i6 3 8 
 
 FOUNDERS' DAY 
 
 1888 
 
 New Haven, Conn.
 
 PROCEEDINGS 
 
 IN COMMEMORATION 
 
 OF THE SETTLEMENT OF THE 
 
 , Town of New Haven 
 
 APRIL 25TH, 1888.
 
 F THIS 
 
 WORHIP- OF GOD, 
 
 A granite tablet, a cut of which is printed above, was inserted by order 
 of the committee in the west wall of the brick store at the corner of 
 College and George streets. 
 
 The oak tree, beneath whose shade the first public Christian worship in 
 New Haven was observed, is said by tradition to have stood about twenty 
 feet north of George street and forty-five feet east of College street.
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 The first steps towards the celebration of the 25oth anniver- 
 sary of the settlement of New Haven were taken at a special 
 town meeting held in Loomis' Temple of Music, .December 
 22d, 1887, previous notice in legal form having been given. 
 At this meeting the following votes were passed : 
 
 Voted, That the sum of one thousand dollars be and is 
 hereby appropriated from the treasury of the town for the 
 purpose of properly celebrating the 25oth anniversary of the 
 settlement of the town of New Haven, if in the judgment of 
 the Board of Selectmen they should deem it best ; provided 
 that the Selectmen enquire into the legality of expending 
 such sum. 
 
 Voted, That said sum be expended at the discretion of the 
 Selectmen, and that said celebration should be of a civic and 
 historical, rather than of a military character. 
 
 In accordance with this action, a public hearing of citizens 
 interested in t the celebration was held February ist, 1888, in 
 response to an invitation published by the selectmen in the 
 daily papers. At a second hearing, held February 24th, those 
 present voted to appoint the following committee to co-operate 
 with the selectmen in managing the celebration : 
 
 From the Selectmen JAMES REYNOLDS, GEORGE M. WHITE. 
 
 From the Chamber of Commerce HENRY G. LEWIS, HENRY 
 S. DAWSON, N. D. SPERRY, MAX ABLER, JAMES D. DEWELL, 
 JAMES P. PIGOTT. 
 
 From the New Haven Colony Historical Society THOMAS R. 
 TROWBRIDGE, JOHNSON T. PLATT, RUEL P. COWLES, SIMEON 
 E. BALDWIN. 
 
 From Yale University FRANKLIN B. DEXTER. 
 From the Board of Education HORACE DAY. 
 
 2013174
 
 From the Grand Army of the Republic LEWIS B. BROWN, E. E. 
 TISDALE, DAVID S. THOMAS, NATHAN EASTERBROOK, JR. 
 
 From the New Haven Congregational Club JUSTIN E. TWITCHELL. 
 From the Hopkins Grammar School GEORGE L. Fox. 
 
 From the Citizens of the Town HENRY B. HARRISON, L. S. 
 
 PUNDERSON. 
 
 Various sub-committees to represent the different interests 
 involved were subsequently appointed, and additions were 
 made to the general committee from time to time. This com- 
 mittee as finally constituted was as follows : 
 
 JAMES REYNOLDS, Chairman. 
 NATHAN EASTERBROOK, JR., Secretary. 
 
 MAX ADLER, FRANK E. CRAIG, 
 
 CHARLES W. ALLEN, M. C. CREMIN, 
 
 E. D. BASSETT, HENRY S. DAWSON, 
 
 SIMEON E. BALDWIN, HORACE DAY, 
 
 T. ATTWATER BARNES FRANKLIN B. DEXTER, 
 
 WILLIAM A. BEERS, CLARENCE DEMING, 
 
 J. J. BRENNAN, JAMES D. DEWELL, 
 
 ISAAC E. BROWN, GEORGE L. DICKERMAN, 
 
 LEWIS B. BROWN, EDWARD F. DURAND, 
 
 E. E. BRADLEY, H. W. DURAND, ' 
 
 JOHN C. BRADLEY, TIMOTHY DWIGHT, 
 
 HENRY T. BLAKE, JOHN E. EARLE, 
 
 CHARLES F. BOLLMANN, B. E. ELMSTEDT, 
 
 SAMUEL BOLTON, CHARLES H. FARNAM, 
 
 CALEB B. BOWERS, HENRY W. FARNAM, 
 
 WILLIAM H. CARMALT, Louis FELDMAN, 
 
 HIRAM CAMP, GEORGE L. Fox, 
 
 R. H. CHITTENDEN, SIMEON J. Fox, 
 
 RUEL P. COWLES, GEORGE H. FORD, 
 
 DANIEL COLWELL, CHARLES FLEISCHNER, 
 
 EDWIN W. COOPER, W. J. FULLER.
 
 JAMES GALLAGHER, JR., 
 HENRY C. GOODWIN, 
 J. P. GOODHART, 
 W. L. GUNNING, 
 HENRY B. HARRISON, 
 A. C. HENDRICK, 
 HENRY L. HILL, 
 CONRAD HOFACKER, 
 FRANK HUGO, 
 ALFRED HUGHES, 
 CHARLES R. INGERSOLL, 
 L. H. JOHNSON, 
 ALBERT H. KELLAM, 
 ERNEST KLENKE, 
 FRANK T. LEE, 
 HENRY G. LEWIS, 
 AUGUSTUS E. LINES, 
 HENRY W. MANSFIELD, 
 PATRICK McKENNA, 
 EZRA P. MERRIAM, 
 CHARLES G. MERRIMAN, 
 S. E. MERWIN, 
 JAMES T. MORAN, 
 GEORGE N. MOSES, 
 JAMES T. MULLEN, 
 S. M. MUNSON, 
 CHARLES A. NETTLETON, 
 CHARLES N. NOTT, 
 
 M. C. O'CONNER, 
 
 HENRY PECK, 
 HENRY F. PECK, 
 
 JAMES P. PIGOTT, 
 JOHNSON T. PLATT, 
 J. D. PLUNKETT, 
 L. S. PUNDERSON, 
 WILLIAM REBMAN. 
 JOHN B. ROBERTSON, 
 WILLIAM C. ROBINSON, 
 J. P. RICHARDS, 
 JOHN RUFF, 
 PAUL Russo, 
 CHARLES W. SCRANTON, 
 C. SLEICHER, 
 STEPHEN R. SMITH, 
 N. D. SPERRY, 
 HORACE H. STRONG, 
 W. F. STERNBERG, 
 PETER TERHUNE, 
 DAVID S. THOMAS, 
 
 E. E. TlSDALE, 
 
 CHARLES H. TOWNSEND, 
 THOMAS R. TROWBRIDGE, 
 MORRIS F. TYLER, 
 JUSTIN E. TWITCHELL, 
 
 F. H. WALDRON, 
 GEORGE M. WHITE, 
 WILLIAM W. WHITE, 
 JAMES D. WHITMORE, 
 ELI WHITNEY, JR., 
 THEODORE D. WOOLSEY, 
 SAMUEL A. YORK, 
 MAIER ZUNDER. 
 
 The following sub-committees had charge of the details 
 of the celebration :
 
 FINANCE. 
 
 ELI WHITNEY, JR., Chairman. 
 THOMAS R. TROWBRIDGE, MAX ABLER, 
 
 CHARLES H. TOWNSEND, PATRICK MCKENNA. 
 
 INVITATIONS. 
 HENRY G. LEWIS, Chairman. 
 
 HENRY B. HARRISON, JOHNSON T. PLATT, 
 
 MORRIS F. TYLER, CLARENCE DEMING. 
 
 YALE UNIVERSITY. 
 TIMOTHY DWIGHT, Chairman. 
 FRANKLIN B. DEXTER, HENRY W. FARNAM, 
 
 WILLIAM C. ROBINSON, WILLIAM H. CARMALT. 
 
 CITY GOVERNMENT. 
 
 SAMUEL A. YORK, Chairman. 
 JAMES D. WHITMORE, JAMES T. MORAN, 
 
 GEORGE L. DICKERMAN, CHARLES FLEISCHNER. 
 
 MILITARY AND FIRE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 E. E. BRADLEY, Chairman. 
 
 A. C. HENDRICK, CHARLES H. FARNAM, 
 
 H. H. STRONG, FRANK T. LEE. 
 
 CIVIC SOCIETIES. 
 
 A. H. KELLAM, Chairman. 
 
 JAMES T. MULLEN, FRANK HUGO, 
 
 E. F. DURAND, L. H. JOHNSON, 
 
 CONRAD HOFACKER, H. W. DURAND, 
 
 FRANK E. CRAIG, HENRY C. GOODWIN, 
 
 M. C. CREMIN, WILLIAM REBMAN, 
 
 SAMUEL BOLTON, HENRY L. HILL, 
 
 DANIEL COLWELL, WILLIAM F. STERNBERG, 
 
 PETER TERHUNE, JAMES GALLAGHER, JR., 
 
 J. P. RICHARDS, PAUL Russo, 
 
 M. C. O'CoNNER, GEORGE N. MOSES, 
 W. J. FULLER.
 
 SCHOOLS. 
 
 HORACE DAY, Chairman. 
 
 J. D. PLUNKETT, MAIER ZUNDER, 
 
 HENRY F. PECK, GEORGE L. Fox. 
 
 ORATION, PUBLIC EXERCISES AND HALL. 
 
 JAMES REYNOLDS, Chairman. 
 CHARLES R. INGERSOLL, N. D. SPERRY, 
 
 THOMAS R. TROWBRIDGE, JAMES D. DEWELL. 
 
 MEDALS AND MEMORIALS. 
 
 HENRY T. BLAKE, Chairman. 
 S. E. BALDWIN, N. D. SPERRY, 
 
 E. D. BASSETT, HORACE DAY, 
 
 JOHN E. EARLE, THOMAS R. TROWBRIDGE, 
 
 R. H. CHITTENDEN. 
 
 PRINTING AND BADGES. 
 
 D. S. THOMAS, Chairman. 
 
 CHARLES W. SCRANTON, GEORGE H. FORD, 
 
 SIMEON J. Fox, EZRA P. MERRIAM. 
 
 PROCESSION, MARSHAL, MUSIC AND 
 LINE OF MARCH. 
 
 S. E. MERWIN, Chairman. 
 
 S. R. SMITH, GEORGE M. WHITE, 
 
 T. ATTWATER BARNES, CHARLES F. BOLLMANN, 
 
 HORACE DAY. 
 
 CARRIAGES. 
 
 FRED. H. WALDRON, Chairman. 
 CHARLES FLEISCHNER, CHARLES H. R. NOTT.
 
 REVISION AND PUBLICATION. 
 
 HORACE DAY, Chairman. 
 H. W. FARNAM, JAMES D. WHITMORE. 
 
 LANCASTERIAN SCHOOL. 
 
 JOHN C. BRADLEY, Chairman. 
 WILLIAM W. WHITE, HENRY PECK, 
 
 AUGUSTUS E. LINES, CHARLES G. MERRIMAN, 
 
 HENRY W. MANSFIELD, CHARLES W. ALLEN. 
 
 It was soon felt that the original appropriation made by the 
 town would not be sufficient to defray the expenses of the 
 celebration. Upon the recommendation of the committee, a 
 special town meeting was accordingly called for March i5th, 
 1888, and an additional appropriation of two thousand dollars 
 was then made. At a meeting of the committee held March 
 29th, it was voted that the day of the celebration be named 
 " Founders' Day." 
 
 The Committee on Procession had originally appointed 
 General S. R. Smith as chief marshal of the day. The death 
 of Mrs. Smith, however, made it impossible for him to act, 
 and Major T. Attwater Barnes, who had been appointed 
 as General Smith's chief of staff, was requested to act as 
 marshal^in his place. 
 
 No medal was struck by the general committee to commem- 
 orate the celebration, but Mr. Theiler, of Meriden, was author- 
 ized to make one as a matter of private enterprise. 
 
 The general committee held in all eleven meetings, the 
 full records of which have been copied in a book and placed 
 by Mr. Easterbrook, the secretary of the committee, in the 
 library of the New Haven Colony Historical Society. 
 
 The landing of the earliest settlers having taken place on 
 the 1 5th of April, 1638, O. S., it was decided to hold the cele- 
 bration on the corresponding day of the new calendar, that is 
 to say on the 25th of April. 
 
 The official exercises consisted of a procession 'in the morn- 
 ing and commemorative exercises in the Center Church in the 
 afternoon. As the school children were largely represented 
 in the procession, a leaflet was prepared at the request of the 
 Committee by Mr. Horace Day, secretary of the Board of
 
 9 
 
 Education, giving the leading facts with regard to the various 
 places of historical interest about the town, which were indi- 
 cated by appropriate inscriptions. Twenty thousand copies 
 of this leaflet were printed for gratuitous distribution. 
 
 The former pupils of Mr. John E. Lovell's Lancasterian 
 School, after taking part in the procession, held a reunion, 
 which, though not a part of the official programme, seems to 
 possess sufficient interest to warrant us in appending a brief 
 account of it to this pamphlet. 
 
 Finally, as the tax-payers have a right to know how the 
 money which they voted has been spent by the committee, we 
 have also printed the report of the treasurer. 
 
 These various topics will be found below in the following 
 order : 
 
 (i.) Leaflet for School Children ; 
 (2.) Order of Procession and Line of March ; 
 (3.) Order of Exercises in Center Church ; 
 (4.) Oration, by Henry T. Blake, Esq. ; 
 (5.) Reunion of the Lancasterian School. 
 (6.) Treasurer's Report.
 
 FOUNDERS' DAY, 
 
 April z^th, 1638 April i$th, 1888. 
 
 THE 2 5 oth ANNIVERSARY 
 
 OF THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW HAVEN. 
 
 The white lines indicate the original streets of the town ; the dotted lines, the additions 
 made in two centuries, down to 1838. 
 
 The numerals correspond with those which mark the site of conspicuous events or the 
 residences of men who have been prominent in the New Haven of the past. 
 
 "A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never 
 achieve any thing worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants." 
 
 Macaulay. 
 
 Prepared for the use of the Children in the Schools of New Haven, 
 
 many of whom it is hoped may be active in the observance, 
 
 fifty years hence, of the third Centennial of its history. 
 
 FOUNDERS' DA Y COMMITTEE ON SCHOOLS. 
 HORACE DAY. JOSEPH D. PLUNKETT. HENRY F. PECK. 
 
 MAIER ZUNDER. GEORGE L. Fox.
 
 QUINNIPIAC-RODENBURGH-NEW HAVEN. 
 
 This town was first known to Europeans by the occasional visits of Dutch 
 traders, who named it Rodenburgh or Red Hills, from the most conspicuous 
 features in the landscape. Its Indian name was Quinnipiac. In 1637, 
 when the Pequots were driven from their ancestral homes on the borders of 
 Rhode Island, to perish as an independent tribe in a swamp in Fairfield, 
 the English soldiers were delayed for several days at Quinnipiac, uncertain 
 in what direction the Indians had fled. In this way the place became 
 known to Theophilus Eaton and his associates, the first settlers of New 
 Haven, who were charmed by the advantages which the place presented for 
 the commercial colony they proposed to found. Several weeks were spent 
 by Governor Eaton in a survey of the place, and Joshua Atwater with six 
 others were left here during the winter of 1637-8, to make the necessary 
 provision for the coming colonists. 
 
 Quinnipiac was found to be occupied by a small tribe of Indians num- 
 bering forty-seven men. The deed which surrendered the rights of the 
 natives, assigns no boundaries to the tract, but conveys their entire territory 
 except a few acres reserved for planting, to Theophilus Eaton and John 
 Davenport. Soon after, a further purchase was made from Montowese, the 
 Sachem of a small tribe containing only ten men, of a tract of land extend- 
 ing ten miles southerly from what is now the south part of Meriden, and five 
 miles west and seven miles east from the Quinnipiac river. A subsequent 
 deed added two miles in width to the western boundary of this grant. 
 These indefinitely worded deeds convey the title to the original town of 
 New Haven, which included East Haven, Branford, North Branford, North 
 Haven, Wallingford and Cheshire, together with parts of Orange, Wood- 
 bridge, Bethany and Prospect, besides a small part of Meriden. 
 
 Five years after the settlement of the Town, the New Haven " Colony'* 
 was established by uniting in one jurisdiction New Haven, Guilford, Mil- 
 ford, Branford, Stamford (including Greenwich), and Southold on Long 
 Island. It remained a distinct and independent colony till its absorption 
 by Connecticut under the charter graiited to Gov. Winthrop by Charles II. 
 in the year 1662. As the New Haven Colony was settled without the 
 authority derived from a charter, it reluctantly acquiesced, Dec. 14, 1664, in 
 ceasing to exist as a separate jurisdiction. 
 
