HISTORIC TOWNS CONNECTICUT R.IVER. VALLEY Ki.ilP YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY TOWN POST, S.WHROOK, On which public notices were displayed and about which the men gathered to discuss churcli and town alTairs or the latest news frora England. HISTORIC TOV^NS OF THE CONNECTICUT RIVER VALLEY BY GEORGE S. ROBERTS ROBSON, & ADEE publishers Schenectady, N. Y. Copyrighted by ROBSON & ADEI igo6 Ce,B ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY W. EARL WELLER. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE. Townpost, Saybrook, frontispiece Nathaniel Lynde's Grave in the Saybrook Cemetery 22 Lady Fen-wick's grave, Saybrook 24 The site of the house and lot given by Nathaniel Lynde for the Colle giate School of Saybrook, which became Yale University 26 First catalogue of Yale College 27 Gravestone of Rev. Theo. Buckingham in Saybrook Cemetery 28 Original mill stone on the site of Saybrook's first grist mill on the road leading to the point 33 The Lord House, built in 1665 3/ Whittlesey House, Saybrook Point 38 Governor Yale's snuff box 47 Hayden House, built in 1766 52 A glimpse of the sail loft and the warehouse built by Abner Parker in 1753 S3 The house built by Robert Lay in 1730, Essex 54 A flint-lock pistol of great size, bearing the date of 1730 55 The rock upon which Whitefield stood when he preached to a multi tude in Lyme 58 McCurdy House, Lyme 60 Mather House, Lyme 62 " Blackball " the seat of the Griswolds when Miss Ursula Wolcott courted her shy cousin Matthew, and also the home of " The Black- hall Boys " 64 Franklin mile stone, Lyme 65 The home of Dr. Benjamin Gale, who died in 1790 68 Rev. Jonathan Pierson's silver cider mug 69 Stanton House 71 Yale Monument, Clinton 73 Old Church, East Haddam 81 Nathan Hale Schoolhouse, East Haddam , 83 The landing. East Haddam 84 Old Congregational Church, East Haddam 85 Moodus 88 Cobalt Mine, Cobalt, Ct 89 Old South Wesleyan University, Middletown 94 Lead Mine 97 The rock marking the site of the first meeting-house in Middletown. . 100 Michael Burnham Tavern, Washington street, where St. John's Lodge, No. 2, F. and A. M., held its first meeting in 1854 108 Wesleyan University, Middletown 109 Wesleyan University, Middletown no Original Street, Cromwell 120 River Road, Cromwell 121 Stowe House, Cromwell 122 Brooke House, Cromwell 123 The Ranney House, Cromwell 124 Grave of the Rev. Thomas Ranney in the Old Cemetery 125 vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE. Giant Poplar on Joel West's Place 138 The Rev. Joel West's House 141 Oldest house in Portland 141; Webb House, Wethersfield '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'..'.'.'. '. '. ' .' .' .' '.'.'.'..'. '. 149 Congregational Church, Wethersfield ...^..^.. ... . 152 Silas Dcane House, Wethersfield 155 Wethersfield Elm '. '. ', 158 Oldest house in Wethersfield 160 Second oldest house in Wethersfield 162 Old Tavern, Wethersfield 164 Gideon Wells House, Glastenbury 173 The Holister House, built by one of the original proprietors 175 Old Talcott House 177 The Old Talcott House 179 State House, Hartford 193 Hartford, Conn 201 Oldest Church, Hartford 210 Home of Noah Webster, of dictionary and spelling-book fame. West Hartford 221 First Webster's Dictionary 223 Scene on Connecticut river, near Windsor 234 Oldest Church in Windsor 238 Location of first ship yard, Windsor 240 The Ellsworth Mansion 242 Windsor 243 Old Day House, West Springfield 286 Monument of Miles Morgan, one of the foremost of the early settlers. 293 Chapin Monument, Springfield 300 Old mile post on Armory hill, Springfield, Mass 305 Site of Richard Falley's Armory, at the foot of Mt. Tekoa 311 Smith College, Northampton 317 A bit of Dear Old New England 319 Round Hill Hotel, Northampton 321 " Paradise " Northampton, in the rear of Smith College 324 Jonathan Edward's Elm, Northampton 325 In "Paradise," Smith College, Northampton 326 Williston Seminary, Easthampton 323 Payson Church, Easthampton Zi^ Pulpit Elm, East Hampton 334 Sword given to Capt. Smith by Burgoyne 346 Site of Regicide House, Hadley 348 The only remaining portion of Captain Smith's House, where Bur goyne spent the night while on his way to Boston after the surrender 350 Indian Trail, Hadley 352 Colonel Eleazer Porter's house, end view 353 Colonel Eleazer Porter's house, Hadley, built in 1713 354 Fine specimen of Colonial door in Colonel Eleazer Porter's house, built in 1713 356 Jennie Lynd I'.lni, Hatfield 357 Birth place of founder of Smitli College (in foreground) and house where she died (in background) 358 Mill River, Hatfield 359 Amherst College 362 Amherst Colleije 364 Amherst rollegc (Chapel) 366 Rev. Williams' House, Decrficld 370 Site of Patriots' Liberty Pole 371 Captain John Slieldon's House 373 Captain John Sheldon's House, Deerfield 375 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. vii PAGE. Bloody Brook, South Deerfield 376 King Philip's Seat, South Deerfield 378 Stebbins House, Deerfield 380 Old Morgan Homestead, Bellows Falls 400 Old Morgan Tavern, Bellows Falls 402 Howe House, South Vernon (on the Vermont side) 406 South Vernon 408 Old Mill, Brattleboro 411 Site of Fort Dummer, Brattleboro, now Vernon 415 Scene near Brattleboro 420 Site of the first bridge across the Connecticut River 430 Stevens House, Charlestown 439 Gov. Hubbard House, Charlestown 441 Gen. Hunt House, Charlestown 444 At Charlestown 447 Old Court House, Windsor 472 The First Court House, Windsor 475 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. A YEAR or two before or after 1880, at a Commencement banquet of the graduating class at Amherst College, cs])ecial attention was paid to post prandial speaking. .Vmherst had been famous for many decades, and was the envy of the other New England Colleges and Universities, for the graceful ease and forcefulness of its undergraduates as offhand speakers. And so, when Amherst men prepared themselves for an especial occasion, the speaking was well worth hearing. On this occasion the principal toasts and the sentiments that followed them on the menu were : "The West; the place where we raise com". The student chosen to respond to this toast was the pick of the western men. His name cannot be recalled, but the impression he made is vivid. His response to the toast was a credit to him self and the vast, fertile territory he represented. The other toast was: "The East; the place where we raise MEN". Howard Bridgman, a typical Yankee boy from that center of Yankeedom, Northampton, was chosen to perform the happy task of maintaining the supremacy of the East. He reviewed the glorious past of New England, and the achievements of her men and women, in so masterful and yet so simple a manner, that he captured all hearts, and enthusiasm burst all bounds. Of the entire territory known as the East, there is one long, narrow district that stands forth beyond all others as being the one that has produced a purer type of the Nation's MEN than any other. The river which has given this territory its name starts on its course far up in the rugged wilderness of New Hampshire and, flowing southward between dense forests, pre cipitous cliffs, and fertile meadows of vast acreage, finally loses itself in the waters of the Sound between the shores of the beauti ful and venerable Towns of Old Saybrook and Old Lyme. In the picturesque language of the Indians, it is " The Smile of God " ; to civilized men, it is The Connecticut Valley. [2] The Connecticut Valley. BEFORE ITS SETTLEMENT. OF all the histories that have been written on New Eng land, general and local, there is one that is pre-eminent. It is vast, profound and yet simple. It is inspiring, entrancing and absorbing, for it is the history of the work of the Jehovah, written by His amanuensis. Nature, in the rocks and strata of the Connecticut Valley. The following is quoted from the article by W. H. C. Pynchon, who has told the grand story (in types, for the benefit of those who are unable to read the story told by Nature in the rocks) so vividly, finely and entertainingly in " The Geography and Geology of Hartford " : The rugged hills which compose the western, and, in lesser degree, the eastern areas, are formed of rocks resembling in many respects the group to which granite belongs — rocks which are very ancient, dating far back into the early history of the world. The rivers which flow among these hills have open valleys, showing that the portion of the land above the sea-level has been practically unchanged for ages. But in the central portion of the State these ancient highlands sink down into a broad trough running from Long Island Sound far up in to Massachusetts, and this trough is filled with rocks of much later date — whose history is one of the most interesting to be found in the great book of nature. Long ago, before man lived upon the earth, — when huge reptile forms, long since utterly passed away, clambered over the hills or roamed along the muddy shores, — the trough was filled by a great lake or arm of the sea. Into its quiet waters ran streams from the surrounding hills, bringing down into the lake mud and sand from the land over which they flowed. These sank to the bottom and formed there beds of sand and clay. Then a strange thing happened. Somewhere in this region, which is now so peaceful, a volcano burst forth and rolled floods of molten lava over the whole area. This lava turned much of the water in the lake to steam, and, spreading itself over the beds of land-waste at the bottom, there cooled and hardened into rock. Three times and more has the lake [3] 4 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. lain in the trough, its bottom covered by beds of clay and sand, and three times has the lava overflowed the region, for we find now in central Connecticut three great sheets of volcanic " trap " — as the rock is called, lying one above another, each one resting on beds of clay, sand or pebbles, now hardened into rocks known respectively as " shale ", " sandstone " and " conglomerate ". Now, how can we see these three layers of lava, if they lie one above another? How is it that we can see more than the top of one, even if we should find that there is no land- waste on top of that? It is in some such way as this : Long after the last lava had hardened, the region was greatly disturbed and everything was tilted, so that the sheets of lava and the rocks lying between them, instead of lying horizontal, sloped strongly to the east. Since then there has been great wearing away of the land by the weathering of the rocks, and the streams have carried away the land- waste to the sea. But the trap is much harder than the sandstone and shale, so that it stands up above the country in high ridges running north and south. At the time the rocks were tilted, they were also greatly broken, so that vast fragments — miles in length — have been separated from each other in different parts of central Connecticut. But for all this, the geologist finds plainly, that these fragments belong to three different sheets of lava, which mark three different periods of volcanic action. The second volcanic erviption was apparently the greatest, for it left a sheet of lava which is in some places 500 feet thick. It is the up-turned edge of this great sheet which forms the various " mountains " of central Connecticut. Good examples of these are Newgate Mountain, Talcott Mountain, Farmington Mountain, the "Hanging Hills" of Meriden; Lamentation Mountain, north-east of Meriden ; Durham range, including Higby and Beseck Mountains, and " Three Notches " ; Toket Mountain, in North Guilford, and Pond Rock ? * * at Lake Saltonstall. East and West Rocks, at New Haven, cannot be reckoned among these, as their history seems to be somewhat different from that of any of the mountains mentioned. But perhaps the most remarkable remains of life, those which are certainly the most famous, are the so called " Connecticut River Bird Tracks ". These are foot-marks left in the mud of the ancient shores by the creatures that roamed over them long ago. The mud has long since "hardened into shale, but the foot-marks remain intact to the present time. They are found in various places, but probably the most famous localities :are Turner's Falls, in Massachusetts, and the great sandstone quarries at Portland, Connecticut. On Shepherd's Island, in the Connecticut, at Northampton, a mile above Hockanum ferry and nearly opposite the mouth of Fort River, some excellent specimens of these foot-marks have been found. There was for many years and probably still is, a flagstone in the sidewalk, not far from the Mansion House, in Northampton, with a foot-mark measuring eighteen inches. BEFORE ITS SETTLEMENT. 5 The tracks in many cases resemble those of turkeys, but are often as much as a foot in length. Careful study, however, shows that they be longed, not to birds, but to huge reptile forms. Some of these appear to have walked almost entirely upon their hind legs, since the prints left by the small fore feet are only occasionally found. There is one special locality in the vicinity of Meriden which should not be left unmentioned. It is well known that in the early stages of a great volcanic eruption vast quantities of ashes, or, rather fine dust, are thrown into the air from the crator. These again to the earth, sometimes at great distances, but they fall thickest in the neighborhood of the volcano. * * * Sometimes, also, blocks of half-molten rock are cast into the air, falling to earth again among the ashes. The overflow of lava is normally one of the later phenomena of an eruption. At a place in a low ridge in front of Lamentation Mountain, now known far and wide as the Ash Bed, this whole story of an eruption may be seen written in the rocks. At this place is a great bed of volcanic ashes, now hardened into gray rock, and among them may be seen the masses of rock which were cast out, red-hot and smoking, by the forgotten volcano of long ago, while above lies the lava sheet that was spread over the whole when the first fury of the eruption had subsided. The weathering and the changes of the rocks have laid bare the whole record, and it may be read plainly in the low cliff which lies on the east of the New Haven turnpike, about two and a half miles north of Meriden. Thus, it almost seems as if the sublime tragedies and struggles through which Nature passed, to produce the exquisite beauties and peacefulness of the Connecticut Valley, were but forerunners of those tragedies and struggles through which the first settlers passed, in a lesser degree, to produce an almost perfect type of American manhood. After these great forces of Nature had subsided- — how long only the most profound students of such subjects can guess — the tender and beautiful side of the Grand Dame began to show itself and, in time, one of the most beautiful valleys of the Earth re sulted. While there is little doubt that the Rhine and the Hudson, with their immediate scenery, are far more romantic, there is absolutely no doubt that the Connecticut Valley, as a valley (with its forests and mountains in the far north; its vast fertile meadows ; broken by occasional ranges and individual moimtains of rock, with precipitous faces ; and lovely tumbled up hills in the midst of its length ; and at the far south, near the Sound, bits of dainty scenery here and there, little known, perhaps, but neverthe less worth a journey to see) , is much more lovely. When Nature produced New England she was a philanthropist for she was 6 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. bountiful in her beneficence. When she produced the valley through which the Connecticut flows for three hundred and fifty miles, she was an artist — The Artist — and gave to man almost every conceivable variety of valley scenery from the salt water, at its southern extremity, to the sparkling sweet water of Con necticut Lake, at its northern extremity. So, with all these beauties of scene : the great fertility of the meadows and the unlimited supply of fish in the river and game on its shores, it was eminently proper that the Indian, who lived close to Nature, should have chosen the most charming portion of this valley for his home. And when the white men came to Massachusetts the Indians told them of this wonderful valley, given by Kiehtan as a mark of his especial favor toward men. And when the white men saw it they loved it and made it what it is to-day, the center of all that is best, in men and women ; in homes ; in morals ; and in cultivation. And so, from the first awful birth-agony, of which Professor Pynchon has told, was born from Mother Nature, The Connecticut \^alley. NEW ENGLAND INDIANS. WITHOUT taking into consideration the aboriginal inhabitants of Maine, the most reliable authorities say, that when New England was first settled by Anglo-Saxons there were five principal, or great, Indian Nations there which included great numbers of minor Tribes, and that all of these were branches of the Algonquins, that being the French name for that other word describing the same peoples — Chippeways. The Algonquins extended from the Gulf of St. Lawrence down the Atlantic coast to the southern boundary of Virginia, thence westward to the Mississippi, thence northward through what are now the States of Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, beyond the Great Lakes to the shores of Great Slave Lake. The names of the five Nations in New England and their locations were : The Pawtuckets, who possessed the sea coast of New Hampshire; the Massachusetts, about Massachusetts Bay; the Pokanokets at Plymouth, extending over Cape Cod ; the Narragansetts, occupying that portion of Rhode Island bordering Narragansett Bay ; and the Pequots — or Pequods — occupying the south-eastern quarter of Connecticut, about New London, Groton and Stonington. Directly north of the Pequots was the Mohegan Tribe, closely allied to, and probably a portion of, the Pequots. On the Con necticut River were the Nehantic Tribe, at Lyme ; the Machi- moodus Tribe, in East Haddam, then called by the name of the tribe ; the Wongung Tribe, in Chatham ; the Mattabesett Tribe, at Middletown ; the Podunk Tribe, at East Hartford ; the Quinni- piacks extended from New Haven along the shore to Milford, Derby, Stratford, Norwalk, Stamford, and Greenwich. There were, in addition, numerous other smaller tribes located all over the southern portion of Connecticut, which were probably nothing more than a collection of a few families of one or another of the great Tribes, which had settled in favorable spots within the limits of the great Tribe's bounds. [7] 8 THE CONNECTICUT J 'ALLEY Of the five principal Indian Nations, the Pequots were the most powerful, because the most savage and cruel. There was a tradi tion among the other Indians, that the Pequots came down from somewhere in the interior, not so very long before the arri val of white men, and conquered all tribes with which they came in contact and finally settled upon the south-western portion of Connecticut. When the English arrived they found the Great Sachem Sassacus strongly fortified upon a hill in Groton, which he made his headquarters, whence he made raids upon his enemies — and all other Indian Tribes were his enemies except the Mohawks of New York — and to which he returned on such rare occasions as when the enemy were too numerous for him and his band. It is rather odd, that while the [Mohawks, the dominating tribe of the Five Nations, or Iroquois, claimed and collected tribute from all tribes within four or five hundred miles of their principal castle in New York State, the Pequots were exempt from paying tribute to them. This fact causes some persons, who have made a study of the subject, to believe that the Pequots were either a branch of the Mohawks, or were closely allied to them, before they came into Connecticut. The number of Indians in New England, at the time of the first white settlements, has been variously estimated at from five to twenty thousand (Trumbull estimated that there were, in Con necticut alone, twenty thousand) but it is doubtful if there was. at any one time since the formation of the North American Con tinent, as many as twenty thousand Indians in the territory east of the Hudson river. Bancroft estimated the entire Algonquin race at but ninety thousand. When it is remembered that the Algonquins extended from Maine south to A'irginia and north west to Great Slave Lake, it is even less probable that New England had as many as twenty thousand at one time. \'ermont was without aboriginal inhabitants and so were portions of Massa chusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. In fact the Indians inhab ited only the sea-coast regions and the shores of the great rivers, not many miles from their mouths. All that vast territory east of the Hudson River, from the St. Lawrence down to the northern boundary of Connecticut, was uninhabited by natives because of their dread of the Mohawks. The politics of the New England Indians was simple and NEW ENGLAND INDIANS. g primitive. A hereditary sachemdom was the only authority recog nized by them. The power of the sachem was absolute, but when a matter of more than ordinary importance arose, he consulted with the Pansies, who were braves chosen for their prominence in war, cunning and speechmaking. The real power of the sachem depended much upon his personal character and magnetism. Their religion gave them many gods but they believed in one great spirit, called Kiehtan, the creator of the world and the spirit into whose presence the souls of good Indians went after death. He was the spirit of the " happy hunting ground ". Hobbamock, their devil, was the source of all evil. As fear was more powerful with them than love, Hobbamock received the majority of their prayers and offerings. Besides these two chief gods, there were many of a local nature, that is, whose powers or dominion were local, who were known by the collective name of Manitou. The spirits known as Manitou controlled thought, the sentiments of love and hate and the different functions of the body ; they were spirits of the woods and fields, of the hunt. In fact, whenever anything took place which they could not understand they would say, " Manitou ", meaning it is a god. Especially fine qualities of character or of personal appearance in men, beasts, birds and fish they regarded as a god. The ships, clothing, arms, agricultural implements, books and writing of the first white men they called Manitouwock, meaning they are gods. The worship of the good- god, Kiehtan, was by thanksgiving for favors received; the worship of the devil, Hobbamock, was of a flattering nature in the hope that the evil he could do would not be done, so it was to him that all their prayers and sacrifices were offered. In their sacrifices to the god, the Indians differed strikingly from many Christians; who drop a nickel into the contribution plate so that it will have the rattle of a silver quarter ; for they gave their most valued and cherished belongings and gave them cheerfully. They believed that when thieves, liars and murderers applied to Kiehtan for admission he would turn them away as there was no room for them and so they were obliged to wander forever in misery, hunger and poverty. This was the Indian's hell. The New England Indians placed their heaven — the abode of Kiehtan — in the south-west, and what could have been more natural? They knew that the bitter wind and the freezing cold 10 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. came from the north; the damp, chilly, piercing wind from the east, but from the south-west came a sweet-scented, warm, life- giving breeze that could only originate in a blessed country. That there were earnest, faithful Indians as honestly devoted to the only religion of which they had any knowledge as were the Puritans to the religion of Christ, the early white settlers knew. Old Mamoosun, of the Mattabesetts, was a striking example of the just Indian. He surely deserved to journey to that fair country in the south-west, where all that was perfect for Indian happiness existed. As a rule the " River Indians " as they were called by the set tlers, and the settlers lived in peace and neighborliness. It was not unusual for an Indian and a settler to hunt together, nor for the Indian to share his food and shelter with the white man who had neither. And on their part, the settlers of the Connecticut Valley dealt honestly with the Indians. Their lands were bought and paid for. If the religion of the English did not appeal to the Indian, the lives and example of the former had their influence upon him. One thing the people of the Connecticut Valley and in fact, all New England, can boast of is, that their ancestors, the early settlers, did not deliberately debase the Indians to a lower level than that upon which Nature placed them, by forcing rum upon them in trade for pelts so that the half drunken savage would sell his stock for more rum, at an infinitesimal portion of its real value, as did the Dutch of the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys. INDIAN CHARACTER. IT is a most difficult thing now, to form any accurate judgment of the character of the Indians of 250 years ago. Not that there has been a lack of writers, who were willing to ex press their opinions and fix the Indians' character by those opinions, but that prejudice entered so greatly into the subject, both for and against the Indians — chiefly against, — that a just estimation cannot be arrived at by the readers of the twentieth century. The first settlers, as a class, regarded the Indians as heathen; INDIAN CHARACTER. ii. barbarians, without the germ of virtue. That there were very many of them who were devout and faithful followers of the only religion of which they possessed any knowledge, did not appeal to the early settlers. They were not Christians and above all, they cared nothing for Congregationalism and would have none of it. Forgetting that they, themselves, had been more than thirteen hundred years in arriving at the somewhat primitive ideas of the simple principles taught by the founder of Christianity, they re garded the Indians as hopeless heathen because they refused to give up, at command, the picturesque, symbolical religion they had inherited for more centuries than Christianity was centuries old. Their tenacity in regard to their ancient faith ; their unwillingness to resign it, the moment that one or another Congregational min ister told them they should ; did not seem to the early settlers an admirable quality. They had left Great Britain and had come to a wilderness because they would not submit to being told by men how they should or should not worship God. They were proud of their courage and determination in this respect and the world is even more proud of them and that which they accomplished, but they condemned the Indians to walk for eternity through the streets of that hell which Jonathan Edwards paved with infants' skulls, because they would not submit to being told by men how they should or should not worship Kiehtan, " The Great Spirit ". So the Indian was damned by the early religious writers. If the early writer, who gave an opinion of the Indians, was a hunter and trapper, he had no use for them, for they were skilful rivals ; if he happened to be a military man, he had no use for them, because of the trouble they caused and because they presumed to fight for what they believed to be their rights; for their hunting grounds ; their children and their wigwams. If the writer happened to be an official of the colony, or a man of law, he had no use for the Indians, because they refused to acknowl edge any man-made regulation which interfered with their inher ent rights. So, when the poor Indian died he found himself so thoroughly damned by all classes and conditions of his white Christian brothers, that even Kiehtan was powerless to guide his weary feet off from that pavement made of the smooth, polished skulls of his white, Christian brothers' infants. 12 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. About two hundred years after the first settlements were made, a small class of champions of the Red-man came into exist ence, whose mawkish sentimentality was great. Their writings were as far from the truth as were the unjust, general condemna tion of the earlier writers. The result is, that not only has the Indian been robbed of his home and his very existence, by civiliza tion, but of his character — good or bad — as well, by his would- be, civilizers. Two examples are given. One by a writer who condemns and the other by one who makes a saint of the Indian. The individual must decide for himself whether the souls of dead Indians are treading for eternity on white infants' skulls, or if they are walk ing through the lovely valleys and over the beautiful hills, in the abode of Kiehtan : that fair country in the " South-West ", where all that is perfect for Indian happiness exists ; where the Red infants, with their skulls where Kiehtan placed them, wander about in joyous, delightful abandon, to add to the unspeakable happiness of their parents and be but another evidence of the Great Spirit's love for man. Obverse. A point of special interest, connected with our early annals and the incipient fortunes of the settlement, is the character and conduct of the natives of the soil. Most of the recent historical writers push us to the unwelcome opinion that, after all, our high notions about the New England Indians must be a good deal lowered and many of our admirations sacri ficed. I is hard for hero worshippers to hear the blows of the iconoclast's hammer upon their idol, and it is hard for everybody to see an ideal vision of honor, courage or genius dispelled. With a pain of this sort we are shown too many reasons to believe that these wild children of the forest, instead of being magnanimous, intrepid, enterprising, intellectual, and reverential, were, to a miserable degree, mean, cowardly, cruel, lazy, filthy, and easily sunk in some disgusting forms of sensuality. Their braves very often turn out to have no other courage than a brutal and revengeful ferocity. The men tyrannized over the women, which is always one of the surest signs of a low nature. Their intelligence was little else than a small species of cunning. The propensities to thieving, treachery and falsehood were a continual disappointment to those who trusted them. Philip himself was wily and cautious rather than heroic, and was not often seen in bold engagements. Instances of cannibalism occurred, at least among the Mohawks (Mohawk means man-eater), for twenty-seven Frenchmen appear to have been roasted and devoured. INDIAN CHARACTER. 13 This suggests the query; are the tens of thousands of white Christians who fill the prisons of the world, for wife-beating, theft, treachery, lying, perjury, cruelty and lust, really Indians? It would seem that they must be, or else that the Indians did not have a patent right on the characteristics attributed to them. Reverse. Time has shown that the longer their residence in the vicinity of the white man continued, the more vicious and corrupt they became, and that they almost invariably were the object, or subjects of his fraud and im position. From the first settlement of the whites among them, they have constantly been dwindling in numbers ; they continue to be driven farther and still farther toward the setting sun, by the restless flow of emigration and the cupidity of white men; their habits are unsocial and altogether averse to civilized life. An Indian wants no splended mansion, nor elegant furniture, nor bed of down ; he will not learn to manufacture a button or a jewsharp, or to drive a team; he wants no workshop, he can "catch no beaver there " The forest is his home and his delight is in the chase and by the riverside. Nature has so taught him, and before he became con taminated by proximity to, and dealing with the white man, he lived according to his dictates. * * * the besom of destruction is fast sweep ing him away from the home of his youth and the grave of his fathers. The white man wants his land, and will have it. Our ancestors denounced the natives as savage barbarians. They committed no offences without provocation, and in the long black catalogue of crimes committed in Christian nations, but few, comparatively, are found to occur among this uncivilized race. Is ingratitude among the number of their sins? The most eminent and glorious examples of the opposite are upon record. Was an Indian ever guilty of suicide, seduction, fraud, scandal, and innumerable other sins? Did an Indian ever sell wooden nutmegs, cucumber seeds, horn and flints, or powder, under pretence that by planting it would pro duce its like? While he may take your life in war or torture you as his victim, he would disdain to persecute you for opposing his favorite opinions, to take away your reputation for revenge, to defraud you of your property, which you might value equally with life. The civilized man will exert all the power over you which the law will give him, oftentimes more; and if you stand in his way or incur his resentment, his tender mercies are often cruel compared with the tomahawk, which destroys at a blow and all is over. Subjected as many are to obloquy and the persecu tions of society, their death is slow and lingering, while the Indian tortures the body only. There can be little doubt that more acts of cruelty hava been committed on this continent by French, Spanish and English or by their instigation, than by the natives. In war or peace ; in the midst of change and revolution, near or remote, they have remained, like the Jews, a distinct people and it requires wiser heads than ours to see the justice 14 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. of that policy, which, while it offers home and protection to foreigners of all nations, seems to pursue a system any other than protective of the iiatixes, the rightful inhabitants of the soil. The weak, the defenceless and the poor have ever suffered from the encroachments of the strong, the powerful and the rich, and always will, as poverty is taken as presumptive evidence of want of merit; almost of actual guilt. The obverse was by the Rev. Dr. F. D. Huntington, professor at Harvard, in 1859. The reverse was by David \\'illard, the historian of Greenfield, Massachusetts, in 1838. It is as difficult to answer the question, which is the truer picture, as it was to guess, was it the lady or the tiger. INDIAN NAMES. THE Rev. Dr. A. B. Chapin gives the following interesting and valuable information in regard to Indian names of persons and places, in and near the Connecticut \'alley, in his history of Glastenbury. The Indians living on the river were called Quinitikoock, or Qunihtitukqut, signi f}-ing those who lived on the Great or Long- river. The word Connecticut, is generally translated Long-river and is derived from Quinih, long; took, or tuk, zvatcr, and ut, ock, on, xipon, place of. The usage of the Indians in this vicinity, however, seems to imply that they supposed the first part of the compound to be, Quiniqui, great, the name by which it is described in all of our early records. " Great river ", there fore, is simply a translation of the Indian word Connecticut. The original Indian word was spelled in several different ways but all of them giving the same general sound. The Tribe of Indians called Nipmucks, were tJwsc Uving away from the river. Nip, meaning li'atcr or river, and muck, an'ay front. The Mohegans were the JJ'olf-tribc. The Rev. Dr. Edwards, who spoke their language with as great fluency as he did English, spelled the word Mulihekaneew, and the name was also spelled, Alohicans and Mahingans. The Mohawks were Men-caters, the proper spelling of the word being Mohowaug, nioho meaning to cat. The rc(|uttoog, or Pequots were the Gray-fo.v tribe, Pequawus INDIAN NAMES. 15 meaning Gray-fox. The name of the Indian Wopigwoot, and of his father, Woipeguana, as given by Uncas, in 1679, are evi dently from the same root. The Woi seems to be an Indian prefix equivalent to the article the, and Pequana and Pigwoot, are simply different spellings of Pequot. So the name signifies The Gray Fox, or the chief who bore the Gray-fox totem. The Wonggum Indians, or Wonggunks, were those Indians who lived at the bend of the river, wonkun, meaning to bend and referring to the bend just below Glastenbury, in Portland. A very common Indian word along the Connecticut River is Hoccanum and a variation of it, Higganum, the latter being a different way of spelling the word, which means the Ushing-place. Higganum is in the north-western corner of Haddam, and Hoc canum ferry crosses the river from the foot of Mount Holyoke to the Northampton meadows. The meaning of Pyquag, the Indian name for Wethersfield, is uncertain, but it is supposed to mean the place where the Indians held their public games, or possibly the dancing-place. Other ways of spelling the word are found at different places. At Hadley it is, Paquayyag ; near Hudson, Paquayag or Paquiag. Pauochauog, means, they are playing, or dancing. The Mattabesick, or Mattabesetts, or Black-hill Indians in habited Middletown and neighborhood. This word, which was written by Roger Williams, Metewemesick, is derived from Mete- wis, meaning black earth. It is generally supposed that the great chief of the Mattabesetts was named Sowheag, but in fact, this was the name of the sachemdom and not of the sachem, Sow heag meaning. South-country, or kingdom. This great Sachem, whom the white settlers feared, was named Sequasson (or lengthened to Sunckquasson and sometimes shortened to Sequin, or Sequeen) and Dr. Chapin thought this word might be a modi fication of Sachem. Sequasson means, hard-stone, Sunckquas son, cold-stone, from siokke, hard, and hussum, stone. Giving Sachem its English equivalent, the Indian's full title — Sequasson- Sequin-Sowheag, means, Hard-stone, King-of-the-South-country. Sequasson's son took the name of Manittowese, or Mantowese (from which Montowese, near New Haven, is probably derived) meaning Little-god and his totem was a large bow with arrow, its nock fitted to the string ready for shooting. i6 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. According to Barber, the Indian name for Hartford was Suc- kiag, meaning black-earth, but Dr. Chapin gives other spelling and another name and meaning and says, that there is no posi tive knowledge as to what the Indian name was. According to this other definition of Dr. Chapin's, the Siccaog Indians lived on a river called Siccanum, but in the absence of all history it is impossible to say what the meaning of the word is. Sic canum may be but a variation of Higganum. Or it may have been made from the compound Siokke, hard, and Namas, Ush, meaning hard-fish or clams, the word for clams being Sickissoug. It may have been compounded from Sequi, black, and ake, earth and hence Se-qui-ak, black or rich earth and so Suckiag would be but another way of spelling this latter word given by Dr. Chapin. The Tunxis Indians were the Crane Indians and they lived on Tunxis Sepus, or Little-Crane-river ; Taunck meaning crane, and Sepeose, little-river. The Poquonnuc, Peconnuc, Pughquonnuc and Pocatonnuc, were those who lived at a battle-field and each of these names is seemingly derived from Pauqua, meaning to destroy, kill, slaughter. The Podunks, were those Indians who lived at the place of fire, or burning; Potaw, meaning fire, and unck, place of. Hence, Potaunck, Potunk, or Podunk. The word Scantic describes a low, water\ country. Up in the north-east corner of Portland is Mesomersic Mountain, sometimes called, locally, Somersic. This word is from Mishom, meaning great, and sesek and assek, meaning rattlesnake, hence, Mesomersic Mountain is a mountain that is the home of great numbers of rattlesnakes, as indeed it is. In the eastern portion of Glastenbury, near Diamond Lake, is a hill locally known as Skunkscut, but in early records it was known as Kongscut and was probably derived from Honcksit meaning goose-country, from Honck, meaning a goose (which is the word for the call the wild goose makes while in flight, from which is the old saying, when matters are going well, " everything is lovely and the goose honcks high ", not hatigs high) and ausit or sit, place or country. North and west of Diamond Lake is Minnechaug Mountain, INDIAN NAMES. 17 which means the berry-land, from Minne, berry, and uk, or awk, place. The Pool at Neipseic, as Barber calls it, or Nipsic, near the center of Glastenbury, sometimes locally called " Red-spring ", means the place of water, from Nip, water, and sic, place. The meaning of Uncas in Engligh is Bold, and of Aramamet, who was a son of Uncas', is Dog's-tongue. The Indians did not have individual names for fixed places. If there were a dozen fishing-places, on as many different rivers, there were a dozen Hoccanums. All places, or natural features, that could be designated by a word or words in their descriptive language, were called by that word or those words. As an in stance : the sites of the cities of Albany and Schenectady, New York, were called by the Mohawks, Schenectady. In the days of the Indians the sixteen miles between those cities was a vast pine-plain covered with pine trees. An Indian trail crossed these great pine-plains and the first opening at the east and west ends of the trail was Schenectady which meant " Beyond the Pine- plains ". Thus it is seen, that the Mohawks called two places, but sixteen miles apart, by the same name, as the one word described them both. 2 AFTER THE SETTLEMENT. THE first white men to visit Connecticut were Dutch. Adrian Block and Cornelius Hendricksen sailed from New Amsterdam, now New York, through the Sound to the mouth of the Great River, which they called Fresh River, in 1614, and up it as far as what is now Hartford. Later the Dutch East India Company sent men to the Con necticut River who sailed up to the point reached by Block and Hendricksen, and established a trading post at Dutch Point, now within the bounds of the City of Hartford, and still called Dutch Point. But the Dutch were not settlers in the sense that they were there to establish homes and to work the soil. New Amsterdam, Fort Orange (Albany) and Dutch Point were not settlements in this sense of the word. Probably the first actual Dutch settlement on the Continent of North America was at Schenectady, in 1662, and it is a matter of historical fact that less than two-thirds of the original fifteen " Dutch " proprietors who settled in the Mohawk \'alley, at .Schenectady, were Dutch for some of the fifteen were of British, Spanish, French and Scandanavian descent. The two chief points of difference between the Dutch and British in America were, that the Dutch were traders, possessed of wealth, but rather commonplace, from a social and intellectual standpoint ; the British were settlers and home-makers, and were of a superior class socially and intellectually but possessed of less fortune. This social and mental difference was probably due to the fact, that the Dutch pioneer traders in America were men who were born to that calling and in that station of life, while the British settlers were people of education and gentle birth who were forced to leave their homes in Great Britain, because of their strong religious convictions. Thev came to found homes in the New World as settlers, rather than as traders, whose place of abode was changed for a more profitable location when trade diminished or the chief commodity of trade, fur-pelts, became [18] AFTER THE SETTLEMENT. 19 scarce. The trading posts of New Amsterdam and Fort Orange became permanent settlements when the British superceded the Dutch, and the names of those posts were changed to New York and Albany. The first white settlement in the Connecticut Valley was made in Wethersfield in 1634, for, when Captain William Holmes, when he sailed up the Connecticut, past the dumb Dutch cannon at Hartford, to Windsor and set up his frame trading house, he did no more than to establish a trading post which, however, became a settlement later. The Dutch purchased their right to the land from the chiefs of the Pequot Indians. It was but a small area immediately about Dutch Point. The English purchased their right to the land from the Sachems of the Indians who were generally spoken of by the settlers as the River Indians. It was a vast territory. The English claimed the stronger title from the fact that they had purchased from the original owners of the land while the Dutch had purchased from a usurping nation. The Pequots were a powerful, savage and cruel tribe which had come to the Connecticut from the north-west, in the neigh borhood of the Mohawks, of New York, to which tribe it is not improbable that they were related, or at least allied, in times long past. The Pequots became the terror of the southern New England Indians and were regarded as their conquerors. They drove the River Indians from their long-time homes in the valley. The law-loving, law-making, and law-abiding English, wishing to base their claim to the land upon a deed that would be sus tained in law, sent with Captain William Holmes, in his little vessel, to Windsor the Sachems who had been driven out by the Pequots. The English restored the River Indians to their ancient birth-right and then purchased it from them. There was probably no wish to be just in this transaction. It was a matter of shrewd business on the part of the English. The superficial friendship of the River Indians for the English was almost as good business since, without the support of the irresistible wills of the English and their straight shooting firearms, the River Indians would soon again have been reduced to their former abject, homeless state. On the part of the settlers, their intense desire to save the souls of the heathen was gratified to a certain extent 20 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY by the closeness of the Indian village to the white settlement. They felt, that although the Indians generally refused Christian ity, some good was accomplished through the example of the whites. And besides this, so long as they maintained a nominal friendship for the settlers, the number of Indian enemies, against whom they must be constantly on the watch, was lessened. But the people were greatly annoyed by these same friendly Indians for they were habitual thieves and once in a while would-be murderers. OLD SAYBROOK. SAYBROOK, the mother of Congregationalism in Con necticut and western New England, was set apart and granted as a home of refuge for some of Britain's high nobility and gentry, whose religious convictions caused them to uphold the Puritan faith, and although the high nobility did not arrive in the New World to claim their own, Saybrook and the whole United States were the gainers, for an even higher manhood and nobility of life came to Saybrook, in the persons of the men and women who settled the grant and founded American families, whose descendants have gone broadcast over the territory of the Nation, taking with them the sterling prin ciples of Christian citizenship that were their most precious inheritance from their ancestors, the first settlers. The Earl of Warwick, having obtained title to the lands from the Plymouth Company in 163 1, granted the same territory, ex tending from the Narragansett river to the Pacific Ocean (includ ing the lower valley of the Connecticut river and consequently the site of Saybrook), to Lord Say-and-Sele, Lord Brooke, Lord Rich, Sir Richard Saltonstall, John Pym, John Hampden and several other men of birth and position. This is the generally accepted historical fact as given in the school histories. Professor Alexander Johnston, of Princeton, in his " Connecticut ", one of the American Commonwealth Series, questions the grant from the Plymouth Company to the Earl of Warwick, on the ground that Warwick never exhibited or referred to such grant. He regards it as nothing more than " a quitclaim deed which warrants nothing and does not even assert title to the soil transferred." The actual area of Saybrook was ten miles east and west and about eight north and south. However that may be, John Winthrop, son of Governor Win- throp, of Massachusetts, was appointed Governor of the Connect icut River and the harbor and places adjoining by the company composed of the noblemen to whom Warwick made his grant, on July 7, 1635. His appointment was for one year from the time he arrived there. On his part, Winthrop agreed to build [21] THE CONNECTICUT J' ALLEY OLD SAYBROOK. 23 a fort and effect a settlement ; to build a fort within the bounjls of which should be houses for " m.en of qr.ality." He was directed to reserve 1,000 or 1,500 acres of fertile land for the maintenance of the fort and its garrison. W'inthrop arrived in Boston in October, 1635, and sent a vessel with twenty men to the mouth of the Connecticut River, where they arrived on November 24, of the same year. The Dutch already had possession, up the river on the site of Hartford, and were intending to take possession of the mouth of the river, but the arrival of Winthrop's ship and men prevented it. The ter ritory was taken possession of in the name of Lord Say-and-Sele and the other members of the company, to whom the Earl of Warwick had made the grant. John Winthrop, the Governor, arrived not long after the ship. That the titled proprietors intended their American possessions should be in keeping with their high estate, is shown by the employment of Lion Gardiner, a skilled English engineer, to take charge of the building of the fort and the laying out of the town. And then, later in the year, 300 men were to go to Saybrook from the Old Country ; 200 to garrison the fortifications ; 50 to make the soil produce food for the community ; and 50 to build houses. That was a bitter winter with intense cold and deep snow, and in the midst of it, in the first week of December, 1635, a number of families ; including in all seventy men, women and children ; arrived from up the river in the hope of finding at its mouth the long expected and greatly needed provisions that were to come for them from Boston. The provision ship did not arrive, so the needy families were taken on board a vessel, called " Rebecca ", which managed to work its way out of the ice, and carry them back to Boston. George Fenwick, an English gentleman who was one of the men composing the company and the agent of the company of noblemen to whom the Earl of Warwick granted the property, was the only member of the company to see Saybrook. Lion Gardiner's son David, born on November 6, 1636, was the first white child born in the territory now the State of Connecticut. Gardiner was discouraged with the conditions, so, in 1639, he moved to an island at the eastern end of Long Island — which he called Isle of Wight — since known as Gardiner's Island. The idea in the building of Saybrook seems to have been, a 24 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. considerable area inclosed by fortifications which should contain the residences of the titled proprietors, and that the settlement should be outside of the fortifications. This plan was prob ably as much to draw the line between " gentle " and " simple ", as for the greater safety of the proprietors. Before the twenty men composing the garrison of the fort had been there a year the Pequot war was upon them. Some of them were killed instantly and others were tortured to death by the Indians. The fort was in charge of Lieutenant Lion Gardiner. Fenwick, the agent of the company, had returned to England LADY FENWICK S CR.WE, S.WBROOK. in the spring of 1636, but was again in Saybrook in July, 1639, bringing his wife with him. Picfore her marriage to Fenwick, she had been the wife of Sir John Boteler and as his wife she was given the courtesy title of Lady Boteler, and this was con tinued after her marriage with Mr. Fenwick. There being no Church at that time in Saybrook, Lady Fenwick became a mem ber of the Church in Hartford. Not long after their arrival in Saybrook, a daughter was born and baptised Elizabeth. As the YALE COLLEGE. 