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water Street in Summer 
 Wadawanuck Park on the right 
 
STONINGTON 
 BY THE SEA 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY ROBINSON PALMER 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS ^ 
 
 STONINGTON, CONNECTICUT 
 
 PALMER PRESS 
 
 1913 
 
COPYRIGHT BV HENRY ROBINSON PALMER. 1913 
 PUBLISHED JANUARY, 1913 
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 THE COUNTRY BY THE SEA 
 
 A BOOK OF VERSE 
 
 ONE DOLLAR POSTPAID 
 
 PALMER PRESS, STONINGTON, CONN. 
 
 (£CI.A330fl79 1 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This little volume has been compiled for the purpose 
 of providing a convenient and inexpensive history of 
 Stonington — particularly that part of the town that is 
 within or adjacent to the boundaries of Stonington 
 Borough. 
 
 No attempt has been made to rival the larger works 
 that deal with the history of the town. Anyone who 
 wishes to know more of the subject than could be com- 
 pressed within the restricted pages of this book will 
 find it extensively treated in the late Judge Richard 
 A. Wheeler's excellent history and genealogy, and in 
 the attractive volume, ' 'Homes of Our Ancestors, ' ' by 
 his daughter, Miss Grace D. Wheeler. 
 
 I make grateful acknowledgments to these two books, 
 as well as to Judge Wheeler's earlier article on Ston- 
 ington in the History of New London County, the late 
 J. Hammond Trumbull's brochure on the Battle of 
 Stonington (a rare book, a copy of which is in the pos- 
 session of the Stonington Free Library), and various 
 other sources too many to mention. 
 
 I wish also to record my obligations to the late Hon- 
 orable Ephraim Williams of Stonington and William 
 C. Stanton of Westerly, who furnished me with many 
 interesting facts concerning the early history of the 
 
4 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 community, and to the writers under whose names the 
 four chapters in this volume on "Whaling and Seal- 
 ing," "In the 'Fifties,'" "Society 'Before the 
 War,' " and "Whistler in Stonington" are printed. 
 
 Much of the earlier part of the book is based upon 
 an article I contributed to the New England Magazine 
 in 1899, just two hundred and fifty years after the first 
 settlement of the town at the head waters of Wequete- 
 quock Cove. 
 
 If any special merit may be claimed for the 
 work it is that of conciseness and the bringing together, 
 in handy form, of many facts about Stonington by 
 the Sea that cannot be found elsewhere within a 
 single volume. 
 
 H. R. P. 
 
 January, 1913 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. The Beginnings of the Town . . 9 
 
 II. The Settlement of Long Point . .18 
 
 III. A Meeting House Lottery . . .24 
 
 IV. The First British Attack . . .29 
 V. The Second British Attack . . .34 
 
 VI. Notes on the Second Attack . . 45 
 
 VII. Stonington in 1819 . . . . 50 
 
 VIII. Whaling and Sealing .... 53 
 
 James H. Weeks 
 
 IX. In the "Fifties" 64 
 
 George D. Stanton 
 
 X. Society "Before the War" . . 69 
 Emma W. Palmer 
 
 XL Whistler in Stonington . . .75 
 
 Rieta B. Palmer 
 
 XII. Three Disastrous Fires . . .80 
 
 XIII. Stonington Newspapers . . .85 
 
 XIV. The Discovery of Antarctica . . 88 
 
 XV. Fanning's Voyages . . . .92 
 XVI. Tales and Traditions . . . .96 
 
 XVII. Stonington To-Day . . . .102 
 
The Town Clock 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Water Street in Summer . . facing page 1 
 
 Town Clock ...... page 6 
 
 Custom House ...... 8 
 
 Pequot Country, (map) . . . facing page 9 
 
 Point from Breakwater . .... 9 
 
 SOUTHERTOWN, (map) ..... PAGE 15 
 
 Main Street in Summer . . . facing page 24 
 
 Stonington Lighthouse . . . . .32 
 
 Stonington Free Library . . . .32 
 
 Cannons of 1814 . . . . . .40 
 
 British Bombshells . . . . .40 
 
 Little Narragansett Bay . . . .48 
 
 Harbor . . . . . . .48 
 
 Stonington Borough in 1837 . . . .56 
 
 Pomeroy House . . . . . .64 
 
 Doorway of John F. Trumbull House . . 64 
 
 Two Old Houses on Main Street . . .72 
 
 Ephraim Williams Homestead . . .72 
 
 Congregational Parsonage . . . .80 
 
 Home of Miss C. A. Smith . . . .80 
 
 "The Hill" 88 
 
 Lower Main Street . . . . .88 
 
 Broad Street in October . . . .96 
 
 Home of C. N. Wayland . . . . 1 04 
 
 Wadawanuck House . . . . .104 
 
 Railroad Docks and Yard . . . .108 
 

 The Custom House 
 
The Pequot Country 
 (From an old Dutch map 
 
 Stomnciton Point from the Breakwater 
 
STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE TOWN 
 
 Before the white man established himself in New 
 England, the warlike tribe of Pequots dominated the 
 region between the Thames and Pawcatuck rivers. 
 They had come from the headwaters of the Hudson, 
 sweeping across Connecticut despite the opposition of 
 the local Indians, and cutting in two the mild Niantics, 
 who occupied the shores of Fisher's Island sound. 
 One division of the Niantics was pressed to the east, 
 the other to the west, and comfortably between them 
 down sat the Pequots to enjoy the well-stocked hunt- 
 ing and fishing grounds the dispossessed tribe had 
 loved. 
 
 The Pequots could muster nearly four thousand war- 
 riors if need arose. They added Fisher's Island to 
 their undisputed domain, and went on hostile enter- 
 prises as far as Block Island and Montauk. In 1 632 
 — five years before their own tragic overthrow — they 
 met the Narragansetts of Rhode Island in battle and 
 drove them to the eastward, extending their land- 
 ed claims ten miles beyond the Pawcatuck. It was 
 partly in revenge for this that the Narragansetts in 
 
10 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 1637 rallied to the call of the colonies and assisted 
 Captain John Mason in the overthrow of the Pequots 
 at their lofty fort on the west bank of the Mystic riv- 
 er. The slaughter was complete — scarcely any of the 
 savage Pequots survived the indiscriminate musket fire 
 and ruthless burning of their palisaded tents and huts. 
 Against the ball and powder of the whites the redskins 
 could make no effective stand, though thirty years lat- 
 er, when the Narragansetts were cornered in the Great 
 Swamp Fight at Kingston, they were able, because of 
 the muskets they had managed to acquire, to inflict a 
 loss of thirty or forty slain upon the colonial troops. 
 
 The Pequots, in pushing their boundaries ten miles 
 east of the Pawcatuck in 1 632, laid the foundations 
 for a border dispute that disturbed the relations of the 
 settlers of Connecticut and Rhode Island for eighty 
 years. The traces of this dispute and the prejudices 
 to which it gave rise are perhaps observable to the 
 present day. 
 
 The Dutch explored the southern coast of New Eng- 
 land before the English came. Adrian Block set sail 
 from New Amsterdam in the year 1614 in the Rest- 
 less, a vessel forty-four feet in length which had been 
 built on the shores of the Hudson, and voyaged leis- 
 urely along the Connecticut coast, taking time to ex- 
 amine the rivers and harbors, and giving them names 
 that have long since disappeared and been forgotten. 
 The English came a few years later and gave a new 
 set of names to the region, and these names, like the 
 English language and theory of government, have sur- 
 
BEGINNINGS OF THE TOWN 11 
 
 vived. Captain Block, however, left Dutch names on 
 two islands that still hear them — his own he gave to 
 Manisses or Block Island, which however has the Eng- 
 lish name of New Shoreham as its corporate designa- 
 tion, and upon the beautiful nearer island, now unfor- 
 tunately part of the state of New York, which stretch- 
 es its graceful hills and beaches within three miles of 
 Stonington he bestowed the name of Visscher, or Fish- 
 er, one of his crew. 
 
 Captain Block sailed past Stonington, and possibly 
 anchored in Stonington harbor. He cruised through 
 Little Narragansett bay and up the Pawcatuck river, 
 to which he gave the name of Oester riviertjen — East 
 river. "Within the Great Bay "(Long Island sound), 
 a Dutch historian of the time wrote, "there lies a 
 point in the shape of a sickle, behind which there is a 
 small stream or inlet, which was called by our people 
 East river, since it extends toward the east." 
 
 Fate, however, had reserved this region for the 
 English. Eight years after the destruction of the Pe- 
 quot power, the younger John Winthrop came from 
 Boston and began the settlement of Faire Harbour or 
 New London, on the west bank of the Thames; and 
 among those whom he invited to join him in the en- 
 terprise was William Chesebrough of Rehoboth in the 
 colony of Plymouth. Chesebrough visited the site, 
 did not care for it, and set out across country for 
 home. At Wequetequock, in the present town of 
 Stonington, he found a pleasant valley, with a pictur- 
 es [ue salt-water cove, and here he determined to set- 
 
12 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 tie. In the spring of 1649 he brought his family 
 from Rehoboth, and thus the white settlement of the 
 town was begun. Chesebrough had come to America 
 with the elder Winthrop in 1630, from Boston in Eng- 
 land, where he had been born in 1594. In the Amer- 
 ican Boston he was a responsible citizen. By trade a 
 gunsmith, he had not been long at Wequetequock be- 
 fore he was summoned by the General Court of Con- 
 necticut on suspicion of breaking or intending to break 
 the law that forbade the sale of firearms and ammuni- 
 tion to the Indians. At first Chesebrough declined to 
 heed the summons, as he believed he was within the 
 jurisdiction of Massachusetts, but in 1651, on the ad- 
 vice of Winthrop and others at New London, he pre- 
 sented himself at Hartford and declared his innocence 
 of the charges made against him. He insisted that he 
 was not engaged in any unlawful traffic with the nat- 
 ives, and that his theology was orthodox — he had been 
 a member of the First Congregational Church of Bos- 
 ton. He agreed to give a bond not to furnish the In- 
 dians with munitions of war, and there appears to have 
 been no further controversy between him and the au- 
 thorities. 
 
 Thomas Stanton established himself within the pres- 
 ent bounds of the town of Stonington in 1650, setting 
 up a trading post at what is now Pawcatuck. He 
 was a native of England or Wales, and emigrated to 
 Virginia in 1636 — the year of the founding of Harvard 
 College and Providence Plantations ; he was nineteen 
 or twentv at the time. He made a study of the Indi- 
 
BEGINNINGS OF THE TOWN 13 
 
 an tongues, and won such a reputation that he was 
 later appointed interpreter general of the New England 
 Colonies. It was not until 1658 that he settled his 
 family at Pawcatuck, and meanwhile, in 1652, Thom- 
 as Miner came to Wequetequock and built a house on 
 the east shore of the cove, just across from the Chese- 
 brough house, which was on the west bank. Miner 
 had come to America in 1630, and lived by turns in 
 Charlestown, Hingham and New London. Only a few 
 months after his settlement at Wequetequock, he sold 
 his house to Walter Palmer, a former neighbor of 
 Chesebrough, and moved to Quiambaug, two miles 
 west of the present borough of Stonington. There he 
 built himself a house on land that remains in the pos- 
 session of the Miners to this day. 
 
 Walter Palmer came to America from Nottingham- 
 shire, England, in 1629, only nine years after the land- 
 ing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and in advance of 
 the other founders of Stonington. Palmer came to 
 Stonington from Rehoboth in 1653, and acquired a 
 tract of three hundred acres on the east side of We- 
 quetequock cove. It was in his house, purchased of 
 Thomas Miner, that the first Christian service in all 
 the territory between the Thames river and Narragan- 
 sett bay was held. 
 
 Two other of the earliest comers to Stonington were 
 Captain George Denison, famous as an Indian fighter, 
 who settled near what is now Mystic in 1654, and 
 Captain John Gallup and Robert Park, who brought 
 their families to that part of the town in the same year. 
 
14 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 Massachusetts and Connecticut laid rival claim to 
 the lands of the Pequots — each had had a share in the 
 overthrow of the tribe. The settlers of Stonington, 
 (Mystic and Pawcatuck the region was locally called), 
 applied to the General Court at Hartford to be set off 
 as a separate town, but the opposition of New London, 
 which claimed the territory as far east as the Pawca- 
 tuck, led to the refusal of the application. In 1657 
 they made application to Massachusetts, which colony, 
 the petitioners said, had, as they thought, a just claim 
 to the area in dispute — but Massachusetts likewise re- 
 fused the request of the little settlement on the edge 
 of the wilderness. Thereupon a republic in miniature 
 was set up under the name of "The Asotiation of Po- 
 quatuck Peple, ' ' whose articles of agreement said : 
 
 "Whereas thear is a difference betwene the "2 Cullonyes of the 
 Matachusetts and Conectieoate about the government of this 
 plae, whearby we are deprived of Expectation of protection from 
 either, . . . we hose names are hereunto subscribed do hearby 
 promis, testify & declare to maintain and deffend with our per- 
 sons and estait the peac of the plac and to aid and assist one an- 
 other acoarding to law & rules of righteousness acoarding to the 
 true intent and meaning of our asociation till such other provi- 
 tion be maide ffor us as may atain our end. . . . And we do not 
 this out of anny disrespec unto ether of the afoarsaid govern- 
 ments which we are bound ever to honnor, but in the vacancy of 
 any other aforesaid." 
 
 From this declaration of independence in 1658 it 
 will be seen how the Anglo-Saxon in the New World 
 was being trained for that self-confidence and efficiency 
 that flowered in the great Declaration of 1776. 
 
 In this same, year, however — 1658 — the commiss- 
 
t _ JjouTMSRTqwrj »_ 0» 
 
 ^'CStonington 
 
 LEDYARD V 
 
 SOUTHERTOWN 
 
 The faintly dotted line shows the extent of the old Massachusetts 
 township of L658. The first settlement in the town was at Wequetequock in 
 1649. The jurisdiction of Connecticut was acknowledged in 1062 and the 
 name of the town was changed to Stonington in 1666 
 
16 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 ioners appointed to settle the dispute between Massa- 
 chusetts and Connecticut gave in their decision, find- 
 ing the claims of the two colonies to the Pequot lands, 
 based on their triumph in the fight at Mystic, practi- 
 cally equal. Accordingly they divided the territory 
 between the two, with the Mystic river as the bound- 
 ary. Eastward to Weekapaug, well within the 
 present town of Westerly, Rhode Island, Massa- 
 chusetts was to control ; westward, Connecticut. The 
 local name of "Mystic and Pawcatuck" was changed 
 to Southertown, the limits of which therefore included 
 the later town of Stonington and much of Westerly. 
 A committee of the town appointed to fix the lines 
 reported in March, 1659: 
 
 "We did as folio weth ffirst we began at Misticke 
 Rivers mouth, and ffrom thence we run six miles to 
 the north, northeast to the pond lying by Lanthorne 
 Hill, where we marked a chestnut tree with six noches 
 right against the middle of the pond, which pond we 
 ffound to be seuen chains and one pole wide, and from 
 thence we run two miles due north to an ash tree 
 which we marked ffouer ways and set eight noches for 
 the eight miles.'" 
 
 From Lantern Hill the commissioners carried the 
 line eastward into what is now the town of Hopkinton 
 until they reached a point north of the present summer 
 resort known as Weekapaug, thus overlapping Rhode 
 Island's territorial claims. The result of this confu- 
 sion of colonial boundaries was a prolonged controversy 
 between the Rhode Islanders and their neighbors west 
 
BEGINNINGS OF THE TOWN 17 
 
 of the Pawcatuck. Within the memory of men whose 
 lives were lived entirely within the nineteenth century, 
 indeed, the rivalry of the youth of Westerly and 
 Stonington was keen and vigorous. Westerly gave 
 the opprobrious name of "fishtails" to the boys of 
 Stonington, and Stonington impolitely responded with 
 "buckies." The surest way to start trouble in the 
 public highway was to raise the cry that a lad from 
 the other town had put in his appearance on hostile 
 ground. 
 
 In 1662 the town was surrendered to Massachusetts 
 by virtue of the charter granted to Connecticut. 
 Three years later it was officially called Mystic, and in 
 1666 the name of Stonington was given to it, probably 
 because of the character of the soil. So far as is known 
 the town was never represented in the General Court 
 of Massachusetts, and it was not until 1664 that 
 William Chesebrough was elected as its first represen- 
 tative at Hartford. 
 
 Other early settlers were John Shaw, Josiah Witter, 
 John Searles, Edmund Fanning and James York. In 
 166T a committee was appointed by the town to lay 
 out "home lots" of twelve acres each, near the present 
 "Road" Church. The next year there were forty-three 
 heads of families in town. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF LONG POINT 
 
 Before the settlement of what is now Stonington 
 Borough was undertaken, an elaborate scheme was 
 broached for a townsite on the west side of the harbor, 
 at Wamphasset. A plan was exhibited to the public 
 showing thirty-two house lots, with streets apparently 
 on a rectangular pattern ; and for some years the 
 project seems to have promised success. Houses were 
 erected and at least one warehouse and one wharf were 
 built. It is said that the settlement was given up 
 because the depth of water was not sufficient on the 
 west side of the harbor. At any rate, the growth of 
 the community on the east side of the harbor, at 
 Long Point, was so rapid from 1753 onward that the 
 earlier settlement was soon overshadowed. 
 