 Unlike other early settlements, New Haven was designed from the first to 
 be a commercial town. In proportion to its numbers, it was the wealthiest 
 community in New England. Its leading men had been engaged in foreign
 
 12 
 
 trade or were merchants in the mother country. The first settlers were rep- 
 resentatives of widely separated English homes, but they were banded 
 together by their earnest religious sympathies and by their common desire 
 to establish a community that should be the model of a free and inde- 
 pendent Christian Commonwealth. 
 
 1. Six men under the direction of Joshua Atwater, a merchant of Kent, 
 England, encamped near this spot in the winter of 1637-8. Winthrop's 
 journal says that the snow lay in New England, this winter, from the fourth 
 of November to the twenty-third of March, and was at times from three to 
 four feet deep. 
 
 2. The first sermon was preached here by Rev. John Davenport, under a 
 huge oak tree, April 25, 1638. Tradition says that the afternoon sermon 
 was by Rev. Peter Prudden, soon afterwards the first minister of Milford. 
 Thomas Buckingham, ancestor of Gov. Buckingham, was the original 
 proprietor of this lot. The frame house fronting Factory street was the 
 birth place of Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher, father of Henry Ward Beecher. 
 
 3.* The "fundamental agreement," which determined the ecclesiastical 
 and civil government of the plantation, was made in Mr. Newman's barn, 
 June 4, 1639. By it the elective franchise was limited to church-members, 
 who formally organized the civil state, October 25th, 1639, when their magis- 
 trates and other municipal officers were first chosen. The day after, an 
 Indian accused of murder, was arrested and tried ; confessed his guilt, and 
 " accordingly his head was cut off the next day and pitched upon a pole in 
 the market place." Barbarous as this mode of execution may seem to us, 
 it was then and long afterwards, the custom in the mother country. The 
 English act, providing that murderers should be executed the day but one 
 after their conviction, was not repealed till 1836. 
 
 4. Theophilus Eaton, first magistrate of the Town and Governor of the 
 Colony, was annually re-elected till his death in January, 1658. 
 
 5. Rev. John Davenport, an ordained clergyman of the church of England, 
 and first Pastor in New Haven, removed in 1668 to Boston, where he died 
 in 1670. 
 
 * The numbers referring to the first settlers designate only the lots assigned 
 them and not their buildings. In most cases tradition has failed to 
 identify the site of the latter. Newman's barn was somewhere on the lot on 
 Grove street, between Dixwell's corner and the " ordinary " of William 
 Andrews. When the residence of the late Prof. Kingsley, now occupied 
 by his son-in-law, Henry T. Blake, Esq., on the corner of Temple and Grove 
 streets, was built in 1824, an ancient well was uncovered just east of the 
 house. This well was doubtless near the dwelling of Robert Newman. 
 The position of the "mighty barn " is uncertain ; a suggestion as to its pos- 
 sible site is connected with the fact that the broad opening to the original 
 2d Quarter farming lands, now the entrance of Hillhouse Avenue, was 
 opposite to the present barn of Mrs. Henry Trowbridge, on Grove street.
 
 13 
 
 6. Stephen Goodyear, an enterprising merchant, one of the first magis- 
 trates of the town and Deputy Governor of the Colony, died in London in 
 1658. 
 
 7. Matthew Gilbert, magistrate, deacon in the church, and in 1660 Deputy 
 Governor of the Colony, died in 1680. 
 
 8. Captain Nathaniel Turner having had experience in the Pecfuot war, 
 was entrusted with "the command and ordering of all military affairs." 
 He was lost in " the great shippe " in 1646. 
 
 9. Ezekiel Cheever, educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. First 
 school teacher in New Haven, removed to Massachusetts in 1651, became 
 master of the Boston Latin School, and died in 1708, at the age of 94. 
 
 10. Thomas Pell, surgeon at Saybrook fort and in the Pequot war, mar- 
 ried the widow of Francis Brewster, the original owner of this lot, who was 
 lost at sea in Lamberton's ship. He purchased Pelham Manor in West- 
 chester County, N. Y., and died at Fairfield, Conn., in 1669. 
 
 11. Nicholas Augur, practiced medicine in New Haven from 1643 to 1676, 
 when he perished by shipwreck on an uninhabited island off Cape Sable. 
 
 12. Mark Pierce, public surveyor and teacher of a private school. 
 
 13. William Jones, an English lawyer, son-in-law of Governor Eaton, 
 came to New Haven in 1660, was active in opposing the union of New 
 Haven with Connecticut, became Deputy Governor in 1691, and died in 
 1706. 
 
 14. David Yale, father of Elihu Yale (from whom the College is named), 
 and brother-in-law of Governor Edward Hopkins, the founder of the Gram- 
 mar School, removed to Boston in 1645, and afterwards returned to Eng- 
 land. 
 
 15. William Andrews, keeper of the first "ordinary" for the entertainment 
 of strangers. 
 
 16. Owen Rowe. His name is affixed to the death warrant of King 
 Charles I. He was associated with Eaton, Davenport, and others in their 
 scheme of settlement here, and this home lot was assigned to him. But he 
 remained in England and escaped trial as a regicide, by dying in the Tower 
 of London. 
 
 17. John Dixwell, another regicide, lived for many years on this corner 
 under the assumed name of James Davids, and died here in 1689 at an 
 advanced age. 
 
 18. William Hooke, teacher of the First Church, and associated with 
 Davenport as Pastor. He returned to England and became domestic 
 Chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, who was cousin to his wife. She was sister 
 to Whalley the regicide, whose daughter was the wife of the regicide Goffe. 
 Both of these parliamentary generals were in concealment in and around 
 New Haven for more than two years. 
 
 19. George Lamberton, Captain of the great ship lost at sea in 1646. 
 
 20. Thomas Trowbridge, Barbadoes merchant, died at Taunton, England, 
 in 1673. 
 
 21. Henry Rutherford, merchant, ancestor of President Hayes, died in 
 1678. His widow married Governor William Leete of Guilford. 
 
 22. Thomas Gregson, merchant, lost at sea in the great ship in 1646. 
 
 23. John Evance, Barbadoes merchant, returned to England.
 
 24. Isaac Allerton, the leading merchant of New England, one of the Ply- 
 mouth pilgrims, died here in 1659 ; his name stands between those of Elder 
 Brewster and Miles Standish in the covenant made by the founders of that 
 commonwealth. 
 
 25. John Winthrop, Jr., Governor of Connecticut, purchased this home 
 lot of Richard Malbon and resided here for two years one of the wisest 
 and best men among the early immigrants. 
 
 26. Yale College, founded at Saybrook in 1700, removed to New Haven 
 in 1716. The first building of wood, 170 feet long by 22 feet broad, and three 
 stories high, stood on the College grounds near the corner of College and 
 Chapel streets. 
 
 27. David Wooster, Major-General in the Revolutionary army, resided in 
 this house and died at Danbury in May, 1777, from wounds received in bat- 
 tle at Ridgefield. 
 
 28. Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence, Senator 
 in Congress, one of the framers of the Constitution, a judge of the Superior 
 Court and first Mayor of New Haven, built this house, and died here in 
 
 1793- 
 
 29. James Hillhouse, Senator in Congress. He secured the avails from 
 the sale of the " Western Reserve " in the State of Ohio, as a perpetual 
 fund for the benefit of the schools of his native State. To him we are 
 indebted for the elms which adorn the Green. He died in 1832. 
 
 30. Noah Webster, author of the American Dictionary of the English 
 language, built this house, and died here in 1843. 
 
 31. Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin. His invention made a revo- 
 lution in the clothing of the world. He resided in this house, where he died 
 in 1825. 
 
 32. Andrew H. Foote, Rear Admiral U. S. Navy, born in this house. 
 After having rendered his country distinguished service in the war of the 
 Rebellion, he died in New York City, June 26, 1863, in consequence of a 
 wound and of disease contracted at Fort Donelson. 
 
 33. Joseph E. Sheffield, founder of the Sheffield Scientific School. His 
 gifts to the school amounted to more than $350,000. 
 
 34. Henry Farnam, a benefactor of Yale College. This building is named 
 in his honor. The Farnam drive in East Rock Park was constructed 
 at his expense. He gave liberal aid to many other projects for the public 
 welfare. 
 
 35. Augustus R. Street. For the encouragement of Art in New Haven and 
 in the College, he erected the Art Gallery at an expense of nearly $200,000. 
 He was also in other ways a liberal benefactor of the College. 
 
 36. Philip Marett. Late in life he became a resident of New Haven, and 
 at his death, in 1869, left a noble contingent bequest, to found a free Public 
 Library in this City and in aid of the New Haven Hospital, and the two 
 Orphan Asylums. 
 
 37. The original " meeting-house " of the first church, a building fifty feet 
 square, stood a little in front of the present Center church. Its construction 
 was ordered in 1639. For more than a century, the only place of public 
 worship was the meeting house of the original church.
 
 15 
 
 38. The first Episcopal church was erected in 1753, although Trinity 
 Parish was organized several years previous. 
 
 39. The first Methodist church erected by the society in 1807, was on the 
 east side of Temple street, between Crown and George streets. It subse- 
 quently became the African Congregational church. The site is now occu- 
 pied by a Synagogue of Russian Jews. 
 
 40. The first Baptist church, now the New Haven Opera House, was 
 erected in 1822. 
 
 41. The first Roman Catholic church, at the junction of York street and 
 Davenport avenue, was erected in 1834. 
 
 42. The first Universalist church was built in 1871, the Society having 
 previously, for several years, worshiped in a hall on the southeast corner 
 of Court and State streets, or in the building now the New Haven Opera 
 House. 
 
 43. The first Synagogue, on Court street, was formerly the place of wor- 
 ship of the Third Congregational church. 
 
 44. The oldest building in the city is the little structure on the east side 
 of State street. It was built as a warehouse by Henry Rutherford, an orig- 
 inal planter. 
 
 45. The oldest dwelling is on the lot north of the Armory in Meadow 
 street. It has recently been removed to the rear of the lot. It was built by 
 Thomas Trowbridge, Jr., in 1684. 
 
 46. The first ship-yard was near the corner of Meadow and West Water 
 streets. Within the memory of the living, the tide came up to the south 
 side of the latter street. 
 
 47. The Lancasterian School. In 1822, the First Methodist Society built 
 a large church on this corner of the Green. Its basement was occupied the 
 same year for a public school, conducted by a young and enthusiastic Eng- 
 lishman, a favorite pupil of Joseph Lancaster who was the father of the system 
 of monitorial instruction. John E. Lovell, that young man, now in the 94th 
 year of his age, makes glad the hearts of many of his old pupils by his 
 presence with us to-day. 
 
 48. Statue of Abraham Pierson, the first President of Yale College. 
 
 49. The first State House, built in 1717. The first jail, a little south, 
 much earlier. 
 
 50. The first burial ground. The " Founders " are at rest under, around 
 and in the rear of the Center church. 
 
 The first generation numbering a few hundred, " whose end was religion," 
 established here a free commonwealth, enforced civil order, leveled the 
 forests, bridged the streams, laid out the streets of our beautiful city, and 
 patrolled the town by night, amid summer heats and winter frosts, with mil- 
 itary vigilance We have entered into their labors. The history of New 
 Haven for the past two hundred and fifty years is on record in Dwight's 
 Statistical Account, Barber's Histories, Kingsley's Centennial Address, 
 Bacon's Historical Discourses, Atwater's Colonial History and History of 
 2
 
 i6 
 
 the City, the papers of the Historical Society and Levermore's Republic of 
 New Haven. Within the memory of the living, the population was almost 
 exclusively of English descent. To-day many nationalities find prominent 
 and respected representatives in our exceptionally harmonious and pros- 
 perous community, Fifty years from now will tell the story of what the 
 eighty thousand inhabitants of to-day have done to justify a centennial 
 jubilee in the year 1938. Much of this history will depend upon the char- 
 acter and intelligence of those who are now children in our schools. 
 God save the Commonwealth !
 
 ORDER OF PROCESSION. 
 
 POLICE. 
 
 WHEELER & WILSON'S BAND. 
 Chief Marshal, Major T. ATTWATER BARNES. 
 
 AIDS. 
 
 Captain FRANK A. MONSON, Chief of Staff; Captain FRED. H. WALDRON, 
 
 Assistant Marshals ; Major J. E. STETSON, ELLIOTT H. MORSE, 
 
 THOMAS J. FARLEY, WILLIAM J. LUM, JOHN C. NORTH. 
 
 FIRST DIVISION. 
 
 Military. 
 
 MARSHAL Major Ruel P. Cowles. 
 
 ASSISTANT MARSHALS Major William A. Lincoln, Engineer William S. 
 Wells, Quartermaster William E. Morgan, Captain James N. Coe, Milo 
 D. Tuttle, Leonard Bostwick, F. C. Lum, E. Dickerman, S. S. Thompson, 
 Major C. W. Blakeslee, Jr. 
 
 SECOND REGIMENT, CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD. 
 
 Colonel W. J. Leavenworth, commanding. 
 
 Second Regiment Band (American), New Haven, John P. Stack, Leader. 
 Regimental Drum and Trumpet Corps. 
 
 Regimental Signal Corps. 
 
 FIELD AND STAFF Colonel Walter J. Leavenworth, Lieutenant Colonel 
 John B. Doherty, Major Frank T. Lee, Adjutant, Captain Thomas T. 
 Wells, Quartermaster, Lieutenant F. J. Duffy, Paymaster, Lieutenant 
 William H. Newton, Surgeon, Major Evelyn L. Bissell, Assistant Sur- 
 geon, Lieutenant Carl E. Munger, Inspector of Rifle Practice, Captain 
 Andrew Allen, Signal Officer, Lieutenant William E. Jackson, Chap- 
 lain, Rev. J. E. Twitchell. 
 
 Co. K, Captain Bryant A. Treat. 
 
 Co. G, Captain Alfred J. Wolf. 
 
 Co. H, Captain Wesley U. Pearne. 
 
 Co. C, Captain Timothy F. Callahan. 
 
 Co. E, Captain Theodore H. Sucher. 
 
 Co. A, Captain Luci.en F. Burpee. 
 
 Co. B, Captain John Gutt. 
 
 Co. I, Captain Charles A. Bowen. 
 
 Co. F, Captain Charles C. Ford. 
 
 Co. D, Captain Andrew H. Embler. 
 
 Non-commissioned Staff.
 
 i8 
 
 SECOND MACHINE GUN PLATOON. 
 
 Gatling Gun, Second Lieutenant William H. Sears commanding. 
 Co. A, FIFTH BATTALION, C. N. G. 
 
 Captain Daniel S. Lathrop. 
 First Lieutenant Daniel Tilgh, Second Lieutenant Charles E. Fuller. 
 
 Wallingford Band. 
 SECOND Co. GOVERNOR'S FOOT GUARDS (CHARTERED 1775). 
 
 Captain, . 
 
 First Lieutenant Albert M. Johnson, Second Lieutenant Joseph J. Wooster. 
 Carriages containing His Excellency, Phineas C. Lounsbury, Governor and 
 
 Commander-in-Chief. 
 
 STAFF Adjutant General, Brigadier General Frederick E. Camp ; Quarter- 
 master General, Brigadier General Charles Olmstead ; Surgeon Gen- 
 eral, Brigadier General Charles J. Fox ; Commissary General, Brigadier 
 General John B. Clapp ; Paymaster General, Brigadier General Charles 
 H. Pine ; Aide-de-Camps, Colonel Samuel B. Home, Colonel Selah G. 
 Blakeman, Colonel J. Dwight Chaffee, Colonel Edwin H. Matthewson ; 
 Assistant Adjutant General, Colonel George M. White ; Assistant 
 Quartermaster General, Lieutenant Colonel Henry C. Morgan ; Exec- 
 utive Secretary, George P. McLean. 
 
 SECOND Co. GOVERNOR'S HORSE GUARD (CHARTERED 1808). 
 
 Major H. H. Strong, Captain W. Burr Hall, First Lieutenant D. A. Blakeslee, 
 
 Second Lieutenant Luzerne Ludington, Cornet F. L. Newton, 
 
 Quartermaster Isaac W. Hine. 
 
 Grand Army of the Republic. (Founded 1866.) 
 DEPARTMENT OF CONNECTICUT. (Organized 1866.) 
 