25 only resident member of the Company, Fenwick took upon him self the rights and authority of governor. Saybrook remained alone and independent till December, 1644, when Mr. Fenwick sold to the Hartford Colony the fort at Saybrook, by agreement in December, 1644, with the General Court. Fenwick was elected a magistrate. Lady Fenwick died in 1646, after the birth of their daughter Dorothy. Fenwick became discouraged and disheartened in regard to the Colony and believing that assistance was needed from home, he sailed for England. There he was commissioned a colonel in the army of Parliament; was elected a member of that body but was excluded, as Cromwell was not satisfied with him. George Fenwick's death occurred in 1657. The fort was destroyed by fire in 1647, and the new one was built nearer the river. How Andross came to this fort, which was in command of Captain Thomas Bull, with a demand that it be delivered to him, and how Captain Bull prevented it, diplo matically and without violence, are matters of Colonial politics which really have no place here. YALE COLLEGE. The late Noah Porter, president of Yale College, said in an address, delivered at the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the settlement of Saybrook : The founding of Yale College was not an afterthought to the original colonists, since it may be traced back with a certain degree of confidence to the leaders of the New Haven Colony, among whom John Davenport was conspicuous * * *. It is true in fact that a little before the be ginning of the last century (before 1700) there was a movement in Con necticut toward the establishment of a college, in which were conspicuous five clergymen whose parishes were all on the coast from New Hai'en to Stratford. These clergymen counseled freely with certain Massachusetts gentlemen, probably for the purpose of ascertaining what was the best method to secure a trustworthy act of incorporation or organization. Very soon after, as we know, there was a meeting of seven clergymen, as it is supposed, in Branford, each of whom, as the tradition goes, and we trust the tradition in this case, made a gift of books saying: "With these books I lay the foundation of a college in this colony " By their deed of gift these persons invested something in the enterprise, and thereby quali fied themselves to appear as petitioners for the assurance of certain corporate rights. In response to their petition a charter was obtained, sometimes called the old charter of Yale College, and on the nth of 26 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. November, i/oi,. seven of the trustees who were constituted by this act a corporate body, met at Saybrook and the organization took place at Say brook on the 22(\ of November, 1701. The fact cannot be questioned that Yale College was founded under its charter in Saybrook * * *. Now, why was Saybrook selected? I think it was in part accidental; and can be, perhaps, more or less satisfactorily explained. In the first place it may be supposed that possibly the pastor of the church in Saybrook may have h.id some influence in locating the college here. Perhaps it was because the place was thought to be very easy of access, by the river from the north and by the shore from the east and west. Perhaps it was owing to the fact that the future rector had probably been fixed on, who lived near THE SITE OF THE HOUSE AND LOT GIVEN B-^ NATH.\X1EL LYXDE FOR THE C0LLEGIA1E SCHOOL OF S.VYBROOK, WHICH BEC.VME Y.\LE UXIVERSITY. this place * * *. It may be, also, that some who were active behind the scenes thought that it would not do to designate Xew Haven as the place lest they might awaken the somewhat sensitive feelings of the people at Weathersfield aud Hartford. ;\s between the claims of all these rivals, it is not surprising that Saybrook was selected. At the time of the founding the college owned no property and had no cnddwnu'nt, but X'athaniel Lynde, of Saybrook, gave to the institution the usc of a house and land, so long as the col- YALE COLLEGE. 27 lege remained in Saybrook. After its removal to New Haven the property reverted to him. The Rev. Abraham Pierson, of Killingworth, was chosen as the rector of the new institution. The first work of the new college was the granting of degrees and although the college had no students, the first commence ment was held in 1702, and degrees were conferred upon five graduates of Harvard College. Thus, Yale at the beginning was an examining body, with right and power to confer degrees in very much the same way the universities of the " Old Country " were doing. Daniel /,''-* * "Vl ' w» M -'Tift'- Z'V^ ¦¦' -OS. h^ jfr »^i [I • i ^t ,,; ¦0 D llJUV^Ml lioHitrr It 119,10 .^ ;.f "^ .-V. $ Hooker, son of the Rev. Samuel Hooker, of Farmington, was the first tutor appointed and the first graduate was John Hart, also of Farmington, who be came the minister of the Church in East Guilford. He entered, at what corresponded to the beginning of the junior year, and re ceived his degree in 1703- Rector Pierson did not leave his home in Killingworth, but gave instruction to the mem bers of the senior class in his parish, the other undergraduates being instructed by tutors in Saybrook and in other places. The course of instruction was about on a par with that given in the secondary schools of twenty-five years ago. The students recited in Virgil, Cicero and the Greek Testament; were drilled in scholastic logic, but from the extreme youthfulness of many of the graduates it is not reasonable to suppose that the instruction was profound and at the same time there is no reason to doubt that it was thorough, as far as it went. In 1714, there were large contributions of books sent to Say- riRST CATALOGUE OF YALE COLLEGE. 28 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. brook and Jeremiah Dummer, the agent of the Colony in England, secured 700 volumes in England from eminent writers there. The last commencement held in Saybrook was that of 1716, as a result of a desire on the part of the trustees to move the college further west, to be nearer the center of the much larger popu lation in th;it direction, which included the settlements, towns and cities in New ^'ork and Xew Jersc\-. The trustees voted in CR.WESTONE V.¥ HEV. THEO. BUCK1XGH.\M IX SAYBROOK CEMETERY. He was minister of the Saybrook Church and one of the twelve w-ho drew and accepted the Saybrook Platform on Sept. 20, 170S. the proportion of five to two, that if the college was moved at all, it should he located in Xew Ilavon, but before anv definite steps were taken the trustees decided to ascertain which of the three places, wishing to be the home of the college, would give the largest sum nf money t(-i it. Xow Haven raised £2.000; Say- lirook, i^i,4()() and Hartford, notwithstaniling its wealth, gave little i)r nothing. The trustees met in atljourncd session in New li.'ix'cn, on < )ctolH'r 17, and argued the matter for a week. The argunu-iits in fa\-cir of Xow Haven were, that it had promised YALE COLLEGE. 29 the greatest sum of money; that its location was such that it would attract m^ore students and that it was nearer the more populous districts in the west. The final vote resulted in the residents of Wethersfield and Hartford voting against New Haven and the five other trustees voting for New Haven. Two years were then spent in wire-pulling by representatives of other places which wanted the college, but the trustees re mained steadfast to their decision. The matter was finally de termined by the approval of the people at large, a small appro priation from the State and by the holding of a commencement in New Haven. The trustees then fixed the matter by proceed ing to the erection of a building. The Hon. Elihu Yale, the patron and friend of the University bearing his name, was born in New Haven Colony on April 5, 1648. He was descended from an ancient and wealthy Welsh family, which possessed for many generations the Manor of Plas Grannow and considerable other real estate near the city of Wrexham. His father, Thomas Yale, Esq., came to America with the first settlers of the New Haven Colony, in 1638. At the age of ten, Elihu was sent back to England to be edu cated in one of the great public schools (Eaton?) and Oxford University. At the age of thirty he went to the East Indies, where he accumulated a great estate. He was appointed Gov ernor of St. George and married the wealthy widow of his predecessor. Governor Hinmers. They had three daughters. Katherine married Dudley North, commonly called Lord North ; Ann married Lord James Cavendish, uncle of the Duke of Devon shire ; Ursula died a spinster. After his return to London he was made Governor of the powerful East India Company, when he began his donations to the College, or the Collegiate School, as it was then called. His particular interest in the Collegiate School was brought about by the son of a cousin. The paternal estate in Wales being entailed by the law of primo geniture, he, having only daughters, sent a request to his counsin John Yale, of New Haven, that he send one of his sons that he, Elihu, might make him his heir. John sent his son David to London and later, when David returned to New Haven, he entered Yale and was gradu ated in the class of 1724. This occasioned a correspondence 30 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. between Governor Yale, Governor Saltonstall and the Rev. James Pierpont, of Xew Haven. Forty of the volumes obtained in England by Islv. Dummer in 17 14 were the gift of Governor Yale. This was two years before the School was moved from Saybrook. Forty books do not seem like a very valuable gift in these days, but it must be remembered that in thosc days, books were very expensive ; that books were what the School was greatly in need of and had not the money to purchase. The next donation was of three hundred volumes, which, with the forty, were valued by President Clapp at £100 Sterling. Then followed a gift of goods valued at £200, and the King's picture and arms and three years later more goods were sent, which, with the previous lot, were sold by the College authorities for £400. To quote from President Clapp's history of Yale, published in 1766: On September 12, 1718, there was a splendid commencement (that im portant event in undergraduate life being held in the autumn then) held at New Haven, where were present, besides the trustees, the Honorable Gurdon Saltonstall, Esq., Governor of the Colony of Connecticut, the Honorable William Taylor, Esq., representing Governor Yale, the Hon orable Nathan Gold, Esq., Deputy Governor, sundry of the worshipful assistants, the Judges of the Circuit, a great number of reverend ministers, and a great concourse of spectators. The trustees, in commemoration of Governor Yale's great generosity, called the collegiate school after his name, Yale College; and entered a memorial thereof upon record, which was as follows : The trustees of the Collegiate School, constituted in the splendid town of New Haven, in Connecticut, being enabled by the most generous dona tion of the Honorable Elihu Yale, Esq., to finish the college house already begun and erected, gratefully considering the honor due to such and so great a benefactor and patron, and being desirous, in the best manner, to perpetuate to all ages the memory of so great a benefit, conferred chiefly on this colony: W'e. the trustees, having the honor of being entrusted with an afi^air of so great importance to the common trood of the people, especially of this province, do with one consent agree, determine and ordain, that our college house shall be called li\- the name of its munificent palniM, and shall lie named Yale Collei;c: that this province may keep and preserve a lasting nioiuiinent of such a i;enerous gentleman, who by so great ,1 lieiuviilence and Keiierosiiy, bas provided for their greatest good, and the iieeuliar advantage of tbe inhabitants, both in the present and future. (It is a matter for congratulation that this "college house", Yale's first building, was not standing when the twentieth cen- YALE COLLEGE. 31 tury began for, had it been, there would have been Vandals who would have torn it down to make room for another architectural excrescence, similar to the one which deprived old Yale-men of one of their happiest memories, by crowding the " Fence " off the face of the earth.) It does not require an unusually vivid imagination to produce a mental picture of the joyousness of that famous Commencement Day of 187 years ago, which was the birthday of " Old Eli," nor of the devout thankfulness to the Giver of all Good, on the part of the earnest, self-sacrificing trustees and friends of the College, that at last their " college house " could be finished and the Col lege placed upon a firm financial foundation. The memorial quoted above was read in Latin and then in English and then the procession left college hall and marched to the meeting-house where the public exercises of the day were to take place. The Rev. John Davenport delivered an oration, which became a panegyric, with Governor Elihu Yale as its subject. He was followed by Governor Saltonstall who delivered an oration in Latin, or, as President Clapp floridly and quaintly said : And the Honorable Governor Saltonstall was pleased to grace and crown the whole solemnity with an elegant Latin oration, wherein he con gratulated the present happy state of the College, in being fixed at New Haven, and enriched with so many noble benefactions ; and particularly celebrated the great generosity of Governor Yale, with much respect and honor. It was understood that Governor Yale had drawn a will leav ing another donation of £500 to the College; that he finally de cided it would be better to give that sum rather than leave it by will, so he packed goods to the value of £500 to be sent to New Haven, but his death occurring before they were shipped the College was the loser. Although Governor Saltonstall tried all means to have the will probated he was unsuccessful. Elihu Yale died on July 8, 1721, and was buried in the church yard in Wrexham. The epitaph on his tombstone is as follows: 32 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. Under this tomb lyes interred Elihu Yale, of Plas Gronow, Esq.: born sth of April, 1648, and dyed the 8th of July, 1721, aged 73 years. Born in America, in Europe bred. In Africa travel'd, and in Asia wed, Where long hc liv'd and thriv'd ; at London dead. Much good, some ill he did ; so hope all even. And that his soul through mercy's gone to heaven. You that survive and read, take care For this most certain exit to prepare. For only the actions of the just Smell sweet and blossom in the dust. CHURCH GOVERNMENT. Up to 1708, the system of Church government in Connecticut was based upon the Cambridge Platform, which was adopted by the Churches of New England at the start, but later the Con necticut Churches adopted a system of government at Saybrook, known as the Saybrook Platform. In 1668, the General Court authorized the Revs. James Fitch, of Norwich ; Gershom Bulkley, of Wethersfield ; Jared Eliot, of Guilford ; and Samuel Wakeman, of Fairfield, each of them rep resenting the four counties of the Colony respectively, to meet in Saybrook to fix upon a general plan of church government and discipline for the Churches of Connecticut. In 1703, the Collegiate School authorities issued a circular requesting the Churches and their ministers to meet. They did so and gave consent to the Westminster and Savoy Confessions and also formulated rules for ecclesiastical union and discipline. For the third time, on September 20, 1708, a solemn meeting of twelve of the foremost Congregational ministers and four of the most prominent laymen, was held in Saybrook to take action in regard to Church government and other church matters. This meeting was held at a commencement of the Collegiate School, as 'N^ale was then called, at least half of the delegates being trus tees of that institution. These delegates were : From New Haven County — the Rev. Samuel Andrew, minister of the Milford Church ; the Rev. James Pierpoint, minister of the First Church of New Haven ; and the Rev. Samuel Russell, minister of the P>ranford Church. From Hartford County — the Rev. Timothy \\'oodbridge, min ister of the First Church in Hartford ; the Rev. Noadiah Russell, CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 33 minister of the First Church in Middletown; the Rev. Stephen Mix, minister of the Wethersfield Church; and John Haynes, of Hartford, messenger. From New London County — the Rev. James Noyes, minister of the Stonington Church ; the Rev. Thomas Buckingham, minister of the Saybrook Church; the Rev. Moses Noyes, ORIGINAL MILL STONE ON THE SITE OF SAYBROOk'S FIRST GRIST MILL ON THE ROAD LEADING TO THE POINT. As there was no water power a windmill was put up. minister of the First Church of Lyme ; the Rev. John Woodward, minister of the First Church of Norwich ; Robert Chapman and Deacon William Parker, of Saybrook, messengers. From Fairfield County — the Rev. Charles Chauncey, minister of the Stratfield Church (now the First Church of Bridgeport) ; the Rev. John Davenport, minister of the Stamford Church ; and Deacon Samuel Hart, of Stamford, messenger. In 1708, there were no wheeled vehicles for traveling — that was all done on horseback — and these men made the long journey from their homes to Saybrook on horseback through the wilder- 3 34 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. ness, or by canoe from Hartford, Wethersfield and Middletown. Neither this Council, nor the Saybrook Platform, had anything to do with settling points of doctrine, but both had to do with devising a general plan of Church government and discipline. That, in fact, was the Saybrook Platform. There were, in 1708, forty-one Congregational Churches in the Colony of Connecticut, with but two Churches of any other denomination ¦ — a Baptist Church in Groton and an Episcopal Church in Stratford, both of which came into existence in 1707. The next denomination to have a Church was the Presbyterian, in 1723, and the next was the Methodist, in 1789, after the formation of the State. Therefore, the Council represented the sentiment of almost the entire population of the Colony of Connecticut. That the Congregational Church in Connecticut was in perfect doctrinal harmony with the reformed Churches of Great Britain and the Continent, was shown in the eighth article of agreement. This is : As to what appertains to soundness of judgment in matters of faith, w-e esteem it sufficient that a Church acknowledge the Scriptures to be the Word of God, the perfect and only rule of faith and practice, and we own either the doctrinal part of those commonly called the Articles of the Church of England, or the Confession or Catechism, shorter or larger, compiled by the Assembly at Westminster, or the Confession agreed on at Savoy, to be agreeable to this rule. Each of the four counties represented in the convention drew up a model for the articles of discipline. The model, principally draughted by the Rev. James Pierpoint, of New Haven, was amended and passed. The articles provided for one or more consociations of Churches in each county, which were tribunals with appellate and final jurisdiction. To these individual Churches referred matters considered to be too serious for one Church to decide; also for associations in each county, composed of teaching elders or ministers, wlio had the general welfare of the Churches in mind ; examined candidates for the ministry ; investigated charges of scandal or heresy ; recommended ministers to Churches without them. The associations met at least twice a year. CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 35 A General association composed of one or more delegates from each county association ; this was an advisory body, whose duties were not fixed by the Platform. The result of the deliberations of the Convention was reported to the General Court and that body made the Congregational Church, the Established Church of the Colony of Connecticut, all other denominations being considered as dissenters. It is a significant fact of great interest, that the first book ever printed in Connecticut was The Saybrook Platform. This was printed in 1710, in New London, by Thomas Short, on a printing press given to the Colony by Governor Saltonstall. It was significant, in that it showed how closely the first literature of the Colony, as well as the Colonial Government, was interwoven with Congregationalism. While the Government of the Colony, through its Established Church, did not attempt to dictate to the people of the Colony in what manner they should worship — the law being the same in the New England Colony of Connecticut, as it was in Old England, in regard to Dissenters, under the act of William and Alary in 1689 — -it did require all citizens to help support the Established Congregational Church. There was no other punish ment for not being a Congregationalist than this. In 1727, Episcopalians and in 1729, Baptists, were exempted from being taxed for the support of the Congregational Churches, provided they attended a Church of their own denomination. The way in which individuals could avoid the Established Church tax was accomplished by what was called, " signing off ". According to tradition, an influential citizen becoming some what tired of paying the tax to the Church, went to the proper official to sign the required paper which would release him from further paying the Church tax, but the clerk refused to draw the paper on account of the prominence of the citizen and his value to the Church. So he drew the document himself and being somewhat heated by the refusal, mixed a bit of biting sar casm in his declaration that : I hereby renounce the Christian religion that I may join the Episcopal Church. But even this " signing off " was not permitted to Congrega- 3(> THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. tionalists and Presbyterians. If members of those churches wished to withdraw and worship by themselves, they were still required to pay the tax for the support of the Church from which they withdrew. Freedom of worship for the Strict Congrega- tionalists, or " Separatists ", as they were also called, was a rather expensive luxury for they were obliged by law to continue to pay the Church tax and, of course, they were obliged to help support their own Churches. Many of the Strict Congregation- alists became Baptists as a result of the law. While the New World was settled by those who desired Freedom-of- Worship ", the weakness of human nature was fre quently shown in those early days, by the persecution of indi viduals whose freedom of worship was outside of the Congrega tional Church. A particular case illustrates this. Two students at Yale College, in 1744, John Cleveland and his brother Ebenezer Cleveland, were charged with the heinous offence of attending another Church than the Congregational, while at home in vacation time. When they returned to College they were suspended till they had confessed. As they refused to do so, they were expelled and their fellow students were for bidden from associating with them, or even speaking to them, for fear they too should become corrupted. In the Revolution, Saybrook did its full share with the other towns of the Colony. But more than this, Saybrook will go down to the end of time, historically, as being the place where the first attempt to produce a submarine torpedo boat was made. Although the attempt was not an entire success, the fact still remains, that the Adam of the successful submarine war vessels of the twentieth century was the turtle-like torpedo boat invented by David lUishnell, of Saybrook. In the autumn of 1776, the siiip " Oliver Cromwell " was built in Sa)brook and successfully launched and ably commanded by Azariah Whittlesey. In that \ear Captain Seth Warner, who stood st'cond in command to that other grand patriot, Ethan Allen, the commander of tlie fearetl Green Mountain Boys, was authorized to raise no nicn for duty on the northern lakes, and was provided with money and given a commission. In Ajiril, 1777, David Bushnell, who was born in the Parish, CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 37 now the Town of Westbrook, informed the Governor and Coun cil that he had a plan for blowing the entire British Navy on the American coast, out of water. The Governor and Council provided every necessity for the construction and trial of the great invention. Building operations were begun at the " Ferry ", Mr. Bushnell having first proved that gun powder could be ex ploded under water. The Connecticut coast was more or less troubled with Tories, who gave comfort and assistance to the British ships on Long Island Sound, by furnishing them with supplies. This was par- THE LORD HOUSE, BUILT IN 1665. Occupied by descendants of the builders, Dr. Kelsey and his mother, who is a granddaughter of William Lord, a soldier of the Revolution who was with Washington on his retreat across the Delaware. ticularly true of the settlements and villages on the lower Con necticut and especially at its mouth, where the Tories tried to run contraband out to the ships in the sound. But Saybrook slept with one eye open and the other eye on the watch. The Rev. John Edward Bushnell, minister of the Fairfield Congregational Church — but a native of Old Saybrook — gave so delightfully 38 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. humorous an account of, " Saybrook's only sanguinary battle of the Revolution ", in his address at the Quadrimillenial celebration (if Saybrook, that it is quoted here: A mass nf contraband articles had been taken from the Tories, and a yiiung man — William Tully — was set tn watch it, in the house formerly, owned by Captain John Whiltelsey, still standing at the Point. On a eeriain night, ei^'lit Tories came to the house and demanded entrance. Tully liej^'Kvd In lie excused from opening the door. They broke in with out further parley and rushed forward. Tully s flint was faithful to the trip of the hammer and struck fire. The musket ball passed through the WHITTLESEY HOUSE. S.\Yr!;ooK POINT. In the Revululion William Tully defended lhis house aL:ainbt ci^lu Tories. first mail, and In Tully's surprise be still advanced, but the man directly back nf liini drnppcd dead. Tul]>- then surrouiuled the other six men and would li,i\e iiieoiitineully put llieui all to the bayonet (and did wound one of tbem) had they not emitriveil In escape by the windows. The first man wliniii Tully shut ruuilly found thai the ball had passed through him, for lie drniiprd dead, with ciiie hand on the window and the other grasping a elusl nf tea. The retreating fnrees lefl a quarter of their number dead on the field — nr llnnr — :uul a quarter of the reniaining were carried CAPTAIN KIDD. 39 away wounded in their friends' arms. It is, perhaps, noteworthy that the continental army did not lose a man. The Tories were at another time routed by one man, this time Charles Williams. He was on the watch for Tories at the Point. One night he heard the grating of boats on the beach and sus pecting them to be filled with Tories, he ran out and in a loud voice, ordered the guards to turn out. The Tories, not knowing that the guard consisted of but one man, pushed off and escaped from " that wretched Rebel ". CAPTAIN KIDD. Of the many somewhat visionary, or entirely imaginative accounts of treasure possessed by Kidd, the famous, or infamous pirate, the following is reliable for its accuracy. It was told to John W. Barber, author of Connecticut Historical Collections, by John G. Gardiner, of Gardiner's Island, about 1837. Mr. Gar diner obtained his information from a letter belonging to Mrs. Wetmore, who was the mother-in-law of Captain Mather, of New London, commander of a revenue cutter. Mrs. Wetmore says in her letter : I remember when very young, hearing my mother say that her grand mother was wife to Lord Gardiner when the pirate came to Gardiner's Island. The Captain wanted Mrs. Gardiner to roast him a pig; she being afraid to refuse him, cooked it very nice, and he was much pleased with it; he then made her a present of this silk (cloth of gold) which she gave to her two daughters. The following is an extract from an account of property belonging to Kidd and captured from him in 1699, by order of the Earl of Bellmont, captain general and governor in chief over the province of Massachusetts Bay: Gold dust 145 ozs. Gold bars S9I5-4 ozs. Gold coin iijc.^ ozs. Silver, broken 1735^ ozs. Silver coin 124 ozs. Silver bars 309 ozs. Silver lamps and buttons, silver rings and a bag of gems. Mrs. Wet- more's letter continues : Captain William Kidd was commander of the sloop Antonio ; received a commission to cruise as a privateer, turned pirate, was guilty of murder — was taken, and carried into Boston ; was tried, condemned and exe- 40 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. cuted — not as a privateer — but as a murderer. He was here with his aecnnipliees .i short time before he was taken; how long he remained on this Isl.iiid I Uiinw not. While here, he told Mr. Gardiner where he had deposited the iron chests, which contained the treasure above described and left it in his e.ire, with the injunction, that he must answer for it with his he.id. The chests were buried in a swamp on the west side of the island. There h.is been much digging here upon this island for Kidd's money, all along the coast. Rut I think it is doubtful whether there was ever any buried except that which was buried here. WESTBROOK. UNTIL its incorporation in 1840, Westbrook was a parish in the Town of Saybrook. It was incorporated as a distinct parish in 1724. From the great quantity of clam and oyster shells as well as stone implements, it is evident that the neighborhood of the village was for cen turies a permanent village of Indians. The large number cl half finished, and fragments, of arrow and spear heads that are still being found, to the east of the river near what is locally known as Round Hill, causes the belief that it was an Indian village for centuries. These fragments and par tially finished specimens suggest, that they were made there and it is thought by some authorities on Indian archaeology, that arrow heads were made only at permanent settlements. The operation was of a semi-religious nature and the arrow head makers were nearly equal to the medicineman in the estimation of the tribe. The Indians who lived on the shore at \\'estbrook, when the first settlements by the English were made, were subject to, or a part of the Pequot Tribe. After the extermination of that tribe by the settlers, in 1637, they disappeared from ^^'est- brook. The Indians living at ^^'estbrook, after that place was settled, were a small branch of the Xehantic Tribe, from Rhode Island. Thev disappeared some time during King Philip's War, in 1675 or '76. The Indian names for the territory now included in Westlirook were Menunketeset (a word that was spelled in every conceivable w.iv in the old records) and Pochoug, which are still retained in Patchogue River and Menunketesuck Point and River. WESTBROOK. 41 According to Barber, Westbrook was settled in 1664. Among the earlier settlers of Saybrook who had received grants of land, or had made purchases in Westbrook, where the Chapmans, Fitches, Bulls, Jacksons, Duncks and Chalkers. Olin Chalker and two brothers built three houses on the little hill at the foot of which is a brook crossing the road, which is the dividing line between Saybrook and Westbrook. The oldest of three houses is on the south side of the road, but it has been so modernized that it has no appearance of age. Directly opposite, is another house that has been abandoned for many years, and it is in a most pic turesque state of ruin. It is almost impossible to look at it with out regret for it suggests " home " and happiness and hospitality, surrounded as it is with a wild, tangled growth of old-time flow ers, shrubs and trees, and its well-sweep going to decay, while the other two are simply commonplace farmhouse of the present- time. In 1648, Saybrook divided the out-lying lands into quarters and that designated in the records as Oyster River Quarter included nearly all of Westbrook (and much more), so the record of this division of the wild lands is the first definite reference to the territory that is now Westbrook. Mr. James A. Pratt, in his history of Westbrook, says that a few individual pioneers settled on the flats along the shore as early as 1650. In the distribution of the land to the original proprietors, there were nooks and corners having no value then, because of lack of fertility or remoteness. That there was no particular claim to them, or dispute as to ownership, resulted eventually in their being regarded as a sort of no-man's-land. But as time passed and these pieces of land were occupied by outsiders, they beean to have a value in the estimation of their actual owners. The first and second school-houses, and the first church and the parsonage, were built upon such land. This appropriation of their land alarmed the proprietors. The result was, that a Proprietors' Committee came into existence in 1723, and the General Court passed an act that common or undivided land, not disposed of by the free consent of the original proprietors, could be claimed by them as a part of their estate. The same act 42 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. authorized the proprietors to appoint a committee and clerk to act as their agents, with power to dispose of common or undi vided land. This committee continued till 1838, when Jonathan Lay was the last surviving member and Jared Piatt the last clerk. Like the other shore and river towns, Westbrook had its active and prosjieroiis ship-building days, which continued for many years after the industry had ceased in the river towns. The first grist-mill was built by Lieutenant Samuel Jones some time before 1690. A few years later the Grinells put up a wind mill. Hot far from where the Congregational Church now stands. It was moved to the hill behind the church, where it could get more -wind, and it remained there till 1800. There was a saw mill, in 1748, on Falls River on Samuel \\'right's land. It was jointly owned by Wright, .Benjamin Jones, Thomas Bushnell, and Nathaniel Chapman, who took turns in using it for their own sawing, three days in each year. Before 1700, there was an iron works at Pond Meadow, where ore obtained in ;\Iine Swamp was smelted and made into about everything necessary to the settlers, from anchors down to nails. For sixty years the earnest, noble men and women traveled on foot, on horseback and later, in rude carts, all the way to Old Saybrook to worship and hear the Divine commands and promises explained by their minister. In summer the journey was hard enough, but in winter, through deep snows, with an all- day service in a cold church, it was a very different matter. In 1724, Westbrook had a population of 223 persons divided among 38 families. Their number and the distance necessary to go to attend Church, determined them to apply for permission to separate themselves from the Saybrook society. A public meeting was held on April 13, 1724, when the people of Old Saybrook agreed, not to oppose the desire of the Westbrook portion of the society, for a separation, with a society of their own. It was agreed, that until the Westbrook people had a min ister of their own, they shoukl continue to pay their portion of the expense in maintaining a minister over the Old Saybrook society. On May 13, 1724, a petition was sent to the Legislature, in Hartford, asking that Westbrook be made a separate society. WESTBROOK. 43 This petition was signed by Samuel Chapman, James Post, and William Stannard. The petition was granted, and on May 28, 1724, the First Society of Westbrook was formed with Captain Samuel Chapman, as moderator. Immediate action was taken to secure a minister and in August, of the same year, the Rev. William Worthington was engaged at a salary of £50 and fire wood. In December, of the same year, the society voted to build a parsonage, but the minister was required to provide the glass and nails. The little community had already been at considerable expense, so the proposal to build a church seemed beyond their means. In order that money for this purpose might be obtained, they asked the Legislature to free them from paying the Colony tax for a period of three or four years. This was in the spring of 1725. Their request was refused and a similar request, made in October of that year, was also refused, but the Legislature granted them permission to form a Church and to settle an orthodox minister, with the consent of the neighboring Churches. On June 29, 1726, the Church was organized with the following members ; Captain Samuel Chap man, Abraham, James and John Post ; Jared and Thomas Spen cer ; Margaret Chapman, Lydia Grenil, Sarah Spencer, Mary Lay, ^lary Denison, Sarah Brooker, and Mary Waterhouse. Captain Chapman was a grandsofi of the settler, Robert Chap man, and the son of Robert, Junior, who was one of the messen gers from New London County to the convention which drew and adopted the Saybrook Platform. Abraham Post was a grandson of Stephen Post the settler, and Lydia (Peabody) Grenil was a granddaughter of John Alden and the charming Priscilla, whom he courted for another man and won for himself. In January, 1726, the people voted to build a meeting-house, but it was several years before the church was completed. This delay was, seemingly, not the result of indifference or procras tination, but of lack of money. The slow progress of the steps taken toward the building show this. On Christmas, 1727, a committee was appointed to secure sleepers and underpinning; in May, 1728, another committee was appointed to place the sleepers, and still another for procuring glass and lead, and so on for a year or two longer. In 1730, the pulpit was built and 44 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY the lower seats put in place ; in 1733, the pulpit was provided with cushions ; the plastering was finished ; steps were made and placed in front of the door and the doors were hung on hinges and provided with means of fastening. In 1738, the galleries were finished and nothing more, in the way of work, was done till 1703, when one side and two ends were covered with oak clap boards, which were painted a sky-blue, and window frames, with sashes furnished with glass, were put in. In 1794, the queer old square pews, with seats around the four sides, were replaced with straight pews. This church, begun in 1727, and standing for so much sacrifice, hope and determination, was taken down one hundred years later, in 1828, and a new church was built upon its site. In i860, the second church was removed and the third built on the same site and being burnt in 1892, a fourth church was built upon the same site around which were so many precious memories. The great number of years in which the first two ministers were in charge was quite typical of early New England. The Rev. William Worthington was bom in Colchester, was grad uated from Yale in the class of 1716, and was minister of the Westbrook Church for thirty-two years. The Rev. John Devo tion was a graduate of Yale in the class of 1754, and minister of the Church for forty-five years. BUSHNELl's AMERICAN TURTLE. East ^^'indsor was the home of the inventor of the first steam boat to actually run and carry passengers, and the fact that John Fitch was born there will make that town notable for all time. Westbrook was the home of the inventor of that most feared naval weapon of the twentieth century, the sub-marine torpedo boat and the fact that David Bushnell, the inventor, was born in Westbrook, will make that town notable for all time. It is an odd fact that that notorious appropriator of other men's ideas, Robert Fulton, who robbed John Fitch of the credit which he earned and deservetl. also appropriated the ideas of David BUSHNELL'S AMERICAN TURTLE. 45 Bushnell, but did not succeed in robbing him of the credit and honor due him and his memory. David Bushnell was born in 1742, on his father's farm which was located away from the more thickly settled portion of West brook. At the age of twenty-seven, David's father died and while his loss was great, the death of his father proved to be a great gain to the world, for David's sense of duty was such that had his father lived, he probably never would have left the farm where his services were needed, to obtain the education he so much craved and so, doubtless, would not have thought out sub-marine navigation. After his father's death, David disposed of the farm. At a time when boys of but fourteen were entering Yale, David, at the age of twenty-seven, prepared for Yale under the instruction of the Rev. John Devotion, the minister of Westbrook, in two years. It is probable that the idea of sub-marine explosions occurred to him while an undergraduate for, when he was graduated in 1775, he began his experiments. The first step was to prove that gunpowder would explode under water. This was demonstrated with a wooden receptacle filled with powder. The bottle-like receptacle was submerged, with a heavy plank on top and on the plank a hogshead filled with stones, till its top was just above water. The explosion threw stones and bits of wood into the air and demonstrated just what Bushnell believed that it would. He continued his experiments till all possibility of doubt of their success was eliminated, and then began to work out plans for the "American Turtle ", as the Adam of sub-marine torpedo boats was called by him. In April, 1777, Mr. Bushnell informed the Governor and Council that he had a plan by which the entire British navy in American waters could be blown out of water. Governor Trum bull — Washington's " Brother Jonathan ", who is to-day de picted, with a coat of stars and " pants " of stripes, as the human emblem of Yankee Land — and General Israel Putnam, imme diately appreciated, that if Mr. Bushnell's ideas would work the war would soon be a matter of history. They gave him every necessary encouragement and assistance. The construction of the "American Turtle " was begun at the Ferry. The hull was 46 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. in the form of two upper shells of a turtle, one above and the other below inverted. It was seven and a half feet long and probably about the same width and was only large enough to contain the courageous man who was to work it. The supply of air for the " crew " was sufficient to last thirty minutes. The greater portion of the ballast was under the keel and was so arranged that it could be lowered to act as an anchor. The motor was the man inside the boat, who worked the paddles with his feet. It was equipped with a compass, light and barometer, the latter for determining the depth below the surface. Tha kind of light to be used was a most troublesome matter to de termine. With but a limited supply of air a flame could not be considered, for the air would soon be burnt up and the man would be suffocated. Mr. Bushnell's first experiment was with a kind of luminous wood which was satisfactory only if the atmospheric conditions were favorable. As a last resort he wrote to Benjamin Franklin for advice and for information in regard to the use of phosphorus. This was finally decided upon and used with success. In the bottom of the boat was a valve to admit water when it desired to descend below the surface. For return ing to the surface, two brass force-pumps were provided for expelling the water. There were windows of heavy glass and ventilators with air pipes reaching to the surface of the water. At the stern, above the rudder, was the magazine. It consisted of two pieces of oak, hollowed, in which were 150 pounds of powder. This magazine was lighter than water so that it would rise against the bottom of the ship to which it was to be fixed. Inside the magazine was a mechanism, arranged to be set to run for any period of time up to twelve hours. \\'hen it stopped, a lock resembling a gun lock was sprung and the 150 pounds of powder was exploded. A brother of David Bushnell was to make the first experiment, but illness prevented, so a sergeant of one of the line regiments was given the hazardous honor. The " Eagle ", one of Lord IIowo's shijis, of 64 guns, w:is chosen for the first trial, where she was lying in New York harbor, and General Putnam was on the wharf to witness the attempt. The sergeant tried to fix the screw to the bottom of the shi]5 but did not succeed, as the screw BUSHNELL'S AMERICAN TURTLE. 47 came in contact with some iron. The sergeant's lack of experi ence was the cause of failure. When returning to land he thought he had been sighted by the British, so he cast off the magazine, which was timed to explode in an hour. The mechan ism worked and the explosion filled the British with consterna tion and fear and the atmosphere with flying water. In 1777, Mr. Bushnell, himself, tried to blow up the " Cerberus ", at anchor off New London. The attempt was made from a whale boat and al though he did not blow up the man o'war he did destroy a schooner, just astern, that the British had captured. The sailors on the schooner seeing the line attached to the magazine, drew it inboard thinking it was a fishing line. When they 1 GOV. YALE S SNUFF BOX. drew on board the contrivance at the end of the line their interest was great, but before they could satisfy their curiosity it ex ploded and killed three men besides destroying the schooner. It seems that Mr. Bushnell had provided for just such an occur rence by placing wheels with iron points, on the outside of the magazine which would be revolved when the magazine was raised from the sea up the side to the deck of the vessel. The revolution of these wheels set the mechanism so that the ex plosion would take place in five minutes after they began to revolve. Just why the " Turtle " was abandoned, after demon strating that it would destroy vessels, is uncertain. It had accomplished a great good for the Colonies for the British were terrified. They feared that every object seen floating on the surface was one of those Yankee infernal-machines and, as a 48 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. result, they were not so bold in their naval operations near the coast. Nearly every one is familiar with the historic " Battle of the Kegs " on the Delaware River, and how those same kegs filled the hearts of the bravest Britons with dread ; dread of the unknown, which unmans the bravest; dread of what those wretched Yankees might do next by means of Bushnell's devilish- inventive genius. The kegs were arranged with an interior mechanism similar to that in the magazine of the " Turtle " only, instead of explod ing at the end of a fixed time, they were exploded upon coming in contact with a hard object. These kegs were set afloat on the Delaware at night, that they might float down to the British ships and blow them up. It so happened that they first came in contact with the ice floating on the river and were exploded with great violence and noise, blowing up the ice and one British schooner. The explosion sent the British, like hens seeking shelter from hail, wild with terror to every place of safety to be found. They imagined every impossible thing. One of their wildest ideas being that each keg was occupied by a Yankee and that the Rebels were attempting an aqueous version of the \\'ooden Horse of Troy. The British were so greatly mortified by their fright, that they offered a reward for David Bushnell, and they did not care whether he should be presented to them in the form of a man or a cadaver. The British did actually obtain possession of Mr. Bushnell without pa\ing the reward, but the same genius which produced the ''American Turtle ", helped him to make his escape. ^Vfter the " Battle of the Kegs ", he joined the Patriot army as a private and was captured in an engaginent with the British, and placed on board one of the British frigates, in Boston Harbor. Mr. Bushnell acted the part of a person of weak mind. He was seen, one day, hacking at the rigging with a hatchet and when an officer asked what he was doing, Bushnell replied that he always had to cut the brush and clear the land in the spring. When this was reported to the commander of the ship, he directed that " the fool " should be put ashore. Bushnell and the ofiicer who had him in charge stopped at a CHESTER. 49 tavern. While the officer had a drink, Bushnell wrote a note to the commander of the ship telling him who " the fool " was. The pitiful remnants of the " Turtle " are now in a barn on the Bushnell farm in Westbrook, in possession of one of his descend- ents. It was all there not so long ago, but parts of it have been stolen or lost. CHESTER. CHESTER is another child of Saybrook and it continued to be under the jurisdiction of that venerable town till it arrived at its majority so to speak, in 1836, when it was incorporated. In the early days it was known as Pattaquonk Quarter and continued to be so called, till the parish was incor porated, in 1740, when it was named Chester. Tradition gives Jonah Dibble, of Haddam, the credit of being the first settler of Chester, just before 1692, then followed Andrew Warner, of Hadley, in 1696. In the succeeding fifty years families of the names of Parker, Shipman, Waterhouse, Webb, Willard and Southworth, from Saybrook, settled there as did the Canfields and Letts, from Durham. Chester was much concerned in the boundary dispute between Saybrook and Haddam, which is mentioned under the caption of Haddam. The Indians too, were much concerned for by the adjustment of the boundary their forty-acre reservation was found to be in Saybrook, instead of Haddam, and the inhabitants of Saybrook were not willing to recognize their rights. The first record of a transfer of property, within the present bounds of Chester, was a deed given by John and Elizabeth Cullick to John Leverett of Boston, dated 1660. Mrs. Cullick received the property by will from her brother, George Fenwick, the proprietor of Saybrook. The land disposed of by this deed was a part of the Twelve-mile Island Farm. Grants, or sales of land, including 700 acres, were recorded in 1672, to a number of persons, but there is no evidence that any of them settled upon their property. The gift of Cedar Swamp and its fine water-power to Governor Winthrop, for the benefit of the Colony, in 1663, was the cause 4 50 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. of more trouble within the bounds of Chester, for Saybrook denied the right of the proprietors to make the grant. John Chapman and John Clark represented Saybrook in the negotia tions with Governor Winthrop regarding the property. The Governor relinquished the property to Saybrook, in 1688, with the stipulation, that the timber and land should be sold only to inhabitants of Saybrook. The swamp was divided into lots, running east and west through the swamp, that were from one and a half to twelve rods wide. These were disposed of by sale or gift to inhabitants of Saybrook. In 1734, the individuals who owned property about Cedar Swamp Pond gave a deed of a narrow strip of land, surround ing the pond, for a nominal sum to Samuel Willard, in appre ciation of his services as a surveyor. Mr. Willard already owned considerable land there, which included the outlet of the pond and so, of course, the valuable water-power. His son, George Willard, built the first saw and grist-mills of Chester, on this site. The property was owned by the Willard family for a great many years. Up to 1729, the inhabitants of Chester attended Church, and paid their portion for the support of the minister of the Church, near Centerbrook, in the present Town of Essex, but in October of that year, they obtained permission to worship at home in the winter months, for four years. This was known as " winter privilege ". Two years after the parish was incorporated, on September 15, 1742, the Church was organized, with a member ship of twenty-two men and forty-one women and the Rev. Jared Harrison its first minister. The first meeting-house was built in 1743, but it was not finished till 1750 (although it was wor shipped in) and even then, the church was never ceiled or plas tered, the timbers being left exposed to view. Lender the church was an open space where sheep congregated and made such a racket with their bleating that the service v^^as frequently inter rupted, till one of the men drove the woolly disturbers away. At different times, beginning with 1773, there was a lack of har mony in the congregation because of a presence of harmony in the choir that was objectionable. This was a " new fangled " style of singing that had been introduced by the ESSEX. 