 The town records show a number of instances of 
 sales of lots and buildings at Wamphasset, one of 
 which may be cited verbatim as an illustration of the 
 legal phraseology of the day : 
 
 ' 'To all People to whom these Presents shall come, I 
 John Whiting of Stonington in the County of 
 New London and Colony of Connecticott in New Eng- 
 land &c Yeoman, send Greeting, Know } T e that I 
 the John Whiting for and in consideration of the sum 
 
SETTLEMENT OF LONG POINT 19 
 
 of Eight Hundred and Seventy pounds current money 
 of New England to me in hand before the Ensealing 
 hereof, well and truly paid by Thomas Noyes of 
 Westerly in Kings County and Colony of Rhode 
 Island &c Yeoman, the Receipt wherefor I do hereby 
 acknowledge, and my Self therewith fully Satisfied, 
 contented and paid, and thereof, and of every part 
 and Parcel thereof, Do Exonerate acquit, and Dis- 
 charge the Said Thomas Noyes his heirs, Executors, & 
 Administrators forever by these Presents : Haue given 
 granted bargained, Sold, aliened, enfeoffed conveyed 
 and confirmed, and by these Presents Do freely, fully, 
 and absolutely give grant bargain Sell, alien enfeoffe, 
 convey and confirm unto him the the Sd. Thomas 
 Noyes his heirs and assigns forever one certain parsel ; 
 Tract or Lott of Land ; Lying and being within the 
 Township of Stonington aforesaid, containing one half 
 acre be same more or Less, being bounded as followeth : 
 VIZ : Beginning at a Rock Standing about Seven 
 feet North or Northwest from the Northwest corner 
 of the Dwelling house the said Whiting now dwellethin, 
 and from Said Rock Running Southeast and by East 
 to the Harbour or Salt water ; which is the North side 
 of Said Lott ; and from said Rock Running South- 
 west and by South four Rods, and then Southwest and 
 by East to the Salt water or harbour Parilell with the 
 first mentioned line ; & So bounded on the Southeast 
 or East with the harbour: together with all the 
 Housing & buildings and wharf, and warehouse Stand- 
 ing thereon ; To haue and to Hold, the said Granted 
 
20 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 and bargained Premises, with all the appurtenances 
 Privileges and Commodities to the Same belonging or 
 in my wife appertaining to him the Said Thomas 
 Nov es his heirs and assigns forever. ' ' 
 
 On September 26, 1751, John and Abigail Hallam 
 conveyed to Isaac Worden, mariner, of Stonington, 
 for the sum of one hundred and ten pounds current 
 money, lot number six on the Wamphasset plan, 
 "which plan is a projection of more than Thirty lots 
 of land . . . together with main & cross Streets, 
 and Intended by Sd. Hallam as a Settlement for a 
 Town. ' ' 
 
 The beginning of the settlement of Long Point 
 (Stonington Borough) was made shortly after 1750. 
 Miss Emma W. Palmer in her interesting chapter on the 
 old houses of the borough, in Miss Grace 13. Wheeler's 
 volume on the "Homes of Our Ancestors' ' (1903), 
 says that Edward and John Denison, son and grand- 
 son of the shipbuilder George Denison of Westerly, 
 built the first house in 1752; but it was not till 1753 
 that Elihu Chesebrough, of the family to which the 
 point had originally belonged, a hundred years before, 
 sold to Edward Denison two tracts at the point. As 
 early as October 26, 1750, however, Humphrey Avery, 
 county surveyor, reports that he has completed 
 with the assistance of chainmen the task intrusted to 
 him by Captain Nathan Chesebrough, Captain 
 Thomas Wheeler and several other inhabitants of the 
 town of Stonington, "to Survey boundout and 
 Describe a highway across their farmes from said 
 
SETTLEMENT OF LONG POINT 21 
 
 Stonington Harbour, to the North meeting House in 
 Sd. Town." He says: 
 
 "I began at a meerstone marked with the Letter 
 — : R : Standing South, Eight Rods and Sixteen Links 
 from said Capt. Chesebrough's warehouse on the 
 East Side of Sd. Harboure, & at highwater mark 
 on Sd. Capt. Chesebrough's Land." 
 
 From this point he proceeded to the "Post Road 
 186: Rods to a meerstone at the North Side of Sd. 
 Post Road, Standing west 22 North ten Rod: 20: 
 Links from the N. W. corner of the Meeting House 
 in the East Society in Sd. Town, at Mr. Elihu 
 Chesebrow's Land;" and finally to the road in "the 
 North Parrish in Sd. Town, which the Meeting House 
 Stands on. " The road thus described was two rods and 
 a half wide, "which afforesd. Road, Now Laved & 
 Discribed is in the Place where it is, and hath 
 been used for many years as a way from Sd. Harbour 
 to Said North Meeting House." 
 
 On November 24, 1750, the land for this "Publick 
 Highway" was granted to John Williams, Joseph 
 Denison and John Holmes and the rest of the in- 
 habitants of Connecticut by Nathan Chesebrough, 
 Elihu Chesebrough, Clement Minor, Samuel Minor, 
 2d, Samuel Frink, Joseph Hewit, Samuel Plumb, John 
 Macdowell, Samuel Miner and Joseph Babcock, who 
 reserved to themselves, however "the Previledge of 
 feeding the land." 
 
 Under date of August 7, 1753, Elihu Chesebrough, 
 with the assent of Esther his wife, who waived her 
 
22 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 dower rights in the property, conveyed to Edward 
 Denison of Stonington, in consideration of one thou- 
 sand pounds "in bills of credit old tenor" a two- 
 acre tract on Long Point. This land as described 
 in the town records began ' 'at the South East corner 
 of a highway Laid out by a Jury on Said point'". 
 On the same day also Mr. Chesebrough conveyed to 
 him a tract of one acre and ten rods, also on Long 
 Point, for the sum of six hundred and thirty-four 
 pounds ; and to Samuel Stanton of Stonington one 
 tract of half an acre adjoining the land sold to 
 Denison and a second tract of half an acre for two 
 hundred and forty -four pounds. To Edward Hancox, 
 Jr., of Stonington, on the same day, he conveyed two 
 half-acre lots, one for two hundred and the other for 
 one hundred and seventy pounds. The first is de- 
 scribed as being adjacent to "a Rode Lately Laved 
 out from Sd. Stonington harbour on the East Side 
 of Sd. Harbour." 
 
 Thus in a single day six parcels of land were con- 
 veyed to Messrs Denison, Stanton and Hancox at 
 Long Point ; each of these family names has since been 
 intimately connected with the history of the place. 
 
 Edward Denison' s house was a large structure of two 
 and a half stories, with a great central chimney. It 
 stood on what was first called Town square, but is 
 now known as Cannon square, because it is the rest- 
 ing place of the two eighteen pound guns used in the 
 defence of the town against the British in 1814. 
 
 The Denison house was built for the farmers 
 
SETTLEMENT OF LONG POINT 23 
 
 "who came to sell their stock and produce to those en- 
 gaged in the West India trade, which was quite 
 profitable at that time, before the Revolution." 
 According to Miss Palmer Mr. Denison built the first 
 wharf at the foot of the street in 1752 (or 1753?) 
 "and continued the West India trade in which he had 
 been engaged in Westerly. The house was after- 
 wards occupied by Mr. Giles Hallam, and was burnt 
 in the great fire of 1837, the family hardly escaping 
 with their lives." 
 
 Under date of September 24, 1754, Samuel Griffing 
 of Stonington conveyed to his brother Thomas Griffing 
 for the sum of nine hundred pounds ' 'in bills of credit 
 old Tenor" about one-sixteenth of an acre on the east 
 side of Stonington Harbor, on the "Main Street." 
 
 Samuel and Thomas Griffing at this time jointly 
 owned a dwelling house on this street, the premises of 
 which house ran from the street westerly to the harbor. 
 
 It may be added that Main Street was laid out from 
 the harbor to the town of Preston in 1752, and that 
 in the same year the first town landing was built north 
 of the present main tracks of the New Haven railroad. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 A MEETING HOUSE LOTTERY 
 
 Meeting houses built by lottery were no rarity in 
 Colonial New England. In the early days of Long 
 Point the " proffessors of the established religion ' , in 
 the village felt the need of a church edifice but, being 
 unable to raise the necessary money by voluntary 
 contributions, applied to the General Assembly for per- 
 mission to conduct a lottery for the purpose. 
 
 There were already two meeting houses within four 
 miles of Long Point, one erected by the West, the 
 other by the East, Society. These two Societies 
 united in 1765 and were ministered to for several years 
 by Rev. Nathaniel Eells, who preached six months in 
 one meeting house and six months in the other. 
 Afterwards Mr. Eells was secured for the afternoon 
 service at the Point, eighty-three residents of which in 
 1774 set forth in a persuasive petition to Hartford 
 their wants and wishes. They said that they were 
 nearly four miles distant from any meeting house, 
 that the inhabitants of the village were generally poor, 
 making their living chiefly in the whale and cod fish- 
 eries, that the community had increased to upwards 
 of eighty families, comprising nearly five hundred per- 
 sons, "among which are twenty widows, seventeen of 
 
Main Strket in Simmer 
 
A MEETING HOUSE LOTTERY 25 
 
 which have children as families," and that there was 
 not one horse to ten families in the place — a lamentable 
 situation indeed. For lack of a proper meet- 
 ing place they were wont to assemble in a small 
 schoolhouse or in private houses, the attendant in- 
 conveniences of which practice were so great that 
 Sunday was misspent by many persons who would 
 otherwise not profane it ; in short, the cause of religion 
 greatly suffered, and an increase of vice and irreligion 
 was feared. The petition continued : 
 
 "That the town of which your memorialists are a 
 part have lately paid and are liable to pay upwards of 
 one thousand pounds for the deficiency of several 
 collectors that have lately failed ; that your memorial- 
 ists from great necessity, by their being remote from 
 any constant grist mill, have lately contributed about 
 seventy pounds as an encouragement to an undertaker to 
 build a windmill at said point, which with about the 
 same sum lately subscribed by said inhabitants for a 
 schoolhouse, with the great labor and expense they 
 have been at to make roads and causeways to said 
 point, all which with the poor success that attended 
 the last year's fishery, and the lowness of markets and 
 the various and different sentiments in the religious 
 denominations of Christians among them, viz. : First 
 day Baptists, Seven day Baptists and the Quakers or 
 those called Friends, are such real grief and dis- 
 couragements to your memorialists, who are of the 
 established Religion of this Colony, that they can no 
 longer think of obtaining a meeting house by subscrip- 
 tion or any other way among themselves." 
 
26 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 To many readers of the present generation it would 
 be interesting to mark the names attached to this peti- 
 tion. Some of the families represented still survive in 
 Stonington ; others have not a single descendant within 
 the borders of the borough. There are no longer any 
 members of the Morgan, Rathbun, Tripp, Champlin, 
 Lamb, Hillard, Tenny, Grafton, Buddington, Beebe, 
 Littlefield, Niles, Cobb, Elliot, Borden, Crary, 
 Seabury, Satterlee, Ashcroft, Irish, Chester, Gallaway, 
 Sparhawk, Fellows, Coleman or Fanning families on 
 "Long Point," and probably several other names have 
 disappeared. What a change has been wrought in a 
 century and a third in this small corner of the world, 
 where it is customary to think of life going on placid- 
 ly and without much ebb and flow of population. Of 
 Stonington Borough it is recorded that Rufus Choate 
 once said it was the only place he had ever seen that 
 was entirely finished. Possibly the tale is apochry- 
 phal ; possibly it is a standard story, applied impartially 
 to scores of New England towns. But how inaccurate 
 its characterization of even the most sluggish commu- 
 nity must be is indicated in the radical changes that 
 have occurred since 1774 in Stonington. Doubtless 
 Mr. Choate, if he made the remark attributed to him, 
 referred to the lack of material growth in the community ; 
 yet even so, his facile verdict fell short. When these 
 memorialists for a lottery sent their petition to the 
 General Assembly, Stonington was a scanty village of 
 three or four score houses, manv or most of them a 
 
A MEETING HOUSE LOTTERY 27 
 
 story and a half in height under their quaint gambrel 
 roofs ; with one broad highway — Main street — and a 
 primitive series of lanes where the cross streets now 
 are. No doubt the grass flourished jealously 
 beside the narrow paths that served for sidewalks, and 
 it is a well authenticated tradition that only a hundred 
 years ago Water street was so crude a thorough- 
 fare that an agile lad might leap from rock to rock 
 throughout its entire length without once putting his 
 feet on the ground. But to return to the meeting 
 house. The General Assembly granted the petition 
 of the Long Pointers, whose monetary and other dis- 
 tresses, however real, lost nothing in the formal recital ; 
 but it was not until 1777 that the lottery was drawn 
 and the desired funds were secured. Fate willed, 
 however, that there should be no meeting house at the 
 Point for the time being. The Revolutionary War 
 opened, much of the money was used for the defence 
 of the village, and the rest of it, being invested in 
 Continental bills, was lost by reason of their utter 
 depreciation. Again in 1785, two years after the 
 Peace with Great Britain, another petition for a 
 lottery- was granted by the Assembly, (the amount 
 being limited as before to four hundred pounds), and 
 the money was raised ; but as the meeting house of the 
 East Society at Putnam's Corners, near the present 
 residence of Fernando Wheeler and the "Whitefield 
 Elm," was in the market, this was taken down and 
 re-erected at the Point in 1785-86. The lot on which 
 it stood is occupied by the house of Mrs. Lucius N. 
 
28 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 Palmer, on the east side of Wadawanuck square. It 
 was set back from the street and survived until I860, 
 though in its later years it was unused and in a 
 dilapidated condition. Immediately in front of it, 
 between it and the street, was the house of Samuel 
 Trumbull, the first publisher of Stonington, who 
 printed the "Journal of the Times" and many books. 
 The Trumbull house was torn down about the same 
 time as the meeting house. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE FIRST BRITISH ATTACK 
 
 What other town in Connecticut was ever the scene 
 of an American victory over the British ! New London 
 and Groton were ravaged by the redcoats under Arnold, 
 who, returning to his native county after the treacherous 
 episode of West Point, wreaked his vengeance for his 
 self-inflicted misfortunes on the hapless communities 
 at the mouth of the Thames ; General Tryon, erstwhile 
 colonial governor of New York, led a British expedi- 
 tion into the state in 1779 and burned Danbury. 
 But Stonington twice repulsed the forces of His 
 Britannic Majesty — once in 1775 and again in 1814. 
 Is it not fitting that the General Assembly should in 
 some way provide for the enduring recognition of this 
 unique and dual triumph? 
 
 The first British attack upon Stonington occurred 
 on the thirtieth of August, in the year of Lexington 
 and Concord, more than ten months previous to the 
 signing of the Declaration of Independence. The 
 British troops were at the time besieged in Boston, 
 with the Yankee net so tight about them that provi- 
 sions had to be sought by sea rather than by land. 
 Admiral Graves despatched Captain Sir James Wallace, 
 accordingly, to the coasts of southern New England to 
 
30 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 forage for fat cattle. Captain Wallace was then 
 forty-four years of age, a naval veteran of nearly 
 thirty years service, who had been appointed in Nov- 
 ember, 1771, to the command of the Rose, a twenty- 
 gun frigate. It would be interesting to have an 
 exact description of this vessel ; very likely she was a 
 three-masted ship with a double bank of guns — one 
 bank on the main or gun deck and a lighter battery on 
 the upper or spar deck. The Dictionary of National 
 (British) Biography sa}'s of Captain Wallace that 
 "during 1775 and the first part of 1776 he was 
 actively engaged in those desultory operations against 
 the coast towns which were calculated to produce the 
 greatest possible irritation with the least possible 
 advantage. ' ' So far as Stonington was concerned, how- 
 ever, this maximum of irritation and minimum of 
 advantage were both experienced by Wallace himself. 
 He had burned a score of houses and barns on the 
 island of Conanicut in Narragansett bay and made off 
 with a cargo of live stock. At Bristol, on the east 
 side of Narragansett, he ordered the magistrates 
 to come on board and hear his demands, and when 
 they declined this peremptory invitation he opened fire 
 upon the place with disastrous results. Thereupon the 
 town fathers yielded and promised him cattle and 
 provisions. Naturally the isolated inhabitants of 
 Block Island, ten miles south of the main shore of 
 Rhode Island, waxed apprehensive as they heard of 
 these raids so near their own doors. So they shipped 
 their cattle to Stonington, twentv miles distant, where 
 
FIRST BRITISH ATTACK 31 
 
 they hoped the beasts could be sustained in safety 
 until the dread marauder had passed. The sequel 
 showed that their hope was not in vain, though what 
 actually happened could hardly have been foreseen by 
 them. 
 