 Meriden City Band, Walter Phoenix, Leader. 
 
 Admiral Foote Post, No. 17 (Chartered 1866). 400 men. 
 
 Commander Lewis B. Brown ; Adjutant E. C. Dow. 
 
 Henry C. Merwin Post, No. 52. 
 Commander John J. Brennan ; Adjutant Samuel Morris. 
 
 Drum Corps. 
 
 Gen. Von Steinwehr Post, No. 76 (Chartered 1885). 
 
 Commander Weigand Schlein ; Adjutant Joseph Schleicher. 
 
 SONS OF VETERANS. 
 
 Drum Corps. 
 Nathan Hale Camp, No. i, Captain Fred. Chadeayne. 
 
 N. E. Lincoln, First Sergeant. 
 
 Carriages containing the Board of Selectmen of the Town, the Mayor and 
 Common Council of the City, the Orator of the Day, Henry T. Blake, 
 and Delegation from the New Haven Colony Historical Society. 
 The ship " Constitution " on a decorated float. (Found in the British Chan- 
 nel in 1768, and frequently carried in processions in New Haven.)
 
 '9 
 
 SECOND DIVISION. 
 Civic Societies. 
 
 MARSHAL Brigadier General Charles B. Foster, 
 Commanding Third Brigade, Patriarchs Militant. 
 
 ASSISTANT MARSHALS Colonel Peter Terhune, F. H. a Wheeler, Major H. S. 
 Cooper, George H. Rowland, Major H. C. Goodwin, Colonel E. F. 
 Durand, Major F. F. Monson, Capt. J. H. Menvin, Major John Saunders, 
 Sergeant Major W. H. Harrison, Captain S. T. Lines, Major S. H. Hull, 
 Captain F. B. Lane, James Geary, Captain Ferguson, Thomas F. 
 McGinniss, Captain J. P. Merrow, James Snigg, J. F. Brannagan, James 
 T. Brennan, Martin Kinare, B. E. Elmstedt. 
 
 Landrigan's Band, J. J. Landrigan, Leader. 
 FIRST BATTALION PATRIARCHS MILITANT. 
 
 Major C. C. Smith, commanding. 
 
 Grand Canton Sassacus, No. i, Captain John S. Hinman. 
 
 Grand Canton Golden Rule, No. 3, Captain Morris A. Ray. 
 
 Canton Aurora, No. 13, Captain Frank Meyer. 
 
 KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS. 
 
 Comstock Division, No. 2, Captain W. H. Durand. 
 Hermann Division, No. 3, Captain Martin Nagel. 
 
 ORDER OF UNITED AMERICAN MECHANICS. 
 ASSISTANT MARSHALS Frank Hutchings, W. O. Staples. 
 
 Columbia Band, New Britain. 
 
 Unity Commandery, No. 2, First Lieutenant J. H. Scranton, Marshal. 
 National and State Officers, State Council of Connecticut. 
 
 Pioneer Council, No. I, L. P. Korn, Marshal. 
 
 Washington Council, No. 7, R. S. Duff, Marshal. 
 
 Garfield Council, No. 14, George Gesner, Marshal. 
 
 IMPROVED ORDER OF RED MEN. 
 
 Hammonassett Tribe, No. I. 
 
 Seventy-five braves, John E. Hunt, Great Senior Sagamore, with delegations 
 from Paugasset Tribe, No. 3, Danbury, Pootatuck Tribe, No. 8, Bir- 
 mingham, and the Pequot Club, Birmingham. 
 KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Weed's Band. 
 
 Assistant Marshal Thomas F. Campbell in command. Aids Patrick T. 
 Carrigan, James Cavanaugh, Henry Conlan, John E. McPartland, John 
 Coyne, James P. Gallivan. 
 
 San Salvador Council, No. I, Grand Knight, Alexander Bieto. 
 
 Santa Maria Council, No. 8, Grand Knight, Thomas F. Coffee. 
 
 Columbia Council, No. 20. 
 
 Elm City Council, No. 25. 
 
 Loyal Council, No. 30. 
 Decorated Float with Tableaux, representing " The Landing of Columbus," 
 
 for whom the order is named. 
 
 KNIGHTS OF ST. PATRICK James Reilly, President ; Frank W. Tiernan, 
 Secretary ; in carriages.
 
 20 
 
 SWEDISH SOCIETIES John Sampson, Thomas Broms, Assistant Marshals. 
 
 Bethesda Benevolent Society John Johnson, President. 
 
 Viking Society Adolph F. Bergholm, President. 
 
 ITALIAN SOCIETIES L. di Bella, Assistant Marshal. 
 
 Columbia Drum Corps. 
 Fratellanza Italia (Organized 1883). 
 
 President L. di Matteo, Marshal Paul Russo, Commander Garabaldi, Presi- 
 dent A. Tacinelli, Captain A. Manns, Assistant Marshals E. L. Del Grego, 
 L/G. Garabaldi, President L. di Bella, Assistant Marshal R. De Vita. 
 The C. Columbus Political Independents President D. Spinnetteo, 
 
 Assistant Marshal M. Barletta. 
 BICYCLE CLUB Captain Charles E. Larom. 
 
 THIRD DIVISION. 
 Schools. 
 
 MARSHAL Samuel T. Dutton. 
 
 AIDS Major George H. Larned, Albert B. Fifield, C. T. Driscoll, Dr. W. H. 
 Carmalt, Thomas Hooker, Henry W. Farnam, J. R. French, Rev. E. S. 
 Lines, E. A. Callahan, Simon Shoninger, Arthur Ruickoldt, George B. 
 Kurd, S. G. Pease, Rev. I. C. Meserve, B. E. Lynch, Wm. H. Brown, 
 F. M. Adler, J. J. Kennedy, Rev. A. P. Miller. 
 
 Landerer's Band. 
 
 S. M. Munson, Samuel A. Stevens, Assistant Marshals. 
 Carriages containing John E. Lovell, Hon. Henry B. Harrison, Hon. James 
 
 E. English, John C. Bradley. 
 Carriages containing former pupils of Lancasterian School. 
 
 Lancasterian Veterans. 
 Members of other schools that appeared in the parade in 1838. 
 
 Malcolm Booth, Assistant Marshal. 
 The Hopkins Grammar School Company, Capt. John S. Schoonover. 
 
 Hillhouse High School Company, F. M. Lloyd, Captain. 
 Carriages containing Board of Education and Principals of Schools. 
 Grammar School Guard, Henry W. Loomis, Assistant Marshal ; Dwight 
 School Company, Jerry Donovan, Captain ; Webster School Company, 
 Albert Richter, Captain ; Welch School Company, John Reynolds, 
 Captain ; Washington School, Company A, Thomas Moore, Captain ; 
 Washington School, Company B, Thomas Bergen, Captain ; Skinner 
 School Company, James Veech, Captain ; Eaton School Company, 
 C. F. Bassett, Captain ; Woolsey School Company, E. J. Smith, Cap- 
 tain ; Hamilton School Company, John Rodican, Captain ; Wooster 
 School Company, Ralph True, Captain ; Winchester School Company, 
 Walter Frey, Captain ; St. Francis School, Frank Shanahan, Captain ; 
 St. John's School, New Grammar School, Westville Public School.
 
 21 
 
 FOURTH DIVISION (IN TWO SECTIONS). 
 
 Firemen. 
 
 MARSHAL Hiram Camp. 
 
 ASSISTANT MARSHALS William F. Vogel, Edward O'Brien, Lawrence 
 
 O'Brien, H. A. Stevens. 
 
 Band. 
 
 FIRST SECTION. 
 
 New Haven Veteran Firemen's Association. 
 
 Hiram Camp, President ; George W. Stoddard, Secretary. 
 
 Fifty men with hand engine Volunteer. 
 
 Drum Corps. 
 
 Sons of Veteran Firemen. Chas. Doty, President ; Geo. Allen, Secretary. 
 Forty men with hose carriage. 
 
 Hubbard Drum Corps. 
 
 Winchester Hose Company, No. i (Organized 1881). 
 
 Henry S. Hamilton, Foreman ; A. L. Woodcock, Secretary. 
 
 Fifty men with hose carriage. 
 
 Sassacus Drum Corps. 
 Fire Department Fair Haven, East. H. A. Stevens, Chief. 
 
 SECOND SECTION. 
 .New Haven Fire Department. 
 
 Meriden Military Band. 
 
 Chief, Albert C. Hendrick ; Assistant Chief, Andrew J. Kennedy ; Assistant 
 Chief, William C. Smith ; Assistant Chief, John L. Disbrow. 
 
 Steamer Co. No. i, Capt. Edward I. Barrett ; Steamer Co. No. 2, Capt. 
 William H. Hubbard ; Steamer Co. No. 3, Capt. Charles B. Dyer ; 
 Steamer Co. No. 4, Capt. Christopher T. Langley ; Hook and Ladder 
 Co. No. i, Capt. Charles H. Hilton ; Steamer Co. No. 5, Capt. Henry 
 Tuttle ; Steamer Co. No. 6, Capt. Wilfred F. Spang ; Hose Co. No. 7, 
 Capt. John W. Stoddard ; Steamer Co. No. 8, Capt. James J. Bradnack ; 
 Hook and Ladder Co. No. 3, Capt. Henry J. Wilson. 
 
 The several sections of the procession were formed on the lower Green, 
 Elm and Temple streets, under their division commanders, and at 10.45 
 moved out of the south gate of the Green over the following streets : 
 Chapel, Church, George, College, Chapel, York, Elm, College, Grove, 
 Orange, Elm, Grand, St. John, Olive, Green, Wooster Place, Chapel, Church, 
 Elm, to the north gate of the Green. 
 
 At the City Hall the procession was reviewed by Governor Lounsbury 
 and Staff, and the City and Town officials, and was dismissed at I P. M. 
 
 After the review by the Governor, the 2d Regiment gave a dress parade 
 on the Green, which was viewed by thousands of citizens.
 
 ORDER OF EXERCISES AT CENTER CHURCH. 
 
 Master of Ceremonies, Pres. TIMOTHY D WIGHT, D.D. 
 VOLUNTARY, ORGAN Theme and Variations, - - Ancient Melody 
 OPENING PRAYER, - By President Timothy Dwight. D.D. 
 
 SINGING BY THE CHOIR "Te Deum Laudamus." 
 
 READING OF THE SCRIPTURES, By Rev. E. E. Beardsley, D.D. 
 
 READING OF DR. BACON'S HYMN, - - By Rev. Newman Smyth, D.D. 
 
 O God, beneath thy guiding hand, 
 
 Our exiled fathers crossed the sea ; 
 And when they trod the wintry strand, 
 
 With prayer and psalm they worshiped thee. 
 
 Thou heard'st, well pleased, the song, the prayer, 
 
 Thy blessing came ; and still its power 
 Shall onward through all ages bear 
 
 The memory of that holy hour. 
 
 Laws, freedom, truth, and faith in God 
 
 Came with those exiles o'er the waves ; 
 And where their pilgrim feet have trod, 
 
 The God they trusted guards their graves. 
 
 And here thy name, O God of love, 
 
 Their children's children shall adore, 
 Till these eternal hills remove, 
 
 And spring adorns the earth no more. 
 
 ORATION, - By Henry T. Blake, Esq. 
 
 SINGING BY THE CHOIR Hymn "America." 
 
 PRAYER, By Rev. G. E. Reed, D.D. 
 
 DOXOLOGY. 
 BENEDICTION, By Rev. S. D. Phelps, D.D. 
 
 POSTLUDE IN E FLAT, - - Wely 
 
 Seats reserved until ten minutes before 2 p. M. for invited guests. 
 
 The Choir were the Quartette and Chorus of Center Church, tinder the direction 
 of the Organist, Mr. S. A'. Ford.
 
 ORATION 
 
 By HENRY T. BLAKE. 
 
 Fellow Townsmen of New Haven : 
 
 The Law of Moses, which the founders of New Haven 
 adopted as an " annex " to the civil code of their Colony, com- 
 manded that every fiftieth year after the arrival of the chosen 
 people in the promised land should be observed as a year of 
 jubilee. " On the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day 
 of atonement, ye shall make the trumpet to sound throughout 
 all your land ; and ye shall hallow the 5oh year and proclaim 
 liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." 
 There is therefore, a peculiar fitness in our assembling to cel- 
 ebrate this 25oth anniversary of the first settlement of this 
 town as if in obedience to the organic law of the Common- 
 wealth. And in further compliance with that law, the trumpets 
 having now ceased to sound, it behooves me as my first and 
 foremost duty on this occasion " to proclaim liberty through- 
 out the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." Among the 
 80,000 residents of New Haven the descendants of its founders 
 form a very small proportion. Probably those who were born 
 within its limits are but a minority. But to-day the town itself 
 has been re-born. By our common action it has been settled 
 anew ; it has been re-founded. Henceforth, then, we are all 
 original settlers, all town born ! Welcome, then, ye who 
 were hitherto aliens, to the rights, privileges and immunities 
 of that favored condition ! Welcome to your proprietary 
 interests in the market-place and in the outlying lands that
 
 2 4 
 
 may still remain undivided in the Oyster-shell fields, in the 
 Ox-pasture, or about the savory precincts of Ditch-Corner ! 
 No more on shipboard in stress of weather shall your goods 
 be first consigned with " ghoulish glee " to sacrifice ; and the 
 ignominious epithet of "interloper" shall lapse henceforth 
 into " innocuous desuetude." 
 
 It is possible that some of you do not fully appreciate the 
 dignity of the birthright into which you have thus been 
 inducted. Possibly you may not readily perceive how close 
 relationship to the town of New Haven can add materially to 
 the honor already possessed by respected and influential free- 
 men of the city. You may reason perhaps that one who has 
 formed a union with the blooming and vigorous daughter has 
 no especial inducement to cultivate intimate associations with 
 an ancient mother-in-law. It is true that the Town organiza- 
 tion, that original republic of historic importance and historic 
 fame has during the last two generations been crowded into 
 the back ground by its bustling and ambitious municipal 
 offspring. One by one it has been shorn of its former prerog- 
 atives and honors until now it exists but a shadow of its former 
 self, having nearly outlived its usefulness ; a faded and crumb- 
 ling relic of the past ; like that classic edifice (oh ! breathe not 
 its name) which rears its stately but dilapidated form in our 
 midst, a ghost of departed glory, and which like the ghost of 
 Banquo, will never down ! At the time of the last centennial 
 celebration, the Town as a civil and political entity was still 
 paramount. The City was hardly more than an annex or 
 adjunct to it. The changes which have brought about the 
 reversal of their respective positions have all occurred within 
 the last fifty years, and most of them are still fresh in the 
 memories of our citizens even of those of middle life. At this 
 half-way point of the century a brief sketch of those changes 
 will be appropriate. But a detailed historical recital of them 
 is quite unnecessary and might be tedious ; the more so as full 
 and accessible records of them all exist in the files of the local
 
 25 
 
 newspapers, the excellent history of New Haven by Levermore 
 and in numerous valuable papers in the volumes of the New 
 Haven Historical society and elsewhere. And as to the rest of 
 the acts of this Commonwealth, and the lives of its mighty 
 men, and all that they did, are they not written in the Book of 
 the Chronicles of the City of New Haven published by Mun- 
 sell ? I shall therefore on this occasion, during the hour or so 
 that is allotted me, attempt no more than a reference to some 
 of the phases of change through which the rural town has 
 developed in less than a lifetime into a crowded and busy 
 metropolis. Such a retrospect I trust will be pleasing to those 
 who will remember the various matters to which I shall allude, 
 as part of their own personal history ; instructive to later 
 comers whether by birth or change of residence ; and more or 
 less interesting to our descendants as a record of impressions 
 produced by events of the first half of the century on those 
 who were actors in it. 
 
 In 1838 New Haven was little more than an overgrown but 
 still growing country village. Its population was about 13,500 
 and of this number probably little over 500, if so many, were of 
 foreign birth. The business part of the town was confined to 
 Chapel street between Church and State, State and Fleet streets 
 to the head of the wharf, and Church street from Chapel to 
 Crown. The architectural glories of this region were the 
 Exchange Building and Street Building, both then recently 
 erected. The dwelling houses of the town were almost uni- 
 versally of wood, and outside of the business district a brick 
 erection was looked upon with some pride as giving a metro- 
 politan air to the place. What was then called " the thickly 
 settled " portion of the town was substantially bounded on the 
 north by Grove street, on the east by Olive street, Brewery 
 street and Wooster place and on the west by York street and 
 Broadway. Outside of these limits and even from many points 
 of view within them, the vision passed unobstructed outwards
 
 26 
 
 across an open country with here and there a dwelling. Fair 
 Haven, better known as " Dragon," and Westville, then gener- 
 ally denominated " Hotchkisstown," were outlying hamlets 
 separated from New Haven proper by open fields traversed by 
 sandy and shadeless roads. 
 