51 younger members of the congregation, and was disapproved by the older members. This contest over the harmony of sound, which had caused a discord in the harmony of interests, was finally arranged by permitting the young people to have charge of the singing at one service, each Sunday, for a brief period of time. The first permanent school was started in 1755. It was under the control of the Church till the school-system was established. The building of vessels and trade with the West Indies occu pied the time of many individuals profitably for a period of about sixty years, which began some twenty years before the Revolu tion. The principal builders of boats and ships were members of the Leet, Colt, Buck, Stevens, Lord, and Denison families. In the West India trade were Gideon Leet, Jonathan Warner and William Mitchell, they being the merchants doing the greater part of the trade with those islands. ESSEX. THAT portion of Saybrook which became Essex was called by the Indians Potapaug. It was a very old Indian set tlement that occupied the point, that juts into the Con necticut just north of Thatchbed Island, and like all Indian villages it was delightfully situated, in the midst of charming scenery, as well in the midst of a district where game and other animals, valuable for their pelts, were plentiful and where the high nobility of the finny tribe — salmon and shad — could be had almost with out effort. It was on the Potapaug Point where the first English settlers built their houses, and where the business of the place was trans acted for many generations. As Essex grew in population the village crept up the steep hill, to the west of the lowland, and the homes that were built upon the face and top of the hill are ap proached by gently sloping, terraced streets. A walk along these streets more than compensates for the effort, for the view is con stantly changing and each new view of the river, the coves, the islands and the Lyme shore, to the east of the river, seems more charming than those just enjoyed. The natural beauties of Essex and neighborhood are great, and the native refinment and hos pitality of the people are in keeping. 52 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY ESSEX. S3 Some of the early settlers of Potapaug, between 1690, and 1710, were John Denison, of Stonington; John Starkey, of New London ; Charles Williams, of Rhode Island ; the Lay and Pratt families from the mouth of the river ; the Hayden family, from Dorchester; and the Ayres family, which settled at Ayre's Point about 1710. In 1702, the Rev. Thomas Buckingham settled at Beaver Pond. He was one of the incorporators of Yale, and was reputed to be a successful trapper of the valuable beaver. which were found in great numbers on the shores of the pond. "¦?!f %"""'"' A GLIMPSE OF THE SAIL LOFT AND THE WAREHOUSE BUILT BY ABNER PARKER IN 1753. " When the West India trade was the greatest, it was frequently filled from ground to roof with rum, sugar, molasses and tobacco." The growth in population of Essex was slow till just before the Revolution, when its ship yards and ropewalk were very busy as were the few merchants, whose storehouses were filled to the eaves. John Tucker began the ship building industry about 1720. From this small beginning there grew up a business so great, that there was a time when thirty vessels of various kinds and tonnage were on the stocks at once in the different yards. One of the ship and schooner builders, who did the most busi ness, was Nehemiah Hayden, in 1742. Uriah Hayden, in 1750, 54 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY was the builder of some of the most famous ships of the Con necticut River, among them being the " Oliver Cromwell ", which is said to be the first man o'war ever owned by the United States. She carried 24 guns and was launched in 1775, for the Colony of Connecticut, but was soon after transferred to the National Government. Richard Tucker and Ebenezer Hayden, also in 1750; Samuel Williams just before the year 1800; Ashabel Pratt, Judea Pratt, Captain .\oah ScoviU, Amasa Hayden, just after the year 1800; Koah Starkey, Austin Starkey, and David Wil liams, 1815; Charles Tiley, 1825; R. P Williams, and David ESSEX. The house built by Robert Lay in 1730. ]\Iack, 1830; and Captain Frank ^^'est, and Xehemiah Hayden, 1835. Tbe last named builder launched the " Middlesex ", 1.400 tons, in 1851, the largest ship built at Essex. The Elizabeth Denison, 1,000, was launched by Noah Starkey in 1S31). The embargo of 1812 to '14 caused a falling off in. the business, but it increased again and was at the height of its prosperity about 1840. About 1800, the ropewalk began operations and did a ESSEX. 55 large business in making cables, and material for rigging the vessels built in Essex. The old warehouse, shown in the picture, was built by Abner Parker in 1753, but soon after was owned by the Haydens and is still owned by Mr. James Hayden, the grandson of Uriah Hayden. Trade with the West Indies began at about the same time as ship building and continued for more than a century. When the West India trade was the greatest this old warehouse was never empty. It was frequently filled from ground to roof with rum, sugar, molasses and tobacco, to be shipped in small boats up the river, or transported inland in carts. The products of the river settlements and large towns were stored in this building till loaded upon ships and schooners outward bound. Just south of this warehouse is Hayden's wharf, upon which stands an old sail-loft, in which smaller boats were - A FLINT-LOCK PISTOL OF CREAT SIZE, BE.\RINC THE DATE OF 1730. built, rigging stretched and sails made, for many years. Just to the north, where the New York boat ties up, was Lay's wharf, built by Robert Lay, who built the house shown in the picture, just back from the wharf, on a bluff, in 1730. The Hayden residence is just behind the sail-loft. It is on a slightly lower part of the bluff upon which the Lay house is situated, and directly across the street from it. The front yard of the Hayden house abuts upon Hayden's wharf. This charm ingly situated, old-time residence was built by Uriah Hayden in 1766, and is now occupied by his grandson, James Hayden. The interior of the house is quaint and eminently home-like and contains many rooms, some of them of unusual size. The house is filled with fine specimens of Colonial furniture, which have come down through succeeding generations of Haydens, 56 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. and of many rare and costly articles that were picked up in Europe by the different members of the family, who not only built ships, but commanded theni, or sailed in them for recrea tion and travel. The Playden residence was a tavern from the year it was built down to about 1800. The old sign, painted in England, bears the letters and numerals " U. and A. 1766 ", the U, standing for Uriah Hayden and the A, for Ann his wife. A very long, low room on the south side of the house has a door with an elaborately carved George the Third brass knocker, and hanging on the walls are pictures of George the Third and his Queen, which have hung there since 1766. Mr. James Hayden has a flint-lock pistol of great size, bearing the date of 1730, and a flint-lock musket, of 1756. Both weapons are in perfect condi tion and the present Mr. Hayden has shot ducks with the musket many times in his youth. The musket has a barrel five feet and four inches long. It was originally four inches longer, and was bell-mouthed. This four inches was cut off many years ago, as the wide muzzle caused the shot to scatter too much. That the boat-building art has been inherited by the family is evidenced by a fine sloop yacht, and one or two smaller pleasure boats, that were built by Mr. James Hayden, in the lower portion of the old sail-loft. Other taverns in the old days were the present Griswold House, an excellent country hotel, that has been a hotel for more than a hundred years. It was first kept by Ethan Bushnell. At Centerbrook, a village near the center of the Town of Essex, was a tavern kept by Danforth Clark, about 1800. It was on the site of the home where Chapman Gladding lived in 1883. Clark was a popular proprietor and his tavern was notable in its day for its hospitality and good living. The first saw-mill of Essex was built in 1705, by Ensign William Pratt and Sergeant Nathaniel Pratt, on Falls River. In 1715, Charles Williams and John Clark, Jr., built a grist-mill on the same stream. The first machine in the United States for cutting the teeth of combs, was invented by Phineas Pratt and Abel Pratt, father and son, and the making of combs was first OLD LYME. 57 begun by them in Essex, just before the year 1800. In 1802, William's ivory-comb works was started at the mouth of Falls River, but little business was done by them till five years later, in 1807, when it increased greatly and was profitable. In 1816, this works was united with a comb works at Deep River, in Saybrook. OLD LYME. CHARMING old Lyme, mother of lawyers, judges, states men, diplomats, and multi-milHonaire-financiers ; sepa rated from Saybrook only bv- the width of the Connecti cut River, but how differently situated ! On higher and more fertile soil ; shut in from the storms of the north and the piercing winds of the east; exposed only on the south-west (that mysteri ous quarter in which the Indians placed their " happy hunting grounds ", because only from heaven could come the sweet, life- giving south-west breeze) and settled by men and women of gen tle-birth who, with their descendants, have helped to make America notable in the world ! Never disturbed by the noise and turmoil of factories, nor hampered (and prospered) by commercialism. Unattractive to the emigrating refuse of Europe, it remains an old- fashioned gem in an old-fashioned setting. It is, perhaps, the only river town in the State of Connecticut, that has remained a place of residence, where mental wealth and breeding are more highly regarded than dollars and cents. Its only occupation in the old days was the building, and sailing of ships to the great markets of the world. An occupation at once dignified and broadening. When Old Lyme was settled in 1664, it was known as East Saybrook, it being a part of that town. The original township covered an area of about eighty square miles. Lyme was incor porated in 1667. Matthew Griswold was the first settler. He received a grant of land from George Fenwick in 1645, and moved from Say brook to Lyme, calling his place Black Hall. He was soon fol lowed by the DeWolf, Champion, Noyes, Lay, Ely, Lord, and Lee families, who took up the greater part of the town. Up to 1667, the place was known as East Saybrook, but jn that year it was set off and incorporated as the town of Lyme. 58 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. OLD LYME. 59 The Rev. Moses Noyes, of Newbury, Massachusetts, a gradu ate of Harvard, was the first minister. His pastorate of sixty- three years began in 1666, and ended in 1729. The Rev. Samuel Pierpoint, of New Haven, a graduate of Yale in the class of 1718, became assistant to Mr. Noyes in 1722. His wife was a daughter of the Rev. Thomas Hooker. Mr. Noyes was accidentally drowned in the Connecticut in 1733. The third minis ter, the Rev. Jonathan Parsons, of Springfield, a graduate of Yale, was ordained in 1731. The fourth, was the Rev. Stephen John son, of Newark, New Jersey, a graduate of Yale in the class of 1743, who was in charge of the church for forty years. The fifth, was Rev. Edward Porter of Farmington. The sixth, was the Rev. Lathrop Rockwell, of Lebanon, a graduate of Dartmouth. He was pastor from 1794 to 1828. He had a successful school of youths. Judge Alatthew Griswold had a law school that turned out many notable lawyers. John JNIacCurdy, a gentleman of Ireland with Scottish blood in his veins, purchased the residence known as the MacCurdy house in 1750. Instinctively opposed to the British government, he became a strong partisan of the Colonists in their opposition to British injustice. Tradition has it, that he and his friend, the Rev. Stephen Johnson, minister of the Lyme Church, spent many hours together in the MacCurdy home discussing the Stamp Act and other equally offensive acts, and that the first published article definitely suggesting resistance of the enforce ment of the Stamp Act, even to actual rebellion, was written by Mr. Johnson in this house. The article was printed in the Connecticut Gazette, through the influence of Mr. MacCurdy. Other articles and pamphlets followed, undoubtedly from the same pen, but no one seemed to know their source. The Sons of Liberty in New York had manuscripts of a treasonable nature, but no one was willing, or possessed of enough courage to print them. John MacCurdy, of Lyme, being in New York heard of them and finally obtained permission to copy them. He took them back to New England with him where they were printed and sent out over the country. This was in 1765- Nearly every able-bodied man of Lyme joined the 500 who went en horseback to Wethersfield to demand the resignation of the much hated Ingersoll, the Stamp Commissioner. And so mat- 6o THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. ters progressed in Lyme to the beginning of the Revolution, the patriotism of the people keeping pace with the times always, and frequently running ahead of the times, through the aggressive patriotism of the people. In 1774, a peddler entered Lyme with his saddle-bags filled with the delicious and longed-for but obnoxious tea. It was taken from him and burnt while the mouths of the patriotic matrons and maids watered at the thought of the comforting beverage it would have made. The home of the Griswolds was at Black Hall where the fine MCCURDY HOUSE, LYME. mansion of Governor Roger Griswold was built, overlooking the Sound. Matthew Griswold, a son of the Governor, had two love experiences. In the first he showed a degree of straight forward determination that was strikingly lacking in the second, which culminated in marriage, the proposal being brought about by the lady. Governor Matthew Griswold is described as being grave, shy and some what awkward. Flis first love affair took him to Dur ham — on horseback and a long journey it was — where the young woman lived. She had two strings to her bow — Matthew Gris- OLD LYME. 6i •wo\A and a certain physician whom she preferred of the two — but she was unwilling to loose the first string till she was sure of the other. This kept Matthew busy riding the long distance between his home in Lyme to her home in Durham. As he had a suspicion that he was being kept for a " foriorne hope " he, one day, brought matters to a head by demanding an immediate reply to his oft repeated proposal, only to be again told that she would like a little more time, to which he replied : " Madam, I will give you a lifetime ". The physician did not declare the love she hoped he had for her, so she lived and died a spinster. Finally, his charming cousin, Ursula Wolcott, was a guest at Black Hall. Matthew was smitten with her, but his experience had made him shy of her sex. But Miss Wolcott had a mind as well as beauty. She loved Matthew and suspected that he loved her, although he failed to declare it. One day when they met on the stairs. Miss Wolcott asked: " What did you say. Cousin Matthew ". " I did not say anything ", was his reply. The question and reply were repeated at other meetings sev eral times till, meeting on the beach. Miss Wolcott asked her question for the last time, for she added after his answer: " It is time that you did ". So, Miss Ursula Wolcott became Mrs. Matthew Griswold. Her family was notable for the number of governors it contained. Besides her husband who became governor, there were her father. Governor Roger Wolcott, her brother, Governor Oliver Wolcott, her nephew, the second Governor Oliver, and her son became the second Governor Roger Griswold. Black Hall was famous for its fine hospitality and other attrac tions, not the least of them being, in the days of " What did you say. Cousin Matthew," Cousin Matthew's eight handsome sisters who were known as " the Black Hall Boys " because of their high spirits, their success in athletic sports and exercise, and their good fellowship with the world. New England has just such girls in this century, but in that century, when the people were rather strait-laced, such joyous, healthy, spirited girls were more noticeable than they are now. Phoebe married the Rev. Jonathan Parsons and so became the mother of that daring and successful Revolutionary soldier. 62 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. General Samuel Holden Parsons. The Rev. Jonathan Parsons was a good man and a dandy. He had a passion for orna ment, jewels and fine clothing and was very particular about his personal appearance. This was something of a shock to his parishoners, and a source of fun for his fun-loving wife Phoebe, who was one of " the Black Hall Boys ". One night, just as Mr. Parsons was starting for prayer-meeting, after looking in the mirror to see that his hair was right and his neck-cloth well arranged, Mrs. Phoebe hugged him, MATHER HOUSE, LYME. patted his face and kissed him. ^^'hen he arrived at prayer- meeting he saw the faces of the people undergoing muscular contortions, which caused him to fear they were suffering with St. \'itus' dance, or possibly with cramps. The fact of the mat ter was, that Mrs. Phoebe had blackened his face with that patting-hand. On another occasion, she stole a leaf from his sermon and sat staring up at him from the minister's pew, gloating over the confusion she had caused. OLD LYME. 63 About 1671, there was a territorial dispute between Lyme and New London, of a nature similar to that between Saybrook and Haddam, but it was very differently settled. A strip of land four miles wide was in dispute, both towns claiming it. Both towns proposed to let the other have one mile of the strip and, of course, both refused. As the land was not considered to be of sufficient value for a long and expensive law-suit, the people of the two towns decided " to leave it to the Lord ". As they expressed it, their pious determination was misleading, for their method of leaving it to the Lord was a bare-knuckle fight, be tween two champions from each town. The champions of Lyme were William Ely and Matthew Griswold, not " What-did-you- say-cousin-Matthew," but a Matthew of two generations earlier than his day. The result was most satisfactory. The fight went to the Lord and the land in dispute to Lyme. Roger Lake, about four miles north of Lyme Village, was a favorite resort for Indians and for many years they had a per manent village on its shore. It is tradition, that the cave, near Lion Rock, was a hiding place for Kidd and other pirates and that they buried treasure on the shores of the lake. General Samuel Holden Parsons was born in Lyme. With the intention of becoming a lawyer, Samuel Parsons prepared for Harvard College, entered and was graduated from that institu tion with the class of 1756. He then entered the law office of his uncle, the Hon. Matthew Griswold, who was Governor of Connecticut, and applied himself diligently to the study of his chosen profession. He began to practice for himself in Lyme and almost imme diately took an active part in the affairs of the community, as the representative of Lyme in the Legislature, where he was continuously for twelve years. In 1774, he received an appoint ment as King's Attorney for New London County. He attained an eminent place in the legal fraternity of the Colony and his law practice was a very profitable, but neither ambition nor wealth caused him to hesitate a moment when his country needed every patriot it could obtain. At the breaking out of the Revolution he resigned the King's Attorneyship. 64 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. OLD LYME. 65 In April, 1775, he was one of the few daring men who planned the surprise and capture of Ticonderoga. For this purpose the patriots took £810 from the treasury of the Colony, without the knowledge of the Assembly, for which they gave their personal notes and receipts (presumably with the agreement, that should the enterprise fail, they would return the money to the treasury from their own pockets) which were later cancelled by the Assembly. This affair did more toward giving the people of Connecticut the moral courage which they needed, in their contest with Great FRANKLIN MILE STONE, LYME. Britain, than anything else that had taken place. Soon after, he received a commission as colonel of a regiment with which he marched to Roxbury, Massachusetts, where they remained till the British evacuated Boston. He was in the battle of Long Island, in August, 1776 and was promoted to the rank of Brig adier General. As such he took an active, intelligent, and courageous part in many important military events near New York City, the Hudson River, and in the western portion of Connecticut, under General Washington and General Putnam. In 1780, he was promoted to the rank of Major General and was 5 66 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY one of the judges who tried that fine gentleman and brilliant soldier. Major Andre, whose necessary death as a British spy caused the great-hearted Washington such keen sorrow. General Parsons' brilliant and successful attack, in 1781, upon the British at Morrisania, caused Congress to direct Washington to express the thanks of that body to General Parsons. Toward the end of 1781, the Governor, and Council of Safety, turned the com mand of the state troops and the Coast-guards over to General Parsons, with full power to do with them as he thought necessary ill protecting the people of Connecticut against attack by the British. When peace was declared. General Parsons opened a law office in Middletown. He represented Middletown in the Legislature and was the life of the bill for the formation of Middlesex County, in 1785. That same year he went to Ohio and in January, 1786, he, with General George R. Clark and General Richard Butler, represented the Government in a treaty with the Indians, near the mouth of the Great Miami river, that resulted in the ceding of a large tract of territory by the Indians to the United States. General Parsons returned to his home early in 1787, and in October of that year. Congress appointed him Governor of the North West Territory, but he delayed his going so that he could take part in the State Convention for the endorsement and adop tion of a National Constitution, in January, 1788. In 1789, he served with Oliver Wolcott, of Litchfield, (who was later Gover nor of Connecticut) and James Davenport, Jr., of Stamford, on a committee for a treaty with the Indians who claimed lands in Ohio. While returning to his home in ^Marietta, Ohio, he was drowned in the Rapids of Great Beaver Creek, on November 17, 1789, in the fifty-third year of his age. CLINTON IN OCTOBER, 1663, the Legislature at Hartford, passed an act for forming a plantation at Hammonassett (this being the Indian name for Clinton) with certain definite, manda tory provisions, to the number of nine. It was but natural that one of the two most important should be, to quote : They shall settle an able, orthodox, godly minister free from scandal etc. etc. There is a suggestiveness about the last three words which is somewhat misleading, since it implies that ministers were fre quently — not free from scandal. It is more than probable that the word scandal, does not refer in any way to the personal, private lives of those heroic priests of God, who did even more than their full share to make New England what it is, but to their faithfulness to the Congregational Church, or to the Say brook platform. Too great liberality, or too little strenuousness in adhering to the platform, being considered scandalous. The other of the two prominent provisions was, that the plantation on the east side of the Hammonassett River, still so called, should consist of at least thirty families. The planta tion began its existence with but twenty planters, or heads of families, and not long after their settlement, ten of the twenty left for other parts. So the plantation continued to exist with but ten families, till two years later, in December, 1665, when the required number was actually present as settlers; To the Yankee of 250 years ago, the same as it is to the Yankee of to-day, the next most important matter to the Church and worship was the School and education. As early as Novem ber 15, 1703, the little Town voted to build a schoolhouse to be sixteen feet square — "with room for a chimnie " — and to be situated upon meeting-house hill. The school was in session for one half of the time in the winter and the other half in the summer as required by law. Atenry Crane, Sr., was chosen for the schoolmaster for one year, at a salary of eleven shillings weekly. The early history of religious worship in Clinton is meagre [67] 68 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. and indefinite. According to the Rev. J. D. Moore's Historical Sketches, John Colton preached to the people before the Church was organized, but where John Colton came from or where he went, seems not to be known. As was frequently the case in those very early days, the people were called to worship by the drum. In 1666, the Town agreed with Nathan Parmlee to beat the drum on Sundays for the sum of forty shillings a year, and hc was to maintain the drum at his own exjiense. Two years later, Samuel Griswold was the Sunday-drummer, with a salary increased to one pound and ten shillings a year, and eight months later the Town voted to buy THE HOME OF DR. BENJAMIN GALE. WHO DIED IX I79O. Lie expected to re-occupy it after the day of judgment. a new drum, the supposition being, that brother Griswold's strong arms had made such a purchase necessary The little settlement was known as Hammonassett till May, 1667, when it was called after the famous \'\'arwickshire town, Kenilworth, whence a number of the settlers came to the Colony. Through a lack of education, or carelessness, or both, the spell ing was changed to Kenelwort and Kenelmeworth to Killing- worth, as a portion of the town is still called. CLINTON. 69 The Rev. John Woodbridge, the first of that fine family to be born in America, was called as the first pastor of the Church, in his twenty-third year, in 1667. This young divine's grand father, the Rev. John Woodbridge, was a distinguished dissent ing minister in England, and his grandmother was the daughter of the Rev. Robert Parker, a writer of note on religious subjects and a friend of non-conformity. His father, also John Wood- bridge, was born in Stanton, Wiltshire in 1613. He went to Oxford University but when the oath of conformity was required of him, he refused and so had to obtain his education elsewhere. Being a strong and consistent dissenter, he came to the Colonies, with his uncle, the Rev. Thomas Parker, in 1634, and in 1641, he married a daughter of the Hon. Thomas Dudley. Mr. Wood- bridge was ordained and be came the first minister of the Church, in Andover, Massa chusetts. It was in Andover that the John Woodbridge who became the first minister of the Killingworth Church, was borUj in 1644. He was graduated from Harvard at the age of twenty, in 1664, and spent the following three years in the study of theology and, in 1667, became the minister of the Killingworth Church. His home lot, of eight acres, was on Main and South streets. Early in the second year of his pastorate he was given, by vote of the Town, i6o toward the building of a parsonage. His salary, the usual combination salary, was i6o and fifty loads of fire wood. The Rev. John Wood- bridge's first home was near the Elias Wellman place and later he lived on the corner known as the " Stanton place ". Mr. Woodbridge resigned after twelve years of faithful service, much against the wishes of his parish, and went to the Church in Wethersfield, where he remained as minister till his death, in 1690, in the forty-sixth year of his age. Woodbridge, the charming hill town a few miles northwest of New Haven, was named in honor of the Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge, of the same wm^-^ sfflifc' €^ -=. JBB B ^iW j^pm^^^ 1 f » .- 1 ^K^-*' B >¦¦•- 3 ''1 ^¦t^^- \ '^ 1 mS^' i'..>^ ^%^ ¦==^^ REV. JONATHAN PIERSON S SILVER CIDER MUG. 70 THE CONNECTICUT ]' ALLEY. famil)', the first minister of the Church in that place, where his faithful service extended over forty-three years. The Rev. Benjamin was a grandson of the Rev. John of Killingworth. After Mr. Woodbridge left Killingworth for Wethersfield, the Church in Killingworth was in a state of discord and disagree ment for fifteen years, and no successor to Mr. Woodbridge was secured till 1694, when the Rev. Abraham Pierson, who will be famous in America for all time as being one of the original founding-trustees of Yale and its first Rector, was called as the second minister. He was a son of the Rev. Abraham and was born, some authorities say, in Southampton, Long Island, and others in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1646, and was graduated from Harvard in the class of 1668. I\tr. Pierson succeeded in restor ing the old harmony and peace that obtained under the pastorate of Mr. Woodbridge. It was at about the time I\Ir. Pierson became minister of the Killingworth Church, that the people of Connecticut recognized the need of a college in which the youth of the Colony could be educated for the Church and for public office in the Colony. In 1700, Mr. Pierson was one of the several ministers chosen by the people to found the Collegiate School at Saybrook, by giving a number of books with the statement : With these books I lay the foundation of a college in this Colony. Had nothing further taken place in Mr. Pierson's life than this act, he would still be famous among the educators of this country, and especially among Yale men, but a greater privilege was in store for him, for the people selected him for the first Rector of this noble institution, which began its long life of usefulness with a faculty of one and an undergraduate member ship of one. The choice was well made, after careful consideration, for Mr. Pierson was a man of scholarly attainments and was greatly interested in educational matters. Fle had already written a work on Natural Philosophy, which was used as a text book in the School for many years, ^^'hen the people in Sa^'brook be came (lesiniiis that the School and its Rector should be removed to that town, Mr. Pierson's parishioners strongly objected to permitting their loved minister to leave them, and before the > O STANTON HOUSE. A massive carved oak timber from Rector Pierson's house, which was on the same lot, forms part of the support of the chimney. 72 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY matter had been finally decided, Mr. Pierson died at the age of 6i, in 1707. Although the good people of those early days were intensely earnest in their desire for schools and for the liberal education of their children, there is nothing which so strongly emphasizes the primitive simplicity of that which they considered a liberal education, as the Town records. There being no politics in those days, as we understand it, public officers were chosen for their prominence and ability, so it would be but natural to sup pose that the Town clerk was chosen for his education, as well as for his prominence in the Church. The Town records show that the men who wrote them were often entirely unable to express themselves in a simple, straightforward manner. Some of the records, not only of Clinton, but of many other towns, require long and careful study before any accurate idea of the meaning which they wished to convey can be arrived at. Mr. Woodbridge's successor was the Rev. Jared Eliot, D. D., M. D., a combination of professions which made the man prac ticing both an unusual blessing to the community. It was not an unusual thing for the minister, of the earliest days, to be a healer of sick bodies, as well as a healer of sick souls. Dr. Eliot was the son of the Rev. Joseph Eliot, of Guilford, in which place Dr. Eliot was born on November 7, 1685. His grandfather was that famous man known as "Apostle" Eliot. Dr. Eliot was one of the early graduates of Yale, his class being 1706. He married Elizabeth Smithson, of Guilford, on October 26, 1710. The Rev. Thomas Ruggles described Dr. Eliot as follows : idis person was well proportioned ; he was favored with an excellent bodily constitution. Idleness was his abhorrence, every moment of his time was filled with action ; perhaps no man slept so little, in his day, and did so much in so great a variety. Always active, bright and pleasant ; his mind was especially adapted for conversation and happily accommo dated to the pleasures of social life. He abhorred narrowness and the mean contractedness of party spirit. As he claimed the right to think and act for himself, so was he more than free to accord the same privi lege to others. As a physician, he was quick to determine the nature of the disease and to apply the proper remedy. The Rev. Dr. Eliot's medical reputation became so great that he was called to attend patients whose homes were many miles CLINTON. 71 distant from his. That no moment of his life might be lost or wasted Dr. Eliot was accustomed to read on horseback, as he was going to the home of one or another of his people who needed his skill as a physician. So absorbed would he become in the book he was reading or studying, that his wise old horse would take advantage of the fact to crop the grass along the path, or on more than one occasion, to wander into a field for a more hearty meal, before the good friend on his back would discover that little progress was being made toward his destina- YALE MONUMENT, CLINTON. tion. An amusing anecdote, illustrative of his disregard for small matters, is to the effect, that one Sunday morning, just as he was setting out for the church, he discovered a rip in his black silk stocking. This he mended with his quill pen, by applying ink to the white skin which the rent exposed. The idea of asking his wife to mend the rip properly, with needle and thread, never occurring to him. As a scientific investigator he was notable. The Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, of London, England, gave him a gold medal for discovering " that 74 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY black sand could be made into iron." Dr. Eliot was liberal with the contents of his purse and with his profession, a large portion of his practice being given, but at the same time he possessed excellent business qualities and so left his family well off in this world's goods. Pie was a member of the Corporation of Yale for thirty-two years. His death occurred in his seventy-eighth year, on April 22, 1763. A writer who evidently regretted the change in the spelling of the original English name of the town from Kenilworth to Killingworth, has made an ingenious, if highly imaginary, attempt to prove that Kenilworth and Clinton are the same. He says : There are two interesting facts connected with the original and the present names of this place. One is, that Killingworth is a corruption of the first true name ; the other is, that Clinton is the same name slightly varied. When the south part of the original Killingworth was con stituted into a new town, the name Clinton was chosen in honor of Gov ernor DeWitt Clinton. It is unfortunate that the original name, Kenil worth, had not been selected, but as it was not, the name Clinton is the next best that could possibly have been adopted. It Is, in fact, the same name. This enthusiast then shows (?) that Clin is but a slight change of the first corruption of Kenilworth to Kelinworth, that is. that Clin and Kelin are the same. Granting that there is anyone with sufficient imagination to hear a similarity of sound when Clin and Kelin are pronounced, it is difficult to sec the connec tion, for he says that Kelin is a corruption of Kenil. He then shows that the old Saxon endings ton and worth signify an in closure, so it is but reasonable to suppose that he would say Clinworth and Kelinton look and sound alike to him and that they arc exactly the same words. " slightly varied." This enthusiastic gentleman then goes on with his proof as follows : Nor does the identity of the names rest only upon etymology. It is also proved by historic fact. Kenilworth, F.ngland, was the barony of Sir (^oeffrey de Clinton. * * * It is nio^t probable, therefore, that the name of the place was Clinton, or Kenilton, as these barons took title from the name of their barony. Just where Governor De ^^'itt Clinton comes in requires even more imatrination. HADDAM. THE settlement of Haddam was made in 1662, by twenty- eight young men who settled on the east shore of the Connecticut River, in the neighborhood of Walkley Hill and Mill Creek. Others, who came a little later, settled to the south of Mill Creek, in the vicinity of the present hamlet of Haddam. The names of the first settlers, near Walkley Hill, were — Nicholas Ackley, Joseph Arnold, John Bailey, James Bates, Daniel Brainard, Thomas Brooks, Samuel Butler, William Clarke, Daniel Cone, William Corbee, Abraham Dibble, Samuel Ganes, George Gates, John Hannison, Richard Jones, Stephen Luxford, John Parents, Richard Piper, Thomas Shayler, Simon Smith, Thomas Smith, Gerrard Spencer, Joseph Stannard, William Ventres, James Wells, John Spencer, John Webb, and John Wiat. The majority of them were married but a short time. In October, 1668, the Town was formed and given the name of Haddam. In those days township lines were loosely granted and carelessly laid out. Disputes were therefore natural and not infrequent. Such a dispute arose between the Town of Haddam and the Towns of Saybrook and Lyme. The north boundary of Saybrook, on the west side of the Connecticut River, was fixed at eight miles north from the Sound, and the north boundary of Lyme on the east side of the Connecticut, was six miles from the Sound. Sometime later, an additional grant was made to Saybrook and Lyme of four miles further north, and a part of this four miles encroached upon the land obtained by the people of Haddam from the Indians. A heated dispute arose, but it was finally settled by a proposal from Saybrook, that the four- mile grant should be divided into a half and two quarters; one half going to Haddam and a quarter each to Lyme and Saybrook. This plan was approved by the General Court in 1669. In 1734, Haddam Township was divided into two parts, the dividing lines being the Connecticut and Salmon Rivers. The town on the west remained Haddam ; that on the east became East Haddam. For the first thirty years the principal settlement in this town [731 76 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. was just back from the western bank of the Connecticut River, at the edge of the long, narrow strip of meadow land. Then, individual families began to move back farther from the river, toward the western portion of the town, among them being the Dickinsons, llubbards, and Rays, who settled there in 1700, or soon after that year. Later, they were joined by the Lewises, Plazeltons, Tylers, Higginses, Thomases, Knowleses, and Burrs. In 1712, that portion of Haddam called Haddam Neck was settled by Thomas .Selden, of Lyme, formerly of Hadley, [Massachusetts; and two families of Brainards. When the Indians sold the land comprising Haddam to the English, they reserved Thirty-mile-Island (now Haddam Island) and forty acres at Pattaquoenk, where they lived for many years, fishing and hunting where they pleased so long as they did not interfere with the settlers. A favorite resort of theirs was a deep ravine, or hollow, on Haddam Neck, in the north-eastern portion, which was for many years known as Indian Hollow, and the small stream running through it was called Indian Brook. The Indians had no name for the whole territory comprising the Town of Haddam, but different parts of the town were given different names. The little settlement in the center of the town called Ponset, by the settlers, was called Cockaponset by the Indians ; Higganum, in the northern part of the town on the Connecticut, was Higganumpus, the fishing-place. As early as 1762, a granite quarry was opened by Deacon Ezera Brainard on Haddam Neck. This was followed by other open ings in the same neighborhood and in 1794, a quarry was started on the west side of the river. All of the quarries did a large business, chiefly in curbing and flagstones. The principal market was New York, but Boston, Albany and Baltimore also bought considerable quantities. Early in 1800, wood was a profitable article of commerce in Haddam, three thousand cords being shipped in 1807, of which 2000 were shipped from Higganum Landing. In 1813, Pladdam had a " ginnery " in which 250 hogsheads of gin were distilled yearly. For the first eleven years the people worshipped in the different homes of the settlement. In 1673, they built a little meeting house, twenty-four by twenty-eight feet on the ground, in which they " feared the Lord " every Sunday and all day Sunday, till HADDAM. 77 1721, when a new and larger building was erected. As there are no Church records earlier than 1756, it is not possible to give the date of the organization of the Church, but it was probably in 1700. The first minister mentioned in the old records was the Rev. Jonathan Willaube, who was in charge of the Church but a short time. In 1668, Nicholas Noyes, " an improved candidate '\ preached to the people for thirteen or fourteen years, but there is reason to believe that he was not ordained. The Noyes family came to the Colonies from Wiltshire, England, and was a family of ministers. An uncle of Nicholas, the Rev. James Noyes, was the first minister of Newbury, Massachusetts ; and his cousins, the Revs. Moses Noyes and James Noyes were the first minis ters of Lyme and Stonington, Connecticut, respectively. The Rev. Nicholas Noyes was a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1667. After he left Haddam he was ordained as the minister at Salem, Massachusetts, on November 16, 1683. This was the time of the persecutions for witchcraft, in which gentle pastime Mr. Noyes took an active and prominent part. He was honest enough later to acknowledge his error and to repent of it. An obituary of him was published in a Boston newspaper of 1707. Many people complain that the newspapers of the twentieth cen tury go to unreasonable excesses in praising the dead; that a twentieth century obituary is made up of adjectives, adverbs and superlatives, but journalism in that respect, is not different to-day from what it was then, as will be seen from the following quo tation from that Boston newspaper of 1707. Salem, Dec. 13, 1707, died the very reverend and famous Mr. Nicholas Noyes near 70 years of age, and in the 3Sth of his ordained ministry at Salem. He was extraordinarily accomplished for the work of the ministry whereunto hc was called, and wherein he found mercy to be faithful, and was made a rich, extensive and long continued blessing. Considering his superior genius, his pregnant wit, strong memory, solid judgment, hia great acquaintance in human learning and knowledge ; his conversation among his friends, so very entertaining and profitable ; his uncommon attainments in the study of divinity, his eminent sanctity, gravity and virtue, his serious, learned and pious performances in the pulpit, his more than ordinary skill in the prophetical parts of scripture, his wisdom and usefulness in human affairs, and his constant solicitude for the public good; it is no wonder that Salem, and adjacent parts of the country, as also the churches, university and people of New England, justly esteem 78 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. him as a principal part of their glory. He was born at Newbury, Decem ber 221I, 1647 and died a bachelor. There may be a possible significance in the last four words, as the witches of Salem were nearly all women. Sometime between 1682, and 1690, the Rev. John James preached in Haddam, but just when and how long is not known. He was a good man and an excellent preacher, but was notable for his eccentricities. In August, 1691, the Rev. Jeremiah Hobart became the min ister, but he was never regularly installed. Later, there was a misunderstanding betwen him and the parish which was settled amicably in June, 1700, when he was formally installed as the minister, in the seventieth year of his age. On November 6, 1715, he attended service, received the sacrament and in the inter mission died in his chair. The next minister was the Rev. Phineas Fiske, son of Dr. John Fiske, of Milford. He studied at Yale, under Rector Pierson, in Killingworth. The year before Rector Pierson's death, Mr. Fiske became a tutor in the College. After his death, the senior class was removed to Milford, in 1707, and Mr. Fiske took charge of the other classes in Saybrook, till Commencement. For several years thereafter, Mr. Fiske and another tutor instructed all the classes in Saybrook. Mr. Fiske was thoughtful and scholarly and was regarded as a great success as an instructor. At that time Connecticut was looking to Yale, or the Collegiate School, as it was then called, for its ministers and many of the most notable were instructed there under the direction and personal attention of Mr. Fiske. As a preacher, Mr. Fiske was a man who appealed to the minds of his auditors rather than to their emotions. Then followed in the pulpit of the Haddam Church, the Rev. Aaron Cleveland, from 1739 to 1746. Mr. Cleveland died in the home of his friend Benjamin Franklin, in Philadelphia ; the Rev. Joshua Elderkin, from 1740, to 1753; the Rev. Eleazer May was minister for forty-seven years, from 1756, to 1803; the Rev. David Dudley Field, from 1804, to 1818. The first record of a school in Haddam was in 1705, and for seventy years it was the only school in the town. The Rev. David Brainard, a descendant of the early settler, was one of Haddam 's notable sons. He was famous and greatly EAST HADDAM. 79 beloved in all of the British Colonies for his grand work as a missionary among the Indians. He began his work among them in 1743, at a place known as Kaunaumeek, near Kinderhook, New York, and from there he went to the Forks of the Delaware, not far from the line dividing New York and Pennsylvania. It was among the Crosweeksung Indians, near Freehold, New Jersey, that he experienced his greatest success. The hardness of his life and his devotion to his work so far broke his health that he returned to New England in the hope of recovering it. His health was too far gone, however, and he died in the home of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, in Northampton, Massachusetts, in October, 1747, at the age of thirty. An early writer described Mr. Brainard and his work as follows : If the greatness of a character is to be estimated by the object it per- sues, in the danger it braves, the difficulties it encounters, and the purity and energy of its motives, David Brainard is one of the greatest char acters that ever appeared in the world. Compared with this standard of greatness, what little things are the Alexanders and Caesars, the conquerors of the whole earth? A nobler object no human * * * mind could ever propose to itself, than to promote the glory of the great Governor of the Universe, in studying and laboring to diffuse purity and happiness among His unholy and miserable creatures. His life among the Indians exhibits a perfect pattern of the qualities which should distinguish the instruction of the rude and barbarous tribes ; the most invincible patience and self denial, the profoundest humility, exquisite prudence, indefatigable industry, and such a devotedness to God, or rather, such an absorption of the whole soul in zeal for the Divine glory and the salvation of men, as is scarce paralleled since the age of the Apostiles. EAST HADDAM. THE first house built in East Haddam was that of Robert Chapman, situated north of Creek Row. The records of the Colony prove that this Chapman house was standing in 1674, and Barber thinks that Chapman began his clearing about 1670. In 1685, a number of families moved across the river from Haddam to East Haddam and settled at Creek Row, the sup position being that they joined the pioneer. Chapman, as would be entirely natural. Their names were. Gates, Bates, Brainard and Cone. At about this time, other settlers arrived in East Haddam and 8o THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. established themselves to the east of the Creek Row people. They were, the Ackleys and Spencers, from Haddam, who soon were joined by the Annable, Booge, Fuller and Percival families, from Plymouth Colony ; the Olmsteds, from Hartford ; Samuel Emmons, from Cambridge, Massachusetts ; John Chapman, from Saybrook ; James Green, Elijah Atwood, Nathaniel Goodspeed, and Isaac Taylor, later arrived from Plymouth ; Henry Champion and Matthew Smith, from Lyme; Robert Hurd, from Killing- worth ; John Warner, from Sunderland, and John Church, from Hatfield, Massachusetts. These families and individuals arrived at different times during a considerable period of time, reckoned from the first settlement made by Chapman in 1670. Millington, in the middle of the town near the eastern bound ary, was settled by Jonathan Beebe, from New London, about 1704. He made his pitch near the southern end of Long Pond (now Shaw Lake) and was soon after joined by other settlers. With the exception of the tiny settlement near the foot of the lake, there was no other in that district of East Haddam known as Millington, till sometime between the years 1732, and 1734, when a settlement was started near the river by the Arnold, Barnes, Brainard, Chapman, Church, Cone, Emmons, Fuller, Gates, Olmsted, and Spencer families, from the East Haddam Parish ; Harvey and Hungerford, from Hadh-me ; Graves, from Colchester ; and Stewart, from Voluntown ; Daniel Smith, from Plymouth Colony ; Lemuel Griffin, from Lyme ; and Thomas Fox, from Colchester, joined the families named, a little later. By 1740, the settlement of East Haddam was general, but the population of the town did not increase much, in fact there were migrations to Litchfield County and Berkshire County, ^lassachu- setts ; and to \'ermont and New York, from it. Long Pond (Shaw Lake) where Beebe settled in 1704, is a pretty body of water about a mile and a half long and half a mile in the widest part. It covers the top of a hill 400 feet above the Sound. Its only inlet is a tiny brook, less than 1,500 feet long. The Lake is probably fed by underground and surface springs, which have their rise on the hills to the north, east and west, and which lie close to the hill, the top of which the pond covers, and are about one hundred feet higher. The outlet is from EAST HADDAM. the south end of the pond and forms Eight-mile River, or one of its branches. Leesville (originally Lord's Mills) in the extreme north-west corner of East Haddam, on Salmon River, four miles from its mouth, was settled about the middle of the eighteenth century, Captain Jonathan Kilburn being one of the earliest, if not the first of the settlers. The tide flows up to Leesville and in the early days sloops of sixty tons were built and launched there. About 1765, the first oilmill in the State was built there. In 1814, there was a woolen and ^ cotton factory started, ' and in 1816 it con tained 500 spindles. In 1743, the first house in East Haddam Landing was built and a produce market was opened and a storehouse built. The business of the pretty little village is still at the Landing and back of it, on the ab ruptly rising hills is the residential portion of the village. This por tion of the place con tains fine, home-like ap pearing houses, sur rounded by large yards and shaded by splendid great trees. Sometime before the Revolution, East Haddam Landing began to be famous for its ship and boat yards, which were situated a little to the south of the Landing, at what was then called Chap man's ferry. The inevitable heated dispute (which grew into a quarrel) when it became necessary to build a new church, resulted in the formation of St. Stephen's Episcopal Parish. In other words, a portion of the people returned to the Church they had left in England, but it was a purified Church and free from those char acteristics which had been the cause of their leaving the Old 6 OLD CHURCH, EAST H.