 Sir James was promptly made aware of this prudent 
 action of the Block Islanders, and determined to have 
 the cattle nevertheless. Perhaps the very fact of their 
 withdrawal to the mainland spurred him on. They 
 had been put prosperously to pasture on the plains of 
 Quonaduc, just above the village of Stonington, when 
 he arrived off the port and sent a boat ashore to 
 demand their delivery under penalty of terrible re- 
 prisals. The Long Point patriots, however, were in 
 no mood to acquiesce in his requirements. They 
 abruptly declined to surrender the cattle and assem- 
 bled a defensive force with all possible speed. Captain 
 Oliver Smith gathered his expert Long Point musket- 
 eers and Captain William Stanton came down from 
 the Road District double haste with his company of 
 militia. The troops rendezvoused in the Robinson 
 pasture, on the present property of Mrs. Courtlandt 
 G. Babcock, just north of Wadawanuck square, and 
 marched thence to Brown's wharf to repel a landing 
 party sent in small boats from the Rose, which remained 
 in the offing. To beat back the invaders they had no 
 cannon, but their Queen Anne muskets were trusty 
 weapons, reputed of high effect at long range. They 
 proved so distasteful to the unwelcome visitors from 
 the Rose that the discomfited tenders beat a retreat 
 
32 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 to the frigate with heavy losses. Captain Wallace 
 concluded not to venture ashore again with small 
 boats but began a bombardment of the place, and for 
 several hours kept it up, so that nearly every house 
 suffered more or less. But no white flag was raised, 
 no proposition of surrender was made. Some of the 
 inhabitants of the town took to their cellars for safety, 
 others retired temporarily northward ; still others 
 found a shelter behind the abundant rocks of the 
 Point, one of which, a great boulder at the southwest 
 corner of Wadawanuck square, was struck by one of 
 the frigate's shots. The only man wounded among 
 the gallant forces of defence was Jonathan Weaver, Jr. , 
 a musician in Captain Smith's company, who was 
 compensated by the next General Assembly for his 
 injuries to the extent of twelve pounds, four shillings 
 and fourpence. Sir James, whose expedition thus 
 proved a failure, except for the shingles and chimneys 
 he displaced, sailed off no doubt in a huff, and the 
 Block Island kine continued to feed, prosperous and 
 unwitting, at Quonaduc. As for Captain Smith of 
 the Long Point sharpshooters, the Assembly made 
 him a major, as he deserved. 
 
 When the Long Pointers learned that Stephen 
 Peckham, a Tory, had piloted the Rose to their 
 harbor they were wroth against him. After a 
 time fate overtook him and brought him, a captive, 
 to Stonington. A large buttonwood tree then stood 
 near the corner of Water and Wall streets ; it was 
 known as the Liberty tree, because the Sons of Liberty 
 
Stonington Lighthouse, Built is42 
 
 Stonington Free Library, Wadawanuck park 
 
FIRST BRITISH ATTACK 33 
 
 were wont to meet within its shade. The Tory pilot 
 was taken to this tree and forced to mount a platform 
 that had been set up there. Patriots of the neighbor- 
 hood gathered in large numbers to witness the discomfi- 
 ture and punishment of Peckham, who had previously 
 given his assent to a written confession. Esquire 
 Nathaniel Miner read the document to the crowd. It 
 was in essence as follows: "I, Stephen Peckham, 
 do hereby acknowledge that, being instigated by the 
 devil, I did great injury to the inhabitants of this 
 place, for which I profess my hearty sorrow, and do 
 humbly ask their forgiveness." As the confession 
 was written in the first person, 'Squire Miner would 
 occasionally interrupt himself to remark, "Not I, but 
 that fellow on the platform." Peckham was let off 
 with this lenient penalty, but Stonington no doubt took 
 as much satisfaction from it as if he had been hanged, 
 drawn and quartered. The gentle art of punishing 
 Tories was never better exemplified. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE SECOND BRITISH ATTACK 
 
 Thirty-nine years after the successful repulse of 
 Captain Wallace and the frigate Rose, the inhabitants 
 of Stonington were called upon to meet once more a 
 British assault. This time the attack was more serious 
 but the result was much the same : the attacking 
 part}' was beaten off with grave losses, while the 
 defenders of the place suffered hardly at all. 
 
 At the opening of the Second War with Great 
 Britain, in 1812, Stonington Point, as the village had 
 come to be known, comprised about a hundred houses, 
 most of them clustered on the southern portion of the 
 little peninsula. Occupying as it did an exposed 
 position, the community naturally apprehended a 
 British visitation, though it thought that New London 
 and Newport, much more important places, were 
 more likely to suffer. But in August, 1814, the 
 blow descended; Captain Thomas Masterman Hardy, 
 in command of a British squadron, appeared off the 
 place, and sent the authorities this truly emergent 
 message: "Not wishing to destroy the unoffending in- 
 habitants residing in the town of Stonington, one hour 
 is given them from the receipt of this to remove out 
 of the town." Sixt} T minutes to escape! 
 
SECOND BRITISH ATTACK 35 
 
 Captain Hardy was born in 1769, entered the 
 British navy in 1781, and served with Nelson in the 
 last years of the eighteenth centuiy. On the tenth 
 of February, 1797, at Gibraltar, he jumped into a 
 jolly-boat to save a drowning man. The little craft 
 was borne by the tide toward the leading Spanish vessel. 
 "By God," cried Nelson, "I'll not lose Hardy! 
 Back the mizzen topsail!" This quick manoeuvre 
 enabled the jolly-boat • to return in safety to the 
 British frigate. For Hardy his great friend cherished 
 a lively affection to the end. In the battle of Trafalgar 
 in 1805, he was in command of the Admiral's flagship 
 Victory, and acting captain of the fleet. When 
 Nelson received his fatal wound, Hardy was walking 
 with him on the quarterdeck ; and it was to him that 
 the Admiral addressed his last request, "Kiss me, 
 Hardy, before I die." When a committee of Stoning- 
 ton citizens visited Captain Hardy's ship under a flag 
 of truce, to protest against what appeared to them an 
 unprovoked and brutal attack, the commander of 
 the squadron received them courteously, and said, 
 pointing to a lounge or settee in the cabin of the ship, 
 "It may interest you, gentlemen, to know that on that 
 couch Lord Nelson lay in his death, after I had given him 
 my parting embrace." Hardy was forty-five at the 
 time of the attack on Stonington and a naval veteran 
 of thirt} r -three } T ears service. He had been appointed 
 to the command of the Ramillies in August, 1812, 
 and that vessel was among those that made this 
 sudden assault on Stonington, though Hardy sent 
 
36 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 his peremptory message from his temporary head- 
 quarters as commander of the squadron on board the 
 Pactolus. In 1815 he was nominated as a K. C. B. ; 
 in 1837 he became a vice-admiral, and in 1839 he 
 died at the age of seventy. His portrait given by 
 Lady Hardy is in the Painted Hall at Greenwich, 
 England ; there is a monument to his memory in the 
 hospital chapel, and a memorial pillar, visible from 
 the sea, has been set up in his honor on the crest of 
 the Black Down above Portisham. 
 
 It was thus a distinguished naval commander who 
 brought his squadron of four hostile vessels to Stoning- 
 ton on the ninth of August, 1814, and sent so sharp 
 and ruthless a communication to the borough officers. 
 The squadron consisted of the Ramillies, carrying 
 seventy-four guns ; the Pactolus, with forty-four ; the 
 Despatch, a brig of twenty-two guns, and the bomb- 
 ship Terror. At five o'clock in the afternoon they 
 dropped anchor off shore, and at eight o'clock in the 
 evening the Terror began casting its whistling shells 
 in the direction of the town. Promptly in return one 
 of two Revolutionary eighteen-pounders that had been 
 sent to Stonington by the Government some time 
 previously roared its defiance. Hardy prepared to 
 follow his preliminary bombardment with sterner 
 measures, and accordingly several small boats were 
 sent in shore for the purpose of capturing the place. 
 One account says there were four barges and three 
 launches, another says there were five barges and one 
 launch. The flotilla, at any rate six or seven strong, 
 
SECOND BRITISH ATTACK 37 
 
 took position off the point and poured a rain of 
 Congreve rockets into the village, at first to the 
 grievous apprehension of the inhabitants, who soon 
 discovered, however, that no great damage was being 
 done to their houses and nobody was being killed. 
 As soon as they grasped these essential facts they 
 utilized the flare of the rockets to direct their own fire. 
 The bombardment continued till midnight, and at 
 dawn of the tenth was renewed. 
 
 By this time a formidable force of militia was 
 assembled in the town in response to the hurried call 
 of the inhabitants for assistance. Several of the 
 enemy's launches and barges had taken position near 
 the east side of the point and had renewed their rain of 
 rockets. The battery of the defenders consisted of 
 three guns only, the two eighteen-pounders to which 
 reference has been made and a four- (or six-) pounder. 
 These occupied a four-foot earthwork near the present 
 entrance to the old breakwater on Water street. 
 The earthwork was the only fortification the village 
 could boast, but above it floated the stars and stripes 
 for a reminder and inspiration. Once the flag fell, 
 levelled by a shot from the fleet, but a gallant 
 patriot nailed it to the mast again, and there it 
 floated, torn by ball and shell, till the battle ended. 
 
 The British demonstration on the east side of the 
 point called for immediate attention, so the smaller 
 cannon was dragged from the battery to the 
 threatened locality, and a party of volunteers estab- 
 lished themselves there, anticipating an attempt at 
 
38 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 landing. But meanwhile one of the eighteen-pounders 
 had been run to the extreme end of the point, whence 
 it maintained so galling a fire that the landing party 
 retreated, with one barge thoroughly shattered. 
 Captain Amos Palmer, writing to the Secretary of 
 War a little more than a year later, thus described 
 the incident: "The next morning (August tenth) at 
 seven o'clock the brig Despatch anchored within 
 pistol shot of our battery, and they sent five barges 
 to land under cover of their whole fire (being joined 
 by the "Nimrod," twenty-gun brig.) When the 
 boats approached within grape distance, we opened 
 our fire on them with round- and grape-shot. They re- 
 treated and came round the east side of the town. 
 We checked them with our six-pounder and muskets 
 till we dragged over one of our eighteen-pounders. 
 We put in it a round shot and about forty or fifty 
 pounds of grape, and placed it in the centre of their 
 boats as they were rowing up in a line and firing on 
 us. We tore one of their barges all in pieces, so that 
 two, one on each side, had to lash her up to keep her 
 from sinking." 
 
 Captain Palmer continues his recital in vigorous but 
 modest English ; the account has the special merit of 
 being that of a participant in the battle, written 
 within a few months of its occurrence. He says : 
 "They retreated out of grape distance, and we turned 
 our fire upon the brig, and expended all our cartridges 
 but five, which we reserved for the boats if they made 
 another attempt to land. We then lay four hours, 
 
SECOND BRITISH ATTACK 39 
 
 being unable to annoy the enemy in the least, except 
 from muskets on the brig, while the fire from the 
 whole fleet was directed against our buildings. After 
 the third express from New London, some fixed 
 ammunition arrived. We then turned our cannon on 
 the brig, and she soon cut her cable and drifted out. 
 The whole fleet then weighed and anchored nearly out of 
 reach of our shot, and continued this and the next day to 
 bombard the town. They set the buildings on fire in 
 more than twenty places, and we as often put them out. 
 In the three days' bombardment they sent on shore 
 sixty tons of metal, and, strange to say, wounded only 
 one man, since dead. We have picked up fifteen tons, 
 including some that was taken up out of the water 
 and the two anchors that we got. We took up and 
 buried four poor fellows that were hove overboard out 
 of the sinking barge. 
 
 "Since peace, the officers of the 'Despatch' brig 
 have been on shore here. They acknowledge they 
 had twenty-one killed and fifty badly wounded, and 
 further say, had we continued our fire any longer they 
 should have struck, for they were in a sinking condi- 
 tion ; for the wind then blew at southwest, directly 
 into the harbor. Before the ammunition arrived it 
 shifted to the north, and blew out of the harbor. 
 All the shot suitable for the cannon we have reserved. 
 We have now more eighteen-pound shot than was sent 
 us by government. We have put the two cannons 
 in the arsenal and housed all the munitions of war." 
 
 At one o'clock in the afternoon of August tenth, 
 
40 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 the Ramillies and Pactolus took up their station two 
 and a half miles from the point and the defenders of the 
 town saw that matters were getting very serious. They 
 therefore sent a deputation under a flag of truce to 
 Captain Hardy to ask the reason for his attack. So 
 far as known the only reply he gave was that the 
 people of Stonington had fitted out torpedoes for use 
 against the British fleet and that the wife of Vice 
 Consul Stewart, recently resident at New London, 
 was detained on shore and must be sent on shipboard 
 within an hour. Both charges were denied ; of 
 Mrs. Stewart the Stoningtonians knew nothing what- 
 ever. 
 
 Meanwhile the army of defence was steadily increas- 
 ing, and it was no longer practicable for the British 
 to consider forcing a landing. Having failed against 
 the little body of militia and unorganized volunteers 
 on the night of the ninth, they could not hope for 
 success against the host that was now swarming in from 
 the neighboring country. The bombardment contin- 
 ued, however, in a desultory way until the twelfth of 
 August, when the squadron retired, with the Despatch 
 so badly injured that she was in imminent danger of 
 foundering. 
 
 The more the story of this Battle of Stonington is 
 studied, the more remarkable does it become. Against 
 five British ships, equipped with a hundred and sixty 
 guns and commanded by a veteran of long experience 
 on both sides of the world, the scant defenders of the 
 town, with three cannons and little ammunition, won 
 
The Eighteen-Pound Defenders of 1814 
 
 British Bombshells at Wadawanuck Park 
 
SECOND BRITISH ATTACK 41 
 
 decisive. The village suffered little from the attack, 
 one explanation being that the spire of the White Meet- 
 ing House, east of what is now Wadawanuck square, 
 deceived the enemy into thinking that most of the town 
 lay far back from the sea. This does not altogether 
 account, however, for the comparative immunity of 
 the hundred houses of the place from injur}'. Nor 
 will it do to argue that the attack was not made in 
 earnest. Everything goes to show that the British, 
 for some reason, greatly desired to take the town. 
 Probably they thought they would meet with little 
 resistance, but the event undeceived them. Nowhere 
 in all the War of 1812 was a more gallant defence of 
 American territory made. Perhaps no more specific 
 reason for the assault need be sought than the fact 
 that the British, previous to this time, had extended 
 their blockade very generally along the coast 
 of the new republic, and were under orders to 
 "destroy and lay waste all towns and districts of the 
 United States found accessive to the attack of the 
 British armaments." In accordance with these orders, 
 town after town was bombarded and burned. 
 
 Philip Freneau, the famous balladist of the day, 
 wrote a song about the battle that is worth setting 
 down here entire : 
 
 THE BATTLE OF STONDJGTON 
 ON THE SEABOARD OF CONNECTICTT 
 
 Four gallant ships from England came 
 Freighted deep with fire and flame, 
 
42 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 And other things we need not name, 
 To have a dash at Stonington. 
 
 Now safely moor'd, their work begun : 
 They thought to make the Yankees run, 
 And have a mighty deal of fun 
 In stealing sheep at Stonington. 
 
 A deacon then popp'd up his head, 
 And Parson Jones's sermon read, 
 In which the reverend doctor said 
 
 That they must fight for Stonington. 
 
 A townsman bade them next attend 
 To sundry resolutions penn'd, 
 By which they promised to defend 
 With sword and gun old Stonington. 
 
 The ships advancing different ways, 
 The Britons soon began to blaze, 
 And put th' old women in amaze, 
 Who feared the loss of Stonington. 
 
 The Yankees to their fort repair'd, 
 And made as though they little cared 
 For all that came — though very .hard 
 The cannon play'd on Stonington. 
 
 The Ramillies began the attack, 
 Despatch came forward — bold and black- 
 And none can tell what kept them back 
 From setting fire to Stonington. 
 
SECOND BRITISH ATTACK 43 
 
 The bombardiers with bomb and ball 
 Soon made a farmer's barrack fall, 
 And did a cow-house sadly maul 
 
 That stood a mile from Stonington. 
 
 They kill'd a goose, they kill'd a hen, 
 Three hogs they wounded in a pen — 
 They dashed away and pray what then? 
 This was not taking Stonington. 
 
 The shells were thrown, the rockets flew, 
 But not a shell of all they threw, 
 Though even T house was in full view, 
 Could burn a house in Stonington. 
 
 To have their turn they thought but fair; — 
 The Yankees brought two guns to bear, 
 And, sir, it would have made you stare, 
 This smoke of smoke at Stonington. 
 
 They bored Pactolus through and through, 
 And kill'd and wounded of her crew 
 So many, that she bade adieu 
 
 T' the gallant sons of Stonington. 
 
 The brig Despatch was hull'd and torn — 
 So crippled, riddled, so forlorn, 
 No more she cast an eye of scorn 
 On the little fort at Stonington. 
 
 The Ramillies gave up the affray, 
 And with her comrades sneak'd away, 
 Such was the valor, on that day, 
 Of British tars near Stonington. 
 
44 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 But some assert, on certain grounds, 
 (Besides the damage and the wounds), 
 It cost the king ten thousand pounds 
 To have a dash at Stonington. 
 
 It is said that one of the youths of the neighborhood, 
 Langworthy by name, was present at the point when 
 the British vessels slunk away amid the great rejoic- 
 ing of the triumphant defenders. The American 
 officer in command, according to a story handed down 
 in Langworthy" s family, was so exultant that he called 
 for cheers and at the conclusion threw his cap in the 
 air. The brisk wind carried it overboard, young 
 Langworthy jumped in and brought it ashore, and the 
 commandant gave him a shilling for reward. The 
 tale is slight, but it helps to give us a vivid picture 
 of the moment of victor} 7 — the vessels making off 
 through Fisher's Island sound, the soldiers on shore 
 relieved of their anxiety and justly happy in their 
 success, and even the chief officer so exuberant that 
 he had to cast his cap into the air to express his feel- 
 ings. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 NOTES ON THE SECOND ATTACK 
 
 An account of the bombardment of Stonington in 
 1814 written by Rev. Frederic Denison and printed 
 in the Mystic Pioneer, July 2, 1859, contains interest- 
 ing particulars "gathered from the lips of prominent 
 actors in the battle. ' ' The first men, so far as remem- 
 bered, "that took stations in the battery" (on August 
 ninth), it says, " were four, William Lord, Asa Lee, 
 George Fellows and Amos Denison. Just before six 
 o'clock, six volunteers from Mystic, Jeremiah Holmes, 
 Ebenezer Denison, Isaac Denison and Nathaniel Clift, 
 reached the place, on foot, and ran immediately to 
 
 help operate the gun in the battery The 
 
 battery being small, but few men could work in it." 
 Later, on the morning of the tenth, it was operated, 
 "as nearly as remembered, by Jeremiah Holmes, Simeon 
 Haley, Isaac Denison, Isaac Miner, George Fellows 
 and Asa Lee." This list is not complete. 
 