 There was a line of daily steamboats to New York : there 
 were also two daily stages to Hartford, which made the trip in 
 six hours when the roads were good ; and daily or less fre- 
 quent stages to some of the adjoining towns. The railroad to 
 Hartford was not opened till 1839, though the Centennial 
 medal, with pardonable anticipation represents a train of cars 
 merrily spinning along in front of the churches on the Green. 
 Nearly every highway of communication with the surrounding 
 country was turnpiked and barred by gates with heavy rates of 
 toll. There were the Milford turnpike, the Derby turnpike, 
 the Litchfield turnpike, the Cheshire turnpike, the Hartford 
 turnpike, the Middletown turnpike, and the Branford turn- 
 pike. A drive to Bridgeport and back in a one-horse carnage 
 cost 75 cents for tolls. There was considerable traffic by 
 wagons with the Naugatuck Valley, afterwards transferred to 
 Bridgeport by the construction of the Naugatuck Railroad ; 
 but the great public work and avenue of inland commerce was 
 the Farmington canal, which had been finally carried through 
 to Northampton in 1835. As a picturesque feature of the town, 
 and as a source of water supply in some cases of fire, as well 
 as in furnishing additional skating and swimming accommoda- 
 tions for the boys, it was a partial success ; but as a speculative 
 enterprise it was a gloomy Styx for New Haven capital, a 
 melancholy bourne from which no dollar ever returned. In 
 1838 it had a line of fast passenger packets to Northampton 
 on a time-table of 26 hours ; and the route on account of its 
 speed and comfort was occasionally patronized. The freight 
 business was confined to one and sometimes two boats per 
 day during the open season, that is to say about eight 
 months in the year, each boat being somewhat larger than an
 
 27 
 
 ordinary railroad car, and the cargoes consisted of hides, flour, 
 coffee and other like bulky goods in one direction, and cord- 
 wood and general farm products in the other. Freights to 
 Boston went entirely by water, a schooner running regularly 
 once a fortnight. There was also a coasting trade with other 
 domestic ports, and an active foreign commerce, principally 
 with the West Indies ; so that Long Wharf generally presented 
 a lively scene, with vessels arriving and departing, molasses 
 and sugar unloading and horses and mules embarking in a 
 state of "pernicious activity." 
 
 The manufacturing industries of New Haven in 1838 were 
 regarded with pride by its citizens, although in comparison 
 with those of the present day they seem but few and simple. 
 By the census returns of 1840 the total capital employed in 
 manufacturing was $921,000. Of this amount the largest invest- 
 ment is assigned to tanneries, of which five are reported, with 
 a total capital of $101,700 and an annual product of $380,000. 
 The next largest industry was carriage making, with twelve 
 factories, an aggregate capital of $101,000 and a product in 
 1839 of $234,000, though this is probably below the average. 
 There were several printing and binding establishments, and 
 $40,000 was invested in the manufacture of furniture. There 
 were also in 1838 an ax factory and a carpet factory, both of 
 which, however, soon succumbed. Boots and shoes and cloth- 
 ing were made to some extent. Hardware manufacturing had 
 just started in a small way, its principal seat being Westville. 
 There were also three small iron foundries. A limited and 
 mostly local trade in Dragon oysters was carried on at Fair 
 Haven, but the oyster beds were generally free to the public, 
 and the great business of oyster culture has since been en- 
 tirely developed. 
 
 When we compare these statistics with those of 1888, the 
 total manufacturing capital increased from $921,000 to about 
 $20,000,000, the annual carriage product from $234,000 to 
 $2,000,000 ; the hardware business, then just started, grown to
 
 28 
 
 over $2,500,000 annual production, and the total annual 
 product of all manufactures amounting to some 30,000,000 
 of dollars, we realize the change which fifty years have 
 effected in the volume and methods of business operations. 
 As transportation was everywhere slow and expensive, the 
 market for manufactured goods was necessarily limited, and 
 though in the absence of sharp competition the profits were 
 relatively large, yet they aggregated but little. Hand labor or 
 simple machinery run by water power were practically the sole 
 agencies of production. It is doubtful whether there were in 
 1838 five steam engines in New Haven. Business corporations 
 for manufacturing or mercantile purposes were as yet almost 
 unknown, and a business enterprise with a capital of $10,000 
 was esteemed a large concern. 
 
 Coal was just beginning to be used as fuel, but in the absence 
 of railroad transportation from the mines the supply was of 
 course small, and the cost of it heavy. Gas was not introduced 
 till ten years later. Whale oil lamps and candles within doors 
 gave forth their feeble and flickering gleams, while the streets 
 unlighted and unpaved were beds of bottomless dirt er fathom- 
 less mud, where at night blind led blind and both fell into the 
 ditch. Friction matches had begun to supplant the old flint 
 and steel and tinder boxes, and while accepted as a great 
 domestic convenience, were looked upon with apprehension as 
 increasing the chances of accidental and incendiary fires ; and 
 of these owing to the scarcity of water there was constant 
 dread. Hence when the alarm of " fire " was heard, which was 
 often, the whole community was at once in a turmoil. Houses, 
 churches and all places of public resort were instantly emptied. 
 A chorus of universal cries filled Heaven's concave. Every 
 bell pealed forth an unceasing clamor ; while the seven hand 
 fire engines drawn by shouting men flew like demoniac chariots 
 along the sidewalks in as many different directions, unguided 
 by any system of signals, each company on its own account 
 hunting for the flames, and each a little too anxious to secure
 
 2 9 
 
 the ten dollars reward for a first appearance at the fire to 
 impart any private information of its locality to a rival. Not 
 infrequently the whole excitement arose from a false alarm, 
 but if not, when the fire was discovered, if the building had 
 not already burned down, the spectators were formed in long 
 lines by the fire marshal to every well, cistern and barrel in 
 the neighborhood, and water was passed to the engines by hand 
 in leathern fire buckets, which every householder was required 
 by law to keep for this purpose, and to send or bring to the 
 spot in such emergencies. 
 
 The town and city organizations reflected the simplicity and 
 democratic usages of the times. Of the city government I 
 will only speak so far as to illustrate the limited sphere which 
 it occupied in the administration of public affairs. Its charter 
 powers were very narrow, and owing to the restrictions placed 
 upon their exercise were only partially availed of. Up to 1857 
 no by-law passed by the Court of Common Council was valid 
 till approved of by a popular vote, and even then it was liable 
 to be repealed by the Superior Court if found unjust or un- 
 reasonable. In 1854 a city meeting forbade the Common 
 Council to appropriate more than $100 at any one time with- 
 out the sanction of the people. It will easily be inferred that 
 all public improvements languished of which the city had 
 jurisdiction ; since every attempt to establish them or even 
 a systematic watch and police was compelled to encounter the 
 opposition in public meeting of interested parties as well as 
 the general taxpayer's cry of extravagance. That old fash- 
 ioned conservative spirit which still lingers among us would 
 not be beguiled or driven into a reckless race of municipal 
 development. It clung to the town idea as paramount and 
 kept the city administration in leading-strings. In 1838 the 
 salary of the first selectman was $500, while that of the mayor 
 was only $200, and a similar disproportion continued as late 
 as 1860.
 
 30 
 
 As the town was the dominant organization in civil affairs, 
 so the first selectman was the highest representative of civic 
 dignity. And what old resident that hears a reference to the 
 first selectman in 1838 will fail to recall the image of Captain 
 Benjamin Beecher who filled that office from 1834 to 1849. A 
 short, beaming faced, active man of genial mould, a prince of 
 good fellows, one of the celebrities of New Haven for two 
 generations. A sloop and steamboat captain eke was he, of 
 credit and renown, who brought his professional language of 
 command and his command of professional language also to 
 bear with great effect in his civil administration ; and of whom 
 many anecdotes might be related which would be quite out of 
 place in this sacred edifice. There was another personage at 
 that time among the town officials, hardly less famous and awe- 
 inspiring, Jesse Knevalsthe constable, of rubicund visage, that 
 terror of evil doers, before whose reputation as a detective and 
 thief-taker the names of Vidocq and Jonathan Wild, at least in 
 the estimation of the boys of that period, paled into obscurity. 
 There was no standing city police, and as the City Court had 
 no criminal jurisdiction the administration of local justice was 
 confined to the grand jurors and the justices of the peace. 
 Thus the principal functions of executive and judicial power 
 were exercised by the town authorities. But as the basis of 
 both town and city systems, the power behind all powers, the 
 final embodiment of all political authority in legislation was 
 the Sovereign People in town or city meeting assembled. 
 Far different were those town meetings from the degenerate 
 conclaves of a dozen or two individuals which in our day oc- 
 casionally collect in a hired upper room in a quiet street, and 
 pass votes which require judicial decisions to interpret, and 
 additional meetings to revise. They were grand, majestic up- 
 risings of the whole body of the people, which filled the town 
 hall to overflowing, and shook its walls with eloquence; and 
 which after discussion had been exhausted and the question 
 was called for, poured out into the open air, and formed long
 
 lines on the green to take what no political or social excite- 
 ment has ever yet denied in New Haven, a free vote, and a fair 
 count. 
 
 A review of the recollections of that period when New 
 Haven was still a typical, old fashioned New England town, 
 and when its social features were still moulded in ancestral 
 forms, would be incomplete without a reference to some other 
 institutions and customs characteristic of that pre-transition 
 era. The days of civic festivity were not numerous, but two at 
 least in every year were observed with general ardor. The first 
 Monday in May was prescribed by law for an annual military 
 muster, a relic of the colonial period, and under the title of 
 " training day," was looked forward to by at least the youthful 
 part of the population with joyous anticipation. On that day 
 the schools were dismissed, the workshops were deserted and 
 the rural population took possession of the town. Refresh- 
 ment booths lined the edges of the green, and its area was 
 thronged throughout the day by a miscellaneous crowd of sight- 
 seers, intermingled with penny-pitching groups and itinerant 
 vendors of home-made molasses candy. At seven o'clock in 
 the morning the drums were sounded on the green and from 
 that hour until late in the afternoon the air resounded with 
 martial music and was hazy with the smoke of pistols and fire 
 crackers, and the streets were beaten into clouds of dust by the 
 marching hosts. Every able-bodied citizen not specially ex- 
 empt was enrolled for duty, and the military display exhibited 
 two different sides. There were the un-uniformed companies, 
 commonly known as " the Milish," which parading only under 
 obligation of the law, and accoutered with such equipments as 
 each man considered most becoming or convenient, turned the 
 whole proceeding into a farce and enlivened it with every gro- 
 tesque embellishment which could enter the brains of the 
 lively young men who participated. The other side was that 
 of the uniformed or so-called "independent " companies, then 
 3
 
 32 
 
 consisting of the Governor's Guards, horse and foot, the artil- 
 lery (or Blues) and the Grays small but spirited organizations 
 of citizen soldiery whose fine appearance on those training 
 days redeemed them from discredit and kept alive a military 
 interest in this community. Much does New Haven owe to 
 those " independent companies " on whose honorable rolls the 
 names of so many of our leading citizens are recorded ; and 
 which, preserved from disintegration through so many years 
 by their patriotic perseverance, produced such rich and abun- 
 dant fruit in the time of the Civil War. That splendid regi- 
 ment which has paraded as escort to-day is the lineal successor 
 and largely the outgrowth of the two little companies, hardly 
 larger than battalions, the Artillery and the Grays, which on 
 the last centennial anniversary marched at the head of the pro- 
 cession under the commands of Captain Morris Tyler and Cap- 
 tain Elijah Thompson. 
 
 The other civic holiday, the fourth of July, it would seem 
 hardly necessary to refer to as an ancient institution of New 
 Haven, were it not that fifty years ago it was observed with a 
 general patriotic interest which seems in these later days to be 
 passing out of fashion. The sweet note of the fire cracker, it 
 is true, still attests the honorable place which the national 
 birthday holds in the affections of Young America ; but the 
 filial pride, the reverent enthusiasm with which every Ameri- 
 can citizen should welcome that great anniversary and transmit 
 its observance as a conscientious duty to posterity, seems in 
 danger of waning into a lazy preference for peace and quiet. 
 Never until 1887, since the declaration of independence did the 
 public authorities of New Haven refuse to provide for that na- 
 tional salute of bells and cannon at sunrise and sunset, which 
 our forefathers would have regarded it as little short of sacri- 
 lege to omit. Never until 1885, since we became a nation, was 
 the national ensign itself banished from its time honored place 
 in the center of New Haven green. For that one year the sun 
 in his daily course looked for the historic liberty pole in vain ;
 
 33 
 
 but happily the patriotic conscience of our citizens revived ; the 
 old flag staff was restored to its accustomed position and now 
 the glorious banner of the Union floats again from its peak, 
 never, let us hope, to be again displaced. Forever float that 
 standard sheet, the central object in New Haven's sight, the 
 central symbol in New Haven's patriotism ! And unless we 
 desire that our children shall cease to remember and honor the 
 conflict and the glory amid which that flag was born and has 
 been maintained, let its rising and descending be greeted on 
 every national birthday with the thunder of artillery ! Doubt- 
 less there are serious objections to this within the crowded 
 limits of the city ; but what spot could be more convenient and 
 appropriate than one of the summits of East Rock Park, where 
 the same slant beams of the rising and the setting sun will kiss 
 at once the national standard and the monument erected to its 
 defenders ? 
 
 Of the social characteristics which prevailed in our com- 
 munity fifty years ago, a few words may be said to illustrate 
 the changes that have occurred in public sentiment on some 
 subjects during that period. Happily there still obtains in New 
 Haven life and manners much of their former simplicity, mod- 
 ified of course by the great increase of population, the larger 
 wealth of the community and a more intimate intercourse 
 with the outside world. A distinctively religious influence on 
 all social usages was then a marked characteristic, and espe- 
 cially on all matters pertaining to public or private amuse- 
 ments. By a very large part of the community dancing was 
 strongly disapproved of, and the playing of cards by a still 
 larger proportion. The sale of playing cards was prohibited 
 by law until 1848. In 1841 a law was passed suppressing bowl- 
 ing alleys unless specially licensed by the authorities. In 1848 
 it was made unlawful to own a billiard table even for private 
 use. Exhibitions of mountebanks, tumblers, rope dancers, 
 puppet shows, and feats of agility and dexterity were abso-
 
 34 
 
 lutely excluded from the State by law until 1862. So also were 
 circus performances of horses and other animals under penalty 
 of a heavy fine and the forfeiture of the animals. Theaters and 
 theatrical exhibitions were also forbidden until 1852, when 
 they were allowed if specially approved and licensed. Yet the 
 dramatic taste which seems implanted in every human mind 
 was not entirely smothered by these rigid proscriptions, and a 
 quiet theatrical performance if called by an unobjectionable 
 name would occasionally be winked at by the authorities. 
 There was one annual dramatic entertainment especially which 
 \vas so innocent and pleasing in its character that it met with 
 universal approval and patronage. This was the yearly 
 "School Exhibition" of John E. Lovell, whom we rejoice to 
 welcome to-day as our venerable and honored guest. Not his 
 old pupils only but our whole community greets him with re- 
 spect and gratitude in remembrance of his faithful and useful 
 services in former generations to the youth of New Haven and 
 America. 
 