^DDAM. 82 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. Country. This separation took place in April, 1791. Deacon Solomon Blakesley presided over the Parish till he took full orders, in 171)3. The Rev. Solomon Blakesley was rector of this Parish for more than twenty )'ears. The bell of St. Stephen's Church is probably unique in the United States, for its great age. The inscri])tion on the bell is in Spanish. The translation is : " The Prior, being the most Rev. Father Miguel \'illa Mueva, The Procurator, the most Rev. Father Jose F. Estavan-Corvalis, has made me. Made in the year A. D. 815." This bell formerly hung in a Spanish Monastery. East Haddam Society was made a separate society from that of Pladdam, in 1700. In 1704, the people began to transact their own societi,' business and to keep records of their proceedings. As there was doubt in regard to the legality of their acts, the two Societies of Haddam and East Haddam entered into an agree ment, which was authorized by the Legislature, in 1710. Among other things, this agreement provided that each society could transact its own business and elect its own representatives to the Legislature. This agreement continued till May, 1734, when the Town of Haddam was divided and East Haddam was incorporated. One of East Haddam's sons, who became prominent in the Colony and later as a soldier, was the Hon. Joseph Spencer. The first American ancestor of this family was Jared Spencer, who came to America and settled in Newtown (Cambridge), Massachusetts, and a few years later moved to Lynn. Still later, he became one of the first settlers of Haddam and was made an ensign there by the General Court at Hartford, in September, 1675. His great-grandson, the Hon. Joseph Spencer, married Martha Brainard, daughter of the Hon. Hezekiah Brainard, in August, 1738. Plis public service began as judge of probate in 1753, and he filled this office till his death. In 175S, he was a major in the northern army against the French. In 1775, a short time before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, he was appointed a brigadier-general, and in i77('), he was made a major-general in the army of the United States. He serveil till 1778, when he resigned. He was in the State Council from 1766, to 1779, in which year he was Judge of the Hartford County Court. In 1779, he was sent to Congress and the following vear was again EAST HADDAM. 8^ elected to the State Council and was re-elected each year till his death, in 1789. Let Edwards have the praise which his talents, piety, diligence, faith fulness, and usefulness deserve ; let Hopkins have the praise which is due to his self-denial, honesty, diligence, watchfulness, boldness, patience and faith ; yet who, that has had a personal acquaintance with Emmons, or that knows the wisdom with which he constantly taught the people knowl edge, can refuse, either before God or man, to place him first in respect to the purity, simplicity, consistency, transparency, amiableness, humility. NATHAN HALE SCHOOLHOUSE, EAST HADDAM. energy, dignity, and beauty of his character and the knowledge, goodness, and wisdom of his conduct in the constant instruction of his people. Such was the opinion publicly expressed by the Rev. Thomas Williams, of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, at the funeral of his life-long friend, the Rev. Nathaniel Emmons, D.D., in regard to his life as a minister of Christ and leader and teacher of the people of his parish. In a letter, Mr. Williams described the personal, every-day life of his friend as follows : As a son and brother, as a husband and father, a neighbor, a Christian and friend, a companion and gentleman, a scholar and author, a member 84 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. EAST HADDAM. 8.5 and ruler of a christian church, a parishioner, an attendant at public worship and a hearer of divine instruction, a citizen, a patriot and philanthropist, he was eminent and exemplary, as consistant and amiable, I in all these] as he was in the office of a teacher and preacher of divine truth. This was not a panegyric ; a mere collection of words of praise, but an honest, simply expressed truth in regard to a man whose life was a blessing to all with whom he came in contact, and an honor to the Power that created it. The Rev. Nathaniel Emmons, D.D., was born in East Haddam, on May I, 1745. His passionate desire for knowledge showed it self in his childhood and continued through the ninety-five years of his useful life. At the age of nineteen he en tered Yale College, un der the presidency of the Rev. Thomas Clap, whose influence for good was frequently referred to in after years by Dr. Emmons. As an under-graduate he must have taken a high stand for he was chosen by his class for the Cliosophic Oration, in 1767. This oration was delivered by a member of the senior class, about eight weeks before Commence ment. The honor of being chosen for this oration was greatly coveted, and that Dr. Emmons was chosen for it, fixes his scholar ship as being high, for among his class mates were John Tread- well, Samuel Wales, John Trumbull and Joseph Lyman. After being graduated. Dr. Emmons studied for the ministry under the Rev. Nathan Strong, of Coventry, and the Rev. John Smalley, OLD CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, EAST HADDAM. 86 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. D.D., of Berlin. Dr. Smalley was regarded as one of the great pulpit orators and teachers of Xew England. In 1769, Mr. Emmons made a public profession of faith in Christianity and joined the Church in Millington, in the Town of East Haddam, under the pastorate of the Rev. Diodate Johnson. On April 21, 1773, he was ordained as minister of the Church in Franklin, the ordination sermon being preached by the Rev. Levi Hart, D.D., of Preston. The services were held out-of-doors, the congregation sitting on raised seats above the pastor and ordaining council. This fact appealed to Dr. Emmons' strong sense of humor. He used to say, that he was ordained under his church and people instead of over them. While still a young man. Dr. Emmons' Christian fortitude was severely tried through the death of his wife and two sons, his wife's death occurring on June 22, 1778, and his sons' two months later. Dr. Emmons' congregation was not large, but it was notable. Each member bore the sterling-mark stamped upon his character by the teaching, influence and example of his pastor. \\^hile the Revs. Timothy and Jonathan Edwards were employing their pro found intellects to elevate themselves and increase their power. Dr. Emmons employed his to elevate mankind and increase the power of good. As a minister and teacher Dr. Emmons had the faculty of not only pointing out the true path, but also of inspiring a life-long desire in the hearts of his parishioners to keep in that path. He died on September 23, 1840, in the ninety-sixth year of his age and the sixty-eighth of his ministry. It is interesting and most unusual, that he officiated at the funeral of every person who was a member of his parish at the time of his ordination. MOODUS. The village of Moodus takes its name from an Indian word, Machimoodus, meaning in English place of noises. The Indians occupying the territor)' now East Haddam, were given over to superstition, even more so than the majorit\- of Indians in other parts of the Connecticut \'alley. There was a fierce savagery in their superstition, resembling that of the African savage more than that of the New England savage, whose superstition was of a gentler, more poetic nature. As a result, the Moodus Indians MOODUS. 5/ were fierce, cruel and war-like. As early as 1729, the Rev. Stephen Hosmer wrote to a friend in Boston describing these strange noises, from which Moodus takes its name : As to earthquakes, I nave something considerable and awful to tell you. Earthquakes have been here, as has been observed for more than thirty years. I have been informed that in this place, before the English settle ments, there were great numbers of Indian inhabitants, and that it was a place of extraordinary pawaws, or in short, that it was a place where the Indians drove a prodigious trade in worshipping the devil. Also I was informed, that many years past, an old Indian was asked the reason of the noises in this place, to which he replied, that " the Indians' God was very angry that the Englishman's God was come there." Now, whether there be anything diabolical in these things, I know not ; but this I know, that God Almighty is to be seen and trembled at, in what has been often heard among us. Whether it be fire or air distressed in the caverns of the earth, cannot be known ; for there is no eruption, no explosion perceptable, but by sounds and tremors, which sometimes are very fearful and dread ful. I have myself, heard eight or ten sounds successively, and imitating small arms, in the space of five minutes. I have, I suppose, heard several hundred of them within twenty years ; some more, some less terrible. Sometimes we have heard them almost every day, and great numbers of them in the space of a year. Oftentimes I have Qbserved them to be com ing down from the north, imitating slow thunder, until the sound came near, or right under, and then there seemed to be a breaking, like the noise of a cannon shot, or severe thunder, which shakes the houses and al! that is in them. They have in a manner ceased since the great earthquake. As I remember, there have been but two heard since that time and these but moderate. In the year 1831, or '32, about one hundred years after Mr. Hosmer's, the following account was given by a gentleman who had heard the noises. The awful noises about which Mr. Hosmer gave an account * * * continue to the present time. The effects they produce are various as the intermediate degrees between the roar of a cannon and the noise of a pistol. The concussions of the earth, made at the same time, are as much diversified as the sounds in the air. The shock they give to a dwelling house, is the same as the falling of logs on the floor. * * * But when they are so violent as to be felt in the adjacent towns, they are called earthquakes. During my residence here, which has been almost thirty-six years, I have invariably observed that an account has been published in the newspapers, of a small shock of earthquake, in New London and Hart ford. Nor do I believe, in all that period, there has been any account published of an earthquake in Connecticut, which has not been far more violent here than in any other place. 88 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. On the night of May i8, 1791, about ten o'clock, there was an earthquake so violent that it was felt in New York and Boston. The first shock was followed by another in a few minutes that \vas felt at a distance of seventy miles. In Moodus and the neighboring places, the roaring noises and shaking of the earth were great. Walls were thrown down and the tops of chimneys were thrown to the ground. And while but two shocks were felt at a distance, there were in Moodus and the surrounding country between twenty and thirty shocks felt. It was found the next day that the earth was cracked in several places and that great boulders weighing many tons had been moved. There is a tradition in regard to a certain Dr. Steele and the ]\Ioodus- noises, which goes to show that the white settlers were (when their superior enlight enment, education, and Christian faith is con sidered), as superstitious as were the Indians. Dr. Steele was an P'nglishman, but where he came from, how he heard about the noises, or what reason he had MOODUS. for believing that he could remove from their pockets to his, the shillings and pence of the trusting and super stitious white-men, by means of the art of enchantment, has not been recorded. This Dr. Steele told the people that the noises and disturbances were caused by a great carbuncle that was confined in a large rock in the bowels of the earth and that he, by his magic, could remove the carbuncle and so stop the noises. Dr. Steele, being a man of " much book-learning " the people absorbed his words and entered into some kind of agreement with him. The doctor then secured a blacksmith's shop, plugged the windows, cracks, MOODUS. 89 holes and doorways so that no light could enter, nor the prying gaze of the awe-inspired people discover his secret. He worked at night, as all such mysterious persons do, and when the people saw the vast cloud of smoke, lighted by flame and thousands of sparks, they felt sure that Dr. Steele and Satan were raising Hell, and that the great carbuncle would come up with it. While his dread work was going on. Dr. Steele told the people, on the rare occasions when he consented to let himselLbe seen, that he had located the great carbuncle and that he could remove it and so stop the worst of the shakes and noises, but that he COBALT MINE, COBALT, CT. had discovered some smaller carbuncles which would, as time went on, cause more noises but not nearly so terrible. At last the cause of the trouble was removed and Dr. Steele immediately disappeared, never to be seen again by Moodus people. It so happened that the noises ceased for a time and were never again so violent. The people were convinced that Dr. Steele was a wizard, if not a close relation to his Majesty of the nether world. Mr. J. G. C. Brainard, editor of the Hartford Mirror, wrote a 90 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. poem of thirteen verses (fatal number) on the subject of Dr. Steele and the great carbuncle, from which the following are quoted : Sec you upon the lonely moor, A crazy building rise? No hand dares venture to open the door — No footstep treads its dangerous floor — No eye its secret pries. Now why is each crevice stopped so tight? Say, why the bolted door? Why glimmers at midnight the forge's light? All day is the anvil at rest, but at night The flames of the furnace roar. Woe to the bark in which he flew From Moodus rocky shore — Woe to the captain and woe to the crew. That ever the breath of life they drew. When that dreadful freight they bore. Where is that crew and vessel now? Tell me their state who can. The wild waves dashed o're the sinking bow — Down, down to the fathomless depths they go — To sleep with a sinful man. The carbuncle lies in the deep sea. Beneath the mighty wave; But the light shines up so gloriously That the sailor looks pale and forgets his glee, When he crosses the wizard's grave. MIDDLETOWN. THAT Middletown was not settled until a decade and a half after those other ancient river towns — Saybrook, Wethersfield, Hartford and Windsor — is due to two reasons. In those days, the forests were primitive and conse quently dense and the individual trees great in size and the banks of the Connecticut River were overgrown' by a thicket which completely hid the country back from the river. Because of this forest and thicket, the natural highway was the river, and so, when exploring parties passed up or down the river, from the settlements at the mouth, or from the settlements about Hartford, the country about the " great bend " seemed uninviting. What the pioneers of the Connecticut Valley desired was clear, flat lands for farming purposes, such as surrounded the settlements at Saybrook and at Hartford. Timber could be had anywhere, but cleared land had a value far beyond woodland at that time. The labor and expense of clearing the land from woods was far too great to be thought of by the first settlers ; if it could be avoided. Another, and very potent reason was, that the Great Sachem Sequasson, of the Alattabesett Tribe, was all-powerful over a con siderable area, which included what later became Middletown. This Sachem was friendly to the Pequot Indians, whom the set tlers and their Indian allies had exterminated, soon after the settlements were made. Several years before a settlement was made, Sequasson sold to Governor Haynes, of Connecticut, a vast territory which comprised nearly all of the township of Middle- town. Mattabesett was settled in 1650 by families chiefly from Hartford and partly from Wethersfield. The settlement was known by its Indian name till November, 1653, when the General Court changed it to Middletown. This name was given on account of its location, about midway from Saybrook to Hart ford. The township included territory that later became the Towns of Middlefield, Chatham, Portland, Cromwell and a por tion of Berlin. [91] 92 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. The families during the first decade of the settlement were those of, Thomas Allen, Nathaniel Bacon, William Bloomfield, Nathaniel Brown, John Cockran, William Cornwall, William Cheney, Henry Cole, Samuel Eggleston, George Graves, John Plall, father and son ; Richard and Samuel Hall, Thomas Hope well, Giles Hamlin, Daniel and William Harris, George Hubbard, John Kirby, John Martin, Thomas Miller, William Markham, Thomas Ranney, John Savage, William Smith, Samuel Stocking, the Rev. Samuel Stow, Joseph Smith, Matthias Treat, Robert Webster, Thomas Whitmore, Nathaniel White, W^illiam Ward, John ^\¦ilcox, and Robert Warner. The public worship of the Creator was the first thought of those fine men who made New England famous for its fervent religious spirit, and tradition has it, that the first Sunday services were held under the shade of the wide spreading limbs of a gigantic elm. The settlement had not been in existence a year, when the people voted to build a meeting-house. The meeting at which this important event in the tiny community was decided upon, was held at the home of John Hall. The meeting-house was twenty feet square and was located near the great elm which stood near the entrance to Riverside Cemetery. The building was most primitive and was not long in the building. It was surrounded by a stockade, so that, in case of attack by Indians, it could be used as a temporary refuge. There was, however, little annoyance from the Indians, who were well disposed toward the white settlers, the more so because they had been the means of ridding the country of the fierce and cruel Pequots. The records of the town for the first two years were lost or perhaps there were no records kept. However that may be, records of the town from 1652, are complete and the first re corded vote was for the meeting-house built near the great elm tree. The settlers were energetic and hard workers, who obtained their living from the soil or from their ingenuity and the skill of their hands in making articles necessary for the little community. In this respect they differed most strikingly from the Dutch set tlers of the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys, who lived chiefly by trade with the Indians. The population increased slowly, but steadily. In 1703, the portion of the settlement known as the MIDDLETOWN. 93 LTpper Houses (now the Town of Cromwell) was set off and incorporated as a separate parish. In time, Middletown became, not only the largest town in Connecticut, but also the most important port. Vessels of a high grade were built there and a large and profitable trade with foreign countries was established. The first vessel owned in the town was a schooner of seventy tons. In fact there were but two vessels owned in Connecticut in that year, the other being a ninety-ton schooner owned in Hartford. For half a century this seventy-ton schooner carried the entire trade of Middletown, with but very rare occasions when ships arrived from Boston. In 1730, Middletown owned two schooners of a combined tonnage of 105. In 1680, there was but one merchant in Middletown and half a century later, in 1730, there were but two. One of these, James Brown, a Scotchman, rode on horseback all the way to Boston, once or twice a year, over Indian trails, the only high ways, to purchase his goods. They were sent around by water or, more probably, brought around by one of the two schooners. By the time 1760 had arrived, there was a considerable trade with the West Indies, which increased year by year. The shipping finally included many home ports as well as a consider able trade with ports across the Atlantic. By the time the actual break was made between the Colonies and the Old Country, that is, in 1776, seventeen families out of fifty, which resided on Main street, were directly connected with the sea, either as ship builders, owners, merchants or rope makers. The building of vessels began as early as 1700, in a small way. The vessels built in Middletown and other neighboring settlements of the river, were famous for their seaworthiness and speed. In 1776, the population of Middletown was 5,000. To us of to-day, accus tomed as we are to reckon populations by the hundred thousands, just what so large a population meant is hard to realize. Perhaps a comparison will help. In 1776, New York city had 23,000 inhabitants, so that Middletown was then a little more than one fifth the size of New York. In 1900, Boston was but one sixth as large as New York. So in 1776, Middletown bore about the same relation to New York that Boston does now. It was not only the greatest ship-building and commercial center between the 94 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. OLD SOUTIl « i:SI.EYAN UNIVERSITY, MIDDLETOWN. MIDDLETOWN. 95 two greatest cities of the nation. New York and Boston, but it was the wealthiest and most cultivated town in New England. The commerce built up the farming interests so that the agricul turists were prosperous and could indulge in those home and educational luxuries that have ever been dear to the hearts of the Connecticut farmer. The intercourse of the merchants of the town with those of foreign countries had the effect of rounding off corners and smoothing rough places, thus making Middletown noted for refinement and cultivation. The chief of those early merchants was Richard Alsop. He was a son of John Alsop, of Long Island, a well known lawyer, who later settled and practiced his profession in Esopus, on the Hudson. Richard Alsop, in accord with an old English custom, which still obtains in the Old Country, was regularly trained for the occupation of merchant, in Philip Livingston's store in New York city. He arrived in Middletown in 1750, where he was attracted by the growing importance of the place, about the year in which Middletown's commercial supremacy began. His store was on the ground floor of the Town House on Main street, near Washington street. His business was really great, so much so, that he on occasions insured vessels for others. Besides his prominence as a merchant and man of wealth, he was prominent in the affairs of the Colony and was in the Legislature for several terms. He left a great fortune at his death. Besides his book accounts ; a large sum of money in safe keeping in Jamaica and interest in two partnerships; he left $174,000. Another of the successful men of that day was Philip Mortimer, who manufactured rope. His house was a marvel of grandeur. The grounds surrounding it, on the bank of the river, were exten sive and ornate. But the prosperity of Middletown, especially the shipping interests, was suspended while the Revolutionary War was being fought, to be revived later to a certain extent, if not fully. Some of the other merchants and traders of the ante-Revolutionary period were ; General Comfort Sage, Colonel Lemuel Stors, Elijah and Nehemiah Hubbard, George and Thompson Philips. The news of the closing of the port of Boston by General Gage, who arrived there in 1774, stirred up the people of Middletown as no other New England town was, or could be stirred, for 96 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. besides the spirit of patriotism which they shared equally with all New England, there was the serious financial blow to the commercial interests of the principal shipping port between Boston and New York. This loss of trade did not reduce the disinterested patriotism of the people ; there was no faint-hearted policy shown in the hope of retaining trade at the expense of the community or the Colonies as a whole. On the contrary, their patriotism was intensified. The resolutions passed by the Legis lature at Hartford condemning the " unrighteous " act of the British Government, was endorsed by more than five hundred of the citizens of Middletown, who met on June 15, 1774, for that purpose and to pledge their wealth and their lives for the support of the people at large and the defense of their rights. The resolutions adopted at that historical meeting of the people of Middletown, were typical of the spirit of New England, just previous to and during the Revolutionary period. They were : That we heartily concur in any salutary measures that ma}' or shall be devised and come into, or recommended by a Genera! Congress, from all or most of the Colonies, or by the Greater places of trade or com merce on the continent, or by the inhabitants of this Colony for the preservation of the rights of the British Americans. That Messrs. Matthew Talcott, Richard Alsop, and Titus Hosmer be our committee of correspondence, whose duty it shall be to collect all such intelligence as may enable us to act our part presently and to good effect, in the system of America ; to communicate such intelligence to others as may be useful to them and the common cause, and in our own behalf to cooperate with the Committees of other towns, in concerting or executing any general plan of proceeding for the good of the whole. These two resolutions are an expression of unselfish patriotism which the present generation should regard as one of its most valued inheritances. These men even went so far as to assure the Massachusetts delegates, who stopped in Middletown on their way to the first Continental Congress, that they would support whatever course the Congress should decide upon, even to the total abolition of trade with the West Indies and Europe. And these were the men whose luxurious homes, whose wealth and position, were made possible by the foreign commerce they were so ready to have entirely cut off for the good of the Colonies. When that far sounding shot was fired at Lexington, Captain MIDDLETOWN. 97 Return Jonathan Meigs, and Captain Comfort Sage and his company of light horse, both of Middletown, and Captain Silas Dunham, of Chatham, immediately marched to Boston, Captain Sage and Captain Dunham being there a little in advance of Captain Meigs, whose company was ununiformed and without equipment, except the equipment of brave spirits and determined minds. LEAD MINE. Although the ore was not sent to Great Britain, it was given to hundreds of British soldiers from the barrels of Yankee muskets. Several years before this event, a company of foreigners had spent a great deal of money upon a lead mine that had been discovered in Middletown and from which many tons of ore had been taken by a Colonel James, of the British army, for exportation. The ore and the mine was taken by Connecticut and although the lead was not sent to Great Britain, it was given to hundreds of British soldiers from the barrels of Yankee muskets and rifles. Middletown's officers and privates in the Revolution were many and distinguished for their unwavering patriotism and for their 7 98 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY skill in the profession of arms. One of them, Colonel Joseph Blague, who was a captain in the battle of Saratoga, was so highly esteemed by General Lafayette for his bravery, and skill as an officer, that he took occasion, when General Washington was present, to present Colonel Blague with a very handsome sword. This sword was highly esteemed by Colonel Blague's descendants and was for many years in the possession of the Covil family. Colonel Covil having married a daughter of Colonel Blague. The war spirit which aimed at Independence so entirely possessed the people of Middletown, that the men, whose age placed them beyond military duty, formed themselves into a company that they might drill and become proficient in the use of arms. Their example acted as a stimulus to those other patriots whose youth kept them from fighting. In case of neces sity the company of old men acted as a home guard. The boys and youths soon followed the example of their elders and organ ized a company. And the women (those glorious Yankee moth ers, wives, sisters and sweethearts, whose fiery patriotism was such a stimulus to the men ; who worked in the homes weaving, making and knitting for the men and boys in the field) when they found the men too few at home, actually went to work in the fields to plant, cultivate and harvest the crops. And what the women of Middletown did, was done by the women of all New England. The Meigs family originated in Guilford, in that part of it which is now the town of Madison, but Captain Return Jonathan Meigs was a native of Middletown. His ready response to the call sent out from Lexington, has already been mentioned. As a major, he was with Arnold on his expedition up the Kenebeck, through Maine to Quebec, and he not only showed himself to be a soldier of the highest grade, but an author of equal merit for his account of the hardship, the misery and suffering of that undertaking is the best that was written of it. Major Meigs entered the walls of the city with his battalion, and was made a prisoner with Captain Morgan and Captain Dearborn, who later became general officers. Major Meigs' exchange was effected in 1777, and he was immediately commissioned a lieutenant- colonel ;iiid was authorized to raise a regiment. This he accom plished in part, and was then assigned by General Parsons to MIDDLETOWN. 99 surprise and capture Sag Harbor, near the eastern end of Long Island. While this successful undertaking is really outside of the subject of Middletown, it will be given briefly as eminently illustrative of the ability, dash and determination of one of Middletown's sons. Major Meigs and 230 men in thirteen whale-boats started (this time a very lucky number) from New Haven and hugged the Connecticut shore as far as Sachem's Head, in the town of Guilford, in order that they might more easily cross the sound, its width being considerably less at that point. There he took into his boats 170 more of his men and at one o'clock in the afternoon of May 23, left for Sag Harbor, where they arrived twelve hours later. They advanced with secrecy and in silence to within two hundred yards of the enemy and made their attack, with fixed bayonets, from five points. A 12-gun British schooner lying near the wharves opened fire, but so rapid were their movements that the place was captured before the shot from the guns could do any damage. Twelve British vessels were destroyed, together with a great quantity of provisions and forage ; six of the enemy were killed and ninety were taken prisoners. All this was accomplished, with a boat journey of ninety miles, in twenty-five hours from the time the start was made, without the loss of a single man. In recognition of this dashing and successful exploit. Congress presented Colonel Meigs with an elegant sword. When General Wayne captured Stony Point, in 1779, Colonel Meigs was in command of a regiment there and John Stone, a private from Middle Haddam, helped pull down the British standard. After the war Colonel Meigs spent a brief time at his home in Middletown and, in 1787, he went with the earliest settlers to Marietta, Ohio. The governor and judges of the Northwest Territory had not then arrived so the settlers were without law or authority. Colonel Meigs, however, drew up a system of regulations, which the settlers frequently consulted and lived under till the arrival of the government. A portion of the bark of a great oak was cut away and these regulations were nailed in the space thus made, where all could see them. A white man may with comparative ease win the confidence and regard of other white men, but when he wins the con- 100 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY fidence, trust and affection of his red brothers he has indeed ac complished something that only a true man could accomplish. In his old age, Colonel Meigs was appointed Indian agent to the Cherokecs. It was not long before they discovered the kind of man whom the government had sent to them and, in their poeti cally figurative language, wishing to give him a name that would express what he was to them and the trust they had in him, they named him " The \\ liite Path ". Colonel Aleigs died in his eighty- third year, in 1823, still the faithful friend of the Cherokees. At his fun eral. Divine Providence was petitioned, that his successors at the Chero kee station might walk iij the " \\'hite Path " Colonel ]\Ieigs' three brothers, Giles, John and Josiah, were honorable representatives of an honored family. Giles lived and died in ]\Iiddle- town. He was a captain of militia in the Revolu tion. John volunteered in the beginning of the war and served till peace was declared. He was an adjutant in Colonel Webb's regiment and served for a time as brigade major. Pie was commissioned a lieutenant and was later promoted to a captaincy. He died in New Hart ford, in 182(1, at the age of seventy-three. Josiah, after being graduated from Yale, remained as a tutor and later studied law and practiced in I'.ermuda. After returning to Connecticut he was for many years professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in ^'ale, and later president of the University of Georgia, at Athens in that state; he was Surveyor General of the United States and finally was appointed the head of the THE ROCK MARKING THE SITE OF THE FIRST MEETING HOUSE IN MIDDLETOWN. MIDDLETOWN. loi Government Land Office, in Washington, where he died in His sixty-fifth year, in 1822. Nehemiah Hubbard was born in Middletown, in April, 1752. He was a descendant of George Hubbard, one of the earliest settlers. When fourteen years old, Nehemiah was " bound out " to Colonel Matthew Talcot, as a clerk in his store, where he remained till he was of age, in the meantime acquiring a thorough business education and a knowledge of commerce. Upon obtaining his majority, he went to the West Indies as supercargo, later as captain of the vessel and finally as merchant. He entered the Continental Army in 1776, before the Declaration of Independence had been signed, and in May of that year was appointed by Governor Trumbull regimental paymaster of the regiment commanded by Colonel Burrill. His first act under this appointment was to journey to Fort Schuyler (which was the former British Fort Stanwix) and Herkimer, on the Mohawk River, to pay the troops stationed at those forts. He then joined his regiment at Ticonderoga, where it was stationed for a con siderable time. Major General Green, Quarter-master of the United States, appointed him his deputy for the State of Con necticut, in May, 1777. Mr. Hubbard acted as deputy until the resignation of General Green. Colonel Pickering, Acting Quar ter-master General, appointed him to the position of deputy, but Mr. Hubbard declined. He then associated himself with Carter and Wadsworth in the service, for furnishing supplies to the French army. On the frequent occasions when the Continental army was suffering for supplies, Connecticut often saved the soldiers from great distress by supplying the needed food and clothing. That this was possible, was due to the energy, promptness and business ability of Paymaster Hubbard. A striking instance of the confidence reposed in Mr. Hubbard by the great men of the nation, in Revolutionary days, was the unsuccessful effort of Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, to induce Mr. Hubbard to take the management of a department he intended to organize, for promoting the manufac turing interests of the young nation. At the close of the Revolu tion he returned to Middletown, and became one of the foremost merchants and bankers of the place. The secret of Mr. Hub bard's success was a prompt attention to the business in hand 102 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY and of being methodical in all he undertook to do. He was an active, generous citizen, and was regarded as one of Middletown's most honorable sons. Mr. Hubbard died at the age of eighty-five in I'ebruary, 1837. Titus Plosmer was one of the Committee of Correspondence that was appointed by .Middletown at the breaking out of the war with Great Britain. Mr. Hosmer was one of the most liber ally educated and highly cultivated men of his time, not only in ^liddletown, but in the Colony of Connecticut. Noah Webster, the American lexicographer, regarded him as one of the greatest men Connecticut ever produced, and placed him on one of the three pedestals of his " mighties " They were: William Samuel Johnson, L.L.D., of Stratford ; Oliver Ellsworth, of Windsor, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court ; and the Hon. Titus Hosmer. He was a graduate of Yale, in the class of 1757, and while an undergraduate was notable for his knowledge of science and languages, and for his cleverness as a writer. After leaving Yale, he studied law and became one of the foremost lawyers of the Colony. He was frequently elected to office in his town and was a representative from Middletown to the Legislature from 1773 to 1778, and assistant from the latter date to 1780. It was in 1777, as speaker of the House of Representatives, that his influence did much to urge that body to adopt vigorous measures against Great Britain. In 177S. besides being an assistant in the Legislature, he was a member of the Continental Congress and of the Council of Safety. So it is plainly seen, that besides being a writer of fine thoughts in verse and prose, he was also a hard and untiring worker for the cause of the Colonies. When Congress, in 1780, found the creation of a Federal Court of Appeals neccssar\-, the names of seven of the most prominent lawyers of the entire country were placed in nomination, from which number three \\ere to be elected. Titus Hosmer was one, William Paca, of Maryland, and George Wythe, of \'irginia, were the other members. Mr. Hosmer's death occurred suddenly in .\ugust, 1780, at the age of forty-four. It is rather unusual for a conspicuous father to be succeeded by sons who, in all respects, wear the garments of their father's MIDDLETOWN'S CHURCHES. 103 greatness with naturalness and honor. The two sons of Titus Hosmer conferred additional honor upon the honored name, and they lived close to the high standard of their father. They were ; Stephen Titus, and Hezekiah Lord Hosmer. Stephen entered Yale and applied himself closely to his academic duties until the routine of college life was interrupted by the Revolution. He completed his collegiate course under Dr. Dwight and his name was enrolled as a member of the class that was graduated in 1782. In the choice of a profession he followed his father's footsteps and studied law under his guardian, the Hon. Oliver Ellsworth, and under the Hon. \\'illiam S. Johnson, and in 1785 was ad mitted to practice. His father had left little or no estate, so he was obliged to depend entirely upon his own ability from the start. Writers of his day say, that he had the largest practice of any lawyer in Middlesex County. He continued to practice his profession till he was appointed a judge of the Superior Court, in 181 5. As a judge, he continued the study of law and so marvellous was his memory that it was seldom necessary for him to refer to the Reports when citing cases or points of law. He later became Chief Justice of the Superior Court and con tinued in that office until his seventy-first year, the extreme age limit allowed by the Constitution. He died in Middletown, in August, 1834. Hezekiah Lord Hosmer was a graduate of Yale in 1785, a lawyer of note and a member of Congress, but as he settled in Hudson, New York, he passes out of this narrative. middletown's churches. As has been previously mentioned, the first public worship in Middletown, was under the shade of a grand old elm tree. There the hardy settlers held their services for about two years. In 1652, two years after the settlement was effected, the people built a rude little log church, close to the great elm, which stood near the site of the Parochial School of St. John's Church. The Rev. Samuel Stow, a Harvard graduate of 1645, was the leader of public worship for the first seven years, although not the permanently settled minister of the Church. At this time the people were divided in opinion in regard to what is known 104 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY historically, as the " Plalf-way Covenant ". This produced a difference of opinion as to the wisdom of installing Mr. Stow as minister. The matter was of so great importance that the General C'ourt took it up in 1661, and ordered that the people of Middletown should have entire lH^erty to choose their own minister. Eventually, Mr. Stow gave up the ministry and lived as a private citizen in Middletown. The earnest desire of the people, in regard to their spiritual lives was realized in 1668, when the Church had a settled pastor, and had made Covenant with God and with each other. On November 4, 1668, the Rev. Nathaniel Collins was called and was ordained by the Revs. Messrs. Mather and Whiting. The Church stood upon the Cambridge Platform. The Strict Congregationalists had a society and church in Middletown, in 1754, but there were members of that denomina tion before that year. They were the outgrowth of the great and general revival in religious matters, in the British Colonies in North America, in 1741 and '42, when a few persons joined themselves to that faith in Middletown. The Rev. Ebenezer Frothingham, a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, the first minister of the Strict Church of ^liddle- town, had been in charge of the Strict Church of Wethersfield. The Church in Middletown grew from tiny proportions to suffi cient strength for two Churches, in 1788, under ]\Ir. Frothing- ham's pastorate, the second being in Westfield. At the time of the formation of the Second Church, ]\Ir. Frothingham was dismissed from the Middletown Church and the Rev. Stephen Parsons became minister of the \\'estfield Church. He was dismissed in 1795, as his sentiments on the subject and mode of baptism had undergone a change. Soon after 1812, the Church had dwindleil greatly and was therefore voluntarily dissolved, but in 1816, four men and nine women formed a new Church and from then on the denomination grew ir numbers and strength. Among its later ministers were the Rev. William PI. Beecher — a son of the famous Congregationalist and Christian — the Rev. L\-man Beecher — who was installed minister in 1833; ^"d the Rev. Andrew L. Stone, a graduate of Yale, in the class of 1837, who was installed in 1844, and later became the minister of the old Park Street Church, in Boston. MIDDLETOWN'S CHURCHES. 105 The Congregational spirit was strong in Connecticut ; even more, it was dominant, but it was not so intense as it was in eastern Massachusetts, so the establishment of a Church of the AngHcan Communion was not unnatural at an early date, especially in Middletown, where the mental cultivation of the people and the broadening- effects of their foreign commerce had, from the earliest times, produced a degree of catholicity that welcomed all sects of Christians. There was not an Episcopal Parish organized in Middletown before 1749, but that service was held in the homes of the few Churchmen is quite probable. The Rev. James Wetmore, a native of Middletown, who was the first Congregational minister of North Haven, had a strong inclination toward the Episcopal Church and finally, in 1724, he joined that body and became a priest. It is probable that he held service and administered the Sacraments at periods between 1724, and 1749. It is also quite probable, that the Rev. Jeremiah Leaming, who was born in Middletown, held service previous to 1749. In 1749, there were sixteen Episcopal families in Middletown which were desirous for a building in which to worship, to which end Mr. Wetmore had urged them. On April 29, 1749, the Town of Middletown voted " that the professors of the Church of England have liberty to erect their church in the highway, between Jaffries' corner, John Foster's corner and the dwelling of Mr. Ephraim Doane (on the east side of South Park), and the selectmen, or any three of them, are hereby empowered to stake out the place for the said building." But the parish was not organized till Easter Monday, which occurred in 1750, on April 16. In 1752, a church was built in the site set apart by the town. It was fifty by thirty-six feet and had " a towering steeple " but it was not finished till 1754, or '55. This church building was used eighty years, when the congregation had in creased so greatly that a larger building became a necessity. The second church building was erected in 1^34 and was built of the famous Portland sandstone. It was seventy-eight by sixty feet and cost $14,000. The church had a bell in 1759, and in 1785, John Alsop, a wealthy merchant of New York and a brother of Richard Alsop, " the merchant-prince " of Middletown, gave the Church a new bell. io6 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. The first rector was the Rev. Ichabod Camp. He was born in Durham and was graduated from Yale in the class of 1743. He served as rector of Middletown and Wallingford from 1752, to \J()Q. Mr. Camp met with a tragic death in Louisburgh, \'irginia, in 17O0, at the hands of his brother-in-law. His suc cessors were ; The Rev. Abraham Jarvis, of Norwalk, Con necticut, who was graduated from Yale in the class of 1761. He served as Lay-reader for two years. In 1763, there being nc Bishop in the Colonies, Mr. Jarvis sailed for England to be ordained, the Church giving him £40 toward his expenses. Upon his return, he was given the very respectable salary of £90 and remained as rector of the Church till 1799. In 1801, he was elected Bishop of Connecticut, when he resided in Cheshire and later in New Haven, where he died in ]\Iay, 1813, at the age of seventy-five. The succeeding rectorships were brief. The Rev. Calvin White, of Middletown, a graduate of Yale in the class of 1786, was rector from September, 1799 to July, 1800: the Rev. Joseph \\'arren, from October, 1800, to August, 1803 ; the Rev. Clement Merriam, April, 1804 to April, 1806; Mr. Samuel Birge, served as Lay-reader for six months, when there was a period of about five years in which visiting clergymen officiated. The Rev. John Kewley, M.D., became rector in April, 1809. Dr. Kewley was educated in England, at Eaton and Cambridge. He practiced medicine in the West Indies and later, in Pennsyl vania, for several years. He was ordained in Chester, Alarv-- land, and soon after went to Middletown. His ministrations were highly profitable, both for the temporal as well as the spiritual side of the Church, but for some reason he was removed by the Bishop in March, 1813, when he went to St. George's Church, in New York. Deacon Birdsey Glover Noble, of New ]\lilford, a graduate of Yale, in the class of 1810, officiated from 1813, to 1828; the Rev. Smith Pa\'ne was rector from December, i8_'8, to August, 1830; the Rev. George Jones, a graduate in the class of 1823, at Yale, chaplain in the United States Navy and tutor in Yale, served for one year when IMr. Payne returned and served as rector from August 1831 till .\ugust, 183(1, The Rev. Samuel Farmer Jarvis, D.D., of Middletown, a son MIDDLETOWN'S CHURCHES. 107 of Bishop Jarvis, and a graduate of Yale, in 1805, became rector in April, 1837, and the Rev. John Williams, D.D., was his assist ant. Dr. Williams was called to old St. George's Church in Schenectady, New York (the oldest church building in Schenec tady County), and served there till he was called to the Presidency of Trinity College, in 1849. It is impossible for Churchmen to think of Bishop Williams without having all that is best in them aroused. What the digni fied Washington, the intensely human Lincoln and the lovable McKinley were to the Nation, John Williams was to Churchmen. Venerated and beloved in America ; venerated and held in pro found respect in Great Britain, by Bishops, Priests and Laymen ; his life was complete ; a glory to the Divine Power that created it ; an honor to the Nation of which he was a citizen ; a blessing to the poor ; an inspiration to all men ; one of the finest men and Christians that the Anglo-Saxon race, in any century, has produced. The Rev. Edson Wilson Wiltbank was rector from April, 1842, to February, 1844; then the Rev. Horace Hills, till August, 1845; the Rev. F. J. Goodwin, of South Berwick, Maine, a graduate of Bowdoin College, in the class of 1832, was rector in 1845. The old church building was notable from the fact that it was where the Rt. Rev. Samuel Seabury, the first American Bishop, first met the clergy, after his return from Scotland, where he was consecrated, and the first ordination of Deacons took place in it. This Church, like nearly every Episcopal Church in the country during the Revolution, suffered considerably from the fact that the clergy were sufficiently Quixotic to believe that a moral obligation bound them to continue to pray for the Royal Family. The patriots naturally felt that the intent was for prayers to be made for the government and that the President or the Congress should be substituted, as is now done. The majority of the rec tors were stubborn in this matter and the result was temporarily bad for the parishes. After peace had been declared, matters adjusted themselves. In September, 1786, the Bishop confirmed 127 persons in Middletown. The first Methodist Church was organized in 1741', but the Methodist had held service for two years previous to that date. io8 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. The Rev. Jesse Lee preached the first sermon to the Methodists on December 7, 173'). From the founding up to 1816, the society was part of a circuit, but in 1X16, the society became a station, or separate charge. In 1S16, there were 112 communicants. The Church continued to grow in strength and numbers and such growth was greatly increased b\- the founding of Wesleyan I'niversity. In 1846, when the University took a decided jump in the educational worid, there were 515 communicants in the Methodist Church. MICHAEL BURNHAM T WERN, WA.SITINGTON STREET, WHERE ST. JOHNS LODGE KO. 2, F. AND A. M., HELD ITS FIRST MEETING IX 1854. ST. JOHN S LODGE NO. 2, The third Alasonic Lodge chartered in the State of Connecti cut, was St. John's No. j, of Middletown, the first being Hiram Lodge .