 The one defender wounded during the bombardment 
 was Frederick Denison, who was struck in the knee by 
 a flying fragment of rock or by a direct shot from the 
 brig. The wound was not considered dangerous, but he 
 died on the first of the following November. A mon- 
 ument was erected to his memory in Elm Grove ceme- 
 
46 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 tery at Mystic by the State of Connecticut. John 
 Miner was badly burnt in the face by the premature 
 discharge of one of the guns. 
 
 The damage done to buildings was estimated a few 
 days after the battle at four thousand dollars. 
 
 "We have made some estimate of the number of 
 shells and fire carcasses thrown into the village, and we 
 find there have been about three hundred," says an 
 account written for publication by the borough au- 
 thorities, August 29. ' 'Some respectable citizens from 
 motives of curiosity weighed several shells, and found 
 their weight to be as follows : One of the largest car- 
 casses, partly full of the combustible, 216 lbs. One of 
 the smallest sort ditto, 103 lbs. One of the largest 
 kind empty, 189 lbs. One of the largest bomb shells, 
 189 lbs. One of the smallest bomb shells, 90 lbs. One, 
 marked on it 'fire 16 lbs.', 16 lbs. One of the largest 
 carcasses partly full was set on fire, which burnt half 
 an hour, emitting a horrid stench ; in a calm the flame 
 would rise ten feet." 
 
 The National Intelligencer shortly after the battle 
 said : "'The defence of Stonington by a handful of brave 
 citizens was more like an effusion of feeling, warm from 
 the heart, than a concerted military movement." 
 
 Niles's Weekly Register of September 10, 1814, 
 said : ' 'Mr. Chalmers, late master of the Terror, bomb 
 vessel, employed in the attack on Stonington, has been 
 captured in a British barge and sent to Providence. 
 He says 170 bombs were discharged from that ship in 
 the attack on Stonington, which were found to weigh 
 
NOTES ON SECOND ATTACK 47 
 
 eighty pounds each ; the charge of powder for the mor- 
 tar was nine pounds ; adding to this the wadding, that 
 vessel must have disgorged eight tons weight." But 
 the bombshells weighed at Stonington tipped the beam 
 at 189 pounds, just one hundred pounds more than 
 their weight as Mr. Chalmers is quoted as reporting it. 
 This would make the total weight discharged from the 
 Terror more than thirteen tons, exclusive of the wad- 
 ding. 
 
 Niles's Weekly Register stated on June 3, 1815, 
 that "the iron mine is not yet exhausted, for certain 
 persons in the diving machine have raised no less than 
 11,209 lbs. of shot, which was thrown overboard from 
 the Pactolus, when she was in such a hurry to get away 
 from the guns of Stonington. ' ' 
 
 The long accepted story is that George Howe Fel- 
 lows "nailed the colors to the mast" when a British 
 shot had laid them low, but in a paper before the 
 Stonington Historical and Genealogical Society in 
 1909, Miss Emma W. Palmer said: "When Captain 
 Jeremiah Holmes's ammunition gave out, Stonington 
 was at the mercy of the invaders, and a timid citizen 
 who was at the battery proposed a formal surrender by 
 lowering the colors that were floating over their heads. 
 'No,' shouted Captain Holmes indignantly, 'that flag 
 shall never come down while I am alive. * And it did 
 not in submission to the foe. When the wind died a- 
 way and it hung drooping by the side of the staff, the 
 captain held out the flag on the point of a bayonet, 
 that the British might see it, and while in that posi- 
 
48 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 tion several shots passed through it. To prevent its 
 being struck by some coward, Captain Holmes held a 
 companion (J. Dean Gallup or George H. Fellows, a 
 mooted question,) upon his shoulders while the latter 
 nailed it to the staff. 
 
 "In 1860 Mr. Benson J. Lossing came to Stonington 
 to look up material for his book, 'The Field Book of 
 the War of 1812," and was the guest of my father, 
 Dr. George E. Palmer, who took him to see the vener- 
 able hero, Captain Jeremiah Holmes, at Mystic. He 
 was in good health of mind and body, and told the 
 story of his part of the fight as above, emphasizing the 
 fact of its being J. Dean Gallup who stood on his 
 shoulders, instead of George Howe Fellows. Miss 
 Palmer added, "My father always said that George H. 
 Fellows was not even here at the time of the attack." 
 
 A list of the volunteers who participated in the de- 
 fence of the town was printed as follows in the Connect- 
 icut Gazette of August 17, 1814: Of Stonington — 
 Captain George Fellows, Captain William Potter, Dr. 
 William Lord, Lieutenant H. G. Lewis, Ensign D. 
 Frink, Gurdon Trumbull, Alex. G. Smith, Amos Den- 
 ison Jr., Stanton Gallup, Ebenezer Morgan, John 
 Miner. Of Mystic — Jesse Dean, Dean Gallup, Fred 
 Haley, Jeremiah Holmes, N. Clift, Jedediah Reed. Of 
 Groton — Alfred White, Ebenezer Morgan, Frank Dan- 
 iels, Giles Morgan. Of New London — Major Simeon 
 Smith, Captain Noah Lester, Major N. Frink, Lambert 
 Williams. From Massachusetts — Captain Leonard and 
 Mr. Dunham. The same paper on August 31 added 
 
Little Narragansett Bay 
 
 Stonington Harbor 
 
NOTES ON SECOND ATTACK 49 
 
 the following names which had been omitted from the 
 first list " by an error of the compositor:" Simeon 
 Haley, Jeremiah Haley, Frederick Denison, John Min- 
 er, Asa Lee, Thomas Wilcox, Luke Palmer, George 
 Palmer, William G. Bush. "There were probably 
 others," said the Gazette, "whom we have not learnt. " 
 There were also forty-two drafted militiamen from the 
 northern part of the state, under Lieutenant Samuel 
 Hough, whose service on guard at Stonington extended 
 from June 29 to August 29, 1814. The Eighth Com- 
 pany of the Thirtieth Regiment under Captain William 
 Potter assembled on the evening of August ninth. At- 
 tracted by the signal fires that had been lighted to a- 
 rouse the countryside, a large part of the Thirtieth 
 Regiment hastened to the borough, so that by day- 
 break the defenders numbered 290, not including Col- 
 onel Randall's staff. Brigadier General Isham arrived 
 with his staff from New London about noon on August 
 tenth, and took command. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 STONINGTON IN 1819 
 
 In a quaint old volume bearing the title, "A Gaz- 
 etteer of the States of Connecticut and Rhode-Island. 
 Written with Care and Impartiality, from Original 
 and Authentic Materials,"'' by John M. Niles, and pub- 
 lished at Hartford by William S. Marsh in 1819, the 
 following description of the town and borough of Ston- 
 ington five years after the repulse of Hardy's squadron 
 is taken : 
 
 The town is uneven, being hilly and rocky, but the 
 soil, which is a gravelly loam, is rich and fertile, and 
 admirably adapted to grazing ; the dairy business, or 
 making of cheese and butter, being the leading agri- 
 cultural interest. Barley, corn and oats are cultivated. 
 
 There are no rivers within the town deserving no- 
 tice ; the Paucatuck, which runs upon its eastern bor- 
 der, and separates it from Rhode-Island, and the Mys- 
 tic, that forms its western boundary, and separates it 
 from Groton, are short but considerable streams. 
 
 There is an arm of the sea extending from Stoning- 
 ton harbour northeasterly, over which is Quanaduck 
 stone bridge. A turnpike runs from New-London 
 through Groton and Stonington and intersects the turn- 
 
STONINGTON IN 1819 51 
 
 pike road from Providence to Westerly, in the state of 
 Rhode-Island. 
 
 There are 1100 tons of shipping owned in this town, 
 which are employed either in the business of fishing, or 
 in the coasting and West India trade, and which furn- 
 ish employment to a portion of the inhabitants. The 
 maritime situation and interests of the town have given 
 a direction to the pursuits and habits of its citizens ; 
 and Stonington has become conspicuous as a nursery 
 of seamen, distinguished for their enterprise, persever- 
 ance and courage. 
 
 But although principally engaged in the pursuits of 
 agriculture, fishing and navigation, other important 
 interests have not been neglected. There are few 
 towns in the state that have done more in certain 
 branches of manufactures ; there being two Woolen 
 Factories and one Cotton Factory upon an extensive 
 scale in the town. 
 
 The civil divisions of Stonington are 1 Ecclesiastical 
 Society, 8 School Districts, and an incorporated bor- 
 ough. 
 
 Stonington Borough, incorporated by the Legislat- 
 ure in 1801, is situated on a narrow point of land of 
 about half a mile in length, at the eastern extremity 
 of Long Island sound. On its east side lies Paucatuck 
 bay, and on its west the harbour, terminating in Lam- 
 bert's Cove. It has four streets running north and 
 south, intersected at right angles by nine cross streets, 
 and contains about 120 Dwelling houses and Stores. It 
 also has 2 Houses for public worship, an Academy, 
 where the languages are taught, and 2 common schools, 
 
52 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 2 Rope walks, commodious wharves and ware-houses 
 for storage. 
 
 The fisheries have for a long time been prosecuted 
 with industry and success by the inhabitants, who em- 
 ploy from 10 to 15 vessels in this business; which an- 
 nually bring in about 7000 quintals of codfish, & 1000 
 bbls. of mackerel, besides most other species of fish 
 which are taken by smaller vessels and boats. There 
 is also a brig engaged in the sealing business, in the 
 Pacific ocean ; three packets which ply regularly be- 
 tween this port and New-York ; a pilot boat to cruise 
 for vessels on the coast bound in ; and a number of 
 vessels employed in the coasting trade, which carry to 
 the southern market their fish, with the cheese, barley 
 &c. of the adjacent country. Many fine ships and 
 brigs are built here for the New-York market. 
 
 In the census of 1810, the town contained 3043 in- 
 habitants ; and there are now 335 qualified Electors. 
 There are 20 Mercantile Stores, 4 Grain Mills, 3 Card- 
 ing Machines, 1 Pottery & 1 Tannery. There is a 
 Public Arsenal belonging to the United States, which 
 is a substantial brick building ; 2 Churches, one for 
 Congregationalists and one for Baptists ; 1 Academy or 
 Grammar School ; 8 district or common Schools ; 3 At- 
 tornies, and 3 practising Physicians. 
 
 The general list of the town, in 1817, was $45,991. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 WHALING AND SEALING (BY JAMES H. WEEKS) 
 
 Any history of Stonington would be incomplete 
 which failed to contain a chapter on whaling and seal- 
 ing, for in the early years of the nineteenth century, 
 and even for many years before, this place had her 
 fleet on the high seas and in the cold climate of the far 
 southern islands in search of whales, seals and sea ele- 
 phants. The builders of Stonington took from the 
 depths of old ocean that which was readily turned into 
 the hard shekels which went to sustain life. From all 
 oceans came her ships which hunted the several species 
 of whales for their baleen and oil— staple articles that 
 found a ready market in all ports of the world. The 
 oil was the illuminating fluid of the long winter even- 
 ings when our grandmothers did so much of the work 
 of which we know nothing to-day. The whale bone was 
 put to various commercial uses and served its purposes 
 so well that nothing has yet been found adequately to 
 take its place. 
 
 Mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts all longed 
 for the return of the men from the voyage which 
 perhaps covered a period of two, three or even four 
 years. It was before the days of the fast mail, and 
 word from both home and ship was anxiously awaited. 
 
54 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 On the high seas in the old bluntnose whale ship men 
 learned that hardy life and discipline which served 
 them so well when they went to war against England 
 in 1812, and later in our civil war. They learned to 
 fight life as it came to them, to live on the most com- 
 mon of food and to enjoy every day; and the sea al- 
 ways retained its lure for them. The ships fitted for 
 their long voyages at the breakwater, after it was built 
 (about 1827), and at the several wharves of the town; 
 and those were busy times along the water front. In 
 fact the industry became so great that the United 
 States Government established our custom house and 
 made Stonington a port of entry in 1842. The ships 
 were repaired here by being hauled down first on one 
 side, then on the other, and the sound of the hammer 
 as the caulking was put in the seams and the heavy 
 copper put on the ships" bottoms made the borough a 
 busy place. The warp, sails, bread and other needed 
 articles were made here and some of our older residents 
 remember when our wharves and breakwater were cov- 
 ered with the huge casks and shooks filled with oil ready 
 for the market. Only scattered facts come to us of the 
 industry before our second war with England. Ston- 
 ington being on the coast, it is more than likely that 
 our early settlers hunted the whales that must have 
 spouted and gambolled in Long Island and Fisher's 
 Island sounds. Yet almost every shred of evidence 
 which would connect us with such facts is lost forever. 
 There is the rumor here and there, but the earliest 
 fact which the writer can find comes from some notes 
 
WHALING AND SEALING 55 
 
 made by the late David S. Hart in a book, and copied 
 from a paper of the early days: "Samuel Trumbull, the 
 first printer of a newspaper in the borough ( Stoning - 
 ton), commenced the Journal of the Times Oct. 2nd, 
 1798. 
 
 "The 52d number was changed to the Impartial 
 Journal. This says in 1799 : 'A large school of whales of 
 various sizes and to the number, it is supposed, of 200 
 appeared in Long Island sound 8 miles from this place. 
 A number of citizens went out to take one, but being 
 without suitable warp, met with no success, although 
 one whale was harpooned. Returning however with 
 the proper gear they succeeded in killing one, which was 
 towed in the same day, to the admiration of a great 
 number of people. It measured 40 feet in length and 
 30 in circumference. ' Sealing was carried on extensive- 
 ly at this early date and the paper had an advertise- 
 ment as follows — 'For Sale. Seal skins from the 
 Little Sarah, by Capt. George Howe;' and this note: 
 'Capt. Edmund Fanning returned from a successful 
 sealing voyage by way of Canton,' as well as this — 
 'Extract from a letter from Mr. Joseph Copp of this 
 port, dated Crow's Nest Harbor, South Georgia, on 
 board ship Aspasia, Jan. 31, 1801 : Capt. George 
 Howe scoured the whole coast of Patagonia last sea- 
 son, thence he sailed to the Falkland Islands and win- 
 tered, thence took his departure in November last, sup- 
 posedly for Staten Land ; when he left the former he 
 had 5,000 skins.' " 
 
 These extracts show how the two industries went 
 
56 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 hand in hand, in ships from Stonington. The papers, 
 logs and all data from then up to the driving of the 
 ships from the sea by the English have been lost. 
 Most have been consumed by the flames. 
 
 When peace was resumed there were 20,000 barrels 
 of oil on hand in the United States, and in 1815 it was 
 quoted at $1.40 per gallon. In 1823 it fell to 48 
 cents and in 1825 it rose again to 81 cents. In the 
 latter year 89,218 barrels were brought into the United 
 States. Stonington commenced again to feel the ef- 
 fects of the re-established industry and in 1820 three 
 ships came in, the brig Mary, James Davis master, 194 
 tons, with 78 barrels of sperm and 744 of whale oil ; 
 the brig Mary Ann, Isaac English master, 188 tons, 
 59 barrels of whale oil ; ship Carrier, A. Douglass 
 master, 928 barrels of whale oil and 2040 pounds of 
 bone. Each year there was an increase, and local men 
 commenced to command the ships. 
 
 The Thomas Williams was built at Westerly, the 
 Charles Phelps at the same place, while the Betsy 
 Williams was built at the "kiln dock," so called, at 
 the foot of Wall street in Stonington Borough. Own- 
 ers commenced to buy ships from other ports, and be- 
 tween the years 1841 and 1845 twenty crafts went in 
 search of whales from the port of Stonington. (See 
 the end of this chapter for names and dates. ) 
 
 Stonington men were among the first to petition 
 Congress to establish a postal line on ships which sailed 
 from New England on whaling voyages and the far is- 
 lands in the Pacific Ocean. Some of our ships became 
 
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WHALING AND SEALING 57 
 
 famous. There was the old "Herald," which left 
 Stonington in charge of Capt. Samuel Barker, and 
 which was owned by Charles P. Williams of Stoning- 
 ton. Starbuck in his pamphlet announced: "Sold at 
 Rio Janeiro (?) 1848, by Captain. Also 600 sperm." 
 This means that the craft was stolen by her master, 
 sold and converted into a slaver to carry negroes from 
 Africa to South America. What became of her cap- 
 tain was never known. The craft was seized at the 
 Brazilian port in 1850 and Mr. Edward Kent, repre- 
 senting the United States, tried to sell her for the insur- 
 ance company which held the risk. She was in poor 
 condition and her ultimate fate is not known. She 
 was sold into the slave trade about May 10, 1848. 
 