 Among the changes in social morals and usages which have 
 occurred during the last half century, none have been more 
 marked than those effected by the temperance reformation. In 
 1838 this movement was just acquiring headway. It was then 
 displayed largely in processions and lectures and other forms 
 of moral suasion, though the effort to repress intemperance by 
 law was commencing and for many years thereafter created 
 agitation and division in the politics of the State. A crisis was 
 reached in 1854 when the Maine law, so-called, was enacted, for- 
 bidding liquors to be sold except at public agencies to be estab- 
 lished by the towns and then only for sacramental, medical and 
 mechanical purposes. The agency was required to keep a pub- 
 lic registry of each sale, showing the name of the buyer, the 
 quantity bought and the object of the purchase. As the day ap- 
 proached, our streets were alive with a general hegira of every 
 species of stimulating fluid to the cellars of prudent house-
 
 35 
 
 holders in preparation for a long and thirsty siege. Nor was 
 the panic wholly without foundation. At the first town meet- 
 ing to establish an agency under the law the sum of six and a 
 quarter cents was appropriated for the purchase of the town 
 supply of liquors, with a proviso, however, that the money 
 should not be drawn from the treasury for six years from the 
 date of the vote. But at a later meeting the town, appalled at 
 the probable consequences of so meager a provision, rescinded 
 its action and furnished the agency with a larger and more 
 available capital. The agency continued in operation until 
 l &57> by which time the medical column of the register dis- 
 closed a very discouraging state of the public health. In that 
 year, however, the law was repealed, and the medical statistics 
 were suspended with it, so that the general sanitary restoration, 
 if any ensued, can only be inferred ; it cannot, like the previ- 
 ous decadence, be established by record evidence of unimpeach- 
 able authority. 
 
 I have sketched thus imperfectly the appearance and 
 some of the municipal and social features of New Haven in 
 1838 because that year stands at the threshold of a new era in 
 the methods of its civil and material progress. Up to that time 
 its development had been along the same lines of growth 
 that were established by its founders. Of course there had 
 been in two centuries an increase of population, of wealth, and 
 of culture, and a widening of the field of its activities. We 
 may well admit also that ideas of civil and religious liberty 
 had advanced since the days of Eaton and Davenport. It was 
 the lasting honor of the Puritans that they embodied in their 
 civil and social polity principles which are by their nature pro- 
 gressive. They builded better than they knew, and if many of 
 their inherited views were narrow or erroneous, they at least 
 never feared or failed to follow in whatever direction freedom 
 and truth might take, and they never turned backwards in that 
 path. Cautious and conservative they undoubtedly were ; yet
 
 36 
 
 the passage from a theocracy to the complete separation of 
 Church and State had been by a process of natural though slow 
 development ; and the final change when it came in the State 
 Constitution of 1818 effected a nominal rather than an actual 
 revolution in religious tolerance. In the same conservative 
 way though the city organization had been in force for over 
 fifty years, the town idea and administration still maintained 
 their original supremacy. The severe and simple morals and 
 manners of the earlier settlers still prevailed in social life, and 
 native inhabitants still formed the body of the population. 
 Even the external appearance of the town, except that it had 
 become enlarged and beautified, had not changed materially 
 from that of the rural village of the previous century. Com- 
 merce, manufactures and transportation as we have seen, were 
 still dependent, as they had been two hundred years before, on 
 the simple agencies of winds and horses and water power and 
 hand labor. Hence the orator at the last centennial celebration 
 could look backwards to no decisive turning point which 
 marked a new era in the prosperity of the town, or a new depar- 
 ture in its methods of social or political life. And when he 
 inquired with respect to the future, <4 Who can descry with 
 distinctness the condition of even the next generation ?" far 
 indeed was he from forecasting the amazing changes which that 
 generation was to behold and which even then were about to 
 open. 
 
 For the time had come when the age of hand-labor and of in- 
 dividual effort and enterprise as the leading agencies in civili- 
 zation was to pass away, and the age of organized power, the 
 age of machinery, of combined or associated action, was to take 
 control of all physical and moral forces, and by wielding them 
 on the widest scale was to effect transformations foreshadowed 
 by no previous experience. The causes of this change were 
 numerous and affected not New Haven only but our whole 
 country and the civilized world. They were those new con-
 
 37 
 
 ditions which, springing into existence almost together, threw 
 upon society many and enormous additions to its means of in- 
 tercourse, traffic and production. Of these new conditions the 
 most important grew out of the application of steam to rail- 
 ways, the great and rapid growth of foreign immigration, the 
 sudden increase in the volume of the precious metals, the in- 
 troduction of electricity in the transmission of intelligence, and 
 an abundant and cheap supply of coal and its products for fuel 
 and improved illumination.* To wield these various agencies 
 for the progress of civilization, new instrumentalities were 
 called for and speedily developed in the nature of organized 
 machinery, such as combinations of individuals, combinations 
 of capital, combinations of matter ; and thus arose that new 
 age in the history of mankind which we designate the age of 
 machinery ; an age marked by the use of machinery and 
 machine-like methods in all the affairs of life, in manufactures, 
 in trade, in public business, in domestic living, in politics, in 
 the regulation of labor, and alas ! in religion itself. 
 
 To review in detail the successive steps by which the quiet 
 old fashioned town of 1838 was taken possession of by the 
 spirit of machinery and transformed into the bustling city of 
 to-day would transcend my limits and I shall simply mention 
 
 * It is a fact of sufficient historical importance to deserve recording in 
 this place, that the first known petroleum well was bored in 1859 at Titus- 
 ville, Penn, as an experiment, by direction of the " Seneca Oil Company " 
 of New Haven, of which Hon. James M. Townsend was President. Pre- 
 vious to that time, the oil which had a very limited use in its crude state for 
 medical and chemical purposes, was collected from the surface of water in 
 shallow trenches and pits. The boring proved successful, producing a sup- 
 ply of several hundred gallons per day, and the discovery thus made of the 
 unlimited quantities of oil obtainable led to subsequent processes of refin- 
 ing for illuminating purposes, and to the invention of suitable lamps and 
 burning devices whereby the various forms of industry and commerce con- 
 nected with petroleum have been developed throughout the world. In rec- 
 ognition of this great service to Pennsylvania the legislature of that state 
 afterwards granted a pension to the agent of the company, E. L. Drake, 
 who went from New Haven and superintended the boring.
 
 38 
 
 a few of them. In 1839 came railroad connection with Hart- 
 ford. The old canal was soon abandoned and was opened as a 
 railroad to Plainville in 1848. The railroad to New York was 
 completed in the same year. Gas was introduced in 1848. The 
 telegraph came in 1849. In 1850 commenced the movement 
 for the water works, although water was not actually introduced 
 till 1862. For this great boon, acquired for this community 
 only through a long and arduous controversy, New Haven is 
 glad to acknowledge a new obligation to the honored name of 
 Eli Whitney. The construction of sewers followed necessarily 
 on the water works. The George street sewer had been in fact 
 completed before the water began to flow. The present system 
 of sewers with all its associated financial, administrative and 
 engineering arrangements was the growth of many years ; and 
 it will ever remain a monument to the forethought, the energy, 
 the good judgment and the untiring perseverance of Hon. 
 Henry G. Lewis, Mayor of the city from 1870 to 1877. The 
 march of improvement had meanwhile been going on apace. 
 Under the joint stock corporation act which was passed in 1837 
 and which was itself a remarkable landmark in our industrial 
 jurisprudence, great numbers of manufacturing and other enter- 
 prises had sprung into existence ; new buildings, public and 
 private, factories and warehouses were filling up the vacant 
 spaces. Sidewalks and gutters had become nearly universal. 
 Street paving which had commenced in 1852 by macadamizing 
 Whalley avenue with hand broken stone, proceeded about 1857 
 with Belgian blocks in Chapel, State and Grand streets, but 
 halted there until machine-broken stone made a general Telford 
 system possible some ten years later. Horse railroads began 
 to appear in 1860. The " Little Derby " railroad with which as 
 a city investment we have lately so cheerfully parted, re-annexed 
 the Naugatuck Valley to New Haven in 1871. The Western 
 Union telegraph poles and wires were already crowding our 
 streets when the fire alarm system and the public school sys- 
 tem, and the police system, and finally the telephone and elec-
 
 39 
 
 trie light systems, all successively added their contributions to 
 that " harp of a thousand strings " by which " the spirits of just 
 men are ' not' made perfect." 
 
 Thus by one change after another the quiet and antiquated 
 town has seen itself since 1838, linked to its neighbors by strips 
 of steel, strapped across with iron bands, planed down and 
 built up to uniform grades, plated and trimmed and grooved 
 with layers of brick and stone, perforated with a labyrinth of 
 tubes, and enveloped with a net work of wires. In short it has 
 seen itself transformed into a great public machine ; a machine 
 to be operated in the water business, in the gas business, in the 
 drainage business, in the transportation and traveling busi- 
 ness, and in all the departments of electric business ; vocations 
 all, which the old town was too old fashioned to learn but 
 which the brisk young city was quite willing to undertake. 
 And so it has come about that divesting herself of all respon- 
 sibility and worry connected with the active management of 
 these and co-ordinate matters the ancient commonwealth has 
 turned over the charge of its business affairs to its municipal 
 daughter, and settled herself down in a dignified repose. By 
 successive amendments to the City Charter commencing in 
 1842 and ending with 1880 both the powers and the limits of 
 the city have been so extended that the administrative functions 
 of the town within that part of its territory have been substan- 
 tially superseded. Two smaller children, however, yet remain 
 under the maternal jurisdiction ; the ever faithful Westville 
 and that once errant daughter, the East Haven Annex, long 
 separated from her care, but lately returned to the family 
 hearth. These the venerable town still hugs to her bosom ; 
 they also, with equal fondness cling tightly to her skirts, and 
 have thus far successfully resisted every effort of their big 
 and jealous sister to entice or drag them from that motherly 
 shelter. 
 
 But while the town has so largely withdrawn from the mere 
 business affairs of local government, it has not abdicated those
 
 40 
 higher functions which concern the relations of the citizen to 
 
 o 
 
 the State ; such as the conferment of electoral rights, the mili- 
 tary defence of the country, and the dispensation of public 
 charity. Upon its exercise of all these duties during the last 
 fifty years I have no time to dwell. I can only advert to so 
 much of the second as respects the services of New Haven in 
 the War for the Union and even upon this in no proportion to 
 its historic grandeur and importance. It would indeed be im- 
 possible to worthily recite that story of effort and achievement, 
 in which both town and city are indistinguishably blended. 
 Nor is it necessary. The record of those years is burnt into 
 the hearts and memories of their survivors. It is read and re- 
 read with patriotic pride by their children, and will be by 
 future generations till time shall be no more. To that honored 
 band of veterans, whose diminishing ranks still furnish the 
 noblest feature of this and every other public occasion, what 
 language is needed to recall the fatigues of the march, the pri- 
 vations of the camp, the shock and thunder of battle, the suf- 
 ferings of the hospital and the hell of the rebel prison ? And 
 even to those who in the security of home experienced none of 
 these, what words can adequately revive those days of excite- 
 ment and nights of wakefulness ; when our green and suburban 
 fields were trodden bare by the tramp of drilling battalions 
 and marching regiments ; when the flag was flying continu- 
 ously from every steeple and roof and doorway ; when the 
 cannon would arouse us from sleep by the announcement of 
 victory, or the dread tidings of disaster would fall like lead 
 upon our hearts ; when the papers were hurriedly scanned 
 after every battle for the lists of the killed and the wounded ; 
 and the garbs of mourning and the sad faces of bereavement 
 filled our streets, and darkened every public assembly ? 
 Thanks be to God ! those harrowing days are past long since 
 and were not in vain ! I shall not enlarge upon their history, 
 but on this day of historic reminiscence I should not be par- 
 doned if I neglected to give a prominent place to the part which
 
 41 
 
 New Haven bore in that great conflict, the most momentous 
 of modern times. Let me therefore by way of illustration, re- 
 call three conspicuous episodes in the story of the war familiar 
 to you all, in which citizens of New Haven rendered services to 
 their country of the highest consequence. 
 
 It was in January, 1862, and the war was still languishing. 
 The splendid armies which had gathered about Washington 
 the summer previous to retrieve the disaster and disgrace of 
 Bull Run were still retained in their camps, and the same 
 monotonous report came month after month " All quiet on 
 the Potomac." Meanwhile the Rebel Confederacy was profit- 
 ing by every day's delay to consolidate its political and mili- 
 tary strength, and to concentrate the means of resistance at 
 every assailable point. Troops were pouring from all quarters 
 into Richmond. The Mississippi was being fortified at every 
 strategic position, and a strong line of rebel posts was already 
 stretched across Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. Foreign 
 powers, openly sympathizing with the Confederacy, were on the 
 point of recognizing its independence as an accomplished fact. 
 The people of the North had for months been chafing with 
 impatience at the delay and its consequences, and now indig- 
 nation had begun to give place to discouragement and distrust. 
 Rumors of intended compromise were in the air ; charges of 
 treachery against both military and civil authorities were rife, 
 and a despairing cry was going up for a man who was in earn- 
 est and who would strike one vigorous blow at the rebellion. 
 At length the endurance of even the long suffering Lincoln 
 was exhausted, and he issued his famous order requiring all 
 commanding generals to be in readiness for a movement on 
 February 22d. This order superseding all previous general 
 orders, left commanders of Departments free to act. It was 
 dated January 27th, and scarcely had it been given when out 
 from the murky sky of the West the lightning flashed and 
 struck ! It struck the center of the rebel line from the Missis-
 
 42 
 
 sippi to the mountains, and it broke it to pieces. On the 5th 
 of February Fort Henry surrendered. On the i6th Fort Don- 
 elson surrendered. On the 23d Nashville was abandoned. 
 On the 2d of March Columbus, the gate of the river, and 
 proudly entitled "The Gibraltar of the Confederacy," was 
 evacuated. Thus before the day named by the President for ac- 
 tion had arrived, the way had been broken open, never again 
 to be closed, through which the Union armies were afterward to 
 penetrate the heart and bowels of the Southern Confederacy. 
 And in that day of joy and triumph there rang with acclama- 
 tions throughout the loyal North and were pondered by cau- 
 tious cabinets across the seas, two immortal names then first 
 linked in historic conjunction, Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew 
 Hull Foote, a citizen of New Haven. 
 
 But to Foote's untiring zeal this was only a beginning. 
 The Confederate forces driven from Columbus, had fallen 
 down the river to Island No. 10, a stronger natural position 
 and which they had fortified till they deemed it impregnable. 
 Wounded and almost disabled as he was, Foote by the i5th of 
 March had refitted his shattered fleet and was confronting the 
 massive walls and ponderous guns of the rebel stronghold with 
 his tin-clad cockle-shells. The brilliant operations of the land 
 and naval forces in that investment and siege I need not de- 
 scribe. The struggle was arduous but successful, and on the 
 8th of April the impregnable fortress with all its garrison, guns 
 and supplies surrendered to the indomitable New Havener. 
 
 It was a splendid triumph, but it was his last. Recalled to 
 the East that he might enter on the duties of a higher rank and 
 a wider command, he brought back a frame shattered by his 
 wound, and a heart lacerated by domestic affliction. For a few 
 days we saw him here and heard his cheering and inspiring 
 voice, and then he left us to return no more till he came home 
 wrapped in his country's flag. Slowly and sadly we laid him 
 down, and left him alone with his glory. New Haven has re- 
 corded in her annals many great and venerable names ; but
 
 43 
 
 among them all there is not one which she should cherish with 
 higher honor than that which stands for all that is pure and 
 gentle in Christian character, broad and unselfish in patriot- 
 ism, and brilliant in heroic achievement, Andrew Hull Foote. 
 
 While these great events were occurring in the West there 
 were ominous rumors in circulation that some mysterious and 
 terrible blow was being prepared for our navy on the Atlantic 
 Coast and especially for that part of it near Richmond. Night 
 and day, it was said, the mechanics of the rebel capital had 
 been building and equipping an invulnerable floating monster, 
 which was to bear havoc and destruction to Union ships, forts, 
 and towns, in an unimpeded course ; but of the particular 
 shape, size or construction of this grim and terrible engine 
 nothing was known or could be learned. To meet it the Union 
 authorities had made and were making no adequate prepara- 
 tion ; but there was one man with forethought, energy and en- 
 terprise adapted to the emergency. He had received from a 
 distinguished inventor and naval engineer the model of a ves- 
 sel of bold and original design, without precedent in marine 
 construction, but which seemed to him full of value as a means 
 of encountering the expected and dreaded destroyer. He ap- 
 pealed to the government for authority and meajis to construct 
 this untried vessel but was repelled by the incredulity and the 
 adverse influence of naval officials. Like Columbus at the 
 Court of Spain he was offering to his country an undiscovered 
 empire of power and victory, and like Columbus he clung to 
 his purpose through every discouragement. At length he re- 
 ceived a grudging permission to build the vessel but only at 
 the risk of himself and his associates. When completed she 
 was to go into action, and if by the fortune of war she should 
 be sunk or captured or fail to defeat her antagonist, the builders 
 should refund to the government the cost of her construction. 
 These hard terms he promptly accepted and you know the re- 
 sult ! The world knows it by heart. It reads more like a ro-
 
 44 
 
 mantic tale of the Orient than the sober narrative of history. 
 With that first memorable conflict of heavy armored ships be- 
 gan a new era in naval architecture. The shots they fired were 
 indeed heard around the world. They rang with the voice of a 
 Monitor in the ears of foreign powers warning them to keep 
 out of the American quarrel since all their navies had turned in 
 a night into pasteboard. Nor was this all. From that conflict 
 sprang speedily into existence the armored and turreted fleets 
 which later in the war destroyed every vestige of naval power 
 on the part of the Confederacy. 
 