\o, T, of New Ila\'cn, and the second, a Lodge in New London which did not long siu-vi\c. So while St. John's charter was the third to be granted, the ceasing of the New London Lodge, makes .St, John's the second in age at the present time. ST. JOHN'S LODGE. 109 The appHcation for a charter was made on November 6, 1753, and the charter was granted by the Grand Lodge in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 4, 1754. At that time, Thomas Oxnard was Provincial Grand Master for North America, by appointment by Lord W'ard, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England. As Grand Master Oxnard was in England at the time St. John's charter was granted, his name did not appear upon it. It was signed by Benjamin Hollowell, D.G.M., Charles Brockwell, S.G.W^, James Forbes, J.G.W., and fohn Leverett, G.S. No name was given to the Lodge in the charter of 1754, nor was a numeral assigned. The first time the name and nuniber. WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY, MIDDLETOWN. St. John's No. 2, appears, is in a catalogue of members in the record book, on February 10, 1787, and it appears in the records for the first time on March 7, 1810. In 1796, the numeral was officially fixed by order of the Grand Lodge. The names signed to the application were Ichabod Camp, Jno. Easton, Richard Alsop, Thomas Tyler, Samuel Bement, Jedh. Stow, and Israel Abbott. Of these, the only Master Masons were Starr, Alsop, Tyler and Stow, the others being Fellow- crafts who were made Master Masons two years and six months later. no THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. The first meeting was held in the tavern kept by Captain Michael Burnham, on the north side of Washington street, and it is a pleasant and interesting fact, that this first home of St. John's Lodge is still standing. The first Master of the Lodge, who was named in the charter, was Jehosaphat Starr, February 4, 1754; then followed Richard Alsop, June 4, 1755; Philip Mortimer, December 27, 1756; George Phillips, December 27, 1757; Ichabod Camp, December 27, 1758; Philip Mortimer, June 24, 1760; George Phillips, December 27, 1764; Richard Alsop, December 27, 1765; Comfort Sage, December 30, 1767; George „-i.»-"i.iiXatsK.i. WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY, MIDDLETOWN. Phillips, , 1769; Richard Alsop, 1771 : John Cotton, December 2'^, 1781 ; General Samuel Holden Parsons, December 27, 1782; General Comfort Sage, December 27, 1783; Robert Warner, December 27, 1784; .-Vsher Miller, December 26, 1785; Lamberton Cooper, December 22. 17S8: Ebenezer Sage. Decem ber 15, 1790; Stephen Titus Hosmer, December 23, 171)4 ; Samuel Canfield, June 21, 171)8; and \\'illiani B. Hall, December 17, 1800. As was the case with the majority of the Lodges in the Colonies and the States, just before and during the Revolution, St. John's meetings ceased in 1772. and were not resumed till 1781, when a meeting was held in Mrs. Shalers tavern. WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. m WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. Had Captain Partridge not moved his Academy to Vermont, Wesleyan University would probably not have located in Middle- town. In 1824, the generosity of Middletown caused Captain Partridge to move his American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy (what a mouthful for a foot ball cheer) from Norwich, Vermont, to Middletown. A charming site was provided and the cornerstone was laid with Masonic honors. A chapel was also erected and the fifth anniversary was celebrated in Septem ber, 1825. The Hon. S. W. Dana delivered the address, to a large number of citizens, as well as to 200 cadets from nine teen states and the District of Columbia. The " A. L. S. S. and M. A." was called the Institution locally, for brevity's sake. The Institution was under the exclusive control of Captain Part ridge until 1828, when a board of trustees was appointed and the number of instructors was increased. A considerable num ber of students were from southern states, the greatest number of students in one year being 240. The Institution flourished and was regarded as a first class, high-toned Academic institu tion and it turned out some of the foremost military engineers and officers of the ]\Iexican and Civil Wars, and George Dewey's name was the key-stone of the arch of notable and honored sons of the Institution. In 1829, the Institution was induced to remove to other parts and the buildings erected for academic purposes were left vacant, and being of little use for any other than school purposes, the owners put a bargain-counter price on them. Just before this time, the Methodist Episcopal Church was feeling the need of a college. The Church determined to estab lish it in the North anyhow and in the East if possible. The owners of the Institution buildings and chapel offered them as a gift to the Methodist Church, if an endowment of $40,000 could be secured. Middletown's quick response was typical. It pledged $18,000 through public and private subscription and the Church at large had little difficulty in raising the $22,000. In 1830, Wesleyan University began its honorable and useful existence and received its charter the following year. The first president, the Rev. Dr. Fisk, although advanced in years, worked hard for 112 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. the success of the University and he began to see the fruits of his labors before death cut them short. MISCELLANY. The newspapers of Middletown had brief and varied ex istences. The first to be established was the Middlesex Gazette, in 1785. The publishers were William Woodward and James Green. A few years later, Mr. Green withdrew from the concern and Mr. Woodward continued to publish the paper till 1797, when he sold it to Tertius Dunning. He published the Gazette till his death in 1823, and his son, Charles Dunning, continued It for a \ear, when it was sold by the administrator of the estate to Epaphras and Horace Clark, in 1824. T. N. Parmelee and E. T. Greenfield purchased it in 1828, and a few months later Mr. Parmelee sold out to Mr. Greenfield who, in turn, in 1830, sold it back to ^Ir. Parmelee and he edited it till 1832. Edwin Hunt was the next purchaser and soon after he sold it to Joseph Longking, Jr., and in 1834 it ceased to be published. The Gazette's plant was sold to George F. Olmsted who started the New England Advocate. The Advocate suspended publica tion in 1836. The presses were sold to Charles H. Pelton, who was proprietor of a book and job printing establishment. The Confiecticut Spectator was started in January, 18 14. by Loomis and Richards. ]\Ir. Loomis sold to 'Mr. Richards, in 181 5, and in 1817 this paper expired. On January i, 1823, \A'illiam D. Starr and William H. Niles started to print the American Sentinel. ^Ir. Niles sold to his partner in 1827. In 1833, ^^'^^ Sentinel and \\'itness were united. The Witness had been established in January of that year by H. W. Green. The Sentinel and \\'itness eventually ceased to be published. The Constitution was started by Abner Newton, Jr., in 1838, and in 1847, he attempted a daily, but that expired at the end of twelve months. The first determined attempt to publish a daily was made by N. J. Phelps & Company, in 1850. It was sold the following year to B. Casey & Compan}- and was discontinued that same year. MISCELLANY. "3 The following were Middletown's first public officers, with the years they served : The first Recorder, later called Register and finally Town Clerk, was Robert Webster, 1653-1656. He was also the first Justice of the Peace. The first ]\Iayor was the Hon. Jabez Hamlin. He was elected on July 13, 1784. He continued to fill the office, without the formality of being reelected, till he resigned in 1788. Mr. Ham lin seems to have been a man of and for the people for he was persuaded by the people to remain in office as mayor, which Ee did till his death in April, 1791. The first City Clerk was Bezaleel Fisk, from July 13, 1784, to January, 1785. The first Treasurer was Nehemiah Hubbard, from 1795, to 1800. The first Bank of the City of Middletown was the Middletown Bank, incorporated in October, 1795, but it did not begin banking operations till the spring of 1801. Elijah Hubbard was the first president, from JMay, 1801, to May, 1808. The first cashier was Timothy Southmayd, from May, 1801 to December, 1821. Middlesex County Bank was incorporated in May, 1830. Its first president was Henry L. DeKoven, from September, 1830, to April, 1832. The first Cashier was Samuel Cooper, from September, 1830, till November, 1830, when he resigned. The Branch Bank of The United States was started in 1817. Samuel W. Dana was its president till 1819, and Arthur W. Magill was its cashier till 1822. In 1824, the Bank was moved to Hartford and in 1835 it ceased to exist. The Middletown Savings Bank was incorporated in May, 1825, and began operations in June of that year. The first President was Nehemia Hubbard, from 1825, to 1837. The first Secretary- treasurer was Ebenezer G. Southmayd, from 1825 to 1832. The first Judge of Probate was the Hon. Jabez Hamlin, who served from 1752 to 1789. The first Post Office was established in 1775, and the first Postmaster was Winslow Hobby, who served from 1775, to 1807. The first Collector of the Port was George Phillips, who served from 1795 to 1797. 114 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. INDIANS. Middletown and vicinity had been an Indian stronghold and headquarters for many centuries before the White-man had even heard of it. This is proven beyond doubt by the utensils, beads and implements of tempered copper found in graves which have been opened. On the road toward Newfield the first settlers found an Indian burying ground, that had every appearance of having been used for many generations, on which were found rough gravestones marked with devices, perhaps the Indian symbols for the name of the warrior buried beneath, or possibly, simply the emblem of the tribe of which he was a member. The Indians whom the white settlers found there in 1650, were the Mattabesett Tribe under the chieftainship of a man of strong character and powerful will who was possessed of far-reaching influence. Sequasson — erroneously called Sowheag — in Europe would have been a great political leader ; in the New ^^'orld he was a Sachem, whose will was obeyed over an extensive territory. As Great Sachem of the Mattabesetts, he was supreme over the Indians on both sides of the Connecticut River, including several tribes besides his own immediate tribe. From Indian Hill, where he lived, he was accustomed to summon the tribe by blowing on a famous conch shell. This was believed to have magical powers because its tones could be heard at so great a distance by the chiefs and warriors of the ^Mattabesett and subordinate tribes, whom he wished to summon for co-jncil or defence. Sequasson was held in profound reverence by the In dians and was respected and somewhat feared by the white settlers for, while he was not an open enemy of the settlers, he was far from being friendly. They were treated by him with the dignified reserve and contempt of a great chief. He regarded them as interlopers and inferiors, who had encroached upon his birthright. The Indians of the tribe kept his burial place a pro found secret from the settlers and when questioned bv them in regard to the location of his grave, thev showed anger and remained silent. To the north of Middletown, near the Sebeth River, was a field called after him, in which many stone arrow heads and spearheads were found. Not far from Middletown, in what is now Glastenbury, INDIANS. 115 was a small tribe of the Mohawks, of the Five Nations of New York, of whom the Indians of New England were in great dread, with the exception of the Pequots. How this collection of Mohawks happened to be settled there, so far from their own beautiful Mohawk Valley, may be accounted for reasonably enough. The Mohawks were the most powerful and dominant tribe of Indians on the Continent in those early days, before the Dutch had demoralized them with rum and trade. It was their boast and an historical fact, that they demanded and received tribute from other tribes, not of the Five Nations, which lived hundreds of miles distant, to the south and east of the Hudson River. They delighted in the power they possessed and were never happier then when inspiring terror in the hearts of those distant tribes. They boasted that one Mohawk Sachem, or even a prominent warrior, could walk alone through the village of one of the tribute-paying tribes and receive anything he demanded. The journeying to the tribes east of the Hudson, and in the south, for the purpose of collecting tribute and asserting their supremacy, came to be regarded as an unnecessary trouble. To avoid this they stationed small tribes of the Mohawk Nation in central points, among the other tribes from whom tribute was demanded, so that the resident Mohawks could collect the tribute and maintain the fear, which was more highly prized than the tribute. That the tribute collected by the small tribes did not reach the Mohawk Nation mattered little, so long as it was paid to Mohawks, and their supremacy maintained. The Mohawks at Glastenbury were probably settled there to keep the New England Indians constantly in mind of the fact that they were subservient to them. It is a strange fact, that one or two painted Mohawks would inspire nearly as great terror among the white settlers, as they did among the Indians of other tribes. Eventually the Mohawks, of Glastenbury, annihilated the Mattabesetts. There is nothing that more strongly illustrates the power of the Mohawks and the fear in which they were held by the New England Indians, than a clever bit of Indian cunning successfully practiced by Uncas. Weaseapano, a Podunk Indian, killed a Sachem of the Matta besetts, who lived near Middletown, in 1656. Sequasson, Great u6 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY Sachem of the Tribe, complained to the white magistrate of the Colony, that the Podunks were hiding the murderer and that they were protecting him from the punishment he deserved. Se([uasson also told his troubles to Uncas and obtained a promise of assistance from him. Uncas then complained to the magis trates that Tontonimo had protected an Indian who had mur dered a Molu-gan. The magistrates summoned all the parties concerned before them. Sequasson and Uncas demanded that ten of \Veaseapano's friends should be delivered up to them for slaughter, as the murderer was a worthless Indian and the mur dered man a great Sachem. Tontonimo regarded the price as excessive and brought in a counter claim, that the dead Sachem had killed Weaseapano's uncle. The Governor of the Colony, fearing trouble from direct interference, suggested that the de mand was too great and told Uncas and his friend that the white men were content to punish the murderer. Tontonimo wanted to pay for the dead Sachem in wampum, but it was refused. Uncas then reduced his demand from ten to six men, but this in turn was refused by Tontonimo. The Gov ernor urged that the murderer be delivered to Sequasson and Uncas, and they agreed to be satisfied with him in place of the six men. Tontonimo promised to do as the Governor wished and then secretly withdrew from the court and retired to the Podunk stronghold. The Governor was indignant, but he kept it to himself and tried to persuade the Indians not to fight it out. The most they would promise was, not to interfere with the white settlers or injure their property on either side of the Connecticut River. Uncas then gathered an army of Indians with which to avenge himself upon the Podunks. Uncas met the Podunks near Hockanum River, opposite Hartford, and seeing the enemy about equal in number to his own followers, he decided not to fight. Now here comes in his craft. Ihicas sent word to Tontonimo, that if he did not give up the murderer he would send the Mo hawks to wipe the Podunks oft" the face of the earth. Uncas' op portunity came soon after the delivery of the message. He pro vided a Mohegan warrior with several Mohawk weapons (each nation and tribe fashioned its weapons in some peculiar manner so INDIANS. 117 that they could be easily recognized by other Indians, as belonging to such or such a tribe) and sent him to the Podunk stronghold, with instructions to set fire to a house nearby and then to leave the weapons on the ground and return to camp. In the morning the Podunks went to the place where the fire had been, found the weapons and recognizing them to be of Mohawk make, they believed that Uncas had really won the Mohawks over to his side. Tontonimo immediately delivered up the murderer, Weaseapano, and asked Uncas to make peace with him. Generally speaking, the white settlers and the Mattabesetts lived in peace. The Indians had everything to gain from such conditions and nothing to lose, for the New England settlers, un like the Dutch of New York, did not demoralize them with rum. The last of the Tribe of Mattabesett was Mamoosun, a fine, high-spirited old man, whose faithfulness to his tribe and its traditions, was inspiring. Where Mamoosun lived is not posi tively known, but that he made annual visits to Middletown each autumn, for the purpose of paying respect to the memory and the greatness of his tribe, is a matter of history. He spent whole days in the Indian burial ground, near Newfield, mourning over the past glories of the dead who were buried there. On these annual pilgrimages the old Indian seemed to live more in the spirit than in the flesh, and there can be no doubt that his mind was in an exalted state as it dwelt oh the past. During this period he shunned mankind and spent his nights in the hollow of a gigantic sycamore, of great age, that was known for many generations as " Mamoosun's tree ". Mamoosun's pilgrim ages began before, and continued for several years after, 1720. The white settlers of Middletown honored and respected the dignified, sad old man who alone of all his tribe still lived. A Mr. Gilbert, who owned the farm upon which the Indian burial ground was situated, was most friendly and hospitable to Ma moosun who, after his days of mourning and religious duties were finished, would go to Mr. Gilbert's home as his guest. Mamoosun dreaded above all things that the graves of his dead should be disturbed by the plow and harrow. Mr. Gilbert promised him, that so long as he lived the field should not be cultivated and the promise was faithfully kept for several years after the visits of the old Indian had ceased. MIDDLEFIELD. SAMUEL ALLEM, Samuel Wetmore and Benjamin Mil ler, from the First Society of Middletown, were the first settlers of Middlefield, in 1700. They were soon joined by other families from Middletown, Durham, Stratford, and Guilford, so that in 1744, when the town was incorporated, there were fifty families forming a vigorous settlement of 350 or 400 individuals, probably, for the average number of persons in a family in those days was large. Middlefield was destined by nature to be vigorous and prosperous, in the days when water- power was the only motive power known, for the town was generously supplied with excellent power along the Coginchaugh River, and the numerous smaller streams that flow into it. A hundred years after the incorporation, it was a busy manufactur ing community. Like all Yankee settlements, as soon as the people were made into a parish by the General Court, they built a church. A meet ing-house, forty feet square, was built in 1745 and the Rev. Ebenezer Gould was the first minister. Although there was dis satisfaction with the minister on the parts of several of the con gregation, he remained there till 1756, when he was dismissed. As far as can be ascertained from records, the dismissal of the Rev. Ebenezer Gould from the Middlefield Church ended his ministerial career. From 1756, till 1765, the people were without a settled minister. They had made several attempts to settle one but without success, so it looks very much as if the trouble was caused by individuals of the parish, rather than by the minister. Finally, in February, 1765, the Rev, Joseph Denison, of ^^'ind- ham, a graduate of Yale in the class of 1763, became the minister. He died in 1770, at the age of thirty-one. The Rev. Abner Benedict, of North Salem, New York, a graduate in the class of 1769, at Yale, was the next minister, he serving from 1771, till 1785, when hc was dismissed by his own request that he might move to a place more favorable to the health of his daughter, who was an invalid. The Rev. Abner Benedict was an exceptional man, as a minister and as a citizen. [118] CROMWELL. 119 While in Middlefield he convinced the people of the sin of slavery and that it was a crime against society, with the result, that every slave owned in Middlefield was freed. The Rev. Joel Benedict, D.D., of Lisbon and Plainfield; and Lieutenant Peter Benedict, a soldier of the Revolution, were brothers of Abner, who was a writer of merit upon religious subjects. The late Rev. Dr. Field in commenting upon the sad disruption in the Church, due to there being as " many people of many minds ", in those early days, as at the present time, says : This dismissal was exceedingly unfavorable to the interests of religion in Middlefield. Had he remained there,, the Church would have probably been greatly strengthened and the society united and prosperous. But after he was gone the society remained vacant more than twenty years. No minister of Christ was statedly in the desk on the Sabbath, enlighten ing and establishing the minds of the people in the great truths cf the gospel, and telling them on week days from house to house, words whereby they and their children might be saved. The old professors of religion died or removed, until the church was almost extinct. But the Lord having revived his work in the neighboring town of Durham, and this having spread somewhat in this place, the church was reorganized, or rather a new church was formed in December, 1808, and twenty-nine persons solemnly entered into covenant with God, and with one another, A few of these had been members of the old church, the others were those who had recently entertained hope of a saving interest in Christ, But the members of this church, and those disposed to attend worship with them, had no meeting-house of their own, and difficulties existed in the way of their occupying the old meeting-house. In this situation they met for a time in private dwellings, and then assembled for worship in a conference-house, which they erected, until they found means to build a sanctuary. This they raised on the site of the old meeting-house in 1841 and dedicated it June 8, 1842. CROMWELL. CROMWELL was known as Upper Houses — sometimes Upper Middletown — from the settlement of Middle- town in 1650, down to 1851, in which year Upper Houses was incorporated as separate town. The Upper Houses were simply the houses, or little settlement, in the upper portion of Middletown. This designation for out-lying hamlets belong ing to the larger and principal settlement or town, was customary in many Connecticut towns and many of the original towns gave I2U THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. the names of Upper and Lower Houses, to hamlets lying above or below them. The majority of the first settlers of Cromwell built their houses on Pleasant street. Tliey were John Kirby, Nathaniel White, Robert Webster, .Samuel Stocking, George Graves, Joseph Smith, Daniel Harris, John Martin, John Savage, David Sage, and Thomas Ranney. Tliey were joined by several other families before the end of the }car. Between the Upper Houses and Mid- ORIGINAL STREET, CROMWELL. dletown was Little River, which was crossed in going to and from the Church and stores in Middletown, by a ferry. Middletown granted the right to the people of Upper Houses to have their own school as early as 1(183, and a similar grant was made b\' vote of the Town in 1690, possibly because the pro visions of the first grant for a school had not been complied with, and no school had been started. In 1703, the General Court, by desire of the inhabitants of Upper Houses, incorpo rated it as a parish distinct from Middletown, \vith the stipula tion, that the people should procure a minister within a year. CROMWELL. 121 Otherwise they would have to continue as a part of the Parish of Middletown, and would have to pay their portion toward the support of the Church there. At this time, 1703, the little vil lage contained about 250 persons. While they governed their own Church and school affairs, they were, in matters relating to the town, under the jurisdiction of Middletown. A Church was not organized and a minister settled till 1715, when the Rev. Joseph Smith was settled as the first minister of Cromwell. The great fertility of the soil made the chief occupation of the RIVER ROAD, CROMWELL. people its cultivation, for nearly 150 years after the settlement. A few years after the close of the Revolution, ship building began and for several decades was carried on with energy and profit. William Belcher, Captain Luther Smith, and Captain Abijah Savage had ship yards, and further back from the river was a rope-walk in which the cables and cordage, for the vessels built there, were made. At about the beginning of the nineteenth century there were a few small manufacturies. In 1810, a debating society was organized that was called the 12- THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. Friendly Association. It had a small library which formed the nucleus for a larger collection of books several decades later. The first officers were : President, the Rev. J. L. Williams ; vice- president, Silas Sage ; secretary, William C. Redfield ; treasurer, Allen Butler. The association flourished for twenty years and then slowly died. One of the most distinguished men of the first half of the nine teenth century, in New England, was William C. Redfield, who was born in Middletown, in 1789, and spent his childhood and STOWE HOUSE, CROMWELL. part of his youth in Cromwell. His father, who was a sailor, died when William was but thirteen years old, and much of \A'illiam's early education was obtained from his mother, who was possessed of more than ordinary mental attainments. At the age of four teen he was apprenticed to a mechanic of Cromwell. Although his duties occupied nearly all of his time, he still found opportu nities to study and so lay the foundation of the education it was his ambition to obtain. William read and studied at night, after the work of the day was finished, by the light from the logs burn ing on the andirons in the large open fireplace. In the Rev. Dr. CROMWELL. 123 Tully William had a good and wise friend, who gave the am bitious youth free access to his library and suggested to him the best course of reading, and study. That William Redfield in later life became well known, as a scientist, original investigator and philosopher, in the Eastern and W^estern Hemispheres, was due to his untiring patience and great energy of body and mind. His method was to determine upon some particular object which he wished to attain and then to go at it and, overcoming all difficulties, attain it. An instance BROOKE HOUSE, CROMWELL. of his determination and great physical energy — which was even excelled by his mental energy — will give an idea of the youth who, as a man, became the co-discoverer of the rotary motion of storms. At the age of twenty-one, when his apprenticeship was finished, he desired to visit his mother, who had remarried and moved to Ohio. The distance from Cromwell to her home was 700 miles and the only way he could get there was to walk. He covered the 700 miles in twenty-seven days and as he rested four days 124 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. he was actually on foot twenty-four days and so averaged a trifle more than twenty-nine miles a day. As his eyes and ears were ever on the alert and his ability to perceive and observe was profound, his 700-mile journey on foot did as much for him as a year in college would have done for the average young man of twenty-one. After his return to Cromwell he resumed his trade and con tinued his studies. The great storm of September 3, 1821, was the means of Mr. Redfield's discovery of the rotary motion of storms. Not only was the storm severe, but it covered a great territor}'. His power of observation has been mentioned. In THE RANNEY HOUSE, CROMWELL. this instance, he had observed that the storm approached INIiddle- town from the south-east, and that the up-rooted and fallen trees lay with their tops toward the north-west. Soon after this storm, Mr. Redfield had occasion to go to western Jlassachusetts where he found that the storm had up-rooted trees there also, but that they were all l\'iiig with their tops toward the south-east, exactly ojijiosite to those at Middletown. He made inquiries there and found that in western Connecticut and Massachusetts the storm had approached from tbe north-west, at the same time it was approaching from the opposite direction, seventy miles away in CROMWELL. 125 the neighborhood of Middletown. He followed the course of the storm and gave to what he found intense thought. Pie dis covered that all great storms are cyclonic, or as he expressed it, progressive whirlwinds. For the benefit of navigators, Mr. Red- field immediately published " The Law of Storms ". It happened that General Reid, of the British Royal Engineers, made a similar discovery at about the same time. Commodore Perry — \vhose gentle knock upon Japan's front door caused it GRAVE OF THE REV, THOMAS RANNEY IN THE OLD CEMETERY, to be Opened to America — spoke of these two scientists, in the report of his Japanese expedition, as follows : It was my good fortune to enjoy for many years the friendly acquaint ance of one as remarkable for modesty and unassuming pretensions as for laborious observation and inquiry after knowledge. To him and to Gen eral Reid, of the Royal Engineers of England (now Governor of Malta), are navigators mainly indebted for the discovery of a law which has already contributed and will contribute greatly to the safety of vessels traversing the ocean. The honor of having established, on satisfactory evidence, the rotary and progressive character of ocean storms, and de- 126 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. tcrmining their modes of action or laws, is due alike to the memory of 'William C. Redfield and to our country's fame, Mr. Redfield was a marine engineer of note. The famous Connecticut River steamer, "Oliver Ellsworth", was built by him in 1X23, The idea of carrying freight, to and from New \'ork and the upper-Hudson, on long strings of barges drawn b.\' tug-boats was his. Mr. Redfield and George W. Feather- stonhaugh (the first Government Geologist of the United States whose mansion and country estate were in Duanesburgh, Sche nectady County, New "\'ork), were the first to see and appreciate the possibilities for national wealth by connecting by railroads the vast fertile territory of the North-west with the great markets of the East. It may be remarked incidentally, that Air. Featherstonhaugh began writing for public prints upon the subject of railroads in 181 2, and on March 26, he and Stephen VanRensselaer, the last of the Patroons, incorporated the first railroad company. In 1829, Mr. Redfield issued a pamphlet setting forth his ideas, which were to connect the Alississippi and Hudson Rivers by a railroad over which the crops and minerals of the West could be brought to New York, and the West peopled with men of energy and enterprise from the East. The route he proposed was practically that of the Erie Railroad and his prophesy for the routes of other railroads, that would connect Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, with the East, was closely fulfilled. MIDDLESEX COUNTY. WILD animals were beginning to be scarce in Middle sex County by the time the Revolution broke out. Bears, wolves, " catamounts ", deer etc. could be found by experienced hunters, but it was not so many years be fore the Revolution that they were to be had without hunting for them. Wolves were a source of trouble and loss to the farmers till 1770, when those that were left gradually withdrew to the wilder |)ortions of northern Xew England. They were suffi ciently r.'irr for the killing of one in the northern part of Say- MIDDLESEX. COUNTY. 127 brook, in the winter of 181 5, to excite unusual interest and comment. That moose ever roamed the meadows and forests of the lower Connecticut, and gorged themselves on lily-pads and river grass, hardly seems possible, but the time was, when they were not at all scarce, although not frequently seen near the settle ments, because of their timidity. It is a fact, however, that in 1770, in the Town of Saybrook, near where the wolf was killed in 181 5, that a moose was killed. It was probably the last of its kind in Middlesex County. Deer were so numerous in very early times that they often proved a nuisance as crop destroyers. They were plentiful up to the hard winters of i764-'65, when great numbers died or were killed by hunters. Wild turkeys were common up to 1780, or '85, and could be found by skilful hunters up to 1790. The animals that were hunted and trapped for their valuable fur, disappeared many years before those that were killed for food, as well as for their hides. Ferries were established at an early date as a means of crossing the Connecticut. They were as follows : Saybrook Ferry, be tween -Saybrook and Lyme, 1662; Chapman's Ferry, between Hadddm and East Haddam, 1694. These two were the only ferries crossing the Connecticut in Middlesex County for eighty- nine years after the first settlement. Brockway's Ferry, between Pautapoug (Essex) and the northern part of Lyme, 1724; Mid dletown Ferry, between Middletown and Chatham, 1726; Upper- houses (Cromwell) Ferry, between Upper Houses and Chatham, 1759; Higganum Ferry, between Haddam and Middle Haddam, 1763; Warner's Ferry, between Chester and Hadlyme, 1769. Knowl's Landing Ferry (Chatham), between Middletown and Mid'dle Haddam, was granted about 1736, but it was abandoned and a new grant made in 1806; East Haddam Ferry, between Haddam and East Haddam, in 1741, but it was only occasionally used and a new grant was made in 181 1; Haddam Ferry, be tween Haddam and Middle Haddam, 18 14. Post Offices were established, in Middletown in 1775 ; Say brook, in 1793; Killingworth, in 1794; East Haddam and Dur- 128 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. ham, in 1800; Haddam, in 1802; Knowl's Landing, Chatham, in np4 ; L'])i)er Houses (Cromwell), in 1809; Chester, in 1810; West Chester and North Killingworth, in 181 7. Stage lines were established in 1785, and in 1794, which car ried mail from Hartford to Xew Haven, through Middletown and Durham, in .Middlesex County. The interest and \\'onder excited by the first carriages, kept solely for driving or "pleasure-carriages", as they were called, has been spoken of several times. The owning of one of these vehicles was greater evidence of affluence in those days, than a $20,000 " benzine-buggy " is in the twentieth century. The first made its appearance in Killingworth, in 1748; then followed, ^liddletown, about 1750; Saybrook and Durham, in 1755; Chat ham, in 1768; East Haddam, in 1769; and Haddam, in 1785, The first library in Middlesex was established in Chester, in The idea is so utterly ridiculous to us now, that it hardly seems possible that those good, narrow, heroic Christians, who settled N'en- England, should have thought the names of the days of the week to be sinful, because they were derived from the names of mythological gods, but as an actual matter of fact they did think Sunday, Monday etc. were naughty words. The week began on the Sabbath, or Lord's Day ; the other davs were known and designated by numbers. It really does not seem possible that such intelligent, strong-minded men, a large percent of whom had recei\-c(l liberal educations, could have believed that the taking out from their lives, their speech and their thoughts even, everything that was poetic, beautiful and romantic, was pleasing to the Creator, \Mio was the source of the verv things they deprived themselves of. But thev did, and they were honest and sincere in so doing. Thev would not tolerate the names of the days of the week because of their mAihological origin. They deprived their children of all knowledge of Christ mas and Easter becausc they were too strongly associated with Rome. CHATHAM. CHATHAM was first settled by the English in 1710, when a family by the name of Goff made their " pitch " near the river, a little to the south of the landing at the vil lage of Middle Haddam. The next white family to settle there, was that of Captain Cornelius Knowles, who built his house on the bank of the river and gave his name to the locality, which was long after known as Knowles' Landing. These two families were not long afterward joined by other families who took up land and built their homes on the slope, which rises rather abruptly to the height of one hundred feet and then to three hundred feet, a half mile back from the river. This situation was fine and the extensive view of the river and the high hills across it, in the town of Middletown, was most charming. It is a very noticable fact, that while Yankees always were intensely practical (and still are practical and always will be, with a keenness after profit, as the " Yorkers " claim), they were and are, more than any other people, lovers of Nature and her beauties, so their homes and little settlements were generally located in the most beautiful spots and where the view was fine. For about fifty years the settlers cleared and cultivated the land and hunted, trapped and fished. Fishing in those days, and for many decades thereafter, meant shad and salmon. It hardly seems possible now, that there was a time when salmon were so common that it was customary in one or another of the river towns, especially Hartford, when an apprentice was indentured, to demand that he should not be given salmon oftener than a certain specified number of times a week. Agriculture and hunt ing and trapping were succeeded, as the chief occupation, by boat building about 1760, the first to be launched being sloops and small schooners. The first ship was launched from the Middle Haddam yards in 1763. From that time the business increased and flourished till about 1805, when for some reason it fell off and eventually ceased. The prosperity of Middle Haddam, while the boat building 9 [129] 130 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. yards were at their busiest, made it a trading center for a con siderable distance to the south, east and north-east, people going there for their trading from as far off as the towns of Marlboro and lleliron, brom 1805, when the business of the boat yards beg.ui to decline, to 1838, when it ceased, there were iii vessels built, with a tol.il tonnage of 27,430. The vessels launched be tween those years were: 51 ships, 24 brigs, 21 schooners and 15 sloops, which shows that the greater number were sea-going x'cssels. < )ne of the most famous master-builders of the Con necticut River was Thomas Child, who was living in 1851, at the great age of 81;, During his long life he had charge of the con struction of 237 vessels, the greater portion of them being built in the Middle Haddam yards. The ship building industry naturally stimulated the wealthier citizens of Middle Haddam to embark in commerce, and a few of them owned the vessels they commanded, or an interest in those they helped to navigate. For thirty years the people of Middle Haddam and vicinity were obliged to journey through the woods, or by boat and canoe on the river, to Portland, Middletown or Haddam to attend church. In October, 1738, they, with a few families from Haddam Neck, petitioned for incorporation as a parish. The petition was granted and the Church was organized on September 24, 1740. The Rev. Benjamin Bowers, of Billerica, jMassachusetts, a grad uate of Harvard in the class of 1733, was the first minister. In 1744, a meeting house was built as near the center of the scattered homesteads as possible. The first Episcopal Church in Chatham was built in 1772, in the eastern portion of Middle Haddam, but it was not long-lived and the building was taken down. In 1786, another Episcopal Church was built in Middle Haddam, near the " Landing ", the Rev. Abraham Jarvis, rector of Christ Church, Middletown, officiating till 1791. There was a Methodist Church there in 1702, The meetings were held in the homes of the members, or in the school house, till I70''i, when a small church w.is built. There were at one time fifty communicants, but the membership fell off and the church was finally closed. There is a hill about two miles back from the Connecticut River, partly in Chatham and partly in Portland, that for more CHATHAM. 131 than a century was a great mineral mystery. The town line runs along the ridge of Great Hill, which rises precipitously from the pond at its south-western front, to a height above the pond of 400 feet and above the sea of 700 feet. For the first hundred years after the settlement of Middletown (which formerly in cluded the Towns of Portland and Chatham), this hill was called " The Governor's Ring ". It seems, that Governor John Winthrop, of New London, was accustomed to go to Great Hill with a servant and remain there two or three weeks at a time. When the Governor returned to New London he always had one, and sometimes several gold rings, and as everybody supposed that he obtained the gold from the hill, it came to be known as " The Governor's Ring ". On May 25, 1661, the people of Middletown granted to Governor Winthrop certain rights and privileges, and the following is a paraphrase of the document. The people of Middletown for the encouragement of our much honored governor, Mr. John Winthrop, in his efforts to discover mines and minerals, for the working of which he will set up such works as may be needful, do hereby grant unto our much honored governor, any profitable mines or minerals that he shall discover, upon any common land within the borders of our town, and such woodland as he may need, to be used in working the mines ; in area frora 500 to 1,000 acres, which woodland shall not be within two miles of the settlement, but in such place as the town shall decide will the least interfere with the town's supply of firewood. The town reserves the right of commonage until the governor incloses the property granted. It is further provided that unless the governor, and such others as may be associated with him, set up works and begin to improve the mines within five years, the town reserves the right to make this grant to other persons, and if the governor accepts this grant, he must do so within two years. The original wording of this grant was a jumble of words seemingly put together for the purpose of hiding the intention of the document. It certainly was an easy grant to live under. Had there been a dispute, all the interested parties would have been dead by the time the document had been translated into understandable English. 132 THE CONNECTICUT J' ALLEY Nothing definite was done with the supposed mine in Great Hill, till one hundred years after the grant to Governor Winthrop was made. It is probable that be found minerals in it, of several kinds, but probably not in sufficient quantities to warrant the in vestment of money for its working. In 1762, a German physician, Dr. John .Sebastian Stephauney, had a small force of men make a horizontal opening into the hill. He gave up his operations after a brief time, only to renew them in 1770. This time he had two other Germans associated with him, John Knool and Gominus Erkelens. Dr. Stephauney gave up an active interest in the enterprise and turned over the management to his partners, re serving for himself a portion of any profits there might be obtained. They agreed, that should metals or ore obtained from Great Hill be sent to England, that friends of Knool's should be the consignees ; if to Holland, friends of Erkelens' should receive them. The opening made by Dr. Stephauney was enlarged, or a new one made, and the top and sides were shored up with great tim bers for the safety of the workmen. A large number of casks filled with ore taken from the hill were sent to Europe and pos sibly to China. It was later found according to the private diary of President Stiles, of Yale College, that the mineral obtained was cobalt. Up to this time the people of Middletown and of nearby places, had no idea what had been found in the hill, as the work men were all foreigners who did not speak English. For once at least, the inquisitive Yankee, with his ever present interrogation point, failed to obtain the information sought. Under the date, January I, 1787, President Stiles' diary con tains the following entry : Mr. Erkelens visited mc full of his Cobalt mine and hi? China voyage. He some years ago bought the Governor's Ring, as it is called, or a mountain in the N. \V. corner of East Haddam, comprehending about 800 acres, or almut .1 square mile area. Hero he finds plenty of Cobalt, which he manufaeUircs into smalt, with which is made the beautiful blue on China ware &c. tiovernor Trumbull has often told me that this w.is the place to which Gmeriior Winthrop of N. London used to resort with his servant, and after .spending three weeks in the woods of this mountain, in roasting ores and assaying metals and casting gold rings, he used to re turn home to New London with plenty of gold. Hence this is called the Gov. Winthrop's ring to this day. Gow Winthrop was an adept, in intimate EAST HAMPTON. 133 correspondence with Sir Kenelm Digby, and the first chemical and philo sophical characters of the last century — as may be seen in the dedication of 40th vol. Phil. Transactions 1740. Mr. Erkelens * * * has been at £2,000 sterling expense to no profit. He is going on a voyage to China, carrying with him 20 tons of Cobalt ore. Whether Erkelens really went to China or not in 1787, is not known. The mine was abandoned and eventually the opening was closed by the caving in of the sides and top. For thirty years the mine was not worked, nor did it " work " anybody till 1818, when Seth Hunt, of New Hampshire, sunk a shaft and $20,000. He obtained a half ton of what he supposed was cobalt but which an essay, made in England, where the ore was sent, proved to be nickel with only a trace of cobalt. For twenty-four years the internals of Great Hill were not tortured by powder, pick or shovel. In the summer of 1844, Professor Shepherd, who wrote "A Report on the Geological Surve)' of Connecticut ", began operations with a few men for a short time, probably for scientific purposes, for there is no record that he ever attempted to turn the results of his labors into commercial value. In 1850, Great Hill found other victims, in the persons of Edmund Brown, and a few associates. Mr. Brown did a great deal of excavating and lost a large sum of money, and at the end of a year and three months gave up the work. EAST HAMPTON. THE village of East Hampton, not far from the center of the Township, was settled in 1743. It is located near the charming little lake called Pocotopaugh. Its fine water power was the chief cause of the settlement being made near it. Its greatest length, north and south, is a mile and one third and its greatest width, east and west, is one mile, but so charmingly ir regular are its shores that its shore-line is about nine miles. Twin Islands occupy a position near the center of the lake. They are about nine acres in area, and a third of a mile to the north is another island of about two acres. Twin Islands was a popular camping place and stronghold of the Indians. The lake and its surrounding was just such a lovely spot as the Indians prized. The first occupation of the early settlers was a' forge, from 134 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. which was produced the great quantities of iron required by the mail)' lio;it y.'irds on the Connecticut, in Middletown and its lU'inbhorbood. C)re was taken to East Plampton from West Point, and pig iron, from New York and Salisbury. The original forge w;is given up in 1S12, and in 1825 a new forge was built iipoii the site of the old one, where scythes were made, but this, in turn, was abandoned several years later. The forges were suc ceeded by several factories for the manufacture of bells, hoes, brass-kettles, pistols, satinet, and several saw and gristmills. There was a time when nearly all of the sleigh bells used in the United States and Canada were made in East Hampton. The prosperity and industrial spirit of East Hampton was very largely due to William Barton, who was born in Windsor in 1762. William Barton, the father, was a captain in Colonel Flower's Regiment of Artillery Artificers, in the Revolution and his son William was with him as assistant. He learned his trade from his father, who was armorer in Springfield in the Revolu tionary War. At the close of the war, William returned to Wintonbury, in Windsor, and made pistols and other arms. In 1790, he went to New York and started the manufacture of articles made of brass, especially andirons. He remained there for eighteen years and in 1808, went to East Hampton where he made hand bells and sleigh bells. William Barton was a man of broad mind, who loved his fellow man. He was never so happy as when benefiting others and improving the condition of the community in which he lived and worked. He taught his trade to others and it was not long before East Hampton became a thriving and prosperous community. In 1826, Mr. Barton went to Cicero, New York, where his happy influence was strongly felt. In 1846, he returned to his old home in East Hampton to spend the remaining years of his life, surrounded bv his children and the friends and neighbors who honored and loved him. His death occurred, after a long life of usefulness, in 1849. The first Church of East Hampton was organized in 1748, and its first minister was the Rev. John Norton, of Berlin, Con necticut, who was graduated from Vale in 1737. Using the expression with profound respect, Mr. Norton was ".\ Fighting Parson ", one (>f those iii;in\' patriotic heroes of thi* Congrega tional ministry in New I'Jigland, who went to the front in defence EAST HAMPTON. 