 The ship Cynosure was also stolen from her owner, 
 John F. Trumbull, and sold into the slave trade. The 
 Betsey Williams was built at Stonington on what is now 
 the property of C. N. Wayland at the foot of Wall 
 street. She was built for Charles P. Williams and was 
 a well-fitted craft. She sailed on her first trip Nov. 
 11, 1846, in command of Captain Palmer Hall 
 of Avondale, R. I., and returned in April, 1849. She 
 made several voyages and was sold. The ship Charles- 
 Phelps was built at Westerly in 1841-1842 by Silas 
 Greenman, and had a career as interesting as that of a 
 human being. She was built on honor, of native oak 
 taken from the woods of our region ; into her frame 
 went the finest of metals to hold her together. Her 
 spars and rigging were tried and true, for they came 
 from the old barque Beaver of Hudson, once owned by 
 
58 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 John Jacob Astor and used by him in trips to the far 
 north. She made five voyages from Stonington, was 
 sold to New London parties and was used till the Civil 
 War. She found a place in the "old stone fleet" to 
 be sunk in Charleston, S. C, but was in such good 
 condition that she was reserved for a supply ship and 
 the Government used her all through the war as such. 
 She was then sold to New Bedford parties, refitted, and 
 renamed the Progress and went on several trips to the 
 Arctic in search of whales. Her last service was in 
 connection with the great World's Fair at Chicago, 
 in 1893, where she was used as an exhibit and 
 thousands saw in her, for the first time, how the 
 whale was caught and treated for commercial use. She 
 was left to rot in a creek at the last named city. Her 
 figurehead may be seen at the Library at Westerly, 
 R. I. 
 
 The last ship to be seen at Stonington was the Cincin- 
 nati and she remained idle here for a long time. The 
 war of 1861-1865 put an end to the whaling industry 
 as far as our port was concerned. Our vessels went to 
 other ports and among the number in the "old stone 
 fleet" to be sunk to blockade southern harbors were 
 several which had brought thousands of dollars to their 
 owners. An idea of the value of a cargo may be had 
 by the following manifest as entered at the Stonington 
 custom house by the owner of the Phelps on her 
 return from her third voyage in 1850: "275 barrels 
 of sperm oil at $36 a barrel, $9,900; 2,600 barrels 
 of whale oil at $15 a barrel, $39,000; 35,000 pounds 
 
WHALING AND SEALING 59 
 
 of whalebone at 35 cents a pound, $12,250; total 
 $61,150. This cargo sold in the market for nearly 
 $120,000 and it will be seen what a profit the owner 
 obtained. During this voyage the catch was — sperm 
 whales, 9, right whales, 24, steeple-tops, 6, blackfish, 
 39, total 78. The crew had a living while on the voyage 
 and on the return got little cash and so were ready to 
 sign for another trip on the high seas. Some of the 
 men in fact found themselves in debt to the ship and 
 after a few days on shore started out in life anew. The 
 captain had as his "lay" 1-15 or 1-16 of the voyage, 
 while some of the hands would get 1-175 and very 
 likely the green youth in the capacity of cabin boy re- 
 ceived 1-200 as his munificent share. The men 
 who were taken from here were only enough to man 
 the ship till the Western or Azore islands were reached. 
 They were in many instances young, hardy fellows 
 and anxious to try life on the main. Many Indians 
 from the north came and shipped. At the Azores 
 men were shipped for the remainder of the trip. Then 
 down around Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope 
 the old ship would pound her way; stops would be 
 made at various islands for wood, potatoes and other arti- 
 cles. On for many days and the Sandwich islands 
 would be reached. Here the men would have shore 
 leave and other hands would be taken on if wanted. 
 The ship would refit and proceed to the northwest 
 coast to battle with wind, waves, ice and whales. 
 
 Sometimes two seasons would be required to fill the 
 ship and then the long run for home would begin. 
 
60 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 In all this there was much excitement, and the men 
 loved the sea. But there was work to be done, the 
 many thousand pounds of whalebone had to be 
 cleaned and carefully packed, leaking casks had to 
 be recoopered and sails, rigging and spars repaired and 
 cleaned and the whole ship painted. It was a happy 
 day when the crown of Lantern Hill came in sight as 
 the first land to be made. "Watch Point" was left 
 behind and the "old whaler" came to anchor in the 
 "Deep Hole" and the master came ashore to report 
 his success or failure. 
 
 As previously shown, the sealing industry was car- 
 ried on extensively in the early years of the nineteenth 
 century. Small sloops were fitted out at Stonington 
 to go to the Patagonia coast and islands south of 
 there. Large and valuable catches were made. About 
 1820 fleets commenced to go to engage in this fishery, and 
 it was on such a trip that Nathaniel B. Palmer took 
 his sloop Hero to the edge of the vast Antarctic conti- 
 nent and discovered that section known as Palmer 
 Land. Edmund Fanning, Benjamin Pendleton and Na- 
 thaniel B. and Alexander S. Palmer took crafts to 
 these faraway rookeries to get the fur seal for clothing 
 and the hair seal which was used in harness and the 
 trunk making trade. 
 
 The schooner Betsey Elucid came in May 7, 1834. 
 She had 1390 prime and 500 pup fur sealskins, 38 
 salted bullock skins and 36 dried bullock skins. The 
 schooner Henrietta came in May 11, 1834, with this 
 cargo: 203 prime fur seal skins, 2317 hair seal skins, 
 
WHALING AND SEALING 61 
 
 122 sea otter (prime) skins, 80 tortoise shells, 629 
 hair pup skins, 220 fur pup skins and 102 goat skins. 
 In 1835 several crafts arrived; one the Penguin, B. F. 
 Ash captain, 82 33-45 tons, had 1215 fur skins for 
 C. P. Williams, 800 fur skins for F. Pendleton, 350 
 hair skins for C. P. Williams, and 890 fur skins and 
 350 hair skins consigned to S. Lawrence from the Bet- 
 sey Tahua and Ann Howard. In later days the 
 schooners Express, Thomas Hunt and Charles Shearer 
 and the brig Henry Trowbridge went on sealing voy- 
 ages from Stonington. 
 

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CHAPTER IX 
 
 IN THE "FIFTIES" (by GEORGE D. STAXTOn) 
 
 To give a historical sketch of the borough of Ston- 
 ington and its inhabitants in the "Fifties" as it may 
 have appeared to a looker-on from Venice is a difficult 
 task. To begin this sketch, perhaps it will be best to 
 consider first the business pursuits conducted by the 
 wide-awake and enterprising men of that period. 
 
 The principal interest then centred in whale fish- 
 eries. There were at that time seventeen ships and 
 barks sent from this port, with a total tonnage of five 
 thousand, three hundred and twenty tons — an average 
 of about three hundred tons for each vessel. Of these 
 Charles P. Williams and John F. Trumbull owned 
 each, or represented, eight vessels, and F. Pendleton 
 & Co. owned one. This list comprises only those ves- 
 sels hailing and sailing from this port. There were, 
 however, thirty-one whaling ships, brigs and schooners 
 sailing from Mystic, which was in the Stonington 
 marine district. The officers and men who manned 
 the ships belonging to this port were not all natives or 
 residents of the borough. Many of these were obtained 
 from other ports, and quite a large proportion of 
 the crews were shipped at the Western islands, many 
 of whom on their return from sea made their perma- 
 
mi ■ 
 
 "Squire" Pomeroy House 
 
 Built three quarters of a century ago. Now the home of 
 Frank Trumbull and sisters 
 
 Doorway of John F. Trumbull Homestead 
 Main Street 
 
IN THE "FIFTIES" 65 
 
 nent abode here. Quite a number of Indians were 
 secured from the Indian reservations in North Ston- 
 ington and Ledyard who shipped as seamen. In fact 
 it may be truthfully stated in this connection that the 
 tribes in those reservations were decimated and be- 
 came nearly extinguished through having been so gen- 
 erally employed in whaling. They were reported to 
 have made excellent seamen ; but their contact with the 
 white sailors and their proneness to indulgence in the 
 white man's fire water and vices have nearly obliterated 
 their race. In alluding to the men employed as sail- 
 ors in the whale fisheries, it may not be out of place to 
 refer to the lamentable fact of the alleged practice of 
 some shipping agents in those days of securing men for 
 the whaling voyages by inveigling young men into liq- 
 uor saloons and plying them with liquor until they 
 were stupefied under the influence of drink, and per- 
 suading them to sign shipping articles, after which 
 they were immediately carried on board a ship, and 
 when they aroused from their stupor they would find 
 themselves many miles at sea. Many stories, too true, 
 are told of how poor Jack was thus kidnapped and 
 hustled on board ship, and how on his return he was 
 cheated out of a large portion of his hard earned share 
 of the proceeds of the voyage. This is the way a set- 
 tlement with Jack is reputed to have been made in 
 many cases. The cost was exorbitantly charged 
 against him by the shipping agents for his outfit — "slop 
 chest," containing clothing, needles, thread etc. This 
 was about the wav accounts would be finallv settled 
 
66 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 with him, as related by one who knew: "Ought is an 
 ought and two is a two — six cents coming to me and 
 nought coming to you." 
 
 In the way of manufacturing establishments there 
 was the stone factory building erected by Hon. John 
 F. Trumbull in 1851. It was first used for the man- 
 ufacture of horseshoe nails, which was continued but 
 for a short time as it was claimed that there were too 
 many imperfect nails, and that the best of them were 
 inferior to those made by hand. 
 
 There was a rope walk on Main street for the man- 
 ufacture of cordage and fish lines. As to mer- 
 chants, the borough was well supplied with enterpris- 
 ing business men who carried a large stock of dry 
 goods and groceries to meet the demands not only of 
 the local community but of the surrounding country 
 as well. 
 
 In those days the merchant's only way of obtaining 
 and replenishing his stock of goods from New York or 
 Providence was by sailing packet. Among the lead- 
 ing merchants here in that period there were Samuel 
 Chesebrough, Peleg Hancox, F. Pendleton & Co., 
 J. E. Smith & Co., Enoch Chesebrough, Simon Carew, 
 John C. Hayes and Hewitt & Hull. Elisha Faxon, Jr., 
 kept stationer}- and newspapers at his store on Main 
 street. Simon Carew had quite a considerable trade 
 with the Block Islanders, and a story is told of a resident 
 of the island who had purchased a bill of goods of 
 Simon, and gave his note for the amount and was 
 heard to remark as he left the store "Well, thank 
 
IN THE "FIFTIES" 67 
 
 God, that bill is paid." History has not recorded 
 whether or no the note was ever converted into cash. 
 This includes about all of the mercantile establishments 
 that occur to me, with the exception that I may men- 
 tion that Russell A. Denison had a cabinet shop 
 and kept a limited stock of furniture. 
 
 Of the practising physicians here there were Drs. 
 George E. Palmer and his son Amos, and the Drs. 
 William Hyde, Senior and Junior. Benjamin Pomeroy 
 and Franklin A. Palmer, Esq., represented the legal 
 fraternity, William Woodbridge kept a high school, 
 and Dr. David S. Hart taught a limited number of 
 pupils in the higher branches, preparing young men for 
 entrance to college. The old Wadawanuck Hotel 
 was for a short time converted into a seminary for 
 young ladies under the management of Rev. Harvey 
 D. Sackett, assisted by a corps of accomplished young 
 lady teachers. Miss Lucy Ann Sheffield also kept a 
 select school for younger misses and boys. Miss Ellen 
 Kirby kept a school for small children, on Main street. 
 
 Freeman Wallace kept clocks, watches and jewelry 
 on Gold street, which gave that street its name. Fred- 
 erick Moser kept watches and jewelry in a store in the 
 south end of the old "Arcade," so called, and the 
 north end of the building was utilized for a post office 
 for several years by Gen. Franklin Williams. Wil- 
 liam Higgins also had a bake shop in the rear part of 
 the same building, and he delivered his cakes, bread 
 and pies around the borough from a large basket car- 
 ried on his arm. There were two hotels, one called 
 
68 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 the Steamboat Hotel, kept by C. B. Capron, and the 
 other called the American House, kept by R. R. 
 Barker, both hotels being on Gold street, facing the 
 railroad square, the steamboat landing and the Ston- 
 ington and Providence railroad depot. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 SOCIETY BEFORE THE WAR 
 
 (In a paper read by request a few years ago before the Stonington 
 Historical and Genealogical Society, Miss Emma W. Palmer gave 
 a pleasant account of the social life of Stonington in the years 
 just preceding the Civil War. It is unfortunate that there is not 
 space in this volume for the entire paper, but as much of it as 
 possible is comprised in the following chapter.) 
 
 The generation now growing up can hardly realize 
 as they look around them what the dear old place was 
 in those days of fair women and brave men, who either 
 lived here or were attracted hither by a good hotel, 
 such as the old Wadawanuck then was. Even before my 
 day I remember the glorious times the young people 
 had, led by Henry Clay Trumbull, Ephraim Williams, 
 Amos and William Palmer, Edward Denison and 
 others. There were hops, clambakes, tableaux and 
 sleighing parties. And then riding parties, with Bes- 
 sie Williams at the head. Few could excel her, or 
 keep up with her, in this her favorite amusement. 
 These were the days of fine saddle horses, and those 
 who did not own them could always be supplied from 
 the hotel stable then kept by Horace Lewis on the 
 ground now occupied by the house of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Henrv R. Palmer. 
 
70 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 Many were the runaway couples that were helped on 
 their way rejoicing by the fast horses from this stable, 
 the terminus generally being Norwich, as otherwise 
 they had to cross the Thames. Sometimes would come 
 the avenging Nemesis in the shape of the angry father, 
 close at their heels, and then all, even to the servants, 
 conspired to detain him as long as they could, to give 
 the pursued a chance. At one time there were so many 
 runaway marriages, owing to the stringent laws in 
 Rhode Island, that Stonington was called Gretna 
 Green. 
 
 These were the days of the Pattons, the Reverend 
 Doctor and his two handsome daughters ; the Misses 
 Dwight of Norwich, the Warings, the Van Rensselaers 
 and others. The MacNeills and Whistlers also lived 
 here and always had more or less company. Mary 
 Trumbull, afterwards Mrs. William C. Prime, was a 
 great favorite, and Bessie Williams was the head-centre 
 of all the fun. Once she arranged with Henry Trum- 
 bull that he should go for her early to take her to ride 
 in a wheelbarrow. He was there promptly, and I 
 think she went. 
 
 The Wadawanuck Hotel, so well kept, was filled 
 with the creme de la creme of many cities ; all seeking 
 then, as now, the pure air and cool breezes of the sea- 
 shore. Time would fail me to tell of the Vintons, 
 Slaters, Wilmerdings, Palmers, Dixons, Burnhams and 
 others who year after year came to this little place and 
 not only enjoyed it themselves but included the many 
 gay young people of the village in their enjoyments; 
 
SOCIETY "BEFORE THE WAR" 71 
 
 and I am proud to say that none of all the bright as- 
 semblage could eclipse the handsome girls of Stoning- 
 ton, noted for their beauty and also for their wit. 
 There were Bessie Williams, Emmeline Williams, Eliza 
 Trumbull, Abby and Helen and Sallie Day, Carrie 
 Champlin and many others. In those days Walnut 
 Grove, the lovely home of the Days, was always full of 
 gay young people, and so were the Williams and 
 Champlin houses, and our own home, all filled with a 
 gay and happy crowd eager to enter into any fun or 
 pleasure that came our way. 
 
 The Wadawanuck bath-house, situated just a little 
 way west of the hotel and reached by a long wooden 
 wharf, was popular in those days. It had a large open 
 space in the middle for bathers, with dressing-rooms a- 
 round and opening on it ; and at high tide every day 
 down would troop the gay crowd, each paying a small 
 fee for the bathing privilege. I remember my cousin 
 Eliza MacNeill was considered the best swimmer at that 
 time, although at an earlier date Miss Sarah Fanning 
 carried off the palm. The bath-house gradually got 
 out of repair, and out of vogue as well, as Watch Hill 
 bathing became the rage ; and at last it ended its days 
 in smoke. Having drifted from its moorings it was 
 beached at Nat's Point and set on fire. 
 
 It was not only in summer that we had good times. 
 There were the famous sewing societies of the Congre- 
 gational and Episcopal Churches, when the ladies met 
 in the afternoon and sewed, and stayed to tea, and the 
 young people came after, and had such a good time ! 
 
72 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 The very recollection of those teas even now makes my 
 mouth water. Such piles of delicious rusk, cut very 
 thin and buttered, baked in a pan peculiar to itself, 
 something like the present brownbread tin ; why I can 
 see them now as if it were yesterday ! And the cake — 
 well, I can only say you don't see such cake now: al- 
 mond and citron and cocoanut and rich composition and 
 raised cake, every kind you could think of. Even the 
 sponge cake was better somehow than it is now, and 
 each housekeeper had her own specialty that she was 
 proud to make when it was her turn to entertain the 
 societv. There were so many hospitable homes in those 
 days that seldom was more than one meeting held in a 
 winter at any one house. 
 
 At last they got to be regular parties, much to the 
 distress of the older members. Some of the younger 
 ones often went off in a room by themselves and indulged 
 in ghost and robber stories in the twilight, or 
 blind-man's holiday, until they really were frightened 
 and were glad to come back to the lights and the elder 
 ones. Old Mrs. Dawes was a favorite character, and 
 we used to love to crowd around her and hear her talk 
 other experiences, of her success as a matchmaker — dear, 
 dear, what good old times those were when there was 
 no fuss and feathers, but good old-fashioned hospital- 
 ity ! If strangers were visiting you you were invited to 
 bring them, for there was always plenty and the tables 
 fairly groaned with the good things. The coffee was 
 so good, real old-fashioned boiled coffee, with plenty of 
 
Two Old Houses on Main Street 
 
 At the left, the Hells House, about 1785; at the right, the Col. Joseph 
 Smith House, 1800 
 
 Ephraim Williams Homestead, 1840 
 Now the Home of Dr. Charles M. Williams 
 
SOCIETY "BEFORE THE WAR" 73 
 
 cream in it. as clear as amber and as strong as it was 
 possible to make it Avithout having it bitter. 
 