 Whose were the sagacious judgment, the wise forethought, 
 the persistent purpose, and the patriotic courage which by 
 timely action secured these benefits to his country? Your 
 thoughts have already uttered his name. It was Cornelius 
 Scranton Bushnell, a citizen of New Haven. 
 
 The third event to which I shall allude occurred near the 
 close of the war. Richmond was beleaguered. The Southern 
 States had been generally subdued, and their ports mostly oc- 
 cupied by Union forces. Further contest was hopeless, but the 
 rebel leaders with reckless desperation were resolved to sacri- 
 fice every man and every dollar in the last ditch of secession 
 and slavery, and still fought on. But to keep up their strug- 
 gle continual military supplies were necessary, and these could 
 only be obtained from foreign sources. To these sources one 
 gate still remained open. The port of Wilmington was directly 
 connected with Richmond by rail and the Union armies had 
 not yet been able to break that communication. Into that port 
 poured blockade runners with their cargoes of arms, ammuni- 
 tion and supplies of every kind, the aggregate value of which 
 in 1863 alone was computed at 66,000,000 of dollars. The port 
 was so situated that it could not be blockaded effectually, and 
 fully alive to its importance the Confederates had fortified it 
 with enormous works on which they had lavished every re- 
 source of engineering and military science, until in the judg-
 
 45 
 
 ment of competent critics they were stronger than the famous 
 Malakoff which so long defied the combined armies of Great 
 Britain and France. The work of their reduction or capture 
 had hitherto seemed to the Union commanders too serious to 
 undertake, but the time had now come when it was necessary 
 as one of the final blows at the rebellion. A great naval and 
 military armament was despatched against them, but after an 
 ineffectual bombardment the commanding general of the expe- 
 dition had returned with the report that their capture except 
 by regular siege was impossible. Evidently here was a critical 
 emergency. To abandon the attempt would be to strengthen 
 the rebel courage and resources, to discredit the Union power, 
 to dissatisfy the Northern people, and to postpone the end of 
 the war. At all hazards those forts must be taken ; but to do it 
 a leader was required second in courage and capacity to no 
 other in the army. The great captain did not hesitate for a mo- 
 ment. From amid the brilliant array of tried and trusted gen- 
 erals at his command from among the scores of gallant lead- 
 ers who had been educated at famous military schools and 
 were renowned for their long and faithful services, their signal 
 ability and splendid achievements, his unerring judgment se- 
 lected and sent to the task a citizen of New Haven ; one whose 
 early military training had been in the New Haven Grays and 
 the Second Regiment ; one who by his high character, his tried 
 experience, his modesty, his ability and his earnest and steady 
 purpose had long been conspicuous among his peers as the 
 beau ideal of a soldier and a gentleman. He sent Alfred Howe 
 Terry ; and the impossible was accomplished. 
 
 You have reason my fellow citizens to be proud of that name. 
 Sprung from New Haven stock, and identified with New 
 Haven as the home of his youth and maturer years, we who 
 knew him well in the earlier relations of domestic, social, and 
 civil life can best appreciate how much our community in part- 
 ing with him gave up to the higher claims of our country. 
 And now, when after so long an absence his distinguished pub-
 
 46 
 
 lie career has ended, his heart turns back to his boyhood's 
 home with as warm an affection as when, a slim and blue-eyed 
 youth, he recorded deeds in the Town Clerk's office or marched 
 with shouldered musket in the ranks of the New Haven Grays. 
 Warmly we greet his return to the shadows of the old 
 familiar elms and pray that his declining years may be as tran- 
 quil and happy as his active life has been useful and glorious. 
 
 * 
 
 I have made special reference to these events in the war his- 
 tory of our town because they were occurrences peculiarly 
 striking in their character and of great and general importance 
 in their consequences. To select even these seems almost in- 
 vidious, for the annals of New Haven shine on every page with 
 deeds of others of her sons, living and dead, well worthy of 
 conspicuous mention. She proudly remembers them all. All 
 honor to the surviving actors in that great struggle ! May 
 they long remain among us to enjoy the fruits of their valor 
 and the gratitude of their fellow citizens, and far distant be the 
 day when our children's children shall cease to say " There 
 goes a Union veteran !" 
 
 And for the unreturning brave ! For those who went out 
 from us with a sacred devotion and yielded up their lives not 
 knowing whether or not they died in vain ! Oh that their 
 eyes might look for an hour on what we behold this day ! On 
 a restored Union ! a slave-emancipated Republic ! and a re- 
 united people growing daily, let us hope, in a strengthening 
 bond of brotherhood ! But useless is the aspiration ! No call 
 but that of the resurrection morning will reach them where in 
 unknown graves or beneath time worn tablets they sleep, our 
 heroes sleep, sleep ! But not forgotten ! That granite shaft 
 which we have so lately consecrated to the fame of the living 
 and dead, and which from far away over land and sea is the 
 first object that greets the eye to mark the position of New 
 Haven bears witness to the world that she dwells near to the 
 thought of her heroes, and for her chosen landmark erects
 
 47 
 
 their monument. On a lofty and eternal pedestal upheaved 
 by nature in one of its mightiest convulsions, it appropriately 
 stands : apart, like a holy thought, from the bustle of the 
 market place, yet full in view from every quarter of the busy 
 city, outlined against the clear sky of Heaven, forever pointing 
 upward to the empyrean. In our hours of business it catches 
 our casual glance ; and when in the enjoyment of leisure and 
 recreation we stand at its base and look abroad on the abound- 
 ing beauty of the prospect that lies spread before us, its near 
 presence dominates the scene and hallows it with its noble 
 lesson. As the cross reminds us at once of a mighty sacrifice, 
 and of the priceless blessings that it purchased, so that granite 
 shaft will express to the remotest posterity both the cost and 
 the value of constitutional freedom. Never until that lovely 
 landscape shall fade into everlasting night, and those solid 
 rocks sink back into the abyss from which they rose, may that 
 lesson be lost on the sons of New Haven, or their gratitude 
 fail TO THE DEFENDERS OF " LIBERTY AND UNION, NOW AND 
 
 FOREVER, ONE AND INSEPARABLE." 
 
 A review, however, hasty, of the last half century's changes in 
 New Haven would be incomplete without a reference to her 
 dethronement as a co-capital of the State after holding that 
 dignified position for a hundred and seventy-four years. It 
 was the culminating triumph of our eager and aspiring little 
 sister on the shad-producing river in a long series of family 
 differences. From the time when in 1663 the New Haven 
 Colony suddenly found herself already annexed to the juris- 
 diction of her wide awake rival, an unremitting vigilance was 
 always necessary' on her part, though not always exercised 
 and not often successful, to secure the few crumbs of privilege 
 and opportunity which fell on our side of the family table. 
 There were early contests about the half capital question, and 
 on the removal of the college, and later ones about canal ex- 
 tensions and railroad extensions and Connecticut river bridges 
 4
 
 4 8 
 
 and others too numerous to mention. But these had all gone 
 by and there remained on the placid surface of New Haven 
 equanimity not a ripple from the last family breeze. In 1869 
 appeared the first symptoms of approaching trouble. The 
 Legislature of the State became discontented with its accom- 
 modations both at New Haven and Hartford and uttered the 
 indiscriminate malediction " a plague on both your houses." 
 Here was our ambitious little sister's opportunity and she was 
 as usual, equal to the occasion. As the daughter of Herodias 
 danced before Herod and was told to name her reward even to 
 the half of the kingdom, so our active little sister danced 
 wisely and well before the Sovereign People of the State and 
 obtained in the end her rival's head in a charger. But the fond 
 old State was not allowed to stop with this gift alone. Instead 
 of the half a million of dollars which it had originally con- 
 templated as its expenditure for the new capitol nearly two 
 and a quarter millions were finally cajoled from its treasury 
 and applied in building and grounds for the adornment of 
 Hartford. But let justice be done. Let not the impartiality of 
 the State be impeached. If Hartford was noticed in the dis- 
 tribution of favors, New Haven was not forgotten. As our 
 good old mother State removed the scepter of dignity from our 
 hands she made over to us with thoughtful liberality her inter- 
 est in a certain sacred white elephant, to remind us of the 
 stat-us quo ante. 
 
 But who would be so ill-natured as to begrudge to our 
 bright little sister (no longer, we trust, a rival) the advantages 
 she secured by her smartness and enterprise. We congratulate 
 her on her beautiful park, and especially on her showy and 
 brass mounted capitol building. Happy and proud may she 
 well be to survey it ; and greatly to be admired is that spirited 
 figure perched on its pinnacle, a brazen daughter of Herodias 
 idealized as the genius of Hartford, gracefully poised on agile 
 foot, bearing in one hand her own wreath of sovereignty and 
 triumphantly waving in the other the crown or scalp that has
 
 49 
 
 just been plucked from her decapitated rival. It is an apt and 
 happy conception ; and while we all good humoredly enjoy it 
 together, let the two sister cities embrace each other with that 
 ancient and genuine affection which no rivalries can ever dis- 
 turb and mutually breathe the benediction, " Let us have 
 Peace." 
 
 As we approach the close of this retrospect there float before 
 our mental vision the images of those who in 1838 or later 
 were prominent in our community and who are with us no 
 more. The proprieties of the occasion, no less than the 
 prompting of our hearts require that we should pay them the 
 passing tribute of our remembrance. Yet as the long cata- 
 logue of notable names, death's garnerings for fifty years, 
 passes through our minds we find it impossible to refer to all, 
 and impossible also to make a satisfactory discrimination. In 
 the limited time therefore that remains I must confine my allu- 
 sions to a few of those who filled distinguished places in our 
 local world of religion, letters, politics or science, or who by 
 reason of special benefits conferred on our community have a 
 particular claim to commemoration. 
 
 And first of all, standing on this consecrated spot, I should 
 be false to my own sentiments and to yours if there fell from 
 my lips any other name before that of him whose memory is so 
 associated with this edifice, and so inseparably identified with 
 all public and especially all historic occasions in New Haven. 
 That majestic figure ! that benignant countenance ! that com- 
 manding and inspiring voice ! Their influence still lingers 
 within these walls and fills this place with his presence ! On 
 yonder tablet those who knew him in the sacred relation of 
 pastor have inscribed their tribute to those traits of character 
 which made his ministrations in that holy office a blessing not 
 only to themselves but to mankind, and which wherever he is 
 known have associated a loftier spirit and a purer radiance with 
 the illustrious name of Bacon. But it is as the citizen of New
 
 50 
 
 Haven, as the embodiment of her historic spirit, as the orator 
 on her civic occasions and as the commanding personality in 
 her public assemblies that we miss him to-day. In these capaci- 
 ties Dr. Bacon filled through many years a place in this com- 
 munity which it is hardly probable will ever again be occu- 
 pied. Nor was his influence confined to the boundaries of our 
 own municipality. From his writings Abraham Lincoln re- 
 ceived his first impressions of the evils of slavery, and had he 
 rendered no other service to mankind than that, his country 
 should hold his memory in everlasting gratitude. And though 
 all other acts of his life should fade in time from human recol- 
 lection, yet so long as " laws, freedom, truth and faith in 
 God " have power among men, so long will that beautiful lyric 
 which we have sung to-day perpetuate in every American heart 
 the name and memory of Leonard Bacon. 
 
 In this imperfect necrology, other names connected with the 
 clerical profession, hardly less prominent in their day than 
 that of Dr. Bacon must be rapidly passed over. I can only 
 allude to Dr. Nathaniel W. Taylor, who died in 1858, a resi- 
 dent of New Haven for 36 years and whose fame as an elo- 
 quent preacher and as the founder of a new school of divinity 
 known as the New Haven School was unsurpassed two gener- 
 ations ago by any in the country. I can only mention also 
 the Rev. Dr. Harry Croswell, rector of Trinity church, who 
 also died in 1858, a venerable, apostolic man of grand and dig- 
 nified presence, a born leader of men, most deeply and justly 
 revered by his people. Other pastors of long standing and in- 
 fluence who have passed away in the midst of their work were 
 the pious and devoted Cleveland, who died in 1866 after a 
 ministry here of 32 years ; and the genial and saintly Dutton, 
 who died in the same year after a pastorate of 28 years. 
 Faithful and able ministers and spiritual fathers of other de- 
 nominations who might well be mentioned have also been 
 gathered to their rest, but these by their long residence had be- 
 come specially identified with New Haven. They were known
 
 and honored by our entire population, and departing left be- 
 hind them footsteps and more than footsteps on our local life 
 and character. 
 
 In the ranks of the legal profession the most conspicuous in 
 1838 were Daggett, Staples, Simeon and Roger Baldwin, 
 Hitchcock, White, Charles and Ralph Ingersoll, Kimberly and 
 Townsend. All these have long since been gathered to their 
 fathers. Of those who came later and are also gone I may 
 name as most prominent, Blackman, Button, Osborne, Bristol, 
 Foster, Ives, Wright and Beach. Among the forensic leaders 
 of the bar for a quarter of a century those who reached the 
 highest eminence in professional and public life were Ralph 
 I. Ingersoll and Roger 'S. Baldwin. These two great advo- 
 cates were often antagonized in court and presented an inter- 
 esting contrast. Ingersoll was keen, graceful, dramatic and 
 polished and impassioned in oratory. Baldwin was stiff in 
 manner and angular in gesture, but in diction splendid and 
 powerful as the thundering of great guns. Both attained to 
 high positions in public life. Baldwin as Governor of Con- 
 necticut and United States Senator, and Ingersoll as member 
 of Congress and United States Minister to Russia. Baldwin 
 died in 1863 and Ingersoll in 1872. 
 
 In turning to the mortuary record of the medical profession 
 we seem to pass in a measure from public to domestic history. 
 The relations of the family physician to the community are so 
 purely personal, that the mere enumeration of those in most 
 general practice who have passed away will suffice to awaken 
 in every mind its own special memories of professional skill 
 and fidelity. I name them in the order of their departure, 
 Of the allopathic school Dr. Timothy Beers, Dr. Eli Ives, 
 Dr. Charles Hooker, Dr. Jonathan Knight, Dr. Worthington 
 Hooker, Dr. Nathan B. Ives, Dr. Charles L. Ives, Dr. Edwin 
 Park, Dr. Pliny A. Jewett, Dr. David A. Tyler. Of the 
 homoeopathic school Dr. Charles H. Skiff, Dr. E. T. Foote. 
 
 Among the men of letters whose lives have ended during
 
 52 
 
 the past half century the first in order is James A. Hillhouse, 
 the poet ; a son of that James Hillhouse surnamed the 
 Sachem, illustrious in New Haven annals. His compositions 
 were widely read and admired in their day, and he is still re- 
 garded as among the best of the earlier American poets. 
 
 A more distinguished name is that of Noah Webster, who 
 died in 1843. In this day of broad and accurate scholarship a 
 disposition has appeared to depreciate the great merits of Dr. 
 Webster as a philologist and to overlook the immense value 
 of his services to the English language in America. That he 
 should have fallen into some errors is not strange, in view of 
 his limited facilities for research ; and as to his orthographical 
 reforms it is undeniable that many of them are becoming 
 universally accepted on both sides of the Atlantic. To the 
 extraordinary diffusion of Webster's Spelling Book and 
 Webster's Dictionary it has been owir/g more perhaps than to 
 any other cause that the development of local dialects in this 
 country has been prevented, and the importance of this cir- 
 cumstance on our national unity can hardly be over estimated. 
 To these books is also largely due the fact that the purest form 
 of English is spoken in America ; and it is a matter of local 
 pride to us that for two generations past, New Haven, the 
 source from which these books have been continually emanat- 
 ing in their course of constant revision and improvement, has 
 thus been and is to-day the fountain head of linguistic 
 authority the "well of English undefiled " for all English- 
 speaking peoples. We may therefore confidently affirm that 
 the purest form of English on earth is that which corresponds 
 most closely with the New Haven vernacular. 
 