135 of the British flag, in Colonial days, against the French and later, in defence of the Stars and Stripes, in the struggle for Independence. As a class, the Congregational ministers of New England were college-bred men of strong intellects and inherited refinement, who would instinctively shun violence, hardship and death, but who possessed the New England spirit (the spirit which has made the Yankee the truest type of American manhood) so strongly, that they sacrificed everything and endured great hardships with cheerfulness, that they might inspire the soldiers with courage, through the word of God ; that they might comfort and care for the wounded and sick, and commit to earth the bodies of those who fell while performing their duty to their country. Of such was the Rev. John Norton. He was born in the Parish of Kensington, in the part of Farmington that is now Berlin, in 1716. He entered Yale and was graduated in the class of 1737, and was ordained over a small congregation in Fall Town, in the town of Deerfield, now Bernardston. This was his first parish and he was its first minister. On November 30, 1748, he was settled over the Church in East Hampton where he was minister for thirty years, his death occurring in 1778. The Nortons were of Norman descent, the name being Norville till it became Anglicised. The Rev. John Norton's great-grand father was one of the eighty-four original proprietors of Bran- ford, Connecticut. His father. Sergeant John Norton, lived near Mill River crossing, on the road from Farmington to Middletown, where he was a farmer who was considered well-to-do. His mother was Anna Thompson, whose ancestors were among the early settlers of Hartford and Farmington. Fall Town was so called from the fact, that it was a grant to the men who took part in the great Indian fight, of May 18, 1676, at the Great Falls of the Connecticut (Turner's Falls) and later, its name was changed to Bernardston. On account of fear of trouble with the Indians, the little parish of Fall Town seems to have been given up and Mr. Norton dismissed, whereupon he became chaplain of a line of forts extending from Northfield, just east of the Connecticut, to Hoosic (now Adams), nearly across the Colony of Massachusetts, and along the northern border. These forts were built for defense from the French and 136 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY Indians. They were ; Northfield, Fall Town, Colerain ; Shirley, in the Town of Heath ; Pelham, in the Town of Rowe ; and Massachusetts, in the Town of Adams, the latter being where Mr. Xorton was at the time of its capture by French and Indians. Besides being chaplain of these forts, Mr, Norton preached to soldiers st.'itioned at three small settlements. The commander of this line of forts was Captain Ephraim Williams, the founder of Williams College, who was killed in battle, near Lake George, on September 8, 1755. While Chaplain Norton was making the rounds of the forts, his wife and three children lived at Fort Shirley. The attack, defence and final surrender of Fort Massachusetts to the French, and the journey through woods and over rivers and lakes to Canada, where he was held a prisoner for a ^ear, was told by Mr. Norton in his diary. On August 19, 1746, 900 French and Indians, under command of Riguard de A'audreuil, surrounded the fort at about eight o'clock in the morning. The fort was in command of Sergeant John Hawks (who later became a colonel) and contained twenty-two men, three women and five children. Eleven of the men were sick and of the other eleven, but few were strong enough to fight any length of time, much less against an army of 900. When the attack was made Sergeant Hawks ordered that no one should fire till the enemy was near enough for the shots to take effect. At the first volley several of the enemy fell and Sergeant Hawks killed the fierce chief of the St. Francis Indians. Upon investigation, later in the day. Sergeant Hawks found that the powder and bullets were nearly used up, so orders were given not to shoot, unless there was no doubt of reaching a human target. Toward night the enemy began to prepare a quantity of wood with which to burn out the defenders of the fort, so the Sergeant had every available vessel filled with water and placed about in the different rooms of the fort. Sometime in the day, John Aldrich and Jonathan Bridgman were wounded. As may be imagined, the night was filled with anxiety, and but little rest was obtained by those who had been fighting all day, and the sick \\'erc made worse 1)\- the anxiety and excitement. Although he does not say so, it is easy to guess from his narrative, that he EAST HAMPTON. 137 handled a musket with the few who were able to fight. He does say, however, that he stood watch for a part of the night. The attack was renewed the following morning and Thomas Knowlton was killed by a shot through his head. At noon of the second day's fight, Vaudreuil made known his desire to parley and it was granted by Sergeant Hawks, to whom the Frenchman prom ised the best of terms if he would surrender. Hawks said he would give his answer in two hours. Upon investigation Hawks found that there was not enough powder to last for more than a few minutes, should they make a strong attack, and although the sick men had been casting bullets and buck shot the previous day, they too, were about gone. The sentiment of those in the fort was to stand out till the last, Mr. Norton strongly favoring continued resistance, but on account of the women and sick soldiers, it was thought best to surrender upon the following terms,' That they should be prisoners of the French and that not one person should be given over to the Indians ; that the children should not be separated from their parents ; and that an exchange should be effected at the first possible opportunity. At three o'clock in the afternoon of the second day, the French commander and his officers were admitted to the fort which, manned by 22 men, 11 of whom were sick, had stood-off an army of 900 for 36 hours and only surrendered then, because there was not enough powder and shot left to defend the women and the sick. Vaudreuil promised to live up to the conditions of the surren der. As a promiser and a fighter he was a thorough Frenchman ; one of the same kind that the Dutch of the Mohawk Valley knew and loved so well, because of similar promises made and broken. The prisoners were divided between the French and their friends, the Indians. While the arrangements were being made, some of the Indians (they had so far been kept out) pulled away the underpinning and entered the fort. When they found Knowlton's body they took the scalp and cut off the head and arms. A young French man skinned one of the arms, roasted the flesh and offered it to Daniel Smeed to eat; the skin was made into a pouch for tobacco. When the division of the prisoners with the Indians took place, 138 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. Mr. Xorton showed his spirit, and that his fighting blood was up, b)' telling de X'audreuil, that had he supposed anything of the kind was to be done he would have strenuously opposed the surrender, for he would far rather have died fighting than to see any of the men killed while they had no chance to resist, and killed he was sure they would be if delivered to the Indians. Strange as it may seem, none of the prisoners were killed nor were they misused b_\' the Indians. oners were treated kindly b}- the On the contrary, the pris- : Indians and with kindness and respect by the French, Several of the prisoners who were unable to walk were carried on the backs of In dians, and the women were carried by the French. The journey through the forest was hard and often heart breaking, but the women bore it bravely and without complaint. In the midst of these hardships, on the sec ond day after the surrender, Mrs, John Smeed gave birth to a daughter. The follow ing day, August 22, Chap lain Norton christened the little girl Captivity, ^^'hile the French were unblushing liars in regard to the terms of the surrender, thev were kind and thoughtful for the women. A frame of saplings, covered with bear and deer skins, was prepared for Mrs, Smeed and the romantically-born little Captivity. U])on this the\- Avere carried h\ the French. Mr. Norton's account of the journey is simply a statement of facts and is not interesting except as it is historical and shows the stuff of which our New luigland men and women, yes, and infants, were made, for with such parents and neighbors it may be surmised that even little Captivity took her nourishment and slept, with as little crying as possible, and so became to her GIANT POrLAR ON JOEL WEST S PLACE. EAST HAMPTON. 139 fellow prisoners. Little Captivating. While Mr. Norton does not hint at anything of the kind in regard to himself (it is a narra tive of the experiences of his loved friends ; of their captors and of their journey ; not an account of his feelings and doings) it is easy to read between the short sentences of bald fact, that he was cheerful, helpful and courageous. It is also easy to see that what he calls the kindness of the French officers to himself, was really profound respect and admiration for the " fighting- parson " whose brave, courageous, cheerful Protestant Chris tianity, discovered to them the God-loving side of those God-fearing New Englanders. From start to finish Mr. Norton gives no idea that he thought he was doing anything out of .the ordinary, but he does praise his fellow prisoners for their forti tude, and the French for their kindness. The French permitted Mr. Norton to hold service for the prisoners. W^hen it was discovered that he was greatly in need of clothing of all kinds, some of the Jesuit Missionaries and some French gentlemen sent him all that he needed. A year was spent in captivity and on July 25, 1747, they set sail for Boston, arriving there on August 16, where Colonel Winslow made Mr. Norton his guest, so long as he remained in Boston. Not withstanding the sickness, hardship and privations he had passed through Mr. Norton ends his narrative with : May I never forget the many, great and repeated mercies of God towards me. Mr. Norton's patriotic, unselfish courage was shown in the eighth year of his pastorate in East Hampton, in 1755, when the second French War was in progress, for he again joined the army and went as Chaplain on the expedition to Crown Point. The first church building in East Hampton was a long time in being finished and even then, it was a most primitive affair. There was no vestibule or entrance hall, the doors opening directly into the church. Between the side aisles and the walls were rows of box pews and between the middle aisle and the side aisles were two rows of box pews. These pews were square and had seats around the four sides so that a portion of the congregation sat with its back to the minister and another por tion with its sides toward him. The seats were rough boards supported by wooden horses. 140 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. The top of the fence-like structure inclosing the box pews was ornamented In- open wood work something like miniature balusters. Some of these were not tight and when turned in their sockets would give out a squeaking noise, of the kind to delight the heart of a child. It is a tradition, that an oppor tunity to turn a loose one and so relieve the monotony of the long drawn out and tiresome services of those strenuous religious days, was seldom missed by the boys. The pulpit was opposite the doors, on a platform long and narrow. Three or four ste|)s at the western end of the platform led to the pulpit, which was paneled and painted white. A gallery was around three sides of the church and the choir occu pied the front seats in that portion of the galler}- opposite the pulpit. A pitch-pipe, used for giving the key, was the nearest approach to instrumental music. The two ends of the gallery contained the seats for the slaves. Attached to the posts sup porting the gallery, which were painted blue, were sockets with drip-cups for holding the " tallow dips ", or candles, by which the church was lighted at night. WHien extra light was needed the people brought candle sticks from their homes. Attending church in those days in the winter was a hardship as well as a duty, for there was no means of heating the building. Heat in a church was regarded as an un-Godly luxury for many years. The members of the congregation sat bundled up as for a sleigh ride. When the first talk of " improvements " was started, it called forth strong opposition, for anything like progress or im provements in the church savored of " Popery " or even the works of Satan. But gradually changes were made. An entrance hall was partitioned off ; the box pews in the middle of the church were removed and ordinary seats, with the sitters facing the minister, were substituted. And then, luxury of luxuries, two stoves were set up, one near the west and the other near the east door. In the center of the church, above the heads of the congregation, was a drum into which long lengths of stove pipe entered from the two stoves. The joints of these long pipes leaked and many a garment or head covering was ruined, till finally matters were a little improved by the placing of square pans under the leaking joints. Later slill, a whale-oil chandelier was put m and then EAST HAMPTON. 141 the members began to make their pews more comfortable with cushions on the seats and carpets on the floor. But it remained for the pretty, vivacious young wife of the Rev. Joel West to cause the sensation of East Hampton, for not only was she brought to her future home in a carriage, the first seen in East Hampton, but she had the first carpet ever seen in any home of the village. Tradition has it, from the memory of an old resident of the charming village, that when Deacon Bill had occasion to call at the parsonage, he walked around the edges of the carpet so as not to step upon so beautiful a thing. The ordination of the Rev. Joel West in the old church, on October 17, 1792, was a great event in East Hampton. The THE REV, JOEL WEST S HOUSE, Miss Betsy Brockway was greatly pleased with it and remarked in a joking way, " See, that is my house." people came from great distances, great in those days of horse back and oxcart transportation, and one woman, it is said, arrived at the church by sunrise to be sure to get a good seat. Among others, were the Rev. Thomas Brockway and his charming daughter, who rode over from Lebanon (now Columbia) to attend the ordination. The house which was later bought by 1-12 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY Mr. A\'est for his home, was much more pretentious than the average in the village and was delightfully situated on the shore of the lake. When Miss Betsey Brockway passed this house she was greatly pleased with it and remarked in a joking way to her companions : See, that is my house. She was an unconscious prophetess, for she became the girl- britle of the \'oung minister on November ii, 1794, and presided with grace, dignity and charming vivacity over the home by the lake, that she had so greatly admired. Tradition tells, that when she first appeared in church in her wedding gown, the like had never before been seen. Her hair was " banged " across her forehead and hung in a long braid down her back. She wore a bright-colored changeable silk dress. Over this she wore a cloak of red broadcloth with a hood trimmed with swansdown and on her pretty head was a white satin bonnet trimmed with swansdown. The cradle in which her twelve children were rocked is still in existence. As has been said, music was somewhat primitive in the eight eenth century in New England rural churches. In the spring of 1760, Captain Jonathan Alvord was selected to " set the psalm " and Seth Alvord was chosen as chorister, as were Robert Shattuck, Titus Carrier, and Bryan Parmlee. The pitch-pipe was in the form of a book, longer than wide, with a mouth piece at one corner and on the sides were slides which made the dif ferent keys. The part taken by the men of East Hampton, in the Colonial and Revolutionary Wars was a creditable one. As the names of the men wdio fought for their King and later their Country, will be of interest to their descendants, they are given here, but it is not a complete list : Stephen Ackley Marcus Cole Joshua ilailey Moses Freeman James Bailey Simeon Freeman James Bill Benjamin Goff Recompt'iise Bailey Samuel Goff Josiah Caswell John Hailing Titus Carrier Daniel Hills EAST HAMPTON. 143 Stephen Knowlton Elkanah Sears John Norton William White Bryan Parmlee James Webb Joseph Smith Simeon Young Michael Smith These were the men who fought for the King in the French and Indian War. Besides them, there were in Captain Savage's company ; John Bevin, Josiah Clark, Amos Dewey and Thomas Shepard. In Captain Champion's company ; Lemuel Shurtleff, Samuel Mott, and Abner Norket. The Rev. John Norton's military record has already been given. The only reason that he was not personally active in the Con tinental army, in the War for Independence, was, that advancing years prevented it. Among those who were in the Revolution were: Ezera Ackley Daniel Hill William Bevin Thomas Hill Elijah Bailey John Johnson Joshua Bailey James Johnson, Jr. Caleb Cook Samuel Kilbourn Daniel Clark Benjamin Kneeland, ensign Amos Clark Timothy Percival, lieut. Elijah Clark Daniel Mackall Elisha Cornwell Nathaniel Markham David Cornwell Stephen Olmsted Nehemiah Day Ithamar Pelton Silas Dunham^ capt. Daniel Park Marcus Cole, ord. sgt. Ralph Smith Sylvanus Freeman Samuel Sexton Samuel Freeman William White Hezekiah Goff Lazarus Watrus Nathaniel Garnsey Ezra Purple Samuel Hill Then there is that longer list of names of the heroic women who, without the excitement and the glory of battle and the courage given by numbers, sacrificed all that was dear to them, and who toiled and suffered uncomplainingly that the Cause might be helped on. Their names have never been printed and never will be, but the New England States, with their rugged 144 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. grandeur and lovely, peaceful valleys stand as a perpetual monu ment to them, for with-out the New England women the Nation would never have been won. PORTLAND. TPIERE is not, perhaps, a town in the State of Connecticut so widely known by name as Portland, the sandstone quarries of which have made it famous. Portland was settled about 1690, by John Gill and James Stancliffe, their houses being on the river bank near what is now the principal street of the village. These two were soon after joined by William Cornwall, who made his " pitch " back from the meadow. They and their families were obliged to attend " meeting " across the river in iliddletown. In 1714 a petition was sent to the General Court, signed by thirty-one persons, re questing that they be given parish privileges. The petition was granted and in 1716, the people built a little church, forty by twenty-six feet, on the hill. The Church was organized in 1721, and the Rev. Daniel Newell, of Bristol, a graduate of Yale in the class of 1718, was its first minister. In 1789, there being fourteen Episcopal families in Portland, they decided to build a church. It was finished in 1790, when the number of families in the parish had increased to thirty-four. The Rev. Abraham Jarvis, rector of Christ Church, ^Middletown, was the first rector of the Portland Church, in connection with the one in Middletown. The famous sandstone of Portland was known and used soon after the settlement of Middletown, in 1650, for building pur poses and for grave stones. At first, there was no quarrying. The great pieces that were broken from the cliffs by the frost were broken up and worked down, for a long time before regular and systematic quarrying was attempted. The stone was seen to be of a fine and superior quality and was in demand in Middle- town, and in neighboring hamlets. As the demand exhausted the surface supply the work of digging the stone out of the ground, where it had fallen from the cliffs to be covered by earth and debris, washed over it by the high water from the river, was begun. The stone was regarded as common property and was taken by any one, from everywhere. By 1665, the people of Middletown PORTLAND. 145 (Portland was then East Middletown) began to realize, that the stone was valuable. They decided that no more of it should be removed on flatboats, or otherwise, by strangers. The Town voted that only inhabitants of Middletown should take the stone, and that even they should pay to the Town twelve pence for each ton taken. Eventually, the Town disposed of the ledge to private parties, when systematic quarrying was begun. Another quarry, a few rods south of the original one, was opened in 1783, and from that year the business increased to its present proportions. There was a time when Portland's boat and ship building yards OLDEST HOUSE IN PORTLAND. were of much more importance and profit than its quarries, but the advent of railroads materially hurt the business. For a hun dred years Portland built ships and schooners that had enviable reputations, for their staunchness and seaworthiness. The first vessel launched from the Portland yards was a 90-ton schooner, in October, 1741. Then followed a long line of merchantmen, men-o'war and privateers in Revolutionary days. Among them were ; " The Trumbull ", of 700 tons carrying 36 guns ; " The Bourbon ", 900 tons, carrying 40 guns, or rather it was designed for that number but they were never mounted, as peace with Great Britain was declared before the ship was quite finished; 10 146 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. " The Connecticut ", 514 tons, 20 guns, built at Stevens' Wharf, in 1799. Churchill's )ard began operations in 1795, and the fol lowing vessels were launched ; " The Holker ", 350 tons, 18 guns, built in 1813. She was driven ashore by the British at Narra gansett and wrecked, so another ship of the same name was built, in 1814, of 400 tons and 20 guns. The name seems to have been unlucky for she was wrecked in a storm on Long Island. " The Macedonian ", 400 tons and 20 guns was built in the same year; " The Saranac ", 373 tons and 16 guns ; and " The Boxer ", 367 tons and 16 guns, were built in 1815. They were the last of the war ships built in Portland. The " Trumbull ", " Bourbon ", " Connecticut ", " Saranac " and " Boxer ", were built for the United States Navy. In the decade ending with 1816, Churchill turned out vessels of a total tonnage of 12,500. In that year the ship building industry declined somewhat in the Portland yards, still, in the thirty-four years succeeding 1816, Elizur Abbey launched thirty-five vessels ranging from 75 to 300 tons, and Gildersleeve launched sixty-nine vessels ranging from 75 to 700 tons. It is interesting, that in Portland originated the line of packets which later became prominent as The New York and Galveston Line. Alexander Keith, Joseph J. and William Hendly, of ]\Iiddletown ; and Gildersleeve, of Portland, built the schooner, William Bryan, in 1836, which was the first regular packet to sail from New York to a Texan port. The Bryan was followed by five ships and two barks for this line, all of which were built in Portland. The falling off in the ship building industry on the Connecticut River is something to be regretted. It is possible, even probable, that the industries which succeeded that one are more profitable, if vastly less dignified. There is something particularly grand and inspiring in sea-going vessels and the men employed in build ing them were Yankee mechanics of a high order : men of in telligence and broad minds who seemed to put some of their own sterling qualities into vessels they constructed. The men who are employed in the industries of to-day are of another class and almost all, of other nationalities. In this year of 1905, in the few villages and towns of the New England coast, where the princi pal occupation is ship building, the people are of a superior class, broader-minded and more conversant \vith the affairs of the world, and the foreign population is, in many instances, entirely lacking. WETHERSFIELD. WHEN the people of Watertown, Massachusetts, moved to the Connecticut Valley they settled at a great bend in the river at a place called by the Indians Pyquag, meaning the dancing place or place for public games, which they named Wethersfield. This was the first permanent settlement in Connecticut. Here the few pioneers built their poor little log- cabins and passed a hard winter of cold and privation, but they were content in the knowledge that they were far from the irk some conditions in Massachusetts which, to be rid of, they had taken the long, wearying journey to the Connecticut. Early in the following year the people left behind in Water- town, who were destined for the Connecticut, arrived, the major ity coming by ship. It is said that they arrived several months earlier than the Hooker party, which made the journey through the forest. After the vessel which bore them to their new home in the west, lay moored by the bank of the river, the honor of being the first to set foot upon the land of hope and promise was hotly contested by the men of the party, each one stating this or that reason why he was entitled to enjoy the privilege. While this dispute was going on a woman, by the name of Bar ber, seeing an opportunity to wrest the honor and privilege from the men, jumped from the vessel and reaching the shore made herself famous, for so long as the history of Connecticut shall exist, by being the first white woman to tread upon Connecticut soil. The village was built upon a slight, flat elevation, above the rich meadows that lay along the river. Could one of those early settlers come back to Wethersfield now and find the streets and houses just as he knew them in 1635, he would still be at a loss to know where he was. This confusion would be caused by the great change in the appearance and course of the river. It would be difficult to describe the changes which have taken place in the Connecticut at Wethersfield, since 1635. The change in the course of the river at Wethersfield was the cause of at least [147] 148 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. one law suit, for land which had formerly been on the east side of the ri\'er was found to be on the west side. An account of the resulting law suit is .given under the caption, Glastenbury. Wethersfield was so situated that it was more harried by the Indians, being nearer to the Pequots' headquarters, than either of the two other settlements, Hartford and Windsor. One of tliC most atrocious acts of that cruel and bloodthirsty tribe, the Pequots, committed in Wethersfield was one of the chief causes for the I'equot war of 1637. In April, 1637, as the men were going into the fields to begin the work preliminary to planting, they were ambushed by a band of Pequots. Three women and six men were killed and scalped and two girls were taken as prisoners ; twenty cows were killed and considerable other prop erty was destroyed. From 1673, to 1693, the Town of AA^ethersfield included the present Towns of Newington, Glastenbury, Rocky Hill, and por tions of Berlin and Marlborough. In October 1693, the area of Wethersfield was reduced one half, by cutting off all that part on the east side of the Connecticut River. Wethersfield was the mother-town of many of the towns in western Connecticut. In 1638, and '39, there was an exodus to Quinnipiac by Lieutenant Robert Seeley and John Evans, to whom the old records gave the title of gentlemen ; Abraham Bell, John Clark, John Gibbs, Richard Gildersleve, John Livermore, and Richard Miles. In 1639, the Rev. Peter Pruden headed a considerable company that settled at Milford — then called Wepo- waug — in 1640, the Rev. Richard Denton and about thirty others, went to Stamford — then called Rippowams — and in 1639, and '40, a small company settled Stratford — then called Cupheag. In 1644, and '45, Branford — then called Totoket — was settled by the Rev. John Sherman, Robert Abbott, Roger Betts, Leslie Bradfield, Robert Foot, John Norton, AMlliam Palmer, John Plumb, Sam Richells, Robert Rose, Charles Taintor, John Ward, Thomas AMiitway. The Rev. ]\Ir. Sherman went from Wethersfield to Milford in 1639, thence to Branford. He was an ancestor of General W. T. Sherman and Senator John Sherman. B\- 1660, the number in Branford had been increased by about sixty other settlers. In 1(150, the trouble in the Hart ford Cliurch caused another and considerable exodus, this time WETHERSFIELD. 149 to Hadley, Massachusetts, under the spiritual leadership of the Rev. John Russell, Jr. This was the last organized company to leave Wethersfield. Unlike the settlers of Hartford and Windsor, those of Wethers field had no organized Church when they arrived in the Valley of the Connecticut. The Church was not organized till the spring of 1636. Although there were several ministers in Wethers field the Church did not have a minister, till the Rev. Henry Smith was settled over the parish, in 1641. Mr. Smith's pas- WEBB HOUSE, WETHERSFIELD. torate was made unpleasant by that still-existing cause of dis cord — the rich and influential member — who in this instance was the ruling elder, Clement Chaplin. The Rev. John Russell, Jr., who went to Hadley, was the second minister. Unlike the majority of the Connecticut towns, Wethersfield's ministers were constantly changing, their pastorates being brief. The Rev. John Cotton was minister from 1660, to 1663 ; the Rev. Joseph Haynes, son of Governor Haynes, succeeded Mr. Cotton for about a year ; the Rev. Thomas Buckingham preached for one or two months, 150 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. in 1664; in 1664 and 1665, the Rev. Jonathan Willoughby preached ; the Rev. Samuel Wakeman preached for a few months in 1666; the Rev. Samuel Stone — son of the original Samuel Stone of Hartford — from 1666 to 1669. The Rev. Gershom Bulkeley became minister in 1667, and continued as such till his health failed in 1676. Mr. Bulkeley was a man of broad mind and liberal education. He was a graduate of Harvard and was as well known throughout New England for his skill as a sur geon and lawyer, as for his ability as a preacher. In the Indian War of 1675, he served in the dual capacity of chaplain and surgeon. His wife was a daughter of President Chauncey of Harvard. The Rev. Joseph Rowlandson was the minister from 1677, to 1678, in which year he died; the Rev. John Woodbridge, from 1679, till his death in 1691 ; the Rev. William Partridge from 1691, till his death in 1693. The first typical New England pastorate began in 1693, when the Rev. Stephen Mix became the minister. Mr. Mix's pastorate continued for forty- four years, ending at his death in 1738. The Rev. Stephen Mix was a son of Thomas Alix, of New Haven. He was graduated from Harvard. His wife was Mary Stoddard, daughter of the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, whom fie married in 1696. Mr. Mix was succeeded by the Rev. James Lockwood, who was minister from 1738 till his death in 1772. Mr. Lockwood was offered and declined the presidency of Prince ton and of Yale. The Rev. Dr. John Marsh was settled in 1774. His pastorate continued for forty-six years and ended at his death in 1821. The Rev. Dr. Caleb Jewett Tenney, who was Dr. Marsh's assistant for the last five years of his pastorate, suc ceeded Dr. Marsh as minister. Dr. Tenney was graduated from Dartmouth in 1801, at the head of the class of which Daniel Webster was a member. When the first meeting-house was built is uncertain, as the records give no information on that subject. That there was a nieeting-house in 1646, which was probably begun in the pre vious year, is certain, from the records. Authorities differ as to whether this was the first or second church structure. In 1685, a new church was built not far from the site of that of 1646, and in 1761, the present fine specimen of Colonial church-archi tecture was erected, not far from the sites of its predecessors. It WETHERSFIELD. 151 is of the same style as the famous Old South Church, on Wash ington street, in Boston. General Washington, and the elder Adams, attended service there. The first Baptist Church was organized in 1784, and the first church edifice was erected in 1816. Although George White- field preached under the great elm on Broad street, in 1740, Methodism cannot be said to have started till 1790, when Jesse Lee, of Virginia, and Freeborn Garrettson preached in Wethers field, but the first Methodist church was not built till 1824. An attempt was made by the Rev. Samuel Johnson, of Stratford, to establish an Episcopal Church in Wethersfield in 1729, but no parish was organized in the town till 1797, in that portion that is now Newington. It soon ceased to exist. There were schools in the town for many years before 1700. The records show that the first school-house was in such condition that it was unfit for use in 1660. While Wethersfield of to-day is proud of the fact that it has no hotel nor any place where the weary and hungry traveler may rest and eat, it was well supplied with taverns in the old days. John Saddler was probably the first tavern-keeper, in 1642, on High street. In 1675, Richard Smith, who was the ferryman, kept a tavern on the New London road, at the ferry ; and John Belden was licensed to keep a tavern in the same year, on Broad street. John Devotion kept a tavern in 1713; Benjamin Belden, in 1714; Corporal John Francis in 1717. Stillman's tavern was the house in which Washington consulted with officers of his army, in 1781. Wethersfield had a library just after peace was declared in 1783. In the Revolution, Wethersfield men took an active and un selfish part, as in fact they did in all the wars, from the Pequot, soon after the first settlement, down to the Civil War, of 1861. In Colonel John Chester, Colonel Samuel B. Webb, and Captain Ezekiel P. Belden, Wethersfield had the honor of being the home of three original members of the Order Cincinnati. Ship building was carried on in Wethersfield at a very early date, but it was not of the importance in tonnage or profit that it was in some of the other river towns. In 1648, Thomas Deming built the ship " Tryall ", his yard being on that part of the river that is now the Cove. The " Tryall " was one of the 152 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. first ships built in the Colony. She was in command of Captain Larabee, and Samuel Smith owned the largest share in the ship. Boats were built on the site of Deming's yard for about 200 years. Tn 1672, there was another \-ard started, just to the north of the Rocky Plill landing, where a thriving business was carried on and a consider;ible number of vessels were built. The commerce of Wethersfield was chiefly fur-bearing pelts and pipe- staves; the former were shipped to Europe and the latter to the West Indies. Among the more notable sea-captains were the following: in the Still- man family were, Otis Southmayde, George, Simeon, Francis, Charles, Allyn, and Jo seph Stillman, who v. as the grandfather of ]Massachusett's fine pa triot of the Revolu tionary days, James Otis. Other men who were connected with the sea as captains or merchants, were \\"\\- liam Griswold, Joseph \\'ebb, Justus Riley and Barnabas Deane. Some of the great est industries of the State of Connecticut. either originated in Wethersfield, or were started by natives of that village. To begin with the most primitive manufacturing interests, it is probable that the dam across Mill Brook — some times called Sucker Brook — built by Leonard Chester, in 1637, to store water for turning the wheel of his gristmill, was the first dam built in the Connecticut \'alley. The great britannia works of Meriden with its present allied industries, was founded by Ashbel Griswold, who was born in that portion of Wethersfield that is now Rocky Hill. About the year 1785, Captain Thomas Danforth, of Rocky Hill, manufac- CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, WETHERSFIELD. WETHERSFIELD. 153 tured articles of tin and pewter. The greater portion of his goods were sent to the Southern States. Young Griswold, one of Captain Danforth's apprentices, went to Meriden in 1808, and began the manufacture of block-tin, out of which grew the britan nia works. Griswold died in 1853, leaving a large fortune. Although the first broom, of broom-corn, was made in Hadley, in 1797, it was made by Levi Dickenson, a native of Wethers field, who moved to Hadley. There is a tradition that Dickenson cultivated the first broom-corn in Wethersfield, before he moved to Hadley. While it is not claimed to be the first of the kind, the leghorn hats made by JNIiss Sophia Woodhouse — who married Gurdon Welles — in 1819, should not be passed by. Miss Woodhouse made the hats of red-top and spear-grass which grew about W^ethersfield, using the upper portion of the stalks. In 1821, the Society of Arts, in London, awarded her a prize of twenty guineas for a bonnet she had made of those grasses, which was exhibited at the fair of the Society. She was also granted a patent by the United States, in the same year. The color and fineness of her hats was said to be superior to the best Leghorn. On December 11, 1782, Wethersfield, and, indeed, the country for many miles around, was greatly excited and shocked by the murder of his entire family by one of Wethersfield's most prominent merchants and respected citizens, and by his suicide. A peculiar fact in connection with the crime is, that horrible as it was, it seems to have been prompted by a combination of love, and selfish cowardice, due to inability to bear loss of property. William Beadle had decided to kill himself rather than bear, what he thought to be, the shame of poverty. At the same time, he thought it would be cruel to leave his wife and children to bear poverty alone, so he killed them too. Mr. Beadle was born in the village of Essex, near London, and was supposed to be the natural son of an English gentleman, whose social position made him familiar with the court and club- life. He came to America in 1762, and lived for a time in Strat ford, Derby and in Fairfield, where he was married. About 1773, he moved to Wethersfield and was known to be possessed of considerable property. He started in the retail trade and had one of the best stocked country stores in the state. He did a 154 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY large, and what would have been a prosperous business, had Continental currency not depreciated so greatly. Instead of ac cepting Continental money at a discount, or charging an ad vanced price for his goods, as most merchants did, he accepted it at its face value believing that it would in time be at par. Instead of investing his profits he kept the cash in his house. The depreciation resulted in a loss which reduced him from affluence to real poverty. His home had been notable for its hospitality and after his loss of fortune, till he destroyed his family and himself, he continued to entertain his friends gener ously, even while he was reduced to the greatest straits in his private life. Tliat a misguided pride caused him to be unable to bear his losses with courage, is shown by an extract from one of his manuscripts, in which he expressed the opinion : If a man who has once lived well, meant well and done well, falls by unavoidable accident into poverty, and then submits to be laughed at, despised and trampled on, by a set of mean wretches as far below him as the moon is below the sun ; I say if such a man submits, he must become meaner than meanness itself, and I sincerely wish he might Viave ten years added to his natural life to punish him for his folly. Mr. Beadle fixed upon the night of N^ovember i8, 1782, for the destruction of himself and his family, but circumstances pre vented it. On the evening of December 10, he entertained some friends in his usual pleasant and hospitable manner, and was seemingly calm and undisturbed by the knowdedge, that before morning he was to kill his family and himself. Just before dawn of the next morning he killed his wife and then called the house maid, who slept in the room with the children, and sent her on an errand to the doctor, whose house was a quarter of a mile distant. He then killed the four children, a son and three daughters, and finally himself. The people of the village were greatl\ excited by the deed and demanded that the bodv of the suicide-murderer should be buried at a cross roads, with a stake driven through its breast, but when the choice of loca tion was considered, no place conld be decided upon, as no one was willing to have it near his house or property. The body was finally buried between high and low water on the river bank, with the bloody knife fastened to its breast, but it was partly washed WETHERSFIELD. 155 out later and so was again buried secretly. The place being found by some children it was buried a third time, secretly. Mr. Beadle was fifty-two and his wife thirty-two. It is strange, that for months Mrs. Beadle had experienced horrible dreams in which she saw her children lying dead from violence. These dreams had the effect of convincing Mr. Beadle that his contemplated act was proper and that his wife's dreams were inspired by Heaven to convince him that his and their SILAS DEANE HOUSE, WETHERSFIELD. Chair to right once the property of Napoleon. deaths were justified. Beadle beheved that it was evidence of sublime heroism to die by one's own act and that, " The Deity would punish no one who was impatient to visit God and learn his will from his own mouth, face to face ". The remnants of the superstition that believed in \vitches and burned innocent persons for practicing witchcraft, was shown by the people at the time of this tragedy. On December 10, the day before the murders were committed, the weather was fine and there was a 156 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. full moon. The following is quoted from a letter written at the time, by a gentleman to a friend, and shows that superstition existed : ''' * * neither the sun nor moon were visible from the time this horrid deed was done till the body of the man was laid beneath the clods, which redoubled the horror ; when suddenly the wind blew from the north-west, dispelled the vapors and discovered a cloudless sky. Rocky Hill was sct off from W^ethersfield and incorporated as a separate town in 1843. In 1720, when the inhabitants of Rocky Hill wished to become a separate parish, the people of Wethersfield changed the general order of things, when such a desire was made known, by voting to give the Rocky Hill people that which they desired, instead of opposing it. The petitioners were Joseph Cole, Richard Butler, Samuel Belden, Joseph Butler, Jonathan Curtis, Samuel Collins, Joseph Crowfoot, Elihu Dickin son ; Thomas, John and Gideon Goodrich ; Thomas Williams, Sr., Jonathan Smith, John Stephens, William Nott, Stephen Williams, John Taylor ; Jonathan, Jacob and Joseph Riley ; Samuel Smith and Abraham Morris. In the spring of 1722, the General Court incorporated the parish and Joseph Grimes, Jonathan Curtis and Benjamin ^^'right were appointed a committee to fix upon the site for the meeting house. The first name chosen for the parish was Lexington, after the town of that name in Alassachusetts, the former home of Mr. Grimes, but he suggested, that it would be better not to have two Lexingtons, so Stepney was fixed upon as the name. This was the name of the parish till 1S26, when the Legislature changed it to Rocky Hill, and if the Legislature should change it to the old name, or to a new one, it would be doing a good thing. Rocky Hill is neither pleasant to the ears, the eyes, nor the imagination. The original eastern boundary was not at the river, but in 1759, the parish was increased in size by extending the eastern boundary to the Connecticut, and extensions of the western and northern boundaries were made. In 1794, there was a slight contraction of the area of the parish, by adding some of it to the Parish of Worthington, in the Town of Berlin. When the parish was first talked of in 1720, the Town granted to the pros- THE NOTT FAMILY. 157 pective Church, sixty acres of farm land, and eight acres for the " home lot " upon which the parsonage was to be built, on the south side of the road from Rocky Hill to Griswoldville. It is supposed, that the meeting-house was begun in the same year the land was given. It was not finished till about 1725. The Rev. Daniel Russell, son of the Rev. Noadiah Russell, one of the founders of Yale, was settled in July, as the first minister. His pastorate continued for thirty-eight years, ending in 1764. The second minister was the Rev. Burrage Merriam, from 1765, to 1776; the third, was the Rev. John Lewis, from 1781, to 1792; the fourth, was the Rev. Dr. Calvin Chapin, from 1794, to 1851. Dr. Chapin was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, and was graduated at Yale in the class of 1788. He studied for the ministry with the Rev. Dr. Nathan Perkins, of West Hartford. From 1791, to '94, he was a tutor at Yale. THE NOTT FAMILY. It has been mentioned elsewhere, that the people who settled Connecticut were of a superior class, and that many of the fami lies were possessed of considerable means. Of this class were the Notts, of Wethersfield. The first American ancestor of the Nott family was John Nott, who came to America and settled in Wethersfield, in 1640, Just after the adoption of the famous Constitution, when the young Colony was becoming stronger each year. John Nott was born in Nottingham, England. The old records give him the title of sergeant, which in those days was a title of considerable distinction. It was probably on a par with that of captain now, and besides, it must be remembered, that the military and civil offices were given to men of note in the community, so even the lowest title marked the man who bore it. John Nott owned much land and after the year 1665, was for several years a member of the General Court. He was survived by one son and two daughters. The elder of the daughters, Elizabeth, married Robert Reeve, the ancestor of Judge Tapping Reeve, founder of the Litchfield Law School, and the other, Hannah, married John Hale and so she became the grandmother of Captain Nathan Hale of glorious Revolutionary memory. The youngest child was the son John, who was named for his 15S THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. WETHERSFIELD ELM. THE NOTT FAMILY. 159 father. It is from his large family, which included seven sons, that so many of America's notable ministers and educators of the name of Nott are descended, and although some of them were born in other towns, their origin in America was Wethersfield. On March 28, 1683, John Nott, the son, married Patience Miller, a widow. They had seven sons and two daughters. The sons and daughters were honors to their name. Abraham, the youngest son, who was born on January 29, 1696, obtained a liberal education and entered the Congregational ministry. Abraham prepared for Yale College and was graduated in 1720, just after the removal of that institution to New Haver* from Saybrook. He then studied for the ministry and was ordained minister of the Second Congregational Church of Say brook, in that portion that is now Essex, on November 16, 1725. This, his first and only pastorate, extended over a period of thirty-four years and thus began a record for long pastorates for which the Nott family is famous. Abraham Nott was strong, morally, mentally and physically. In College he was a notable athlete and generally won against all competitors in contests requiring great strength and endurance. There is a tradition that his strength was so great that he could raise a barrel of cider and drink from the bung-hole. As a wrestler he was irre sistible ; as a preacher he was earnest, and convincing. With one exception the men of the Nott family were thrifty and had ability to accumulate property. Even the ministers of the family were good business men and although their lives as ministers were full, with their pastoral duties, they still found time for looking after their property. The Rev. Abraham Nott died on January 24, 1759, and left a fine property to his four sons. One of these sons, Stephen, was the unfortunate member of the family. He was regarded as " a well informed man " and had received a good education, although he was not a college- man. Stephen started well in business at the age of twenty-one. He had a thorough knowledge of tanning and farming, but as he preferred commercial pursuits, he opened a store in Saybrook, in 1749. That same year he married the second daughter of Samuel Selden, of Lyme, the beautiful Deborah Selden, who was but seventeen at the time of her marriage, and her husband but i6o THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY twenty-one. The Seldens were among the best families at the southern end of the Connecticut river. The future for these two young persons seemed bright. Of equal social position and intelligence, and the husband with a good business, they little anticipated the misery and poverty that was to be theirs. But Stephen had no more than experienced his first loss of fortune than he discovered that he possessed a mine of unknown wealth in his brilliant and beautiful young wife. As year after year passed and their poverty became more burdensome, Deborah Nott's grand spirit developed. Her courage and splendid forti- OLDEST HOUSE IN WETHERSFIELD. tude would have caused her husband, had he possessed those qualities, to conquer adversity, but Stephen could not stand up under hard times and finally the gently born Deborah, accus tomed in her parental home to all the refinements and luxury of the times, became the support of her " sick " husband and large family of children. It is not impossible, that what the young mother was experiencing while she was bearing her chil dren and while they were young and easily infl>ienced by such nobility as hers, was the fire that separated the pure metal from THE NOTT FAMILY. i6i the dross, for two of her sons became famous ; one of them the greatest educator of the nineteenth century. Neither of these men possessed a single characteristic of their father's. Their Nott characteristics, of great energy, singleness of purpose, ability to overcome difficulties, great strength of will, mind and body, all came from their grandfather and his father and grand father. From the Seldens, they inherited their brilliancy, their elegance of manner; and the great educator, the Rev. Eliphalet Nott, D.D., the eloquence which makes his eulogy of Alexander Hamilton as much admired to-day as it was when he uttered it. The first serious trouble that came into the life of Stephen was in 1759, when the home and all it contained was destroyed by fire. The fire occurred in the night and Samuel (one of the two famous sons), then but five years old, was rescued by his mother at great risk to her own life. A minister who was a guest of the Notts was also rescued by Mrs. Nott with great difficulty. Friends of Stephen Nott made it possible for him to build a new home, and his business prospered so greatly that it seemed as if he would soon recover from the loss he had sus tained through the fire. Before a year had passed, the last straw was laid upon a seemingly weak back and from that time onward the fortunes of Stephen dwindled till real poverty was reached. Stephen Nott's business was of the kind known in those days as a general store. He dealt in a great variety of articles. The chief source of his profit was horses. These he would buy from the surrounding farms, giving goods from his store in payment. He, of course, gave the smallest price for which he could obtain the horses, and charged the full retail price for the goods taken in exchange. Here was one profit. In addition, there was a demand for horses in New Jersey at that time, where 'he drove them when he had a herd of sufficient size, and sold them for a good price. On the occasion in question, he was returning with his saddle-bags well filled with money, when highway-men knocked him senseless and took the entire proceeds of the year's business. For some unaccountable reason his creditors lost con fidence in him, refused an extension of time and attempted to confine him in the debtors' prison. He successfully eluded arrest and, after the passage of the insolvency act, returned to his home. Through the assistance of a relative, Stephen was able to pur- II 1 62 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. chase a small house with a little land, in East Haddam, on credit, where he made use of his knowledge of the tanner's trade to start in that business. l-'ive or six years of struggle with adversity were passed in East Pladdam, and had Mrs. Nott been as easily discouraged as was her husband, the family would probably have gone to pieces. Besides her usual housekeeping duties Mrs. Nott had a family of six small children to care for, make clothes for and to teach. In addition, there were long periods in which her husband was laid up with malaria — the disease that is so apt to afflict persons wdio are without energy or spirit — in which she supported the SECOND OLDEST HOUSE IN WETHERSFIELD. family by making dresses, knitting stockings and teaching drawing. Deprived of the refinement and cultivation of her girlhood; with no hope of reward in this life ; stimulated only by a Divinely inspired sense of duty and by her deep love for her husband and children, Mrs. Nott made a drudge of herself and, notwithstand ing, kept herself joyous and cheerful for the sakes of those she loved and because it was her duty. Deborah Selden Nott was THE NOTT FAMILY. 