 There used to be grand occasions when we could 
 wear our best bib and tucker, and how well and be- 
 comingly all were dressed, even the old ladies, so dif- 
 ferent from the present style. Mrs. McEwen was 
 Mary Day then, and I often laugh over one of her 
 experiences. It was the style to wear the hair plastered 
 down over the ears as smooth as it could be made, 
 and, to keep it in place, we sometimes used the black 
 pomade that comes in sticks. I had plastered mine 
 down well with it and so had she, each of course un- 
 known to the other, and in the course of the evening, 
 it being warm, in each case the hair had been pushed 
 aside and there was a strongly defined line of black on 
 each of our faces that occasioned much merriment. 
 
 Another laughable thing I remember, that struck me 
 so forcibly that even after the lapse of so many years it 
 comes back to me just as funny as ever. A very nice 
 but prim old lad} - quietly put a doughnut in her ca- 
 pacious pocket with her ball of yarn, and in the course 
 of the evening, just when all was quiet and she was 
 placidly knitting, out flew the doughnut, rolling over 
 to the other side of the room, where, thinking it was 
 her ball, one of the young gallants rushed to pick it 
 up, much to his own and the poor old lady's discomfit- 
 ure. Her face I can see now as he presented the 
 doughnut to her. 
 
 Miss Palmer describes the church fairs, held some- 
 times in the old sail loft, which stands west of Mr. 
 
74 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 Jerome S. Anderson's house. At these fairs as much 
 as eight hundred or a thousand dollars was some- 
 times netted. She tells also of entertainments for the 
 benefit of the Book Club, at one of which a charming 
 feature was a series of tableaux, with attractive 
 young women of the village impersonating famous char- 
 acters or works of art. She says ' 'there were Hannah 
 Stanton, and Dina and Kate Stanton, Mary and Lucy 
 Babcock, Jennie Burnham, Julia Palmer and many 
 others whose names I cannot now recall. Each and 
 all of the tableaux were so beautiful and so well done 
 that the audience scarcely breathed until the curtain 
 dropped. . Hops at the hotel and balls and parties at 
 the different houses were frequent and most enjoyable, 
 with plenty of beaux, if not at hand, then imported ; 
 and many a man of wealth, fame and rank has figured 
 in these scenes and has looked back upon these days as 
 the happiest in his life. James van Alen the elder, 
 Colonel Vose, James and Will Whistler, Daniel Ulh- 
 man, Colonel Slocomb and Count de Choiseul all have 
 figured more or less in these gay scenes or added their 
 share to the general fund of enjoyment." 
 
 Miss Palmer closes her paper with the description of 
 an oldtime party given at her home in 1859, one of the 
 pleasantest gatherings ever held in the historic old 
 house. She says, "I have tried several times to get up 
 another like it during the long winter evenings, but 
 have met with very little encouragement. "It's too 
 much trouble ; we would rather play cards, ' ' is the gen- 
 eral verdict. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 WHISTLER IN STONINGTON (by RIETA B. PALMEr) 
 
 Although the artist James Adams MacNeill Whist- 
 ler spent but a few years of his childhood and boyhood 
 in Stonington, there are people living here to-day who 
 well remember the slight figure, brown curly hair and 
 alert face of the eccentric and lovable young man. 
 
 Whistler's mother was Anna MacNeill, a sister of 
 Mrs. Dr. George E. Palmer, (mother of Mrs. Dr. George 
 D. Stanton), and a southerner by birth. She married 
 Major George Washington Whistler, a graduate of 
 West Point and a civil engineer, who was a widower 
 with three children, George, Joseph, (who died in 
 childhood), and Deborah, who became Lady Seymour 
 Haden. Major Whistler was employed on the Balti- 
 more and Ohio and other railroads, and was engineer of 
 locks and canals at Lowell, Mass., in 1834, when his 
 son James was born. Two years later the second son, 
 William Gibbs, was born and the family moved to 
 Stonington in 1837 and established their home in a 
 pleasant house on Main street. 
 
 Major Whistler had previously built the railroad 
 from Stonington to Providence, (in 1835-37), and 
 old residents of Stonington not many years ago recalled 
 the carriage, fitted with car wheels and drawn by a 
 
76 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 horse, which took the family by rail to the Episcopal 
 church in Westerly on Sundays, there being no church 
 of that communion in Stonington at the time. 
 
 The Whistlers lived here until 1840, when they 
 moved to Springfield, Mass., where Major Whistler was 
 engaged in building the Boston, Springfield and Al- 
 bany Railroad. 
 
 In 1842, Czar Nicholas I. of Russia sent commission- 
 ers through Europe and America to find the best 
 method and best man for the construction of a railroad 
 from St. Petersburg to Moscow. They chose Major 
 Whistler for the work. 
 
 This was a great honor, and the salary excellent. 
 He started for Russia at once, leaving his family in 
 Stonington with Dr. Palmer, whose wife, as stated, 
 was Mrs. Whistler's sister. The next year the family 
 followed him to Russia, where they remained until 
 Major Whistler's death in 1849. The widow and her 
 two sons, James and William, returned to Stonington, 
 and Major Whistler was buried from the little Epis- 
 copal church he had so generously helped to build. 
 
 Miss Emma W. Palmer says in a paper written for 
 the Historical Society that "James at this time was 
 tall and slight (he was fifteen years old) with a pen- 
 sive, delicate face, shaded by soft brown curls, one lock 
 of which even then fell over his forehead. In later 
 years he was very proud of this lock, which turned grey 
 while yet young, and this gave him a striking appear- 
 ance. ' ' 
 
 In the years of increasing fame and eccentricity 
 
WHISTLER IN STONINGTON 77 
 
 he was inordinately proud of his curly hair, and the 
 one white lock, which he said should be the first thing 
 seen upon his entrance in a drawing room. 
 
 Mrs. Whistler soon took her boys to Pomfret to 
 place them in the excellent school at that place man- 
 aged by a West Point man. And there they remained 
 until James, or "Jamie," "Jim" or "Jimmy," as he 
 was variously called, was old enough to enter West 
 Point, following the example of his father. At both 
 schools he was very popular. No one could resist his 
 mirth, though he was frequently thoughtless and al- 
 ways "getting into scrapes" and being helped out of 
 them by his devoted friends. 
 
 His fondness for drawing evinced itself at four years 
 of age, and he was always making sketches in his school 
 books, mostly caricatures. He was asked to do some 
 pictures for a fair in Stonington, and though he made 
 them very absurd they sold well. He was habitually 
 obliging, his answer to all requests being, "Oh! any- 
 thing for a quiet life." It seems a pity that this gen- 
 ial kindness did not continue into his later years. 
 
 He was thoroughly unsuited to the life at West 
 Point. He could never be induced to exert himself, to 
 hurry or to conform to what seemed to him foolish dis- 
 cipline, so he quitted the academy, leaving many 
 stories of his pranks and witty sayings behind him. He 
 was always exceedingly proud of having been a West 
 Point man and spoke often of his experience at the 
 school. 
 
 From West Point he went to Baltimore, where he 
 
78 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 stayed only a short time in the locomotive works owned 
 by a relative; then he had a position in the United 
 States Coast Survey, where he made Government maps 
 with infinite care. This was a little more to his liking, 
 and the preparing and etching of plates was good 
 training for his later work. From here he went to 
 Paris, where his real life as an artist begins. 
 
 We will not attempt to follow his subsequent career, 
 well known to all and having no further connection 
 with Stonington. His fame did not come at once. 
 He struggled hard, making a name for himself slowly 
 and painfully. Though there are varying opinions 
 about the value of his art, he is generally acknowledged 
 a great painter and etcher. Some of his early paint- 
 ings and etchings have been owned by people in Ston- 
 ington, where it is pleasant to picture him as a gay, 
 happy boy, showing promise of genius, and with noth- 
 ing of that attitude of the poseur which afterward qual- 
 ified his charm, and giving no evidence of that bitter 
 tongue which so easily made him enemies in later life. 
 William M. Chase says that it was impossible for any 
 man to livelong in harmony with him, and that he had 
 two distinct personalities. In public he was "the fop, 
 the cynic, the brilliant, vain and careless idler;" but 
 the Whistler of the studio was "the earnest, tireless, 
 sombre worker, a very slave to his art, a bitter foe to 
 all pretence and sham, an embodiment of simplicity al- 
 most to the point of diffidence, an incarnation of earn- 
 estness and sincerity of purpose. ' ' 
 
 We have heard so much of his affectations that it is 
 
WHISTLER IN STONINGTON 79 
 
 a relief to think of his less complex years of youth, 
 watched over and loved by a saint-like mother, whose 
 portrait, so beautifully painted by an always devoted 
 son, now hangs in the Luxembourg galleries at Paris. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THREE DISASTROUS FIRES 
 
 Within a period of seven years — 1836-1843 — three 
 disastrous fires occurred in Stonington Borough, all of 
 them in the same general locality. 
 
 The first broke out in December, 1836, (according 
 to information given the writer by Henry Clay Trum- 
 bull in August, 1902), starting in a cooper shop on 
 the wharf southwest of what is now Cannon square. 
 It swept the hotel on Water street, where Captain 
 Samuel B. Pendleton's house now stands, and also the 
 tavern (the "Swan Hotel") which occupied the site 
 of the house now owned by Mrs. Benjamin C. Brown, 
 on the south side of the square. The hotel on the 
 west side of Water street was kept by Ezra Chesebro, 
 who in November of the next year became the first 
 landlord of the new Wadawanuck Hotel. 
 
 The second fire, the largest in the history of the 
 borough, occurred on April 2, 1837. The Providence 
 Journal of April 6, 1837, said: "Afire occurred at 
 Stonington on Sunday morning last, (supposed to be 
 the work of an incendiary), which destroyed nineteen 
 buildings, most of them stores, and injured two others." 
 
 This disastrous blaze started in a cooper shop on the 
 "Union Store" wharf, and spread with irresistible speed 
 
Congrega- 
 tional 
 Parsonage 
 
 House of 
 
 miss Caroline 
 
 A. Smith 
 
THREE DISASTROUS FIRES 81 
 
 and fury eastward to Peleg Hancox's store, which 
 occupied the site of the present store of James H. 
 Stivers, Captain Charles P. Williams's house just op- 
 posite, and a row of stores to the south, on the site of 
 the present Arcade. None of the buildings named 
 could be saved. The flames for a time isolated upon 
 the wharf five residents of the borough, one of whom 
 was Dr. David S. Hart. 
 
 When the fire broke out there was no fire engine 
 with which to combat it ; the men of the place formed 
 a long line with their leather buckets and wooden pails, 
 and hurried water from the harbor to the burning build- 
 ings. The old Colonial house on the southeast corner 
 of Water and Wall streets with its high steps and iron 
 railing was saved, after a desperate and gallant effort, 
 by the spreading of wet blankets on the roof and the 
 constant dampening of these. Steam fire engines were 
 unheard of at the time ; hydrants also were unknown. 
 It was after this fire that the old Wadawanuck engine 
 was purchased by the borough. 
 
 There is now in the possession of the Stonington 
 Historical and Genealogical Society a letter (the gift 
 of Mr. Stivers) written on the day succeeding the fire 
 by Zebulon Hancox, Jr., in which the writer, then a 
 clerk in the store of Peleg Hancox, described to his 
 employer, who was temporarily in New York, the de- 
 vastation wrought and the measures he had taken on 
 his own responsibility to provide for the future conduct 
 of the business. It shows the young clerk as a bright, 
 efficient business man, quite in accord with the tradi- 
 
82 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 tions that have come down to us of his earlier and 
 happier days, before he became a picturesque recluse 
 in his cottage by the shore. 
 
 The letter reads as follows : 
 
 Stonington, April 3, 1837 
 
 Mr. Peleg Hancox, 
 
 Sir : A fire broke out on Saturday night about 
 4 o'clock in Charles P. AVilliams's cooper shop, which 
 consumed your store and all the stores between the old 
 Doctor Lording store, your house, Mrs. Carew's on 
 the north and Frank Pendleton's store and Captain 
 Amy's on the south. I have saved most all of the 
 goods in the front store and they are safe in my house. 
 I don't believe there will be more than a hundred dol- 
 lars worth of goods missing from the front store. The 
 fire was so rapid we had not time to save more. Your 
 house was cleared of furniture, but we saved that and 
 the old store on the wharf and your family is all returned 
 and comfortable. Your books and notes are all safe. 
 
 I have engaged Mr. Nathan Wheeler not to let Ben 
 Wright's store until you return. Mr. Charles P. Wil- 
 liams's house and barn are burnt, but he has saved most 
 of his furniture. The bank (the present custom house) 
 is saved and the rope walk. (This stood on the east 
 side of Main street. ) 
 
 We have found most of the articles taken from your 
 house and they are returned. Your family are in good 
 spirits, but want you here, 
 
 Yours in haste, 
 
 Zebulon Hancox, Jr. 
 
THREE DISASTROUS FIRES 83 
 
 At that time Mr. Peleg Hancox lived in the home- 
 stead just north of his store, and so fierce was the heat 
 in the neighborhood during the fire that most of his 
 household goods, as stated in the above letter, were 
 removed from the house. When the fire was extin- 
 guished the infant son of the family was nowhere to be 
 found. His mother had entrusted the eleven-month 
 child to somebody at the height of the excitement, but 
 to whom she could not remember. Some time after- 
 ward he was discovered wrapped up safe and sound, in 
 the little yard in front of the Hyde house just south 
 of Dr. C. O. Maine's present residence at the corner 
 of Water and Harmony streets. The helpless infant 
 was Nathaniel Hancox, justly beloved in Stonington 
 for his keen wit and jovial companionship to the day 
 of his death a few years ago. 
 
 Four or five merchants, among them "Uncle Peleg," 
 afterward opened shop in the sail-loft building on the 
 Union Store wharf. Mr. Hancox's stock included 
 some fine velvets and laces, strange goods for such a 
 rough environment. 
 
 The third fire to which reference has been made oc- 
 curred in the winter of 1 842-43 and destroyed the 
 stores of A. S. Prentice, (irreverently nicknamed 
 "Apple Sass" by reason of his initials), Elisha Faxon 
 and Captain Francis Pendleton. These stores stood, in 
 the order given, from north to south, on the space now 
 occupied by Mr. Bindloss's coal office and Oscar F. 
 Pendleton's "Brick Store." 
 
 It may be added here that the Eagle Hotel, which 
 
84 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 stood at the northwest corner of Water and Church 
 streets, was burnt in 1862. On April 20th of that 
 year, the freemen of the borough voted to compensate 
 Horace Lewis "for damage to his onion patch by the 
 fire engines and people at the recent Eagle Hotel fire. ' ' 
 From January 1, 1883, to October 6, 1894, during 
 the term of Erastus S. Chesebro as chief engineer of the 
 Stonington Fire Department, twenty-five fires were re- 
 ported in Stonington. The assessed valuation of the 
 buildings involved was $64,850; the fire loss was only 
 $4310. 
 
 From October 22, 1894, to July 1, 1902, during 
 the term of George A. Slade as chief engineer, fifty-two 
 fires occurred. The valuation of the threatened build- 
 ings and contents was $323,300; the fire loss was only 
 $20,338 or six percent. 
 
 From November 19, 1903, to December 25, 1912, 
 during the term of Edward P. Teed as chief engineer, 
 thirty-two fires for which alarms were sounded threat- 
 ened buildings valued, with their contents, at $138,- 
 450. The fire loss was only $11,950, or less than 
 nine per cent. 
 
 These figures speak volumes for the efficiency of the 
 Stonington Fire Department. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 STONINGTON NEWSPAPERS 
 
 The first Stonington newspaper was published 
 in the eighteenth century by Samuel Trumbull, son of 
 John Trumbull, a newspaper publisher and printer of 
 Norwich. Mr. Trumbull came to this place in 1798 
 and on October 2d of that year issued the first number 
 of the Journal of the Times, a diminutive sheet with 
 the motto : 
 
 " Pliant as reeds where streams of freedom glide, 
 Firm as the hills to stem oppression's tide." 
 
 Mr. Trumbull was an elder brother of John F. Trum- 
 bull and lived on the site of the house now owned and 
 occupied by Mrs. Lucius N. Palmer on the east side of 
 Wadawanuck square. In 1 800 the title of the paper 
 was changed to the Impartial Journal. The Journal 
 supported Thomas Jefferson and was continued until 
 1805, when Mr. Trumbull abandoned journalism for 
 other business. 
 
 The next newspaper was "America's Friend," pub- 
 lished by John Munson, who came to Stonington from 
 New Haven. It is thought that it was not continued 
 for more than a year or two. 
 
 In March, 1824, Samuel A. Seabury came to the 
 borough from Long Island and issued one number of 
 the Stonington Chronicle. This first issue was the last, 
 
86 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 for the editor died almost immediately afterward. 
 
 Within a few months, however, on July 28, 1824, 
 William Storer, Jr., who had been a newspaper pub- 
 lisher at Caldwell, New York, put out Vol. I. No. 1 
 of the Yankee, which had for its motto this unimpeach- 
 able legend : 'Where liberty dwells there is my country. ' 
 Three years later the Yankee became the Stonington 
 Telegraph, under which name it continued till July 22, 
 1829. Nearly complete files of these two papers are 
 in the possession of the writer, having descended to him 
 from Dr. David S. Hart, who had carefully preserved 
 them through many years. 
 