 For this distinction we are indebted primarily to the great 
 Lexicographer but not to him alone. Other eminent scholars, 
 some of whom are still living among us, have taken up and 
 carried on his work. Most of those who have ceased from 
 their labors were connected with Yale College, and to these as 
 well as to other distinguished professors in that institution
 
 53 
 
 who by their learning, ability and character gave New Haven 
 a world-wide reputation for many years, I shall make refer- 
 ence in another place. I may mention here, however, as one 
 of the men of letters who were co-laborers on Webster's Dic- 
 tionary, that eccentric celebrity, compound of poet, scientist 
 and linguist, Dr. James G. Percival, who, after having im- 
 mured himself from human sight in New Haven for several 
 years, emerged from his voluntary dungeon and went to Wis- 
 consin where he died in 1856. 
 
 In association with departed men of letters the names of two 
 distinguished and honored citizens should be included, not 
 only on account of their long and valuable careers in educa- 
 tional work but from their prominent positions in the com- 
 munity and great public services. Hon. Aaron N. Skinner 
 was Mayor of the city from 1850 to 1854 and was always 
 prominent and indefatigable in every work of public improve- 
 ment. General William H. Russell held the chief command 
 in the domestic military service of the State during the civil 
 war, and his personal labors during that period as well as the 
 assistance rendered by the pupils of his military school in the 
 drilling of volunteers were of high importance. More dis- 
 tinctively literary careers were followed by the Rev. John S. 
 C. Abbott, that pleasing writer and estimable man, who died 
 a citizen of our town ; and that excellent historian of New 
 Haven, whose recent loss we so greatly deplore, the Rev. 
 Edward E. Atwater. 
 
 Time will not permit thife record to be prolonged as it 
 might be, by the enumeration of many noteworthy names that 
 crowd upon our recollection. Names of inventors ; like that of 
 Charles Goodyear, whose romantic story reminds us in its 
 pathos and its triumph of Palissy the Potter, but whose services 
 to mankind were incomparably more magnificent. Names 
 drawn from the ranks of commercial, mercantile and manu- 
 facturing life ; names of artists, publishers, constructors and 
 others who by their genius, their enterprise or their public
 
 54 
 
 spirit have adorned and benefited this community. Day by 
 day as we pass through our streets we recognize their memo- 
 rials on every side and speak their names to our children. 
 
 Nevertheless it is fit that we should recall with a special 
 mention and gratitude those who by unusual benefactions to 
 public or private objects have a claim beyond others to the 
 thanks and lasting remembrance of posterity. Who can 
 forget on this anniversary day the benevolent heart of Brew- 
 ster, and the generous bounty of Heaton, two names enshrined 
 in the orphans' home and hallowed with the orphans' bless- 
 ings ? Who does not gratefully recall the dignified form of 
 Philip Marett, who, though but a stranger and sojourner 
 among us, poured out his beneficent spirit in wise and princely 
 bequests to our local institutions and benevolences ? How 
 could we fail to remember the splendid and varied munifi- 
 cence of Sheffield and Farnam, and the generous gifts of 
 Street ? And as our thoughts extend beyond these more strik- 
 ing examples, they recur to the judicious liberalities of Win- 
 chester and Fellowes and the thoughtful bequests of Fitch. I 
 mention only the dead, but as I speak there rise in every mind 
 the thoughts of others still living to whom New Haven is 
 indebted for noble benefactions. We remember one, a life- 
 long citizen who has passed among us a spotless and honored 
 career ; and we are reminded also of a recent act of splendid 
 liberality by one who, born within the limits of the ancient 
 colony, and formerly a resident of this town, has never amid 
 the associations of a distinguished and successful life lost his 
 affection for New Haven nor his interest in her institutions. 
 At the next centennial anniversary their names will be fitly 
 and gratefully spoken. 
 
 In all that I have thus far said I have made no reference to 
 the crowning glory of New Haven, which might well on this 
 occasion have had the foremost place. I mean that great and 
 venerable institution whose honored head is so fitly' called to
 
 55 
 
 preside at this birthday gathering and which, almost coeval 
 with this community is inseparably blended with it as an 
 integral part of its existence. What would New Haven be 
 without old Mother Yale, for is she not indeed the alma mater 
 of us all ? From that early day when the young town, poor in 
 goods but rich in resolution and faith, brought home from 
 Saybrook the maiden college which had been its first and con- 
 stant love, and entered with her here on a united life of mutual 
 struggle and mutual affection has she not been true to her 
 allegiance ? Has she not faithfully fulfilled the promise of 
 that youthful union ? In sickness and in health, for richer, 
 for poorer, for better and for worse, she has identified herself 
 with the welfare of this community, and her true-hearted 
 devotion has brought to it a wealth of blessings and honor. 
 If New Haven has always enjoyed a special renown among 
 the cities of our land for beauty, for culture, for morality, for 
 intellectual privileges, and for all other advantages which 
 bring reputation, wealth and happiness to a community, is it 
 not largely because its name is every where synonymous with 
 Yale ! There is not a citizen of New Haven who does not 
 derive .in some way a motherly blessing from her presence. 
 There is not one however ignorant, however degraded, who 
 does not instinctively feel that any disaster to her would be to 
 him in some way a personal calamity. To-day, then, New Haven 
 rejoices in the prosperity of Yale for the last half century. Her 
 progress is our progress her glory is our glory. Every new 
 advance which she secures in resources, every new accession 
 to the ranks of her instructors, is a gain to the social, the intel- 
 lectual and the material wealth of New Haven. As we look 
 back on the list of those eminent and noble men who during 
 the past two generations have gone upward from her service 
 we realize how closely they identified themselves with every 
 interest of this community and how much it suffered in their 
 loss. We remember the venerable Day, the modest and gentle 
 Fitch, the elder and the younger Silliman, the earlier and the
 
 56 
 
 later Kingsley. We remember Goodrich and Hadley and 
 Gibbs and the ever lamented Thacher. We see again the 
 kindly faces of Olmstead, and Larned and Norton. We recall 
 the brilliant Herrick and the faithful Warner, and the young 
 and promising Porter, and Packard, both too early lost ! 
 New Haveners all ! Nor do we think of these alone. We 
 remember also two venerated men, for so many years the 
 revered presidents of Yale who still remain among us ; whose 
 lives have been a benediction to New Haven and whose re- 
 nown has long shed luster on her name. Far distant be the 
 day when we shall see them no more ! but when their summons 
 shall come we cannot doubt that they will respond to the call 
 with a serener joy because they will leave the ancient College 
 developed by their labors into a great and flourishing Univer- 
 sity, ever enlarging in usefulness and influence, ever growing 
 stronger in the esteem of their fellow citizens, and safe in its 
 prosperity under so wise and steady a guidance. 
 
 And now as we turn from the contemplation of the past and 
 cast our eyes forward toward the impenetrable future we can- 
 not thrust aside the portentous but vain inquiry, What for 
 the next half century lies before our Commonwealth ? New 
 Haven faces the coming years not now like a rustic youth 
 inexperienced in the rude turmoil of the busy world, but as 
 having itself become an active and important portion of that 
 world, and it must be ready to meet all coming responsibilities. 
 If its population shall continue to increase during the next 
 fifty years in the same ratio as during the last, it will amount 
 in 1938 to some 300,000 souls. The questions what will then 
 be the appearance of our town or city ? what its moral and 
 intellectual characteristics ? and what its influence ? are not 
 mere matters of idle speculation. Their answer will depend 
 mainly upon the wisdom, the virtue and the public spirit of 
 those who are now living within its limits. It is we who are 
 to decide for instance what will be the outward aspect which
 
 57 
 
 New Haven will present in 1938. Will it be then as it has 
 been in the past, peerless for beauty, unrivalled for its pictur- 
 esque streets and suburbs? or will it have fallen into the 
 second, third, or fourth rank for elegance, taste, and public 
 improvements ? Let me seize this occasion to press the imme- 
 diate urgency of these inquiries. At the present day the 
 important bearing of municipal adornment on municipal 
 growth, health, prosperity and happiness is well understood. 
 As other cities of our land are advancing in wealth and enter- 
 prise they are also increasing their attractions as dwelling 
 places by public improvements which are rapidly raising the 
 standard of urban beauty, and which threaten not only to 
 deprive New Haven of her present supremacy in this respect 
 but to leave her far in the rear. The natural charms of our 
 situation, the extent and variety of beautiful scenery and views 
 which lie all around us and almost within our present city 
 limits are unexcelled in the world. It only needs a wise 
 liberality and public spirit on the part of our land owners 
 combined with prompt and energetic action by the municipal- 
 ity to secure incomparable sites for public parks and other 
 open places within our borders and on our outskirts at an 
 inconsiderable cost, which, if neglected, will in fifty years be 
 covered by squalid tenements and a swarming population. 
 Every consideration impels us to take speedy action not only 
 for the preservation to New Haven of her traditional renown 
 for beauty, but to make her unsurpassable by any of her rivals 
 for all time. In no way can we so surely earn the applause of 
 posterity. No burden of expense that we can transmit, if any 
 must be transmitted, will be so cheerfully borne. For assur- 
 ance of this we need not go beyond our own experience. 
 What more inspiring change in our surroundings has occurred 
 in the last fifty years than the transformation of the East Rock 
 range from a shaggy and inaccessible wilderness to a thing of 
 beauty and a joy forever? What expenditures of public 
 money have been so popular and so little felt as those which
 
 58 
 
 have related to its improvement ? Fortunate will be every 
 citizen who shall be remembered by the unborn millions of 
 future years as having aided, whether in a public or private 
 capacity, in securing for them so noble and beneficial a gift as 
 a public park or pleasure ground ! And thrice fortunate they 
 who by special munificence or prominence in enhancing the 
 beauty and value of such a blessing, shall have reared for them- 
 selves an everlasting memorial ! Countless generations will 
 roam with delight over East Rock Park, and each in its turn 
 will pass away and be forgotten, but imperishable as the 
 mountain itself, fresh as its ever renewing verdure, and fra- 
 grant as its flowers, will cling forever to its cliffs and valleys 
 and winding ways the names of Farnam and of English. 
 
 The other inquiry to which I have referred, what will be the 
 moral and intellectual characteristics of New Haven at the 
 3ooth anniversary of its settlement ? is not less important and 
 interesting, but its answer is less under our immediate control. 
 For in respect to these our community is inseparably associated 
 with the great outside world in which irresistible forces are 
 re-moulding beliefs, re-organizing institutions and changing 
 the moral and physical face of the earth. We are driving for- 
 ward with the rest under the sway of these same forces, but 
 whither we do not know. We only know that in the thick 
 clouds which shroud our onward course we hear confused 
 sounds of inspiring and of threatening voices ; the hymns and 
 paeans of a higher civilization, of peace on earth, good will to 
 men, and the cries of conflict, the mutterings of social dis- 
 order and anarchy. Are these the signs of new and better 
 developments growing out of the ancient order ? or has the 
 impetuous rush which has marked our advance carried society 
 forward too rapidly for its powers of cohesion ? and is the 
 next half century to witness a pause, a reaction, a partial 
 breaking up of social elements and a more or less turbulent 
 reorganization on newly developed lines ? Time alone can
 
 59 
 
 answer. Yet let us trust that through all mutations for good 
 or evil, New Haven, fixed on those eternal foundations which 
 our forefathers planted "laws, freedom, truth and faith in 
 God," will stand like a figure of Liberty lighting the World. 
 By the right and the necessity of her moral and intellectual 
 prominence she must guide the way in every path of advance- 
 ment and lift on high her beacon torch in whatever darkness 
 and storm. 
 
 Advance then, ye coming years, ye approaching generations ! 
 We fear not the unknown powers that drive your heaving 
 waves, for He who transplanted sustains and will sustain. As 
 we stand on your shore and peer into your mists this day for 
 some augury of the future of our beloved Commonwealth, we 
 seem to discern looming out of their murky depths the vision 
 of a phantom ship ! Not like that gloomy specter which our 
 forefathers watched with tears and trembling, " her masts fall- 
 ing by the board, her hulk careening and overset," and her 
 fragments finally " vanishing in a smoaky cloud ;" but rather 
 we behold her with the eye of a confident faith coming bravely 
 on, " her canvass and her colors all abroad" and freighted to 
 the water's edge with prosperity and blessings ! And as we 
 look she triumphantly swings to her moorings ; she rides 
 safe at anchor in the waters of a greater and more glorious 
 New Haven !
 
 REUNION OF THE LANCASTERIAN SCHOOL. 
 
 At the close of Mr. Blake's address, about 350 former pupils 
 of Mr. John E. Lovell met in the large hall at No. 48 Orange 
 street, to welcome their aged instructor who a few days before 
 had entered upon his 94th year. His connection with the Lan- 
 casterian school dates as far back as its establishment in 1822, 
 and was continued (with an intermission of two and a half 
 years) till the year 1857, a period of more than 30 years, during 
 which a large number of those who to-day represent to a con- 
 siderable extent the intelligence and business activity of New 
 Haven were under his instruction. The name Lancasterian 
 was derived from Mr. Joseph Lancaster of England, who about 
 the year 1798 devised a method by which, on the monitorial 
 system, a school, however large, might be managed by one 
 master, and the expense for each pupil be thus reduced to a 
 small sum. Among the young men whom he trained was John 
 E. Lovell, who was led by Mr. Lancaster to come to this coun- 
 try, and on his recommendation as being amply and peculiarly 
 qualified for the work, was employed by the school committee 
 to establish and conduct a school of this character in New 
 Haven. It was opened in the latter part of May, 1822, in the 
 basement of the old Methodist Church which occupied the 
 northwest corner of what was then called the Upper Green. 
 In November of that year the Committee reported that, as the 
 establishment of a Lancasterian school was regarded by many 
 as visionary, the room, which was neither sufficiently large nor 
 light, was only temporarily engaged. There were at that date 
 about 350 scholars between six and fourteen years of age and 
 about 50 more were applying for admission. The tuition, 
 originally one dollar each quarter, was shortly reduced to fifty 
 cents. The Committee in closing their report, spoke highly of 
 the progress and good order of the school, and recommended 
 the erection of a building capable of containing six or seven 
 hundred boys. It was signed bv S. J. Hitchcock, Andrew Kid-
 
 6i 
 
 ston, John Scott, Samuel Wadsworth, Wm. H. Ellis, Anthony 
 H. Sherman, Wm. Mix and James English. It was not till 
 1827 that their recommendation was carried into effect. In that 
 year a new school house was erected on a lot on the corner of 
 Orange and Wall street, the gift of Mr. Titus Street for that 
 purpose, and here the Lancasterian School was held till the 
 year 1857, when it gave place to the system of graded schools 
 at present established. Mr. Lovell on retiring at the close of 
 his long and honorable work conducted for a few years a 
 private school which was largely attended, and subsequently 
 removed to Waterbury, Conn., where he now resides. 
 
 The reunion of the Lancasterian boys was a great success in 
 every respect and will never be forgotten by those who partici- 
 pated in it. After the collation provided by the Committee, 
 at which a blessing was invoked by the Rev. S. J. Merwin, 
 the meeting was called to order by Mr. John C. Bradley, chair- 
 man of the Committee of Arrangements, who nominated the 
 Hon. Henry B. Harrison, late Governor of Connecticut, a for- 
 mer pupil of Mr. Lovell and for many years his assistant, as 
 president of the meeting. 
 
 Gov. Harrison on taking the chair was received with great 
 applause and said : 
 
 GENTLEMEN : With especial pleasure and pride do I accept 
 the honor of presiding over this remarkable assembly. But I 
 repudiate the title of "president." I shall claim, for this after- 
 noon, a more honorable title, once well known in your school, 
 although it afterwards fell into disuse. I shall claim here the 
 title, and exercise the functions, of " Monitor General of Order, 
 Time and Place " in the Lancasterian School. 
 
 Take notice now that order is to be preserved, and that if it 
 should be violated in any instance the offender will be directed 
 to walk up to the door of the " Little Room " and stand there 
 until Mr. Lovell can attend to him. 
 