163 a type of New England woman that existed then, exists now and always will exist, so long as New England cherishes its traditions and the memory of the noble men and women who made it what it is. The world is better for her having lived in it. Who can estimate the value of her quiet self-sacrificing life, or measure the widespread influence for good ; for education ; for State and National progress; that was accomplished in the ninety-three years in which her son Eliphalet lived. He often said, that his mother's teaching and influence had made him what he was, and that which he had been able to accomplish was due to her training and example. It is a lamentable fact, that while historians record the noble, unselfish lives of New England men, the same qualities in the lives of the New England women — ¦ who did as much toward the making of the Nation as the men and sacrificed more — are taken for granted and remain unrecorded. The heroic men of the Colonial and Revolutionary periods received a certain de gree of reward for what they did, or accomplished, from the deference paid them and honors bestowed upon them by their fellow men. The women expected neither recognition nor honors ; they accomplished, sacrificed and suffered willingly, with happy faces, content to be unknown, because they loved their country and their God. And of such was Deborah Selden Nott. From East Haddam, the family moved two miles east to a little hamlet called Foxtown, where the struggles were even harder and in 1772, they moved again, this time entirely out of the Connecticut Valley, to Ash ford, in Windham County, where the desolate country resembled the barren wastes of the moon. Of the two famous sons of Stephen and Deborah Nott, Samuel was born in Saybrook, on January 23, 1754; and Eliphalet, in Ashford, June 25, 1773. The Rev. Abraham Nott left his valuable library to his grand son Samuel, in the hope that he would choose the ministry for his hfe's work. The poverty of his parents would have made this hope of his grandfather impossible, had Samuel not pos sessed those qualities which his father lacked and which were so striking in his ancestors. He began early in his life to ren der every possible assistance to his mother. His early attend ance at school were brief, intermittent periods, for the small 164 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. wages he was able to earn were needed at home. Of good blood from both sides of the house, his pride was not false, so he buckled to whatever work he could find that would bring in a little money. On one of his book and trinket peddling trips, he stopped in a place where the district school was without a teacher. The Nott intellect was well known, so he was given the chance to fill the vacancy for two months, with " a steel trust " salary of four dollars a month. Samuel undertook the duties of teaching with OLD TAVERN, WETHERSFIELD. reluctance. Pie feared that some of the older pupils would dis cover his deficiencies. That he might do his best for his pupils, hc studied the next day's lessons the night before and so, was not only able to do well for the school, but was also acquiring the most practical kind of education for himself. All of the money he received was sent to his mother, his board and lodging being a part of his salary. This teaching revived his dormant ambition for a college education. After overcoming difiiculties and disappointments that would have laid his father up with a serious attack of " malaria ", he found the friend in need in the THE NOTT FAMILY. 165 person of the Rev. Daniel Welsh, of Mansfield, who made it possible for Samuel to enter Yale College. This he did and was graduated with credit with the class of 1780. He then studied for the Church under the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, who was at that time minister of a New Haven Church. After acting as supply for the Church in Bridgehampton, Long Island, he was called to the Congregational Church of Franklin, Connecticut, and was ordained as its minister, on March 13, 1782. As was the case with his grandfather, Abraham Nott, his first parish was his only one and it continued over a period of seventy-one years, ending with his death, on May 26, 1852. Eliphalet's boyhood was hard enough, but his youth and edu cation were far easier than had been his brother Samuel's. Samuel was nineteen years older than Eliphalet so, when the time came for Eliphalet to leave the poor home in Ashford, after the death of his inspiring mother, Samuel was well settled as the minister at Franklin and there, in his brother's home Eliphalet spent many years, and was educated. Eliphalet taught in the country schools and lat-er was appointed master of the Plainfield Academy, where he conceived that system of school government and discipline that he perfected as president of Union College, in Schenectady, New York, of which institution he became presi dent in 1804. While master of the Academy in Plainfield, he became intimately acquainted with the Rev. Dr. Joel Benedict and on July 4, 1796, he married the eldest daughter of his friend, Sarah Maria Benedict. In the autumn before his marriage, he had been given a degree of Master of Arts by Brown University. Immediately after his marriage, he left for New York State. From this time on his life was spent in Cherry Valley, Albany and Schenectady, so the history of it belongs to the Mohawk Valley, rather than to the valley of the Connecticut. The years of the Rev. Abraham Nott and of his two grandsons, the Rev. Samuel and the Rev. Dr. Eliphalet, spent in the ministry were 34, 71, and 63, respectively, making a total for the three lives of 168 years. i66 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY NEWINGTON. WHE.X Newington was a part of the Town of Wethers field, the inhabitants of Wethersfield voted to divide the unoccupied land between Wethersfield and Farm ington into lots, and the portion which became Newington -was known on the records as the East Tier. In the center of the Town of Newington is a pond, in the midst of a considerable plain which was known for many years as Cow Plain. This pond with its water-power, and the excellent grazing land and fertile valle\', attracted the first settlers, who were five families by the name of Sled and Hunn and three named Andrews — according to Barber, while other writers give the name as Andrus — who made their pitches about 1690. They were from Farmington. Joseph Andrews built his house near the meeting-house and fortified it as a place of refuge and defence against possible attack b\- Indians, who were numerous. The shore of the pond was the site of an unusually large Indian vil lage, but the Indians lived peaceably with the white settlers. As the war-like Sequasson, who hated the English, was the great chief over the local chief, the English thought it no more than prudent to provide a place of refuge, should Sequasson take it into his head to attack the place. This Joseph Andrews bought the lots known as the sawmill- lots in 1684, and by later purchases he became one of the greatest property owners. He was a son of John Andrus, one of the first settlers of Farmington, and was born in 1651. Joseph had a son. Dr. Joseph Andrus, who was prominent in the social and church life of N^ewington and the doctor's son, Joshua, wao a deacon of the Church. Deacon Joshua lived on the property recently occupied by the Kappell family. The two other settlers of that name are supposed to ha\-e been Daniel and John Andrus, nephews of Joseph, one of the first settlers of that name. These brothers settled in the southern part of the town. Of the other first settlers, Samuel Hunn was prominent in the affairs of the town and church. Pie settled in the northern portion of New ington ; the other, John Sled, settled a half mile from Joseph Andrus and not far from the site of the old Academy. Mr. Roger Welles, in his history of Newington savs, that Sergeant Richard Beckley, who settled in the northern portion NEWINGTON. 167 of the town, was the earliest settler and greatest property owner. He received a grant of 300 acres from the General Court in 1668, the property lying on both sides of the Mattabesett River and the Town confirmed the grant in 1670. There is a tradition that Sergenat Beckley married a daughter of Chief Turramuggus who was next in succession to Sequasson, Sachem of the Matta besetts. The records of the New Haven Colony show that Ser geant Beckley lived in New Haven from 1639, to 1659, and that he was one of the prominent members of Davenport's Church. Other members of the Beckley family settled near him in New ington in considerable numbers. For this reason the district was known as Beckley's Quarter. The settlement of Newington had increased sufficiently by 1708, for the inhabitants to petition to be set off as a sepa rate Church. While the petition was not granted, permission was given, in 1710, for the inhabitants to meet for worship in Newington during the winter months, from December to March inclusive, instead of going to the Church in Wethersfield. Another attempt was made for a separate society in 1712, which was successful. A committee was appointed to fix upon a site where the meeting-house should be built. The site was fixed in 1713, and limits of the parish were determined as being two miles and fifty rods east from the Farmington line, with Hart ford and Middletown as the northern and southern boundaries. There were two settlements in the parish, called the Upper Houses and the Lower Houses. The former contained about twenty-three families and was north of the pond in the center of the parish ; the other consisted of eight families and was south of the pond. The meeting-house was built at the Upper Houses. The inhabitants of the Lower Houses objected to the location of the Church, so far from their little settlement. They peti tioned to be allowed to leave the Church at the Upper Houses and to join that at the Great Swamp. Again quoting Mr. Welles : As an equivalent for their secession they proposed the annexation to the new parish of some of the proprietors' lands in Farmington, abutting upon Wethersfield. These settlers were nearer the chosen site of the meeting-house in Newington, than to that in the Great Swamp Society, and they were willing to make the exchange. For the encouragement of this exchange, the " Lower Inhabitants " executed a bond, dated May 'i68 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 13. 1715, for the payment, to their "neighbors in the said Western Society ", of £50 to help build the new meeting-house, and lodged it on file in the ofiice of the colonial secretary at Hartford, where it is still to be seen. A petition was presented to the General Court at its session in May, 171 5, to legalize the exchange. The General Court appointed a committee to " go upon the place " and effect a settlement if possible; to consider the subject of the exchange; fix a site for the meeting-house, if necessary, and report at the next October session of the Assemljly. The committee reported in favor of the exchange, and fixed the site of the meeting-house upon the commons " near Dr. Joseph Andrus' house ", which was the site previously selected by the Town Committee. The Assembly accepted the report, and passed an act to carry it into effect. Thus, Stanley- Quarter, as the annexed portion of Farm ington was called, became a part of the parish of Newington, and it so continued till 1754, when the parish of New Britain was incorporated. The work of building the Church was begun and in 1720, the Rev. Elisha Williams was called. In 1721, the society was named Newington by the Legislature ; the Church was organized on October 3, 1722, and Mr. Williams was ordained on the seven teenth of the same month of the same year. Mr. Williams was a minister, an educator and a politician, with a decided preference for politics. He was born in Hatfield, in 1694, his father being the Rev. William Williams. He was graduated from Harvard in 171 1, having entered in the Sopho more class in 1708. After graduation he taught for a year in the Grammar School in Hadley. He moved to ^^'ethersfield in 1715, and married Eunice Chester, daughter of Thomas Chester. of Wethersfield. His political life began in October, 1717, when he represented Wethersfield in the General Court. He continued as its representative till 1721. He was Clerk of the House in '17, '18, and '20, and auditor of public accounts in '19. In 1716, he began his educational career by tutoring Yale students in Wethersfield, in that and the following years. In 1720, he was seriously ill and, according to President Stiles, of Yale, " he became sanctified ". On August 5, 1720, he was chosen minister of the Newington Church, and so began his ministerial career. NEWINGTON. 169 Five years later, in 1725, he was chosen to be the Rector of Yale College and was installed in September, 1726, and continued as Rector till October, 1739, when failing health caused his resignation. Relief from the arduous duties of the Presidency of Yale must have had a beneficial effect upon his health, for seven months later, in May, 1740, he was again in the Legislature as Repre sentative and Speaker of the House, in which capacity he served for several sessions. That same year, 1740, he became Judge of the Superior Court and continued in that office for several years. In 1745, he was chaplain of the Colonial militia and was present, in his official capacity, at the capture of Louisburg. In 1746, he was again in the Legislature and was appointed by that body as chaplain of a regiment in the expedition against Canada. For some reason the regiment did not go to Canada, but the Rev. Elisha Williams was sent to England to negotiate for the expenses incurred by the regiment. Mrs. Williams died while he was in England, on May 31, 1750 and eight months later, on January 27, 1751, Mr. Williams married again, his second wife being the daughter of the Rev. Thomas Scott, of Norwich, England. She was Elizabeth Scott, the writer of hymns. Mr. Williams returned to Wethersfield and died there in July, 1755. It is rather odd that the second minis'ter of the Church, the Rev. Simon Backus, of Norwich, who was ordained in 1727, was also chaplain at Louisburg after its capture, Mr. Williams being the chaplain at the time of the capture. Mr. Backus died in Louis burg in 1746. His wife was a sister of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards. The long contest over the site for the second church building resulted in the withdrawal of a number of families who, with others from Worthington and Kensington, organized Christ Episcopal Church, in 1797, in the south-western corner of the parish. During the thirteen years of its existence, its rectors were the Rev. Seth Hart, the Rev. James Kilbourn, and the Rev. Ammi Rogers. Public schools were not started so soon after the settlement as in other towns. In 1723., a school committee was appointed and the first mention of a school-house in the records, was in December, 1729. In 1757, a school-house was built in the north 170 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY end of the parish. In 1773, there was one at the south end, and in 1774, a new building was erected at the center of the parish. C)n October 18, 1726, John Camp was elected captain; Ephraim Demming, lieutenant; and Richarrl Bordman ensign of Xewington's first militia compan}-, wdiich was Wethersfield's fourth company. In 1735, Captain Alartin Kellogg was in com mand. Captain Kellogg's life, from his childhood to old age, was spent in close relation with Indians and in serving his Kin.g and the Colony, It was a life that was full of excitement and adventure. Captain Kellogg was born in 1686. At the age of eighteen he was living with his parents in Deerfield, Massa chusetts. On February 29, 1704, when Deerfield was attacked by the French and Indians, he and his father, brother Joseph, and sisters, Rebecca and Joanna, were captured and forced to make the journey on foot through the wilderness to Canada. While ill captivity the children learned the Indian language and the elder sister, Joanna, liked the life lead by the Indians so well that she married one of the chiefs, and adopted the manners and customs of the tribe. Their knowledge of the Indian lan guage was frequently made use of, they acting as interpreters. Captain Kellogg was several times captured by Indians and taken to Canada. His familiarity with that countrv' and the Indian language was the cause of his appointment as pilot, on the St. Lawrence River, for the British ships in the proposed expedition to Canada. Captain Kellogg was possessed of great strength and was notable for coolness and courage in danger. In 1749, and '50, he was employed as a teacher in the Hollis School for Indians, in Stockbridge, especially for the Indians of the Si-x Nations who attended that school. He was sent with clothing to Chief Hendrick of the Mohawks, as agent of the Colony, in 1751. In 1716, he married Dorothy Chester, a cousin of the Rev. Elisha Williams, the minister of Newington, and great-granddaughter of Governor Thomas ^^'elles. \yho was Governor of Connecticut in 1655, '56, '58 and '50. He was a member of the committee appointed to arrange the financial part of the remo\-al of Mr. Williams from Newington to New Haven, where he was to be the Rector of Yale. Captain Kellogg pur chased the fine mansion built by the Church for Mr. Williams and lived in it up to the day of his death, in November, 1753. NEWINGTON. 171 es Another captain of the militia company was Deacon Chari.._ Churchill, who built one of the largest and finest houses in that part of the town. This old-time residence was famous for years. It had a reputation for hospitality that extended for many miles around. There were four large ovens in the house and it was sometimes necessary to use them all, in order that sufficient food might be prepared for the great number of guests in the hospit able old mansion. It is tradition, that Washington and Lafayette were guests of Captain Churchill. Besides the ovens, the house contained other features that were somewhat unusual in those days. There were seven of those great fireplaces, in which four-foot logs provided heat and light, and stimulated sociability and good-fellowship among the guests. Captain Churchill fur nished supplies for the army and was paid for them in the depreciated bills of the day. One of the rooms in his house was papered with these almost worthless bills. The people of Newington in the early days seem to have lived a peaceful, quiet life on their fertile farms, with little or nothing to distract their attention from the cultivation of the soil and attendance at Church. The nearest approach to any happening of a really exciting nature, was the dispute in regard to the loca tion of the second church edifice. In such a peaceful atmosphere lived Mr. Andrus, a man who was notable for his conscientious, peaceful religious life. He seemed to be a perfectly contented and serenely happy man. It is not strange, therefore, that his choice of a wife excited great interest and surprise, for she was reputed to be " the most ill-natured, troublesome woman in the neighborhood ". Being in Yankeeland, where people ask direct and searching questions, Mr. Andrus was requested to tell his neighbors the reason for his odd choice. JMr. Andrus gratified their inquisitiveness by telling them, that his life had been particularly free from trouble and annoyance, so much so that he feared he would become too much attached to this life and the good things in it. He thought, that if he could experience some of the afflictions of life he would become more weaned from the world ; for that reason he had married such a woman as he believed would accomplish his object. The community was small and the distractions few, so it was 172 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY but natural that the story should finally reach the ears of the purveyor of his hoped for afflictions, by way of one of the human newspapers of those days, of the spinster variety. ]Mrs. Andrus's anger was great and she declared that she was not going to be made a pack-horse to carry her husband to heaven. In a spirit of revenge she entirely changed her life and became one of the most pleasant and dutiful of wives, and poor Air. Andrus became more enamored of this world and its joys than ever. GLASTENBURY. NOTABLE, as originally a part of Wethersfield, the oldest town on the Connecticut River, Glastenbury, is also notable for being the first town in Connecticut made by dividing one of the original towns, for it was cut off from Wethersfield and incorporated in 1690. The original territory of Glastenbury as granted by the In dians, was measured by rods vip and down the river and by miles east from it. These long, narrow lots retained their gen eral shape for a great many years. As time went on and the property was sold, or descended to the heirs of the original owners, some of the lots were sub-divided. There is at least one instance of a sub-divided lot being sold, that was but eight rods wide and three miles long. Of the original proprietors, the more prominent families were the Welles, Wylis, Hale, Hollister, Kimberly, Talcott. The Welles estate, purchased by Thomas ^\'elles from the great In dian Sachem, Sequasson, generally known as Sowheag, was in the family for more than 200 years. Of this family were Samuel Welles, the well known banker of Paris, and General Arnold W^clles, who married a daughter of General ^^'arren, of Bunker Hill fame. The old Talcott house was used as a fort, or place of refuge, in case of an Indian raid. A descendant of this Tal cott family was Colonel Talcott, who was superintendent of the United States Arsenal, at \\'atervliet. New York, in 1836. Glastenbur}' is noted for its varied, beautiful and extensive views. Back from the immediate neighborhood of the Connecti cut River flats, the surface begins to rise gradually till five miles back, toward the east, it is a mass of high, steep, tumbled-up GLASTENBURY. 173' hills of nearly a thousand feet elevation. The view from Kongs cut (now called Skunkscut hill) near Diamond Lake, is espe cially fine and extensive, in all directions. This Indian v/ord, Kongscut, means the goose-country, as the wild goose was found there, and on Diamond Lake, in great numbers. It is little wonder that the territory comprised, within the bounds of Glas tenbury was a favorite with the Indians and that they loved the hills and the valleys, through which the many streams flow into the Connecticut, for the Indians had a silent appreciation of GIDEON WELLES HOUSE, GLASTENBURY, natural beauties and, too, the forest abounded with game and the streams with fish. A small band of Mohawks had a perma nent village of Glastenbury, probably for no other reason than to keep watch of the tributory Indian tribes, and to make life a burden to them by the fear they inspired. The broad plain extending along the western portion of the town, from Roaring Brook (which the Indians called Nayaug, or Noisy-water) to the Hartford line was, and still is called Hanabuc, or Naubuc. The Rev. Dr. Chapin gives three possible definitions for the Indian words used to designate this plain. 174 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. Hanabuc means, more clear, or open, or the plain; Naubuc, means blood and so conveys the idea that great battles were fought on the plain, probabl\' between the River Indians and the Mohawks. Another possible meaning is the east-side. The English settle ments were first made on the west bank of the river and those portions of the towns across the Connecticut were spoken of as the east-side, so it is possible that the Indians compounded Nop, meaning east, and ue, meaning place or side or locality, thus making Nopuc, or X'aubuc. It is quite evident that Dr. Chapin himself was uncertain which definition is the correct one. The first purchase of land was made from Sowheag, it is generally stated, but as a matter of fact, that was not the name of the fierce chief of the Mattabesetts. His name was Sequas son and the full name and title of the Sachem was Sequasson- Sequin-Sowheag, which in English is, Hard-Stone, King-of-the- South-Country. The second purchase, of 1673, was from several Indians, whose names and their English equivalents were ; Tarramuggus, or Bear-catcher; Alassecuppe, or Great-fierceness; Wesumpshye, or Great-eater; Wumpene (the old records give it as " One peny ") or B elt-of -wampum ; Nesaheeg, or Iiistriiment-of-dcath; Seockett, or Jl'lld-cat; Pewampskin, or Fair-complexion. The first military organization on the east side of the river was in Glastenbury, On Alay 18, 1653, the General Court passed an act exempting the inhabitants on the east side of the Con necticut from training with the towns on the west side, and em powered William Hill to call the men of the east side together for training. Before the incorporation in 1690 the people of Glastenbury paid their share for the support of the Church in \\'ethersfield. After the incorporation, Glastenbury had its own Church and the first minister of the town was the Rev, Timothy Stevens, who was called on July 2S, 1692. Mr. Stevens was a son of Timothy Stevens, of Roxbury, Massachusetts, and was a graduate of Harvard, in the class of 1687. He married Eunice Chester of ^^'ethersfield, Ma^¦ 17, 1694, She died in 161)4, and in 1701, Mr. Stevens married Alice Cook. He was minister of the Glastenbury Church from 1693, to the time of his death, in 1726. GLASTENBURY. 175 At an early day in the history of Glastenbury the people offered inducements to thrifty, honest and otherwise desirable families to settle in the town, by granting a small farm from the Common lands, with the stipulation, that the land should be improved within a given time. Like many of the other river towns, Glastenbury made laws for the protection of the trees from wanton destruction. In 1700, no person was permitted to cut pine, or " candlewood ", as they called it, for the purpose of obtaining pitch, and the penalty for doing so was a fine of twenty shillings each load and the forfeiture of the wood. THE HOLISTER HOUSE BUILT BY ONE OF THE ORIGINAL PROPRIETORS. Glastenbury increased in population rather rapidly. In 1693, there were thirty-four householders; in 1714, there were sixty- four tax payers all of whom were probably householders as well ; in 1723, there were 118, and in 1757, there were 191. The increase was so rapid that the first meeting-house of 1693, was too small so, in 1706, the people voted to enlarge its seating capacity by building galleries, or " leantos ", as the committee thought better. In 1701, a number of persons from Wethersfield and Hartford 176 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. went to Glastenbury and " squatted " upon public land, in the eastern part of the town, but they were all expelled after con siderable trouble. The Revolutionary period was an exciting one in Glastenbury. The men of the town had had experience under arms, and were well acquainted with the hardships of war and army life in the old French War. They knew the hardships to be borne in a country covered by a wilderness, with supplies hard to obtain and often not to be had. In fact, the mortality in that war among the men from Glastenbury was so great, that after the first enthusiasm, due to patriotism, had died down, it was diffi cult to get enlistments for the Revolutionary army. No doubt this also was partially due to the high prices of the necessaries of life. So Glastenbury, as did many other towns, provided for the families of the Continental soldiers of the town, in such cases where it was necessary, and made liberal provision in clothing and food for the men themselves. Glastenbury was not menaced by Tories as were some of the shore-towns, but still, there were two prominent citizens against whom charges were preferred. They were, Ralph Isaacs and Abiathar Camp. These men were tried and found guilty of being Tories and were sentenced to live in Eastbury, there to be in the charge of the Selectmen and to maintain themselves at their own expense. Isaacs was afterward moved to Dur ham, because of failing health, and Camp took the oath of fidelity to the State and later was removed to Wallingford. It is not generally known, that in 1777, in the heat of the first days of the Revolution, that Glastenbury became the home of a portion of Yale College. The price of board was so high in New Haven, on account of the high price of all kinds of provisions, that the several classes were distributed over the country. The Freshman class was sent to Farmington and the Sophomore and Junior classes to Glastenbury, where they were under the charge of the Hon. Nehemiah Strong, the professor of mathematics. The students boarded in the homes of the village and made their headquarters at the home of William W^ elles, who was a gradu ate and a tutor of Yale. In 1702, an Academy was established on the Green and later, an Academy was established at South Glastenbury. Both Schools GLASTENBURY. 177 flourished and turned out very creditable students. Two of the teachers were Noah Webster and Elihu Burritt, better known as " The Learned Blacksmith ". In 1 70 1, Glastenbury had a school and Robert Poog was the schoolmaster. He was employed to teach for three months and longer if he gave satisfaction. His pay consisted of his board, the keep of his horse and £3 for the first quarter, and £2 for each additional quarter. The Indians of Glastenbury and the white settlers lived in OLD TALCOTT HOUSE, Used as a fort in times of Indian troubles. peace and good-will, notwithstanding that the Indians were numerous within the bounds of the town. The Nayaugs lived m a glen near the mouth of Nayaug, or Roaring-Brook, as the word means in English, where is now the village of South Glas tenbury. Here they lived in a natural fortification which pro tected them against the bitter north wind, the chill and damp of the east wind, and those more dangerous enemies, hostile bands of other Indians. They had two look-outs from which sentinels could easily see the approach of enemies. On the river side, was 12 178 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. Red-hill, rising abruptly from the meadows and the other was Chestnut-hill, giving an extensive view to the north, east and south. Along the shore of Roaring-Brook, at the foot of a cliff, the Nayaugs, it is said, dug a hole in the rock, to a depth of two feet and a half and two feet across the top, which they used as mortar for pounding Indian-corn with a great pestle, to make it into Nasaump, or samp as the white settlers called it. While there is no evidence that the Indians did not make this mortar, there is an equal lack of evidence that they did. It is probable that instead of making the hole in the solid rock, they adapted a pot-hole that had been made by Roaring-Brook with the help of a pebble. This mortar is stiH there and is, or was, covered by the artificial pond from which one of the mills obtained its power. The Nayaugs lived in harmony with the white settlers and the following anecdote is of the only fight known between one of the Nayaugs and a white man. John Hollister, who lived on the west side of the Connecticut, owned land on the east side which he cultivated. He was known as the most powerful and athletic of the settlers. One morning, as he was at work on his land on the east side, an Indian of the Nayaugs, who was equally noted among his people for his great strength and agility, challenged jMr. Hollister to a trial of strength. The challenge was promptly accepted. They fought till both were exhausted when, by agreement, they sat upon the same log to rest and then went at it again. They continued their rounds and rests till sun-down, when they agreed that it was a draw. The admiration of each for the other was great and they became fast friends and the two most notable men, in the opinion of the Nayaugs, in all the country. Although " Father " Stocking was not a native of Glastenbury, he was for many years a resident of that town and was closely connected .with the history of Methodism there. The Rev, Jere miah Stocking was born in Chatham, in December, 1767. his " schoolin' " ending in his ninth year. His father was a sea faring man and was away from home much of the time. From the age of nine till he was thirteen, Jeremiah lived in Haddam, and in his thirteenth year he joined a privateer, at about the close of the Revolution, ^^'hen he left the ship, he went into trade till he was twenty-one and in 1790, he married and moved GLASTENBURY. 179 THE OLD TALCOTT HOUSE, ' How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood." i8o THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. to Glastenbury. Piis health failing, his physician advised that he turn Post-rider so that he could be out in the sun and air. In 1791), Jeremiah began carrying newspapers between Hartford and Saybrook and in 1801 he carried the mail. During the twenty-five years he was thus employed he traveled 150,000 miles and crossed the Connecticut River more than 8,500 times. While living in Glastenbury he became a " half-way Covenanter " and five years later was " converted " by a Methodist preacher. Not long after he was " converted " to Christianity he, himself, became a Methodist preacher and spent considerable of his time, at first, in tirades against other denominations, but finally a deeper Christianity entered his heart, and from then on he lived in charit}- and good will with all. There is a very curious fact in regard to seven male members of his family, all of whom were in the ministry, of one or another denomination. It is, that all of their given names began with S, They were Sophronius H. Stocking, Selah Stocking, Solon Stocking, Sabura S. Stock ing, Septerius Stocking, and Sabin Stocking. " In ' old Connecticut ', the better part, Glastenbury is nearest to the heart. Hail Glastenbury, with her hundred hills ! Her verdent pastures and her flowing rills — Her flowery meadows and her rural shades — Her gallant yeoman and her beauteous maids." FARMINGTON. FARMINGTON was settled from Hartford in 1640, and in 1645, it was incorporated as a town. The original terri tory of Farmington included Southington, New Britain, Bristol, Berlin, Burlington and Avon. At the time of the settle ment, it was inhabited by the Tunxis Indians and the river was known as the Tunxis, in other words, the Crane Indians who lived on Crane River. The people were no doubt attracted to Farmington by the great fertility of the meadows and so they braved the dangers from living in the midst of a numerous and fierce tribe of Indians, the Tunxis, which, according to President Stiles, of Yale, was the largest tribe on the Connecticut. New settlers either purchased from the original proprietors or were given land by the Town. The population grew rather rapidly in the early days, there being forty-six property owners who paid taxes on property to the value of £5,519, in 1655, ^'^d this same year for a comparison, the number of tax payers in Hartford was but four times as large and the total value of their property was not quite four times as great. Down to 1700, the population increased and the settlement contained, in that year, as many dwellings as were in Farmington one hundred and forty years later, in 1840. In 1672, the eighty- four proprietors divided the land, using Round Hill as a center from which measurements were made. A parallelogram was thus made, three miles to the north, five miles and thirty-two rods to the south, two miles and sixty-four rods to the east and two miles to the west. This was called the reserved lands. A considerable part of it had already been taken up. The portion that was not, was reserved for town-commons, home-lots, pastures and " pitches ". All the land outside of this parallelogram was surveyed, and divided among the eighty-four proprietors in proportion to the taxes they paid. The Rev. Samuel Hooker, their minister, received a double portion. The western portion of the town was divided into lots a mile east and west and eleven miles north and south. These lots were [181] i82 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. distributed so that each man owned one that was a mile long and of a width in proportion to the property he already owned. All other parts of the town were divided on the same plan. The survey for this work was completed in 1728, and it is upon this sur\'ey, that the titles to the land are based, within the towns that have been formed from the original territory of Farmington. Generally speaking, the settlers and Tunxis Indians lived in harmony, but in 1642, there was considerable alarm caused by the gathering of many Indians about Tunxis, as a plot of some kind was feared. The General Court took prompt and vigorous action and nothing came of the gathering, probably because of that prompt action. At other times, later, there were Indian scares. In 1657, John Hart and all his family, except one son, were burnt to death in the home which had been set on fire b}- Indians and in the same year a settler, by the name of Scott, was killed. For the burning of the Hart home and family the Indians were re quired to pay eighty fathoms (480 feet) of wampum yearly for seven years. In 1668, a complaint was made, probably to the General Court, that the Indians had fired bullets into the settle ment from their fort, or encampment, and also that they had extended their hospitality to strange Indians. For this, they were ordered to move to another place. In 1689. and 1704, the people feared danger from a distance, possibly the Podunks or the Mohawks. For better protection several houses were forti fied with double doors and narrowed windows. Authorities differ as to the year the first Church was organized. Trumbull fixes the date as being October, 1632, and Noah Porter, Jr,, sometime in the year 1645, The Rev, Roger New-ton was the first minister. His wife was the Rev, Thomas Hooker's daughter iMarv. In 1661, the Rev, Samuel Hooker, son of the great divine of Plartford, became the minister of the Church and his pastorate continued till his death in November, 1607, Mr. Hooker was a graduate of Plarvard and was almost equally esteemed with his illustrious father. In 16(12, the Rev. Samuel PTooker was one of the committee appointed to negotiate with the New 1 laven Colony for a union with the Colony of Con necticut. He was the grandfather of that beautiful and pious thirteen-\ear old girl, Sarah Pierpont, of New Haven, with whom FARMINGTON. 183 Jonathan Edwards fell in love while a tutor in Yale, and finally married. Farmington was an educational center from very early days down to the regretted closing of Miss Porter's school for girls, a few years ago. In 1682, the Town appropriated £10 toward maintaining a school; the next year a similar appropriation was made and in addition four shillings a quarter was required to be paid for each child attending the school. Later, £30 was appropriated. This larger sum was evidently given because so much more was to be required of the " man-teacher ". He was required to teach reading, writing and grammar and also, " to be able to step into the pulpit to be helpful there in time of need " ; and a little later an ability to teach Latin was required. Dr. Noah Porter gives the following fine description of the natural condi tions in Farmington in early days : During this period (the first sixty years) the inhabitants by degrees became more numerous, but with the exception of the colony near " the Seamor-fort " and two or three houses on the northern border of the " great plain ", they were scattered for two miles or more along the street. The upland near their dwellings had been slowly cleared and the forest still lingered in sight, along the foot of the mountain. The western woods were yet an unbroken wilderness, save the opening which had been made by the Indians, as they retreated in 1672, to their reservation across the meadows, and rallied around a new burying place for their dead. On the south was " the white oak plain ", still unsubdued, and " the great plain " was thickly crowded with its growth of birches and tangled shrub-oaks. It was not till 1695, that a highway was laid through this district of the town. * * * Xhe river furnished to the English and the natives, its overflowing abundance of shad and salmon, and the west woods abounded in deer, in wolves and panthers. In the forest, up the mountain, was their common place of pasturage. The meeting-house lot was as yet a noble common of several acres, A canoe with ropes was furnished at the north end of the street, by which the river was crossed as it was not till 1725, that the first bridge was erected at this place. At the annual town meeting, no man might be absent who valued his twelve pence. Then were chosen the townsmen, the register, the fence-viewers, the chimney-viewer, so necessary in those days of wooden mantles, of ill constructed chimnies, and of their enormous fires, their tything men, and last, not least, their one constable, who was to them the right arm of the king himself; a function ary treated with reverent awe, and obeyed with implicit deference. Who soever resisted his power, resisted the ordinance of God. Two men be sides Mr. Hooker bore the appellation of Mr. ; Mr. Anthony Howkin and i84 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. Mr. John Wadsworth. Nor may we forget to name Captain William Lewis, Captain Stanley, Ensign Thomas Hart, and Sergeant WiUiam Judd. Their communication with the other towns was infrequent. Occasion ally a traveler would appear by the path from Hartford, with news from their friends and kindred there, or with a message of alarm from his Execllency the Governor, and now and then someone would emerge from the forest by the " New Haven path " with tidings from that commercial emporium, or from the lands beyond the seas. The Indians were still here by hundreds, their canoes might be seen every day filling the litde creek that put in from the river. The Sabbath was the great and central day of the week; a day of awful and yet of rapturous joy. As the drum beat with its wonted and pleasant sound of invitation, they resorted to the house of worship with cheerful steps. Here they were roused and comforted by the fervent Hooker, Here they forgot their weekly labors in the forest, their fear of famine ; their terror of the natives, far and near ; the armed guard that stood be fore the sanctuary, and the necessity that had planted it there. From the house of God they return at evening, to spend the remaining hojrs of sacred rest upon joyful reflection upon the words there heard, doubly grateful for a church such as they loved, though it were in a wilderness. Then they instruct their children with strict and judicious care, and close the day by committing themselves and theirs to the care of the Almighty, To men situated as were they. His protection was more than a name; for desolate indeed was their lot, if He cared not for them. So wrote Noah Porter, Jr., in 1840, who later became President of Yale. From its settlement, Farmington was a farming community. It was the unusual fertility of its meadow lands and the unceasing supply of water from the river and streams that first attracted settlers. It was a farming community of the highest class for while the fathers and sons cultivated their fields industriously, and to the greatest possible profit, they did not fail to cultivate their minds and manners as far as it was possible. They lived close to Nature and, therefore, close to God, and this very prox imity to the Creator and His handiwork made them the highest type of Nature's gentle-folk. When not employed in their official capacities, the ministers and magistrates worked side by side with their sons, their hired men and the slaves : always in lead, doing even more work than those whom they employed or owned. As one of Farmington's finest sons. Governor John Treadwell, has expressed it . They have been content to cat their bread in the sweat of their brow; and it was honor enough to be esteemed the first among equals. FARMINGTON. 185 The only means of transportation for individuals up to about 1 750, was the horse, with saddle and pillion behind for the woman. But in that year the Rev. Timothy Pitkin brought home the daughter of President Clap of Yale College, as his bride. When it was known that they were coming in some kind of a machine on wheels, the greatest interest was excited among the entire com munity. The older men of the community went out to meet their minister and his bride. When they saw the four-wheeled photon, one of the older men exclaimed in his excitement : " I see the cart, I see the cart ". It was Farmington's first sight of a pleasure carriage. Up to about the time the war with Great Britain began, there was but one store in Farmington, but after peace was declared a commercial spirit began to assert itself to the hurt of the simple society. For, with the accumulation of something like wealth by a few persons envy, heart-burn and dissatisfaction with the simple, clean life that was characteristic for so many years, began to show itself. In 1803, there were $125,000 invested in business enterprise in Farmington. There was, however, a gain through trade and consequent greater intercourse with the outside world and this gain was the broadening of the ideas of the people, in regard to quite proper and innocent social pleasures and amuse ments. But commercialism did hurt that charming simplicity which was a part of Farmington's life. In 1802, Governor Treadwell deplored the increasing commercial spirit somewhat strongly as follows : The farmer is thrown into the shade ; he feels that riches, as the world goes, give pre-eminence. In homely dress and covered with sweat and dust, with weary steps returning from the field, he sees with pain the powdered beau rolling in his carriage * * * and feels himself degraded. The young ladies are changing their spinning-wheels for the piano forte and forming their manners at the dancing school, rather than in the school of industry. Labor is growing in disrepute. While this view of the change was of a somewhat low-spirited nature, it was at the same time quite true. The fact still remains, however, that the fine qualities of the early settlers have de scended down through nearly two centuries and have made Farmington notable in New England. Up to 1825, Farmington had but one religious denomination i86 THE CONNECTICUT J' ALLEY. within its bounds and that was, of course, the Congregational. In 1825, a Methodist society was organized and in 1834, their church building was erected. Farmington was the home of many of New England's promi nent men. Perhaps the most notable were the Hon. John Tread well, Governor of Connecticut, and the Rev. Dr. Noah Porter, who, as president of ^'ale College, was the personal acquaintance of nearly every undergraduate, and the best friend of every one of them. John Treadwell was born in Farmington, on November 23, 1745. He prepared feir Yale and was graduated in the class of 1765, and then began to study law. The profession had no attractions for him so he never presented himself for the neces sary examination for admission to practice. A life of public usefulness seemed most attractive to him, and it proved to be the life he was best suited for. In the autumn of 1776, he was elected to the General Assembly as the representative of Farm ington and, with the exception of one session, was continued in that office till 1785, Then he was elected as one of the Assistants and continued in that office till 1798, when he was appointed Lieutenant Governor. \\'lien Governor Trumbull died in 1809, he was appointed by the Legislature to the office of Governor, and at its next session his appointment was renewed for the following year. Besides these high offices. Governor Treadwell was for twenty years. Judge of the Probate Court ; for twenty years, a Judge in the Supreme Court of Errors ; for nineteen years, a member of the Corporation of Yale College; and for three \-ears. Judge of the County Court. He was for many years also a member of the Prudential Committee of Yale. Governor Treadwell's interest in public education was great and it may be said with truth, that he had more to do with the organization of the public school system of Connecticut than any other individual. He was regarded by the people as being a man of unquestioned honor and wisdom in the aff'airs of the State, of which he possessed a more intimate knowdedge than any other man. Plis interest and eft'orts for the honor, dignity and systematic order of the Church, were as great as was his interest in the State. Governor Treadwell became a member of the Farming- BERLIN. 187 ton Church at the age of twenty-seven, and the parish found, on the two or three occasions when harmony was disturbed and seri ous discord was threatening, that his advice and example were of the greatest value. His ecclesiastic offices were numerous as were his civil offices. He was the first chairman, and one of the original trustees, of the Missionary Society of Connecticut and he continued in these offices till advancing years caused him to refuse reappointment. He was the first president of the Ameri can Board of Foreign Missions and one of the commissioners who drew up its constitution. He was president of the Board till his death. The Rev. Dr. Noah Porter described him in 1840, as: "A man not possessed of brilliant genius or extended erudition, or com manding elocution ; that he had not the advantages of birth, patronage, personal attraction or courtly address; that he did not possess the power of delighting society by the brilliancy of his fancy, nor of swaying public assemblies by tbe eloquence of his appeals ; that in the common sense of the term, he was not a popular man and yet he had a moral and intellectual greatness which carried him superior to all obstacles, in the path to emi nence ; so that, with no advantages above what thousands enjoyed, he united in himself, in a perfection rarely found, the characters of a jurist, a civilian and a divine." In a less general degree, John Treadwell may be compared favorably with Judge James Duane of New York. What James Duane was to the young Nation in the Revolutionary period, and to the Episcopal Church; John Treadwell was to the young State and Congregational Church. He died at the age of seventy- seven, on August 18, 1823. BERLIN. ALTHOUGH the settlement of the district now compris ing the Town of Berlin is ancient, that town did not L come into existence till 1785 ; a mere infant, of one hundred and twenty odd years, in comparison with the surround ing towns. It was originally a part of Farmington, from which town it was set off as the second society (church society) in 1712, and was given the name of Kensington and the Rev. Mr. i88 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY Burnham, the first minister, was ordained that year. Kensing ton consisted of fourteen families. In all, about one hundred individuals, including children and infants. Before the settle ment of Mr. Burnham, these people were obliged to go ten miles or more to the church in Farmington. They did so cheer fully, man\' of the women carrying their infants all that weary distance, because they must attend worship and could not leave the little ones at home. Kensington was divided in 1753, when the society of New Britain \\as formed, and again, in 1772, -when the society of Worthington was formed. In 1785, Berlin was incorporated as a town, portions of Wethersfield and ^liddle- town being included -within the bounds of the new town. In 1834, the Borough was formed and the bounds extended two miles north and south and one mile east and west. Tradition has it, and nothing definite in history has been found to the contrary, that an Irishman named Patterson (probably a " Blue-nose ") settled in Berlin, or Kensington as it then was, in 1740, and made the first tin-ware on the Continent of North America. Patterson — there seems to be uncertainty as whether his name was William or Edward — was a tinner and soon after he settled in Kensington he began to manufacture tin-ware and continued in that trade till the commencement of the Revolution, w hen it was suspended for a time, as he could not obtain the raw material. After the Colonies had won Independence, the trade was continued by the young men \vho had learned it from Patterson. In the early days, when Patterson was the only tin ner in the Colonies, he would make up as much of the ware as he could carry in a basket and then tramp over the surrounding countrv, from hamlet to farm and from farm to hamlet, selling the new kind of utensils, which the women found most con venient. The value of the business became known and soon others took it up and so it spread all over the country. But the demand could not be supplied by hand baskets, so larger baskets were carried on horseback, and then two-wheeled carts were used. Finally, that institution peculiar to New England, the icd, four-wheeled, tin-peddler's wagon, came into existence and every tiny settlement and the intervening farmhouses, of New England and eastern New York, were -^-isited by these tin- peddlers who, besides tin-ware, Carried notions useful to the BERLIN. 