 The Stonington Phenix and the Stonington Chronicle 
 had brief successive existences in 1832-34. Their pub- 
 lishers were Charles W. Denison and William H. Bur- 
 leigh. Immediately following them, the Stonington 
 Spectator, issued by Thomas H. Peabody, continued 
 for six months. Franklin A. Palmer published the 
 Stonington Advertiser for a time in the fifties, and 
 Henry Clay Trumbull and others were associated, about 
 the same period, in the ephemeral publication of 
 "LuxMundi." 
 
 On November 27, 1869, Jerome S. Anderson issued 
 the first number of the Stonington Mirror, with which 
 was later consolidated the Mystic Journal (established 
 in 1859). These papers, identical except for their 
 headings, have had a continuous existence to the pres- 
 ent day and are now issued by the Stonington Pub- 
 lishing Company with Jerome S. Anderson, Jr., as the 
 editor. 
 
STONINGTON NEWSPAPERS 87 
 
 This list of Stonington newspapers is not absolutely 
 complete, but it comprises all the sheets that have 
 had more than a brief or inconsequent career. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE DISCOVEEY OF ANTARCTICA 
 
 To Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer of Stonington be- 
 longs the honor of discovering the Antarctic Continent. 
 He was a mere boy at the time, only twenty-one or 
 twenty-two years of age, but nevertheless the com- 
 mand of the sloop Hero had been entrusted to him. 
 The Hero was one of a little squadron of Stonington 
 vessels sent out to the sealing grounds in the South 
 Shetlands in 1820. The fleet consisted of the brig 
 Frederick, Capt. Benjamin Pendleton, the senior com- 
 mander; brig Hersilia, Capt. James P. Sheffield; 
 schooner Express, Capt. E. Williams ; schooner Free Gift, 
 Capt. F. Dunbar, and sloop Hero, Captain Palmer. 
 
 The vessels reached Yankee harbor, Deception Island, 
 during the season of 1820-1821, and from that place a 
 lookout on a day of unusually clear atmosphere discov- 
 ered from his post aloft a volcano in operation. The 
 fiery mountain was many miles distant to the south- 
 ward, but Captain Palmer, despite his youth, was dis- 
 patched in the Hero, a mere shallop, to examine the 
 region. 
 
 This adventurous voyage into the southern seas is 
 worth the attention of the poets, and indeed one poet, 
 the late Rev. Frederic Denison, has sung the episode in 
 
" The Hill," the Denison Homestead 
 
 Built by Row Hezekiah Woodruff, about 1795, and Remodelled by 
 
 Edward P. York, 1912 
 
 Thi: Lower End of Main Street 
 
DISCOVERY OF ANTARCTICA 89 
 
 rhythmic verse. Here was a boy hardly out of his teens, 
 in command of a 45-ton sloop, starting on a voyage of 
 discovery across an uncharted ocean, with only a smok- 
 ing volcano to guide him forward. In one way the 
 voyage was not productive of great results, for Captain 
 Palmer found little except rocks and ice in the volcanic 
 country. There was hardly any animal life and no 
 vegetation. But as a matter of geographical interest 
 the voyage was of first importance, because it brought 
 a new continent to light. 
 
 Only within a few years has it been absolutely de- 
 termined that there is a mass of land of truly continental 
 proportions around the South Pole, but the credit 
 for the discovery of Antarctica belongs to 'Cap'n Nat.' 
 Columbus discovered America, even though he thought 
 he had landed in India, and although he never set foot 
 on the North American Continent. 
 
 There is some uncertainty as to whether the land 
 visited by the Stonington sailor was part of the central 
 continental mass or separated from it by what is now 
 called Belgica Strait, but the question is of little real 
 importance. The Belgian expedition of a few years 
 ago determined to perpetuate the name of Captain 
 Palmer in the region by attaching it to the archipelago 
 west of the strait, whereas for many years ' 'Palmer 
 Land' ' was the accepted designation of a part at least 
 of what is now called "Graham Land" on British 
 charts. 
 
 Captain Palmer found the i*egion sterile and moun- 
 tainous, and difficult to land upon. It was almost cov- 
 
90 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 ered with snow and ice, although it was midsummer 
 when he visited it. 
 
 On his way back to the little squadron at Deception 
 Island the Hero was becalmed not far from the Antarc- 
 tic shore, and when the fog that had enshrouded the 
 sloop cleared away, Captain Palmer was surprised to 
 find that he had run between a Russian frigate and 
 sloop-of-war. Thereupon he hoisted the Stars and 
 Stripes and awaited developments. 
 
 The Russians set their own colors and sent a boat to 
 the Hero, inviting Captain Palmer to come aboard. 
 He accepted the invitation and was told that the com- 
 mander, Captain Bellingshausen, had been sent by the 
 Emperor of Russia on a voyage of discovery around 
 the world. Captain Palmer reported to him his own 
 prior discovery of Antarctica, and the Russian com- 
 mander was so impressed with the sight of a youth in 
 command of a slight vessel far from home and on such 
 a mission that he named the new-found country Pal- 
 mer Land. 
 
 Captain Palmer's own account, as recited by Hon. 
 Frederic Bush, United States consul at Hong Kong, 
 includes the following interesting note : 
 
 "I gave him (the Russian commander) an account 
 of my voyage, tonnage of sloop, number of men, and 
 general details, when he said: 'How far south have 
 you been?' I gave him the latitude and longitude of 
 my lowest point, and told him what I had discovered. 
 He, rose, much agitated, begging I would produce my 
 log book and chart, with which request I complied, 
 
DISCOVERY OF ANTARCTICA 91 
 
 and a boat was sent for it. . . When the log book 
 and chart were laid upon the table he examined them 
 carefully without comment, then rose from his seat, 
 asking : 'What do I see and what do I hear from a 
 boy in his teens — that he is commander of a tiny boat 
 of the size of a launch of my frigate, has pushed his 
 way to the pole through the storm and ice and sought 
 the point I, in command of one of the best appointed 
 fleets at the disposal of my august master, have for 
 three long, weary, anxious years searched day and 
 night for?' With his hand on my head, he added: 
 'What shall I say to my master? What will he think 
 of me? Be that as it may, my grief is your joy. Wear 
 your laurels, with my sincere prayers for your welfare. ' ' 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 FANNING S VOYAGES 
 
 Although the discovery of the Antarctic Continent 
 by Nathaniel B. Palmer was the most spectacular geo- 
 graphical achievement of any Stonington sailor, 
 Edmund Fanning sailed several long voyages that 
 brought him a great reputation as a navigator, made 
 many interesting discoveries and shed a brilliant lustre 
 on his native place. He was born at Stonington on 
 the 16th of July, 1769. 
 
 Fanning came of a prominent Stonington family, 
 though unfortunately the name long since disappeared 
 from the town. At the age of fourteen he first went 
 to sea, as a cabin boy; at eighteen, in June, 1797, 
 he was put in command of a merchant vessel, the brig 
 Betsey, and set forth on a journey around the world. 
 Although the brig started from New York, Stonington 
 was visited for the purpose of obtaining a New Eng- 
 land crew. In his famous book, "Voyages Round the 
 World, (1833), Captain Fanning says: 
 
 "When off Watch Hill point, she was brought to, 
 in order to discharge the pilot, and the occasion was 
 embraced as the best suited to ascertain the minds 
 and inclinations of the seamen. All hands were there- 
 fore mustered on deck, aft, and liberty was given all 
 
FANNING'S VOYAGES 93 
 
 such as were disinclined to proceed on the voyage, to 
 all those who were unwilling to encounter the dangers, 
 privations and sufferings usually attendant on similar 
 expeditions, now to return with the pilot. Notwith- 
 standing this, no one seemed so inclined, but all to a 
 man answered, their desire was to proceed on the voy- 
 age, confirming the same by three hearty cheers. And 
 here it may be remarked, that a more orderly and 
 cheerful crew never sailed round the world in any ves- 
 sel. The pilot accordingly returned by himself." 
 
 This is a significant picture of the sturdy class of sea- 
 faring men that Stonington produced more than a hun- 
 dred years ago. 
 
 It would be impossible in the brief space that can be 
 given in this volume to the achievements of Fanning 
 to follow him in his several voyages through the seven 
 seas. In the mid-Pacific he discovered many islands, 
 however, of which some mention must be made. 
 
 The New International Encyclopedia says of the 
 "Fanning Islands" that they were named for the Ston- 
 ington sailor, who discovered them in 1798; and it 
 describes them as being "a group of small islands in 
 the Pacific, scattered about a segment of the equator, 
 lying between longitudes 157 degrees and 163 degrees 
 W. " The area of the group it places at about 260 
 square miles, the chief islands being Christmas, Fan- 
 ning, Jarvis, Washington and Palmyra. ' ' Since 
 1888," says the cyclopedia, "they have belonged to 
 Great Britain. The population is estimated at 200." 
 
 Concerning the last-named, Palmyra Island, much 
 
94 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 international interest has recently been aroused, owing 
 to its annexation by the United States, in which fact 
 we may take a sentimental pleasure, for surely at least 
 one of the many islands discovered by Fanning ought 
 to be under the Stars and Stripes. 
 
 A glance at the map of the Pacific Ocean will show 
 that Palmyra Island lies almost directly west of the 
 Panama Canal. Its strategic importance is therefore 
 obvious, and the action of the United States in pro- 
 claiming sovereignty over it at this time is easily com- 
 prehensible. 
 
 In connection with his discovery of Palmyra, Cap- 
 tain Fanning says he turned in, at nine o'clock in the 
 evening of June ] 4, 1798, but in less than an hour found 
 himself, ' 'without being sensible of any movement or 
 exertion in getting there, on the upper steps of the 
 companion-way." Suddenly he awoke, exchanged a 
 few words with the officer of the deck and returned to 
 his berth, meditating on the strangeness of the incident, 
 as he never walked in his sleep. A second and a third 
 time he found himself mysteriously on deck, but the 
 last time he had unconsciously put on his outer gar- 
 ments and hat. "It was then," he says, "I conceived 
 some danger was nigh at hand, and determined upon 
 laying the ship to for the night ; she was at this time 
 going at the rate of five or six miles per hour." The 
 officer of the deck was clearly surprised at his com- 
 mander's perturbation, but Captain Fanning assured 
 him that he was well and possessed of his senses ; only 
 "something, what it was I could not tell, required 
 
FANNING'S VOYAGES 95 
 
 that these precautionary measures should be studiously 
 observed." When day dawned the breakers of Pal- 
 myra Island were discerned due ahead, only half an 
 hour from the spot where the ship was laid to for the 
 night. The commander saw in the incident "an evi- 
 dence of the Divine superintendence." 
 
 Captain Fanning describes Palmyra as a coral reef, 
 or shoal shaped like a crescent, eighteen miles in length 
 from north to south. He did not find a foot of ground, 
 rock or sand, above water where a boat might be hauled 
 up. A later visitor put its length at nine miles and 
 credited it with two lagoons, in one of which there 
 was water twenty fathoms deep, while on the northwest 
 side of the island he found "anchorage three-quarters 
 of a mile from the reef, in eighteen fathoms." 
 
 Hawaii proclaimed its ownership of Palmyra in 1882, 
 but six years later Great Britain annexed it, together 
 with various other islands that Fanning discovered. 
 Palmyra now reverts to us by virtue of our annexation 
 of Hawaii. 
 
 It is a pity we ever abandoned our claim to these 
 mid-Pacific islands. They were ours in the beginning 
 by right of discovery. They bear the name of our 
 Stonington world-voyager and are his best monument, 
 but except for Palmyra they are under the British flag. 
 If we possessed them now, we would not lightly let 
 them go ; but they are England's and their value to 
 our transatlantic cousins is indicated in the news that 
 the Admiralty intends to fortify them. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 TALES AND TRADITIONS 
 
 Now that the concluding pages of this book are 
 at hand, it seems as if many important or enlivening 
 matters had been neglected, although of course it would 
 be impossible in so small a volume to set down every 
 salient incident in the history of the place or relate any 
 considerable number of the tales and traditions that 
 are interwoven with its more serious record. A few 
 of the latter, however, should be preserved for the 
 sake of their mild and pleasant oldtime flavor. 
 
 One of these tales comes to mind at the moment. It 
 was told by the late William C. Stanton of Westerly : 
 
 A certain citizen of Stonington laid a wager that 
 a man could not walk backward to Westerly in a given 
 time. The amount wagered was, perhaps, ten dollars. 
 The party of the second part — the man who took 
 the bet — selected Andrew Stanton (father of William 
 C. ) to make the journey, because for years he had 
 worked in a rope walk and had become toughened to 
 reverse pedestrianism. The course was from the liberty 
 pole at the head of the breakwater to the middle of the 
 bridge over the Pawcatuck river, and Horace Niles ac- 
 companied the walker on horseback with a watch. It 
 is perhaps superfluous to say that the well-trained rope- 
 
o - 
 z 9 
 
TALES AND TRADITIONS 97 
 
 maker finished the five miles and a half within the time 
 allotted him. 
 
 Thomas Ash died in Stonington of cholera about 
 1849-50, at which time there was a cholera scare 
 throughout this part of the country. Mr. Samuel H. 
 Chesebro, whose father opened a grocery store on Water 
 street in 1837, says the people of the town were so 
 fearful of the disease they would buy no vegetables, 
 while the demand for soda crackers was greater than 
 the supply. 
 
 As a boy Mr. Stanton saw the first train start from 
 Stonington for Providence in 1837. He climbed the 
 fence at the south side of the Congregational church to 
 see it go by. It was drawn by horses, the borough 
 authorities being fearful lest the new fire-machines — 
 locomotives, that is to say, should set the town ablaze 
 with their spark-belching chimneys. To this day the 
 foundations laid for the railroad's first roundhouse may 
 be seen near Orchard street, outside of what was then 
 the settled portion of the place. 
 
 At a meeting of the borough freemen at the Con- 
 gregational conference room, August 9, 1837, there 
 was read and accepted a report of a committee ap- 
 pointed some months previous (before the great fire of 
 April) to ascertain the intentions of the railroad com- 
 pany "as to the location of their road within the limits 
 of this borough. " It was voted that the warden and bur- 
 gesses be requested "to frame a Bye Law to prevent 
 the passing within the limits of the Borough of Loco- 
 
98 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 motive Engines propell'd by Steam and to affix penal- 
 ties." 
 
 The warden and burgesses on August 21st gave no- 
 tice to the railroad company through Mr. Whistler 
 not to lay its rails in or across any of the streets or 
 highways of the borough. 
 
 On November 18th a meeting of the freemen of the 
 borough passed a by-law forbidding any vehicle to be 
 drawn in or across any highway at a rate of more than 
 five miles an hour ; and a penalty of two dollars for each 
 offence was fixed. 
 
 Thus early the citizens of Stonington realized the 
 annoyance and danger of the branch track that bisects 
 our principal streets at grade. Yet in 1837 trains 
 were infrequent of movement and insignificant in size. 
 
 As an illustration of the possible survival of colonial 
 prejudices spoken of in a previous chapter, the story 
 may be told of the Stonington man who painted his 
 house red. "Regular Rhode Island taste," was the 
 contemptuous comment of a relative. 
 
 A few years ago the oldest Congregational clergyman 
 in Connecticut, Rev. Amos S. Chesebrough, a native 
 of the borough, wrote a series of reminiscences which 
 were published in the Stonington Mirror. In the course 
 of these he recalls many amusing tales of his boy- 
 hood days, for instance one concerning the excellent 
 daughter of a pious deacon of the place: "His daughter 
 was as good as her father and a story is told of one of 
 the neighboring deacons who, having lost his wife, after 
 a long and distressing illness, came to see Miss Fellows 
 the very evening after her funeral and proposed mar- 
 
TALES AND TRADITIONS 99 
 
 riage. She was of course shocked and said to him, 
 'Why, Deacon, is not this too sudden?' 'Oh, no,' 
 he replied, 'I picked you out some time ago ;' and she 
 made him a good wife and nurse in his declining years. " 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Chesebrough also tells in his 
 reminiscences of an old-time training day, when the 
 local military organization, the First Company, Eighth 
 Connecticut Militia, paraded through the borough. 
 Francis Amy was captain, Charles H. Smith lieutenant, 
 Peleg Hancox ensign, Giles C. Smith sergeant, and 
 Azariah Stanton second sergeant. 
 
 Marching down Main street, the trig militiamen 
 passed the house of Captain William Potter, whose 
 daughter was engaged to the drummer of the company. 
 "As they came marching past, " says Mr. Chesebrough, 
 'he espied his fiancee at the window, and, wishing to 
 do his best and make all the music at his command, as 
 a salute, he beat the drum with so much spirit that he 
 pounded the drumhead in and spoiled the music for the 
 day, which was not very well pleasing to the captain." 
 
 Mr. Chesebrough says of the Rev. Ira Hart, (who 
 died in 1829), "I remember his looks distinctly; rather 
 stocky in build, with large, round full face and double 
 chin and a dignified gait, always carrying a gold-headed 
 cane. He had the reputation of being a good preacher 
 and an excellent pastor of his flock, but we boys were 
 afraid of him and did not like to meet him face to face. 
 For one thing he was noted — his high Calvinistic the- 
 ology. I remember once, as the congregation was 
 coming; out of the audience room of the church in the 
 
100 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 borough, hearing Samuel Denison say something like 
 this: 'I don't believe that doctrine. ' Election, perhaps 
 it was. It seems strange that although the people of 
 that day were strict in their views of the right training 
 of children, they did not believe in child piety ; child- 
 ren were to be brought up to be converted after they 
 arrived at maturity." 
 
