
 
 Talcott, John, 105, 110. 
 
 Talcott Mt., 16. 
 
 Taylor, John M., 153. 
 
 Terry, Edward, 233. 
 
 Theological Seminary, 155, 168, 175. 
 
 Ticonderoga, 189, 207. 
 
 TiflFany, E. D., 175. 
 
 Totoket Mt., 16, 18. 
 
 Toucey, Isaac, 203. 
 
 Trap rock, 14. 
 
 Treat, Robert, 108. 
 
 Trinity College, 17, 19, 155, 167, 195, 206, 225, 233. 
 
 I 
 
 
Index. 267 
 
 Trumbull, Benjamin, 64. 
 
 Trumbull, Gurdon, 152. 
 
 Trumbull, Henry Clay, 152, 227, 232. 
 
 Trumbull, James Hammond, 26, 81, 145. 
 
 Trumbull, John, 137. 
 
 Trumbull, Jonathan, 212. 
 
 Turnbull, Robert, 147. 
 
 Twichell, Joseph H., 147, 232. 
 
 Tyler, Dan, 224. 
 
 Tyler, Robert O., 223, 224. 
 
 Uncas, 23, 34. 
 Underhill, John, 45. 
 
 Viets, Roger, 210. 
 Voting, right of, 61. 
 
 Wadsworth, Daniel, 163. 
 
 Wadsworth, Jeremiah, 162, 165, 192, 218. 
 
 Wadsworth, Joseph, 111, 113, 121, 188, 189, 193, 199. 
 
 Walker, George Leon, 65, 81, 148. 
 
 Ward, James H., 224. 
 
 Warner, Andrew, 60. 
 
 Warner, Charles Dudley, 151, 196. 
 
 Washburn, George A., 228. 
 
 Washington, George, 190, 217. 
 
 Watkinson, David, 163. 
 
 Watkinson Librarj^ 166. 
 
 Webster, Noah, 141, 175, 192. 
 
 Weed Sewing Machine Co., 178. 
 
 Welles, Gideon, 203, 221. 
 
 Wells, Horace. 195, 205. 
 
 Weslej-an University, 19. 
 
 Western Reserve, 116. 
 
 Wethersfield, 26, 31, 118. 
 
 Whiting, Amos, 174, 177. 
 
 Whiting, Wm., 108. 
 
 Whittier, J. G., 149.159. 
 
 Wilcox, Carlos, 143. 
 
 Willard, Emma, 142. 
 
 Williams, John, 149. 
 
268 
 
 Inde:> 
 
 Windsor, 25, 31, 118, 185. 
 
 Winthrop, Theodore, 224. 
 
 Winthrop, Gov. John, 102, 120, 198. 
 
 Wolcott, Henry, 77. 
 
 Wood, William, 164. 
 
 Woodhouse, Levi, 224. 
 
 Woods, E. S., 164. 
 
 Woodward, P. H., 206. 
 
 Woodruff & Beach Iron Works, 172. 
 
 Work, Henry C, 233, 234. 
 
 Woven Wire Mattress Co., 182. 
 
 Wyllys, George, 115. 
 
 Wyllys, Hezekiah, 219. 
 
 Wj^llis, Samuel, 105, 208. 
 
 Yale University, 19. 
 Y. M. C. A., 169. 
 
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