 It almost brings the water into our eyes to think that after 
 all these years we are once more together boys again in the 
 presence of our beloved master. Boys again ! How much 
 that signifies ! Some of us look back forty years, many of us 
 fifty years, and more than one of us sixty years at least, to the 
 time when we first became schoolboys in the Lancasterian 
 School. And as we so look back, what memories swell in 
 upon us ; memories of winter and spring and summer and
 
 62 
 
 autumn. Once more we see the little fellow tumbling out of 
 bed in the cold winter morning, fearful lest he may get late to 
 school. He hurries down his breakfast while the careful 
 mother packs his dinner-pail. She helps him put on his over- 
 coat, ties the long woollen comforter about his neck, covers 
 his hands with the thick red mittens that his aunt has knit for 
 him, and sends him on his way. He reaches the school-house, 
 plunges down into the basement (you remember its uneven 
 brick floor), hangs up his coat, cap and pail, and hastens into 
 the school-room by the back stairway. The clock strikes, the 
 doors are shut, a chapter in the Bible is read by Mr. Lovell, 
 and then the hum of work begins. 
 
 When the studies of the morning are over we adjourn for 
 dinner. Then the basement becomes a place for eating and 
 fun and frolic, and also, to no small extent, a provision- 
 exchange where the superfluous cold sausage is swapped off 
 for the extra piece of pie, and the russet apple for the bright 
 yellow, puckery, delicious " Jonah " pear. 
 
 The bell rings, the exercises of the afternoon begin, and at 
 last, when " school lets out " we run off to the canal near by, 
 or to Hillhouse Basin, then seemingly so far off, there to skate 
 and often to indulge in the exciting and perilous amusement 
 of " running bendebows." Or else, if snow is on the ground, 
 two great battalions are organized for a snow-balling fight be- 
 tween the "up-towners" and the "down-towners." In my 
 day, chief among the leaders of the " up-towners " were the 
 Broadway boys especially the LeForge boys and Bill Stark 
 and Charley Brigden ; while the " down-towners " were headed 
 by Harry Lewis, George Rowland, John Graham, Sam Russell 
 and others whom many of you will remember. While the 
 battle raged we put the streets into a state of siege. No lives 
 were lost, but bloody noses were not uncommon. And when 
 the victory was won, up went the shout of triumph. There 
 was no "Rah, rah, rah," about it, but our cry was the grand 
 old " hurrah " that had descended to those Lancasterian School 
 boys from their ancestors, resounding from century to century 
 over a thousand battles and a thousand victories. When I hear 
 this "Rah, rah, rah," in these days as a substitute for the old 
 war-cry of the English-speaking races I almost fear that our 
 national virility is beginning to die out. 
 
 The spring came, and with it "marble time." The "little
 
 63 
 
 ring" or the "big ring" was marked out upon the ground. 
 Forth from the pockets came the slate-colored marbles, and the 
 black ones that had been carefully manufactured by wrapping 
 the others in greased rags and baking them in hot ashes ; the 
 " annies," too (white, with thin red streaks,) and also the lit- 
 tle " sneaks." And then from the crouching players were 
 heard the frequent exclamations, " fen inchins over," " knuckle 
 down," " fire strong." And so the game went on. Then came 
 "button time" and "top time" and "one old cat" and "two 
 old cat," and " prisoner's base " and "base ball," &c., &c., as 
 we all so well remember and afterwards, in due order, the 
 sports of summer and autumn. Ah ! those were happy days. 
 
 The Lancasterian School was a great factor in the life of this 
 town. It has made a permanent mark upon our local history. 
 It was a great public school, not the only public school, but 
 pre-eminently the public school of New Haven. Our popula- 
 tion was then small and homogeneous, containing very few 
 rich people and very few poor people, but consisting substan- 
 tially of families in comfortable circumstances ; and the chil- 
 dren of those parents filled the Lancasterian School. The 
 education which they received there was in some respects 
 greatly inferior to that which is furnished by our public schools 
 to-day. There was no physiology, and no " ology " of any 
 kind, no philosophy, no Latin and no Greek. Nothing was 
 taught except reading, spelling, writing, arithmetic, grammar, 
 geography, drawing and elocution. But this system of study, 
 inferior as it may now be considered, was up to the public 
 school standard of that day. And whatever else may be said 
 about it, this at least is true that the great and manly work 
 which has been done all over the world in past and present 
 ages by the great English-speaking races has been mainly 
 done by men whose early education was no better than that 
 which you obtained in the Lancasterian School. 
 
 The discipline of the school, too, was different from that 
 which prevails in the public schools to-day. It would now be 
 called severe, for it involved a free, though not cruel, use of 
 corporal punishment. But that kind of discipline was at that 
 time considered the proper one. Undoubtedly it was inferior 
 in some particulars to the softer and gentler methods now in 
 vogue. But if in comparison with the present system it had 
 its disadvantages, we may fairly doubt whether it had not some 
 5
 
 6 4 
 
 advantages also. It did not degrade the boy, for in those days 
 he did not associate with it the idea of degradation. On the 
 other hand it cultivated in him (for the public sentiment of 
 the school required him to take his punishment like a little 
 man without whining or whimpering) it cultivated in him 
 patience, endurance, obedience and courage. There is in Eng- 
 lish literature no finer figure than " Tom Brown of Rugby," 
 and you Lancasterian School boys got, inside of your school 
 and out of it, precisely the same kind of discipline that made 
 v "Tom Brown" the manly boy he was and the manly man he 
 became. 
 
 And what was the result of all this training ? It made good 
 boys and good men. Among all the hundreds of boys that I 
 have known in the school I remember at this moment only two 
 who turned out badly. Of course there were more, but they 
 must have been few. One of those two boys I did once meet 
 in a very bad place after he had become a man. Your cunning 
 smile, Mr. White, is quite intelligible. You are thinking that I 
 should not have met that boy in that bad place if I had not been 
 in the same bad place myself. But let me assure you, gentle- 
 men, upon my honor, that, although I met him in a bad place, 
 he was on the inside of the bars and I on the outside. Well, 
 those Lancasterian boys have spread all over the country and 
 even into other parts of the world, and it is perfectly safe to 
 say that, with very few exceptions, they have become sound, 
 intelligent, upright men, faithfully doing the work that has 
 been set before them. 
 
 We miss many of them whom we had hoped to see here 
 to-day, and among them two especially who, although invited, 
 have not been able to meet us. One of those two is Luther 
 Bradley. Many of you remember him. He was a quiet and 
 shy boy, but he had the right stuff in him. He went west, and 
 when the war broke out he enlisted in the army. At the end 
 of the war he had attained the rank of General a rank which 
 he gained not by political influence but by fighting his way, 
 through many battles, all the way up, sprinkling his blood 
 along the line. There is another one of all the Lancasterian 
 boys perhaps the most beloved. I can see him now sitting on 
 his stool, monitor of class O and P. I can see him there as 
 clearly as I can see any one of you at this moment a delicate 
 and slender boy, with light hair, pale, grave face, large eyes
 
 65 
 
 and a large head. I have known him and watched him from 
 that hour to this. The State of Connecticut has produced her 
 full share of great men and great soldiers, but she has never 
 produced an abler man, a more accomplished gentleman or a 
 more brilliant soldier than the hero of Fort Fisher, Alfred H. 
 Terry. 
 
 This is Founders' Day. In celebrating it we are honoring 
 the deeds of the founders of this town. Among them was 
 Ezekiel Cheever who, as soon as he had got on shore, estab- 
 lished, as one of the main foundations of the new Republic, 
 the first public school of New Haven. We are celebrating 
 with our fellow-citizens the foundation of that school, but we 
 are also celebrating by ourselves here the foundation of 
 another and greater school. Ezekiel Cheever and his scholars 
 have been dead for two hundred years, but wonderful as the 
 fact'is the founder of the Lancasterian School, who established 
 it sixty-six years ago, unites with us in this celebration. The 
 founder is here, and his boys are here, after all that long lapse 
 of time. Probably a similar incident has never occurred before 
 in this country, or, perhaps, in any other. And what shall I 
 say of the dear master himself God bless him ? I cannot 
 utter, and will not try to utter, all that you and I feel towards 
 him at this moment. Infirmities have come upon him. He 
 cannot hear all your kind words. He cannot clearly see your 
 faces looking so full of affection upon him. But in other 
 respects his health is sound and we may reasonably hope that 
 his boys may yet celebrate with him the centennial anniversary 
 of his birth. His mind is still clear. His heart is as warm and 
 generous as ever ; and he is now, as he always was, the model 
 of an upright, honorable, and most courtly gentleman. This 
 is the happiest day of his life. I call for three cheers for 
 John E. Lovell. 
 
 They were given with a will and three times repeated. 
 
 Ex-Governor James E. English, one of the first members 
 of the Lancasterian School, was then gracefully introduced 
 by the Chairman as one who has held the highest positions 
 and gained them by earning them. Mr. Monitor, he said, 
 may I be permitted to address the school ? I remember per- 
 fectly that one day in 1822 a young man called at my father's 
 house and interested him in the establishment of a school on 
 a new system. That young man was our old teacher, Mr. John
 
 66 
 
 E. Lovell, then twenty-seven years old. I became one of his 
 first pupils and was present when the school was opened. I 
 can bear witness to the difficulty of the task he undertook of 
 organizing 240 boys who attended the first day and of whom 
 he knew nothing and of making them orderly and studious 
 pupils. Parents could not at first understand how so small 
 a man could have so much influence and control over them, 
 as he certainly had. The school was an object of public 
 curiosity. He made rules and those rules he caused to be 
 obeyed. One of them I recollect was that the boys must not 
 play on the lower green, because the grass on it was sold by 
 the town. Up to the year 1822 the town of New Haven had 
 not invested a mill in a school building, and considerable 
 difficulty was found in securing a room sufficiently large. I 
 remember my obligations to Mr. Lovell with great pleasure 
 and can only say, in closing, that I should like to go to school 
 to him again. 
 
 The next speaker was Judge Henry E. Pardee, who was 
 appropriately introduced by the chairman, and said : When 
 Mr. Lovell selected me to succeed John Lovell Smith as 
 instructor in the school, in which position I remained seven 
 years, it was only one instance of his many acts of kindness to 
 his pupils. To him I owe, more than anyone else, the oppor- 
 tunities I have had in life. Notwithstanding the improve- 
 ments in methods of teaching, it does not appear that the average 
 boys now sent out from our schools give promise of becom- 
 ing more successful than those educated under Mr. Lovell. 
 He was always on the lookout for the good side of a boy. 
 This was one secret of his success, and the touch of his hand 
 was always an inspiration to me. 
 
 The venerable instructor, in honor of whom the meeting was 
 held, then rose and begged leave to retire on account of 
 fatigue. " Gentlemen," he added, " I want to thank you for 
 the kindness you have shown me to-day. This is the happiest 
 moment of my life, and I feel like saying, now let thy servant 
 depart in peace." As he was escorted by Governor English 
 to the carriage provided for him, the whole assemblage rose 
 and gave him three parting cheers. 
 
 Professor George E. Day, of the Yale Divinity School, on 
 being called upon, said : 
 
 This day not only brings us nearer our old and well-
 
 6; 
 
 beloved instructor, but nearer to each other, in a common 
 bond of union. The opening of the Lancasterian School 
 sixty-six years ago was a great event in the history of New 
 Haven. Boys who had been scattered in fifteen or twenty 
 small schools were brought together, " up-towners " and 
 " down-towners " alike, with all the advantages of a large 
 school and the opportunities of common sympathies and a 
 wider acquaintance. The unifying influence of this change 
 upon the boys of New Haven has never ceased, and is repre- 
 sented to-day by the large gathering present. In looking 
 back to the opening of the school, at which it was my lot to be 
 present, I am impressed with certain leading ideas of Mr. 
 Lovell which were made prominent at the outset in its semi- 
 military organization, viz : the importance of order, neatness, 
 obedience and reverence. The inspection of hands in the long 
 line extending from the old Methodist church to the corner of 
 the North or United church, the orderly march into the cellar- 
 like school-room, the reverential reading of the Scriptures by 
 the instructor, the inscription in large letters, "A place for 
 everything and everything in its place," and the prompt obedi- 
 ence required and enforced were an education in themselves. 
 Combined with the personal activity of the teacher, his genius 
 for organization and his courtly manners, they contributed 
 largely to the success of the school. 
 
 It has been my hope that, beyond the pleasure of meeting 
 our honored instructor and testifying our regard for him and 
 his work, it might be possible to have some enduring memorial 
 of this interesting occasion, or at least that some good and 
 permanent influence might go forth from our meeting to-day. 
 I don't know what it should be, but I have an idea that the 
 most fitting thing we can do at present, in recognizing our 
 obligation to the generation which preceded us, is to express 
 our interest in the Free Public Library recently established, as 
 being a sort of continuance of their educational work. I have 
 accordingly prepared a paper intended to further that excellent 
 object, which I beg leave to offer without remark in the form 
 of a resolution, as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That, regarding the establishment of free public 
 libraries as the legitimate issue and needed supplement of our 
 public school system, to which as former members of the Lan- 
 casterian school under our honored instructor, Mr. John E. 
 Lovell, we are so largely indebted, and rejoicing in the good
 
 beginning in this city already made, we will heartily second 
 all proper measures for the growth, enlargement and greatest 
 success of the Free Public Library of New Haven, and trust it 
 will become a worthy monument of the intelligence and pub- 
 lic spirit of a community in which good learning, through the 
 Hopkins Grammar School, the University and lastly our excel- 
 lent graded schools, has always had a home. 
 
 The resolution was unanimously adopted. 
 
 Ex-Mayor H. G. Lewis responded to the call of the chair- 
 man, in words of hearty appreciation of Mr. Lovell and his 
 work, and expressed the hope that a generous response would 
 be made to the appeal of the committee for a fund in aid of 
 the venerable and beloved instructor in his declining years. 
 Addresses in the same strain were made by Lewis Warner of 
 Northampton, Mass., Horace Mansfield, probably the oldest 
 surviving pupil of Mr. Lovell, Edward E. Bradley, S. T. But- 
 ton, an invited guest as superintendent of schools in New 
 Haven, Nathaniel Niles of Brooklyn, N. Y., George H. Hurl- 
 burt of Middletown, William H. Dougal, James G. English, 
 Town Agent Reynolds, John G. Chapman, Henry W. Mans- 
 field, Henry Mattoon, J. Lovell Smith and others. 
 
 The exercises were interspersed with a poem by Charles G. 
 Merriman of Westville, and familiar recitations from the United 
 States Speaker, compiled by Mr. Lovell, and reminiscences of 
 Lancasterian school days by Edward C. Beecher, Wooster A. 
 Ensign, E. R. Whiting and George Sherman. With a song 
 composed for the occasion to the tune of " Auld Lang Syne " by 
 B. W. Jepson, this remarkable meeting was brought to a close. 
 
 The committee under whose direction this celebration was 
 inaugurated and conducted, consisting of Messrs. John C. 
 Bradley, Charles G. Merriman, Augustus E. Lines, William 
 W. White, Henry Peck, Henry W. Mansfield and Chas. W. 
 Allen was instructed to procure a photograph of Mr. Lovell, so 
 that all who wish to possess a memorial of their old school- 
 master may be gratified, and to take measures for forming a 
 Lancasterian School Association. Both of these instructions 
 were promptly attended to. The association was formed on 
 the loth of May, and an effort will be made to ascertain and 
 publish a full list of the pupils of the school from the begin- 
 ning, which will be a valuable contribution to the vital statistics 
 of New Haven, as well as a permanent memorial of Mr. Lovell's 
 long and useful service.
 
 TREASURER'S REPORT. 
 
 RECEIPTS. 
 
 Order on Town Treasurer, . 
 From H. P. Hubbard, 
 
 $3,000.00 
 
 2.82 $3,002.82 
 
 EXPENSES. 
 
 Bills Paid, Committee on Invitations, . . $ 75-5Q 
 
 Military and Fire Dep't., 183.47 
 
 Civic Societies, 
 Schools, 
 
 Oration, Hall, etc., . 
 Medals and Memorials, 
 Printing and Badges, 
 Music, etc., 
 Carriages, 
 Lancasterian School, 
 
 National Salute, .... 
 
 Indians 
 
 Secretary, 
 
 Due Committee on Publication, 
 
 Balance to be returned to Town Treasurer, 
 
 40.00 
 
 100.00 
 
 80.00 
 204.12 
 200.73 
 750.00 
 142.00 
 
 50.00 
 
 52.00 
 5.00 
 
 32.87 
 450.00 $2,365.69 
 
 $637.13 
 
 ELI WHITNEY, JR., Treasurer. 
 New Haven, June nth, 1888.
 
 PRESS OF TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR.
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 A 000109341 8