 The old fort from which the British attack was re- 
 pelled in 1814 "became a favorite place for the boys 
 to gather for play. It went by the name of the Grass- 
 hopper Fort, and it was a matter of general regret to 
 see it levelled down so that the space occupied by it 
 might be used for a shipyard. Eliakim Cannon, who 
 lived in the old Oliver York place, built a number of 
 vessels in that yard." 
 
 Mr. Chesebrough says that in his boyhood a great 
 gate "faced the head of Water street (at about the 
 present southwest corner of Wadawanuck Park), but 
 there was then no road connecting it with the road 
 running north to the bridge and cove, but just south 
 of the salt works (near the present site of the railroad 
 station) was a crossroad so that teams moving out of 
 the village by way of Front (Main) street could cross 
 over to the road which leads north by the Grandison 
 barn and to the Mystics. I well remember the interest 
 of all when Water street was extended through the 
 Robinson pasture to the Mystic road. This gate then 
 opened into a large lot of unoccupied land called the 
 Robinson pasture, where later stood the Wadawanuck 
 Hotel and where now stand the (colored) Third Baptist 
 
TALES AND TRADITIONS 101 
 
 Church and many other buildings." The pasture was 
 rocky, as most Stonington pastures are, and much of 
 the material for the breakwater was taken from it by 
 Captain Charles E. Smith, the contractor who built the 
 famous old stone pier. 
 
 The Robinson family, for whom the pasture was 
 named, have no survivors in Stonington who bear the 
 family name. But the Robinson burying-ground on 
 Broad street still bears its solemn witness to their half- 
 forgotten connection with the borough. 
 
 One more story, of later date, may serve to close this 
 rambling chapter. Not many years ago on election 
 day the writer met a well-known veteran of the Civil 
 War coming from the polls. It was in the time of the 
 former ballot law, when each voter had to place the 
 small white ballot of his own particular party in an 
 envelope and seal it while sacredly isolate within the 
 voting booth. "Good afternoon, Major," I said. 
 "How goes the world with you?" "Begorra, I'm in 
 bad luck to-day," was his melancholy response, "I live 
 in the city now, you know, and every year when I come 
 home to vote the Doctor gives me a little prescription 
 for m' stomach's sake. And faith! I've made a mis- 
 take and voted m' prescription." 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 STONINGTON TO-DAY 
 
 The township to-day stretches from the Pawcatuck 
 River on the east to the Mystic River on the west — 
 as varied and charming a reach of country as may be 
 found in many a day's journey. 
 
 Other towns of Connecticut are as beautiful in their 
 alternations of hill and valley, but no other town in the 
 state borders upon the Atlantic Ocean. The neigh- 
 boring shore towns of Rhode Island front upon the 
 ocean but lack the thick forests that canopy the country 
 roads within a mile of Stonington by the Sea. 
 
 The census of 1910 gave the town a population of 
 9154 ; it has somewhat in excess of that to-day. The 
 borough, with its immediate environs, contains 2500 
 inhabitants, while Pawcatuck has 4000 and Mystic 
 and Old Mystic have, within the town, 2000 or more. 
 
 For many years after the settlement of the town in 
 1 649 the people were Congregationalists ; Church 
 and State were almost synonymous ; but two centuries 
 and a half have wrought, chiefly through immigration, 
 a great religious change. The writer is indebted to 
 Mr. William B. Snow of Willimantic for the results 
 of a religious census of the town taken by Mr. E. N. 
 Seelye and himself for the Connecticut Bible Society in 
 
STONINGTON TO-DAY 103 
 
 1907. There was found within the town a population 
 of 9419, (mark the excess over the Federal census of 
 three years later), divided into 2290 families. The 
 leading branches of the Church were represented by the 
 following number of persons : Roman Catholic 3747, 
 Baptist 1939, Congregational 1178, Episcopal 1126, 
 Methodist 586, Christian 264, Seventh Day Baptist 
 186, Lutheran 146, Hebrew 23, Presbyterian 16, Uni- 
 tarian 1 1 . Even the Latter Day Saints had 7 adherents 
 and the Greek Catholic Church 6. 
 
 By nationality the division was in part: Americans, 
 5568, Irish 1147, English 619, Germans 613, Portu- 
 guese 425, Italians 320, Scotch 216, French Canadians 
 128, Canadians 127, Austrians 42, Poles 41, Russians 
 23, and scattering representations of several other 
 peoples. It need hardly be said that this diversity of 
 races is common throughout southern New England in 
 these opening years of the twentieth century. 
 
 Not many years ago Stonington was said to be, in 
 proportion to population, the richest town in Con- 
 necticut. A law was passed, however, by the provi- 
 sions of which stocks, bonds and mortgages, formerly 
 assessable in each town, might be taxed at a low rate 
 at Hartford. This caused an immediate shrinkage in 
 the "grand list" of Stonington. In recent years, 
 nevertheless, the town's valuation has made a sub- 
 stantial advance, the figures for 1912 being $5,929,- 
 321, again of $130,384 over 1911. 
 
 So much for bare statistics. How little they tell of 
 the real development of the town, its picturesque his- 
 
104 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 tory, the individual character and charm of Stonington 
 by the Sea ! 
 
 The special flavor and dignity that Stonington unques- 
 tionably possesses — we are speaking now of the borough 
 — may be said to be the composite effect of many and 
 diverse causes. 
 
 First among these is its natural situation. The 
 ocean has had much to do with making Stonington 
 what it is. The going down of generations of men 
 and youth to the sea in ships ; the alternate spectacle of 
 blue waves and silver fog ; the smell of the salt ; the 
 sound of the harbor bell on misty nights ; the boom of 
 the surf, subdued by distance to a pleasant melody, 
 beyond Napatree ; the sunset glow that wraps the sea 
 and land in Roman scarves of fascinating tints; the 
 ultramarine of the wintry harbor against Wamphasset's 
 shining snows ; the sentiment of breadth, the feeling of 
 freedom, that come from contact and friendship with 
 the Atlantic — these are some of the elements of beauty 
 and strength with which nature has wrought upon the 
 place an inescapable spell. 
 
 Another reason for the differentiation of Stonington 
 from its neighbors may be found in the early establish- 
 ment of its borough form of government. This has 
 given it separate shape and direction, emphasized its 
 individuality, contributed to its proper pride and com- 
 munity of purpose. It is the oldest borough in the 
 State, and therefore in New England. Since 1801 it 
 has been a small imperium in imperio, a semi-inde- 
 pendent government within the larger government of 
 
The Wadawanuck House 
 
 Built 1S.U; a fashionable hotel for several decades; torn down in the - '<< K 
 rare photograph shows it in its later years 
 
 This 
 
 House of Chandler n. Wayland 
 
 Originally the home of Charles P. Williams 
 
STONINGTON TO-DAY 105 
 
 the town. It has been administered not in the lax 
 fashion of the unincorporated village but by a board 
 of warden and burgesses analogous to the characteristic 
 mayor and council of a city. It has provided itself 
 with many public improvements — notably street lights, 
 hydrants, and side and cross walks. Is there another 
 Connecticut community of the same size, or of double 
 the size, in which one may go dry-shod everywhere in 
 wet weather? A recent visitor said, "Stonington is 
 not so much a village as it is a little town." The dis- 
 tinction is just. 
 
 The old whaling days brought large wealth to Ston- 
 ington by the Sea. Great houses were built, preten- 
 tious mansions erected by lavish owners in the midst of 
 pleasant lawns and trees. A charming society grew 
 up recruited from the cities and fostered by the pres- 
 ence of the fashionable Wadawanuck Hotel. The 
 "Day place" and other hospitable homes flung 
 wide their doors to house parties of clever wom- 
 en and accomplished men. Some of the finest boats 
 of the New York Yacht Club rendezvoused in the har- 
 bor. 
 
 It is needless to say that openhearted hospitality, 
 the interchange of gentle courtesies, the assemblage of 
 trained minds and keen wits, the liberal outpouring of 
 the good things of the world — a society, in short, based 
 on experience, culture and intelligence — exert an influ- 
 ence that lasts and is easily recognizable when the era 
 that produced them has become little more than a tra- 
 dition. 
 
106 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 Among the other influences that have contributed to 
 impress on Stonington a quality of its own should be 
 mentioned its long career as a railroad and steamboat 
 terminal. In 1837 it became the western end of the 
 New York, Providence and Boston Railroad, which 
 extended eastward to Providence and connected here 
 with the Stonington Line of steamers for New York. 
 On the evening of the day of the opening of the road, 
 November tenth, 1837, the official party of inspection 
 having traversed the distance to Providence and re- 
 turned in safety (despite the breakdown of the train 
 at East Greenwich), an elaborate celebration took place 
 at the Wadawanuck Hotel, which had just been built 
 for the express purpose of providing a convenient 
 stopping place for travellers between New York and 
 Boston. 
 
 From that time forward with the exception of some 
 three years, the Stonington Line maintained its night- 
 ly service to New York, until 1904, when it was 
 merged in the Norwich (now the New London) Line. 
 
 Stonington is no longer a transportation terminal, 
 except for the summer ferry to Watch Hill. Its high- 
 ways are no longer blocked by the switching trains 
 that for so many years puffed and clanged up and 
 down the grade from the steamboat dock to Main 
 street. It finds it hard to realize that it is no 
 more a railroad and steamboat town, but the deserted 
 switching yard and the silent wharves nearby bear un- 
 mistakable testimony to the fact. 
 
 One more factor in the individualization of Stoning- 
 
STONINGTON TO-DAY 107 
 
 ton by the Sea may be said to be its proximity to 
 Rhode Island. It is not quite a Connecticut commu- 
 nity in the accepted sense of the term. Sandy Point, 
 the extreme tip of Rhode Island territory, approaches 
 within a mile of it, while with Westerly its relations 
 have long been industrially and commercially intimate. 
 
 The first President Dwight of Yale College in his 
 famous book of travels bemoans the condition of relig- 
 ion in Stonington, which he blames upon the 
 heretic sects of its neighboring State. Be this as it 
 may, there can be no doubt that its contact with lib- 
 erty-loving Rhode Island — a strongly individualized 
 commonwealth to this day — has reacted upon it and 
 given it a certain variety — one may say a certain pi- 
 quancy and tinge — it would not otherwise possess. 
 
 At the present time, 191 3, Stonington by the Sea, in- 
 cluding the thickly-settled district just beyond the bor- 
 ough boundaries, contains by estimate between seven 
 and eight hundred buildings — dwelling houses, shops 
 and stores. It is built on a severe rectangular pat- 
 tern, with two chief streets running north and south 
 for practically the entire length of the "Long Point" 
 of other days. Main street, as its name indicates, was 
 once the principal business thoroughfare ; now it is es- 
 sentially a residential street and a majority of the stores 
 are on Water street, nearer the harbor. The harbor 
 is commodious and safe, having been dredged to a great 
 depth and hedged in by three stone breakwaters. The 
 custom house on Main street is a profitable Govern- 
 ment institution, exceeding the New London custom 
 
108 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 house in amount of collections and requiring a far less 
 expenditure in proportion to these. Established 
 in 1842, it has survived the rise and fall of the whaling 
 and sealing business, the transfer of the New York 
 boats to another terminus and the vicissitudes of a once 
 large shipbuilding industry. 
 
 There is, to-day, an important lumber trade be- 
 tween Stonington and the Canadian provinces, and the 
 Stonington custom district comprises within its borders 
 portions of three States, Rhode Island, Connecticut 
 and New York. In other words, it includes Westerly, 
 Mystic, Noank and Fisher's Island. 
 
 Stonington Borough has two large manufacturing 
 corporations, the elder of which, the At wood Machine 
 Company, is the largest maker of silk machinery in the 
 world ; while the other, the American Velvet Company, 
 ranks among the leaders in its line. There is also an 
 important coastwise fishing business which centres at 
 this port. 
 
 As a place of residence Stonington has many attrac- 
 tions. It is unusually cool in summer and mild in win- 
 ter. It is but three hours and a half from New York, 
 two hours and twenty minutes from Boston and an hour 
 and a quarter from Providence. It is the seat of the 
 new Stonington union high school, the fine resultant 
 of a merging of the four scattered high schools of the 
 town; an institution numbering 176 students in the 
 current year, of whom 88, exactly half, are in the 
 freshman class. The Stonington Free Library, estab- 
 lished in 1888, occupies a fine building of its own, the 
 
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STONINGTON TO-DAY 109 
 
 gift of the late Samuel D. Babeock and Erskine M. 
 Phelps, on Wadawanuck Park, is endowed with a fund 
 of twenty thousand dollars bequeathed it by Mr. 
 Phelps, and has between six and seven thousand vol- 
 umes on its shelves. 
 
 A Travel Club, with an average attendance of fifty 
 at its weekly sessions, is now in its sixth year and study- 
 ing France. A Men's Club meets twice a month in 
 the winter to listen to speakers, usually from out of 
 town, on interesting and important subjects, and has 
 one hundred and forty members on its roll. An an- 
 nual lecture course is maintained at a high level of ex- 
 cellence, the speakers for the present year including 
 Dean Charles R. Brown and Professor William Lyon 
 Phelps of Yale. 
 
 Under the important new conditions wrought by the 
 twentieth century in American life, the village and 
 small town, like everything else, have changed. The 
 oldtime isolation of Stonington, as of many other 
 communities, has been substantially done away with. 
 
 We are now in close contact with the city, share in 
 its advantages and measurably mould our thought in 
 accordance with it. Our favorite New York morning 
 paper lies beside our plate at the breakfast table ; the 
 telephone puts us with marvellous promptness in touch 
 with many a distant friend ; the parcel post has en- 
 larged our shopping district a hundredfold ; the trolley 
 has bound us with its shining steel and incomprehensible 
 current to all our neighboring towns — has produced in 
 southeastern Connecticut and southwestern Rhode 
 
110 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 Island what is practically a consolidated community, 
 so that we are, in the phrase of the Apostle, the inhab- 
 itants of no mean city. Old divisions, old prejudices, 
 are minimized by reason of our new facilities for trans- 
 portation and communication. We think across larger 
 radii — the innumerable little circles of community in- 
 terests everywhere in America are expanding and over- 
 lapping. The process is one of the most fascinating 
 and significant of modern social phenomena in the 
 United States. 
 
 For reasons like these life in the country and the 
 smaller towns has assumed new attractiveness to many 
 city people. 
 
 The drift to the centres of population has met 
 a reverse tide that is setting back to the open 
 fields, the village squares, the old New England streets 
 with their white Colonial houses bowered in maples, 
 elms and lilacs. If we lack the dramatic and musical 
 attractions of the great town, its restless social quest 
 and adventure, we have pure air and unimpeded sun- 
 shine, the brisk friendliness of the ocean winds and the 
 faithful companionship of the hills. We know the 
 year in all its moods and whimsies ; the Procession 
 of the Months becomes to us a colorful and charming 
 pageant, and in the rival show of the successive seasons 
 Winter reveals herself the subtlest artist of them all. 
 
 To those, however, who may be interested in Ston- 
 ington for what it has to offer in the summer months 
 the assurance can be given of an invigorating at- 
 mosphere throughout the heated term, of days tempered 
 
STONINGTON TO-DAY 111 
 
 by the wind from the sea and nights of refreshing 
 coolness and silence. A generation ago Stonington 
 was a famous summer resort ; the Wadawanuck drew 
 many guests from distant States long before Watch 
 Hill had loomed upon the social horizon. In recent 
 years there has been a marked tendency toward the 
 permanent acquisition of summer homes in the borough 
 and its vicinity by people from the cities. In some 
 instances elaborate new houses have been built ; in 
 others old houses have been remodelled and modernized. 
 Thus, to name some of them at random, we have Stone- 
 ridge, Brookdale, Farmholme, Shawandasee, The Pop- 
 lars, The Hill, The Homestead, Rocky Ledge, Bythe- 
 sea, Shore Meadows, Covelawn and Grey Knoll. We 
 have also the "Day place," with its ninety acres of 
 surrounding meadows and wooded hills, converted into 
 the Stonington Manor Inn, a thoroughly inviting hotel, 
 mainly for motorists but open to us all. As in the 
 "sixties" the Wadawanuck sometimes registered a 
 hundred new guests in a day, so the Inn in its initial 
 summer of 1912 became the objective point for scores 
 of automobile parties on many a pleasant afternoon. 
 
 As I write these closing words of this little volume, 
 it is eleven o'clock of a January night and the wind is 
 blowing a hurricane outside. There has not been such 
 a storm in years along the New England coast — and 
 only yesterday we were basking in the bright sunshine 
 of an exceptionally genial winter. The barometer 
 has fallen below 29 and the southwest tempest is howl- 
 ing like a hungry wolf at the corner of the house. Yet 
 
112 STONINGTON BY THE SEA 
 
 this grim weather has a charm of its own in Stonington 
 by the Sea. It is full of mystery and the suggestion 
 of power, and one feels close to elemental nature as the 
 gale sweeps by, singing like a cataract in the tops of 
 the trees. It is an invisible spirit phiying upon a vis- 
 ible world, the symbol of the Unseen and the Eternal. 
 And here by my shaded lamp I listen to its melody 
 and fury, and see in my mind's eye the flooded marshes 
 beyond the town, the rocky beaches where the great 
 waves roll in, and the turbulent open ocean from Wic- 
 opeset to Napatree unsheltered by any land this side 
 of Spain. 
 
 A wild night it is, but with something in it kindred 
 to the restlessness of the human heart and will. And, 
 listening to the wind as it surges and breaks, roars and 
 whispers and roars again, who could fail to be 
 touched anew with the beauty and dignity of the varied 
 year in Stonington by the Sea ! 
 
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