189 housewives. These peddlers were a welcome sight to the farmer and his household, as they were for many years the only source of news from the other parts of the country and from the out side world. Speaking generally, these tin-peddlers were the social equals of the people whom they traded with and, also speaking generally, they were of superior intelligence. The very fact that they " took to the road " showed a disinclination to re main in the ruts and a desire to see the world, or as much of it as their horse and four-wheeled, red cart could cover, between Easter and Thanksgiving. So, being shrewd, they stored their memories with all the important and interesting news, and while they were imparting it to the news-hungry families, they made their bargains, gave the smallest possible price for the rags they took, and charged the largest possible price for tbe tin-ware and notions they gave in exchange. This was purely a matter of business with the peddlers; and as for their customers, they re ceived full value for the excess they paid for tin, as the news of the outside world which they received, saved them from utter stagnation. It is a notable fact, that the foundations of many of the greatest fortunes in the East were laid by these same merchants-on-wheels. And many of the great merchants of New York, Boston and some of the smaller New York and New England cities, in the period just after the Revolution, were farmers' sons who had been stimulated to something better than tlieir placid, turnip-like existences on the farms, by the informa tion given by the tin-peddlers, in regard to the opportunities in the towns. The Yankee peddler was a man worth knowing; the scum of Europe which has succeeded to the business, are things to be shunned. Berlin will always be notable as the home of the tin-ware industry, one of the most profitable businesses of the first half of the nineteenth century. HARTFORD. THE families who settled the Hartford and New Haven Colonies were of a superior class socially to those of any other portion of Xew England, speaking in general terms, and many of them were well provided with this world's goods. The majority were families of gentle birth -whose for tunes were on the wane, because of their politics or their unwav ering adherence to their religious convictions, in Old England. But above all other things, they were notable for being among the finest representatives of Anglo-Saxon blood on the face of the Earth. They were Christian families beyond doubt, but they went to the antithesis of what they left, and had suffered loss of fortune and martyrdom for, and became stern, and even unlovely in their Christianity. The words ; " Fear God " were more often spoken by them than those other words; " Love God ", and their children were brought up " in the fear of the Lord ". It is doubtful, had they been differently constituted in their religious devotion and manner of life, that New England would ever have come into existence and, if it had, that it \vould have become the corner stone of the United States ; and the people the personification of the best American manhood and citizenship. So, wdiile the people of New England have become the most ardent of God-loving peoples, they began in the Fear of the Lord. One of the most notable of these God-fearing men was the Rev. Thomas Hooker, a learned, profound and brilliant preacher, of Clemsford, in Essex, England, who for non-conformity was subject to fines, imprisonment and persecution, by that class of Christians wdiich then professed to love God rather than fear Him. So great was Thomas Plooker's fame that forty ministers, all of whom were conformists, took up his cause and petitioned the Bishop of London not to make it necessary for him to leave his native land, but without avail. As a preacher of the Gospel his fame was wide, for he pos sessed the brilliancy that attracted the intellectual, the simplicity [190] HARTFORD. 191 that appealed to the simple and the power that convinced both classes of the truth of the Gospel that he preached. Emi nent persons, among them the Earl of Warwick, came from great distances to hear him preach and many were willing to hazard life in a new, strange and wild country, to continue in the benefits of his teaching. Thomas Hooker fled to Holland to escape the fines and im prisonment that would have overtaken him had he remained in England. Soon after his people were deprived of his presence they began to long for a place to go, where they could live in freedom of worship with their beloved minister. They naturally thought of that new continent in the west, whither others had already fled and had made settlements. In 1632, a large number sailed for New England and settled in Cambridge — then called Newtown — and those who had arrived a little before them and had settled in Weymouth, joined those of Newtown. The Rev. Thomas Hooker, having been made acquainted with their plans and their earnest desire that he would join them as their minister, left Holland for Newtown. He brought with him as teacher of the Gospel, Samuel Stone, who was a lecturer in Towcester, Northamptonshire, England. He and his companv arrived at Boston on September 4, 1633. In that company of 200, were Cotton, Goff and Haynes, who later became Governor of Connecticut. Mr. Hooker immediately went to Newtown and was welcomed by his people. On October 11, after prayer and fasting, Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone were ordained as the minister and teacher of the community. The Connecticut Valley was already known to the people of Plymouth, Boston and Newtown, through the Indians who had tried to induce the English in those places to go to it for settle ment, and from a few hardy pioneers, of whom John Oldham was the chief and most notable. So, when in 1634, Newtown and the neighboring settlements began to suffer from a lack of food and other necessities, through the steadily increasing popu lation. Hooker and Stone and their people naturally looked toward the beautiful river where the land was so fertile, and fur- bearing animals so numerous. It seems strange now, that 270 years ago those Massachusetts towns could possibly have been over populated. Of course there was area sufficient, but the 192 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. difficulty was, that the people lacked the necessary knowledge for making the soil produce food. This projiosed exodus aroused the Massachusetts authorities. Forgetting that they had left their homes in England for the greater freedom hoped for in the new world, the people of Massa chusetts strongl\- opposed the inherent right of Thomas Hooker and his people to go wdiitber they pleased. But finally, in 1635, the General Court, which had absolutely no right to interfere in the matter or to dictate as to the movements of individuals or companies, graciously granted permission for the removal to the Connecticut Valley. In 1636, Thomas Hooker, Samuel Stone and one hundred men, women and children, started through the ^vilderness, in which there was not even an Indian trail. When it is remembered that many of the company were persons of gentle birth, who were totally unacquainted with work or hard ship, their sufferings may be realized. The fact that breeding imparts courage, fortitude and the power to accommodate oneself to all conditions, is emphasized by this enterprise. The)' drove before them cattle, the milk of the cow^s forming their chief sustenance. Mrs. Hooker was carried on a litter. Arriving at the beautiful valley they settled at Suckiaug and named their settlement Newtown after the place they had left behind, but in February, 1637, the name was changed to Hartford, in honor of Samuel Stone, that being his birthplace in the Old Country. Both Stone and Hooker were University men, they being graduates of Emmanuel College at Cambridge. The land was purchased by the original white proprietors from the Indian, Chief Sequasson, the original proprietor. The Pequots naturally resented this and, no doubt, they were excited to hatred of the English settlers b}- the Dutch traders. The Dutch generally got along well -with Indians. They had no compunctions about selling them rum. If the thirsty Indian had a good supply of exceptionably fine pelts for trade, the Dutch trader often ga\-e the rum, so that the bar gain for the pelts would be much more advantageous for the trader, because of the muddled condition of the Indian's mind. The Pequots knew very well, that unless the English were somehow got out of the way. the time was not far distant HARTFORD. 193 wrhen they -would be humiliated in the sight of the hated River Indians, and would also be under the control and sub ject to the laws of the English. An Indian chief to the Dutch was an Indian chief; to the English he was a heathen who must be converted to Christianity and taught the ways of civilization, and made to live as nearly in conformity with those ways as possible. Another cause for Pequot hatred of the English -was, that with the English behind them the River Indians would refuse to pay further tribute to the STATE HOUSE, HARTFORD, Pequots. So Thomas Hooker and his friends found them selves and their homes in daily danger from the cruel Pe quots, and finally the Pequot war came upon the people. They met it with the same energy and determination not to fail, with which they met every difficulty, danger or under taking. Hartford's share in it was creditable ; as was that of other settlements which took part in war. Coming so soon after they had effected their settlement, and before they had had time to become accustomed to Indian fighting; in 13 194 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY fact before they had become fully accustomed to the new conditions in which they were living; it is a wonder that the English were not annihilated. The danger from attack by small bands of Indians at unex pected times was so great, that the General Court formed a guard, armed and provided with at least two rounds of am munition each, which should attend public worship at the meeting-houses on Sundays, under the command of two sergeants, one of whom sat inside the church with the guard, near the door, while the other acted as sentinel outside the church. This custom obtained in nearly every settlement in Connecticut. Finally, on May i, 1637, after about thirty settlers had been killed by Indians, the General Court met and declared a war of extermination against the Pequots. As the matter to be considered and decided upon was of so great import ance, the towns, for the first time, sent committees to the General Court. The men on the committee were ; The Messrs. Chaplin, Geffords, Hull, Mitchell, Sherman, Talcott, Whiting, Webster and Williams. The Magistrates of the Court were ; The Messrs. Ludlow, Phelps, Swain, Steel, \\^ells and \\'ard. Of the ninety men to be raised in Hart ford, Wethersfield and Windsor for the army that was to exterminate the Pequots, Hartford's quota was forty-two, and the Rev. Samuel Stone was the chaplain. When the Yankee of early days awoke, ate or went to sleep he asked for the blessing and protection of Almighty God, and so they did, on this occasion. When the little army of much less than two hundred men started from Hartford down the river to the Pequot country, their faithful minister stood on the bank of the river surrounded b>' the wi\es, mothers and sweet hearts, whose fortitude was as great as the men's courage, and called down upon them God's blessing and protection, and His strength, that they might fight to win. They fought and won and when they returned to their homes the pro prietors of Hartford granted to them twenty-eight acres of land known as " Soldier's Field ". in grateful appreciation of their strvices. Some authorities claim that this was the first act of the kind in .\merica. HARTFORD. 195 The success of this war made the English the masters of the Indians and forced them to obey certain laws that were passed, regulating their relations and conduct with the whites. Hartford, however, was by no means finished with Indian dangers. In 1642, it was discovered that the River Indians and Narragansetts had concocted a joyous little plot to kill all of the English, but vigorous action on the part of the authorities, in putting the Train Band in effective condition ; in communicating with the authorities of Massachusetts and restricting the " comings " of the Indians (they might go where they pleased, even to the devil) ; the plot came to naught. The restrictions regulating the " comings " of the Indians -were rigid. They were not permitted to enter Hartford in bands, small or large, and absolutely no Indian was allowed in the town at night. No Indian was allowed to enter a house, except that of a magistrate and then, only a sachem and but two other Indians with him. It was against the law for a settler to sell a dog to the Indians or to go to their wigwams, in the South Meadows, to trade with them, nor could the whites sell arms or powder to them. Finally, the conditions were greatly improved, and the entire defeat of the Pequots removed the greatest cause for alarm, but did not entirely remove the danger from fanatical, revengeful Indians who, considering the settlers to be interlopers and land-robbers, thought whitemen's scalps a pleasing offering to Kiehtan, their " Great Spirit". Such eminent historical writers and students as John Fiske and Alexander Johnston and other men of equal repute, give Hartford the unique and enviable reputation of being the place in which the first written constitution of the world, " as a permanent limitation on governmental power ", as Professor Johnston ex presses it, was conceived and brought forth. Again quoting Professor Johnston : " The common opinion is, that democracy came into the American system through the compact made in the cabin of the Mayflower, though that instru ment was based upon no political principle whatever, and began with a formal acknowledgement of the king as the source of all authority. It was the power of the crown ' by virtue ' of wbich ' equal laws ' were to be enacted, and the ' covenant ' was merely 196 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. a makeshift to meet a temporary emergency ; it had not a particle of political significance, nor was democracy an impelling force in it. It must be admitted that the Plymouth system was acci dentally democratic, but it was from the absence of any great need for government or for care to preserve homogeneity in religion, not from political purpose, as in Connecticut. It was a passive, not an active system ; and it cannot be said to have influenced other American commonwealths. Another though less prevalent opinion is, that the first democratic commonwealth was the mother colony of Massachusetts Bay. * * * On the con trary, it is not difficult to show that the settlement of Connecticut was itself merely a secession of the democratic element from Massachusetts, and that the Massachusetts freemen owed their final emancipation from a theocracy to the example given them by the eldest daughter of the old commonwealth." On January 14, 1639, all the free planters of Hartford, Wethersfield and Windsor met in Hartford to draw up and adopt this famous first written constitution for civil government. DISTRIBUTION OF LAND LABOR, ITS WAGES, The manner of the distribution of the land to the original settlers, or proprietors, was to give each head of a family a lot in the settlement proper, or the village, of about two acres upon which the home was to be built, and then a piece of greater acreage outside of the village, for raising crops. These farm pieces were bounded by the settlement at one end and stretched out in all directions, in long, narrow strips. The acreage in these farm pieces was determined by the sum the individual had contributed to the general fund for the purchase, or by services rendered. Sometimes they were in accordance with the position in the community of the individual, and sometimes in accordance with his necessity. The rule in regard to the two-acre lots in the settlement was that the house shonld be built within a year, and in regard to the farm land, that it should be improved. Failure to comply with these rules caused the land of both kinds to revert to the Town. Realizing the danger from fire and the seriousness of loss by fire (for the houses were built HARTFORD. 197 with great labor) and the danger, should a fire start, that the other dwellings with their logs covered with dry, inflam mable bark, would all go, the people were required to pro vide a ladder, or to leave one tree sufficiently near the house for it to be used as a ladder. No owner was permitted to sell his village lot or farm, or any portion of either, without giving the Town the first chance to purchase, the payment to be for only the improvements. Property could not be sold by an original owner without the consent of the Town. This was a wise provision. It was made for the same purpose as was that governing the admission of new Inhabit ants ; to keep undesirable outsiders from gaining citizenship. In 1640, this rule regulating the selling of property was changed, so that owners who had been Inhabitants for four years could sell as they chose, but a reversion to the old rule was made by the General Court, in 1651. That portion of the territory purchased from the Indians, that had not been assigned to original proprietors, was known as the Commons and belonged to the Town. When new settlers w^ere admitted as Inhabitants, portions of the Com mons were assigned to them. The common lands were at first under the charge of a committee, and later under the Selectmen, whose duty it was to> see that there was no dam age done by live stock, and that the timber should only be cut by those who were given licenses to do so. Grants of the common lands were made for public service, such as ditching and clearing, but the grants could be made only with the knowledge and consent of the entire town. The feudal system was unknown in Hartford. The people owned their property absolutely, save that they owned it under a superior authority, which was the People, of which superior authority each owner was a sovereign unit. So their land was not held under the superior authority of the King in the mother country, but under that of Themselves and their fellow Inhabitants. No man of Hartford ever took the oath of allegiance to the British King till after the Charter of 1662 was granted. There were also laws governing extravagance and display in dress and ornament, and the prices to be paid for the 198 THE CONNECTICUT J'ALLEY work done b\' men and cattle, and the length of the work-day. The wages paid for labor by the day varied from eighteen pence to two shillings and sixpence, the season of the year and the " smartness " of the man being considerations influ encing the pay. The length of a work-dav in summer was ele\-en hours, and in winter it was nine hours. The charge for the use of cattle for a day varied from four- teenpence to eighteenpence, also according to the season and working qualities of the cattle. For the use of a cart from threepence to sixpence a day was charged. Sawyers, the makers of lumber, received better pay than farm laborers. The pa}- for this work varied from four shil lings and sixpence to seven shillings, and if either party gave or received more than the sums fixed, for the particular kind of work, he was fined five shillings for each offence. Trouble arising from an employer taking advantage of a man's necessity, was settled by arbitration by the Towns men, who imposed fines to suit the offence. So, while some of these laws were arbitrary, thev were made for the good of the community and if they seemed a hardship in particular cases it was due to ignorance, or lack of experience, rather than a desire on the part of the employed to do as little for as much as possible, or on the part of the employers, to give as little for as much done as possible. Besides all of the common grains, and beans, the settlers had a fair variety of vegetables. The raising of tobacco, hemp and flax was encouraged and regulated by law. To encourage the raising of tobacco, there was a penalty of five shillings for using any that was grown out of Connecticut, and the Connecticut referred to in the law was composed of the three towns of Hartford, ^^"ethe^sfield and W^indsor. Strict laws were passed in regard to the use of tobacco, for the General Court feared that the people were abusing them selves with it. The Court ordered that no person under the age of twenty-one should use tobacco in anv form, with out a certificate from a physician that tobacco was good for him, and e\-en then, the would-be user was required to obtain a license from the General Court. This requirement included HARTFORD. 199 all who had not acquired the habit, as well as those under twenty-one. After the certificate and license had been obtained, the possessor -was forbidden to smoke, chew or snuff, on the pub lic streets, the highways, or in barn yards, and on training days he could not indulge in any open space. This probably was to prevent the use of tobacco on, or about the training ground. The penalty for each offence was sixpence, and any one could be convicted by the testimony of but one witness. In 1640, the General Court compelled the raising of flax and hemp. This law provided that each family should plant one spoonful of the seed, the seeds to be planted one foot apart. In the second year, each family keeping a team was to sow at least one rood of hemp or flax ; each person keeping cattle was to sow twenty perches; families not owning cattle were obliged to sow ten perches and to provide at least a half pound of hemp or flax seed, or be subject to the public censure of the Court. As there was a scarcity of hemp seed, the Court ordered that any person who possessed more than the required spoonful and refused to sell to those who had none, should be obliged to plant that much more. Their animals were cattle, horses of a rather poor quality for any other purpose than heavy work, hogs, sheep and goats. The goat's well known capacity for mischief caused him to be barred from the commons and the streets of the settlement without a keeper. While pigs were a frequent article of diet in the form of pork, as pigs, they were a fre quent subject of legislation by the Town. There is a tradition that many years later than the period just mentioned, about the third and fourth decades of the nineteenth century, there were finer specimens of " trouble- poultry " — as an old colored man called his fighting cocks — in Hartford than could be elsewhere found in New England. Had it not been for a hungry woman on one of the emigrant ships, of 1637, Hartford might have had fighting cocks with spurs on heads as well as heels. Tradition says that this woman was bringing with her from Old England to New 200 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. England, in K'137, a pair of fowls which had spur-like horns growing out from their heads on either side, but she killed and ate thein before landing. The earliest record of a law in regard to public education in Connecticut is that of 1642, when £30 was set aside for the Town School. Thus early did Hartford establish "The Little Red School-house " in which the majority of America's greatest men obtained their first thirst for knowledge. In 1(150, each Town of fifty householders was required to maintain a school master, and each Town of one hundred house holders was required to maintain a Grammar School, with a master who was competent to prepare pupils for the Univer sity — meaning Harvard. In 1664, Governor Hopkins gave to this school £400, that the school might be on a firm founda tion. One of the chief reasons the people were so strongly in favor of an education was, that more persons would be able to read the Scriptures in the Greek, and so avoid the danger of depending upon translators, who might construe the original to suit their own " mistaken " ideas. Another was, that a greater number of young men might be stimulated to fit themselves for the ministry. One of the duties of the Selectmen was to require all chil dren and apprentices to attend school, and they were given authority to take minors of both sexes from parents or mas ters who neglected their duty in sending their children or apprentices to school. Such children were to be placed under the guardianship of some person — till they were twenty-one in the case of boys, and eighteen in the case of girls — who would see to it that they were properly educated for good citizen ship, industry and obedience to the laws. The Selectmen were also obliged to require heads of families, once a week, to catechize their children and servants in the principles of their religion, meaning the Congregational Church. The schools had a hard struggle for the people, however well off they might be, had little ready mone^' to give to their sup port. The people had a keen appreciation of the advantages of an education, and they showed a determination and sin cerity of purpose, to do all that was possible to keep the " little red factory " of good citizenship at work on full time, HARTFORD. 201 with a full force. For this noble purpose many ways for keeping the machinery going were adopted. Wood for heat ing the school-house was donated ; small sums of money were given for the rent of a room, when the cost of a school-house would be too great; or pupils were charged a tiny tuition. The people voted in Town Meeting to tax themselves for the support of the institution that was so close to the Church, that it stood nearly on a level with it. Those old-time New Englanders were austere, rather mirthless and grim, but they were nation and character builders and devoted to their Church and School. In the very early days there were queer laws made for regulating who should be, and who should not be inhabitants. There can be no doubt that the laws, queer as they were, were necessary for the protection of the community in its social, po litical, industrial and religious lives. The community was com posed of families which had un dertaken a great enterprise in leaving the comfort and, in many instances, the luxury of their homes in England and later, in leaving the comparative safety of their homes in Massa chusetts for the unknown far-west. They were united in their purpose, in their standard of life, both public and domestic, and in their manner of worship and Church government, so they could not afford to hazard the discord that might result from the promiscuous influx of strangers. They were a house which, divided against itself, would not only have fallen, but would have been annihilated. They had insti tuted their wonderful Town Government and it must be maintained, even at the expense of seeming inhospitality. Strangers could become inhabitants only upon proof of good character — ^ which meant honest. God-fearing industri- HARTFORD, CONN. 202 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. ous lives — and then, only upon an affirmative vote of a majority of the inhabitants. Persons who were evidently waifs were absolutely barred from citizenship. Families, which were already inhabitants, were not permitted to enter tain strangers in their homes for a period of time longer than one month, without permission from the Town. Young unmarried men were not allowed to live in any family with out permission from the Town, no matter how good were their characters ; nor w as a \oung unmarried man permitted to live in bachelor-quarters, unless he kept a servant or was a public officer. The penalty for such an offence was a fine of twenty shillings. This was the strangest of the laws gov erning life in those early days. It was probably due to the fear that a man living alone would become slovenly, dirty and perhaps immoral and to them, the people of Connecti cut, who gave to America its Town Government and to the World its first written Constitution, cleanliness of person and domicile was but little less important than cleanliness of morals. Inhabitants were obliged by law to attend Town fleeting. Failure to do so without reasonable excuse, was punished by a fine of sixpence — small indeed in value, but the princi ple involved by the fine was great. If there were a similar law now, in every State of the Union, in regard to attendance at primaries, the high officials in Town, County, State and Nation, would be men who have inherited their American Citizenship instead of those who have acquired it through the naturalization courts. There was one striking particular in which Connecticut, and therefore Hartford, was far in advance of the Colonies of Massachusetts and New Ha\-en. To be a voter in Con necticut it was only necessarv to be an Inhabitant ; in Massa chusetts and New Haven, membership in the Congre gational Church was necessary. They were continuing in the New World that union of Church and State which they found so objectionable in the Old M'orld. The people of Massachusetts found that the union was rather a pleasant condition, giving as it did, greatly augmented power to those persons who held office. And in New England they were the HARTFORD. 203 Church and State, while in Old England they were simply the puppets of the Church. It is not at all strange that they found the power very pleasant and tickling to their self- esteem. MISCELLANY. In 1642, Connecticut had provided the death penalty for twelve crimes, and later two more were added to the frightful list, and they were all based upon the Bible. Human beings were put to death : For worshipping another God than the Lord God. For being a witch, or consulting with a familiar spirit. For blaspheming the name of God the Father, Son or Holy Ghost * * * with presumptuous or highhanded blasphemy. For wilful murder. For slaying another through guile, either by poisonings or other such Devilish practice. For kidnapping. For false witness. For conspiring or attempting an invasion, insurrection or rebellion against the Commonwealth. For a child above sixteen years of age to curse, or smite his father or mother. For a son above sixteen j^ears of age, who will not obey his father or mother, after he has been chastened by them. There is no city in New England, in which public hospi tality for travelers is greater, or the accommodations more comfortable and elegant, than in Hartford. The city has in herited this characteristic for 260 years for in 1644, the Legis lature, or General Court as it was then called, ordered that the towns of Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield should each provide a house for the entertainment of strangers and the traveling public, in wbich they should be fed and lodged in a " comfortable " manner. The tavern-keeper was chosen for that employment by the people and was approved by two magistrates, as being the right man for the best in terests of strangers and the reputation of the towns. There was a fine of forty shillings, to be paid by the Town failing to comply with this order within a month after its issuance. 204 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. and a similar fine was imposed for each successive month that passcd, before the order was complied with. The first ta\-ern in Plartford was in 1644, and Jeremy Adams was its keeper. Tradition and history makes Jeremy Adams a typical landlord. Plospitable, jolly and full of deviltry in his 3'outh, when he began the duties of landlord, in later )'ears he settled down and became a solid, substan tial and prominent citizen. One of his early improprieties was to urge Thomas Hosmer, against whom an execution had been issued, to resist the levy by the constable. For this the General Court censured him formally. In 1662, Adams was confirmed by the authorities as tavern-keeper, so it is evident that he was regarded as the right man for the place. In 1663, he was appointed to the responsible ofiice of ^Master of Customs. An especial enactment by the General Court provided that Adams' house should remain the tavern for the entertainment of neighbors as well as strangers ; that if Adams failed in any particulars of his agreement, his license should not be forfeited, but that he should continue in its possession at the discretion of the Court and himself be subject to its censure. This was practically a monopoly and no doubt it was as profitable in those days as are the monopolies of to-da3^ His monopol}^ included the exclusive right to sell wines in all quantities under a quarter cask, and all liquors under an anker ; a Dutch measure of liquids used in England, contain ing ten wine-gallons. So Jeremy Adams had control of the retail and wholesale trade of the Colon}-, as it is hardly probable that his colleagues in the other towns were doing enough business to be able to buy wines and liquors in greater quantities than a quarter cask or an anker. It would be unjust and partaking of the nature of a vandalism to even suggest that the authorities received an}- of the mj-sterious presents, in unadressed envelopes, which the grantors of monoi)olies of the twentieth century find in their desks or coat pockets. In those dav's, ^vhen time was still 3roung in the Colonies, public officials were simple, honest men, wdio had not reached that advanced stage of civilization that HARTFORD. 205 obtains in this century. It is evident, however, that Jeremy had what in these days is known in politics as a " pull ". Jeremy Adkms was in Cambridge in 1632. He was an original settler of Hartford and married Rebekah Greenhill, the widow of Samuel Greenhill. Adams came into posses sion of the Greenhill estate by giving a bond to pay to the two minor children a stipulated sum when they became of age. He sold his house and lot to Thomas Catlin and moved to the Greenhill property, on the west side of Main street, just south of the bridge. In 1651 he purchased a lot of John Steel on the east side of Main street, where the Travelers' Insurance building stands, and kept a tavern there for years. Becoming involved in financial difficulties he mortgaged this property to the Colony, which was redeemed by his grandson, Zachary Sanford, in 1685. This first tavern or inn was situated on the east side of Main street, on three acres of ground, and the well in front of the inn continued in use for more than 200 years. In 1687, when the Charter was in jeopardy, the General Court met in this inn, where Captain Wadsworth blew out the candles, upon the arrival of Governor Andros, and, securing the Charter in the confusion resulting from the sudden dark ness, escaped thence to hide the precious document in the Charter Oak. When this historic event took place, the inn was kept by Zachary Sanford. Sanford, a grandson of Adams, bought the mortgage which Adams had given the Colony and which the Colony had foreclosed. So it seems that notwith standing his profitable monopoly, Adams got into debt more heavily than he could manage to get out of. Jeremy Adams died in 1683. Some time later the authorities made rules for the regulation of inns which were rigidly enforced. A sign was to be placed where strangers entering the town could see it and, in 1679, when Adams neglected to so place his sign, he was fined forty shillings. The act of the General Court required that guests should be made comfortable and provided with as great a variety of nour ishment, both liquid and solid, as possible. The Inn was to be to the traveler as his own house. Provided he had the money, 2o6 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY he was to order what he liked and had the run of the kitchen to give directions as to how it should be cooked. The bed must have clean sheets, on which no one had before slept. A servant was to be provided to make his fire and to pull off and clean his boots. He had the option of eating with his host at the common table, or in his private room. There were rules for the care and feeding of the traveler's horse, and if the landlord failed to live up to the rules he was fined by the to\vn two shillings and sixpence a day, and double that sum had to be paid to the owner of the horse. The rules governing the landlord were, that he must not permit excessive drinking or intoxication in his house. Plalf a pint of wine was the limit to be served to one person at one time. Drinking was not to continue for more than a half hour at one sitting, and never at unseasonable hours. Liquids ceased to flow at the call of the thirsty at nine o'clock at night. Wine could not be sold to be taken out of the Inn, except upon written authority from the head of a family. Every person found drunk, in or about an inn, was fined ten shillings. The Court imposed fines for different offenses in the use of strong drink and wine. For drinking more than the Court thought to be sufficient, there was a fine of three shillings and fourpence ; for drinking for a longer period than a half hour, the fine was two shillings and sixpence ; for drinking at unsea sonable times, or after the hour of nine at night, the fine was five shillings. For second and third offenses the fines were two and three times as great respectively, while for the fourth offence, the penalty was imprisonment. If any convicted person was unable to pay his fine, he was either put in the stocks or given ten stripes. Moses Butler was a famous and well liked inn-keeper in the old days. His place of entertainment was at the corner of Main and Elm streets, just south of the bridge. Besides being an excellent landlord, Butler was a character and a " crony ", and he gathered a number of other cronies about him — gentlemen who were past middle life -— and formed the "Seven Copper Club ". This odd name was derived from a rule of the Club, that whenever two or more of the members met at Butler's — ¦ and Butler's was the meeting place of the Club — each one was obliged to spend seven coppers for a half mug of flip, no more HARTFORD. 207 and no less, nor was any other drink permitted. In this Inn^ they would sit about a cherry table, polished till it shone, with pewter flip mugs of a quart capacity, and discuss matters of interest. Butler was strict in his rule that the club should adjourn at nine o'clock and that only one half-mug of flip should be drunk. On such occasions — and they were probably fre quent — when one or another of the members urged for "just one more half-mug ", or for an extension of the time for adjourn ment till past the hour of nine, tradition has it, that Butler's invariable reply was : " No, you sha'nt have another drop. Go home to your families ". No doubt this domineering spirit of Butler's was one -of the charms of the Club, to the gentlemen who formed its membership, for there is nothing more pleasing to the man whose social and financial position is such that he can do just as he pleases, than to be domineered. FIRST OFFICIALS ; THEIR DUTIES. John Steele, the first Town Clerk, served till 1 651, when he was succeeded by William Andrews, who was the first schoolmaster. The Sealer of Leather was a man of importance, for all tanned hides must be examined by him and bear his mark of approval, otherwise there was trouble for the man who killed the animal which wore the hide, or for the tanner. Leather was much used for clothing as well as for foot covering, besides all of the many other uses to which it was put. The care taken in removing the hide from the animal, and in the tanning, was of great importance for the supply was far from being in excess of the demand. Hides were obtained only when an animal was slaughtered for food. Its flesh would provide food for a great many more per sons than its hide would provide leather for shoes, boots and clothing, to say nothing of the various other uses to which leather was put, so the law was definite and strictly enforced. If the butcher was careless and gashed the hide while skinning the animal he was fined twelvepence for each gash. If the hide was carelessly allowed to heat, the fine was twenty pounds, or if the tanner spoiled it or made poor leather of it, the sealer refused to pass it and the tanner was out of pocket to the extent of the value of the tanned hide. Part of the duty of the Sealer 2o8 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY of Leather was to inspect the premises of the tanner, to see that the curing liquors were of the best quality, and that the work was done with care and skill, and to mark the good hides with his seal, and confiscate the poor ones. For each hide under five inspected, the sealer received twopence ; when the number was greater than five, he received twelvepence for every ten hides inspected. The Packer's duties were to unpack hides sent in from the farms and other settlements and to repack them, and brand each barrel which he had packed with the letters C. R. which were supposed to stand for Connecticut River. The first Customs blaster was Jonathan Gilbert, who began his duties in 1659. He was a trader and ship-master and his warehouse was at the Landing. Mr. Gilbert was also High Sheriff. The Brander of Horses' duties were as his title implies. His brand mark and the color and age of each horse exported from the Colony -were recorded by the Town Clerk, who received six pence for each entry. John Gunning was the Chimney Sweeper. He received his appointment in 1639. The danger from fire was great, should the thick soot from the wood fires become ignited, and it was his dnty to see that the chimneys were free from such accumula tions. In those days and with those people one man was as good as another. There \vere a few ^yho possessed more money than their neighbors and others wdio ^yere better educated, but there ¦were only two classes — as we of this country know class distinc tions — and the dividing line between them was morals and citi zenship. There is no reason to believe that any man \yas " looked up to " because of his wealth. There is reason to believe that every man was highly respected because of his mental attain ments, and there is absolutely no doubt that the good citizen who kept the laws and made it his business to see that others kept them, who lived and worked for the good of the community, as well as for himself, and lived in the fear of the Lord, was honored and came as near to being one of a superior class as the Colon}' of Connecticut had. So, wdiile we regard the Chimnc\- Sweeper as a very humble officer, it is hardly probable that his fellow settlers did so regard John Gunning and it is probable that he was as well off as the average settler. HARTFORD: 209 REMINISCENT. The first paper money issued by the Colony of Connecticut was when Connecticut was called upon to help in the " reduc tion " of the French in Canada, in 1709. Of the 350 men under command of Colonel Whiting who took part in that campaign of disaster, ninety were killed. A special assembly of June 8, 1709, passed a bill that paper money should be printed to the value of £8,000, the bills ranging in value from two shillings to five pounds. Only one half of the bills were signed and issued, at first, the other half being kept in the treasury till it should be needed. A tax was imposed for the redemption of the bills first issued, at the expiration of one year and for the other half at the expiration of the second year. The act required that these bills should be received for one shilling on the pound more than gold or silver. In 1713, Connecticut consisted of four counties — Hartford, New Haven, New London and Fairfield — and a population of 17,000. Each county supported a regiment of militia, giving a total for the Colony of nearly 4,000 men. The only direct exports to Great Britain were, tar, pitch, tur pentine and fur pelts. The principal trade of the Colony was with Boston and New York, to which places grain, pork, beef and cattle were sent ; and with the West Indies, the trade being, besides pork, beef and cattle, horses, hoops and staves. The chief articles received from the West Indies were, rum, molasses and cotton. The total annual expense of the Colonial government at this period was about $3,500. The Governor received equivalent to $800 and the Lieutenant-Governor, $200 a year. The cost of the Legislature was $1,600. The Legislature, or General Assembly, met twice a year but a session seldom continued for more than ten days. The Connecticut Gazette of May 31, 1766, gives the following account of the reception of the news that the Stamp Act had been repealed and of the shocking accident that was the result of the careless enthusiasm of the people : Last Monday evening the long expected, joyful news of the total repeal of the Stamp Act arrived in town ; upon which happy event, the General Assembly of this colony, now sitting here, appointed the Friday following 210 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY OLDEST CHURCH, HARTFORD. HARTFORD. 211 as a day of general rejoicing. The morning was ushered in by the ringing of bells — the shipping in the river displayed their colors — at 12 o'clock twenty-one cannon were discharged, and the greatest preparations making for a general illumination, Joy smiled in every face, and universal glad ness diffused itself through all ranks and degrees. But sudden was the transition from the height of joy to the extreme of sorrow! A number of young gentlemen were preparing fireworks for the evening, in the chamber of the large brick school house, under which a quantity of powder granted by the Assembly for the purposes of the day, was deposited. Two com panies of militia had just received a pound a man, by the delivery of which a train was scattered from the powder cask to a distance of three rods from the house, where a number of boys were collected, who un designedly and unnoticed, set fire to the scattered powder, which was soon communicated to that within doors, and in an instant reduced the building to a heap of rubbish, and buried the following persons in its ruins viz, Mr. Levi Jones, John Knowles (an apprentice to Mr. Thomas Sloan, blacksmith) and Richard, second son to Mr. John Hans. Lord, died of their wounds soon after they were taken from under the ruins of the building. Mr. William Gardiner, merchant, had both legs broke. Doctor Nathaniel Ledyard, had one of his thighs broke, Mr, Samuel Talcott, Jun,, very much burnt in his face and arms. Mr, James Siley, goldsmith, had one of his shoulders dislocated and some bruises in other parts of his body, Mr, John Cook, Jun,, had his back and neck much hurt, Ephraim Perry, slightly wounded, Thomas Forbes, wounded on his head. Daniel Butler (the tavern keeper's son) had one of his ankles put out of joint, Richard Burnham, son of Mr. Elisha Burnham, had his thigh, leg, and ankle broke, Eli Wadsworth (Captain Samuel's son) is much wounded and burnt in his face, hands, and other parts of his body, John Bunce, Jun,, (an apprentice to Mr. Church, hatter) wounded in the head, Norraond Morrison (a lad that lives with Captain Siley) a good deal burnt and bruised, Roderick Lawrence, (Captain Lawrence's son) slighdy wounded, William Skinner (Captain Daniel's son) had both his thighs broke, Timothy Phelps (son of Mr, Timothy Phelps, shop joiner) had the calf torn off one of his legs. Valentine Vaughn (son of Mr. Vaughn, baker) had his skull terribly broke. Horace Seymour (Mr. Jonathan Seymour Jun's., son) two sons of Mr. John Goodwin, a son of Mr, John Watson, a son of Mr, Kellogg, hatter, were slightly wounded. Two mulatto and two negro boys were also wounded. When the new theatre was opened in Hartford, the Connecti cut Courant, of August 10, 1795, gave it the following notice. It is evident that the press agent had been liberal with passes : The new Theatre in this city was opened on Monday last, with a cele brated comedy, entitled. The Dramatist, preceded by a handsome and pertinent address by Mr. Hodgkinson, Frora the specimen that has been 212 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. given of the ability of the performers, and the assurance of the managers that they will so conduct the Theatre, that it may be justly styled a school of morality; it is presumed that it will be a great source of instruction and amusement to those that visit it ; and we will hazard the assertion, notwithstanding the prejudices that some have entertained against it, that as an amusement it is the most innocent and, as a source of instruction it is the most amusing of any that we ever yet experienced. While the theatre is well conducted, on chaste principles — when vice is drawn in colors that will disgust, and virtue painted in all its alluring charms, it is hoped it will meet the approbation and encouragement of the citizens, and of the neighboring towns. " The handsome and pertinent address " by Mr. Hodgkinson included the following poem. Here, while fair peace spreads her protecting wing. Science and Art, secure from danger spring, Guarded by freedom — strengthened by the laws. Their progress must command the world's applause. While through all Europe horrid discord reigns. And the destructive sword crimsons her plains : O ! be it ours to shelter the opprest. Here let them find peace, liberty and rest ; Upheld by Washington, at whose dread name Proud Anarchy retires with fear and shame. Among the liberal arts, behold the Stage, Rise, tho' oppos'd by stern fanatic rage ! Prejudice shrinks, and as the cloud gives way. Reason and candor brighten up the day. No immorality now stains our page. No vile obscenity — in this blest age. Where mild Religion takes her heavenly reign, The Stage the purest precepts must maintain: If from this rule it swerv'd at any time. It was the people's not the stage's crime. Let them spurn aught that's out of virtue's rule, The Stage will ever be -a virtuous school. And though 'mong players some there may be found, Whose conduct is not altogether sound. The Stage is not alone in this to blame Ev'ry profession will have still the same: A virtuous sentiment from vice may come ! The libertine may praise a happy home; Your remedy is good with such a teacher; Imbibe the precept, but condemn the preacher. In matters of every day life the people of the eighteenth cen tury were not so different from those of the twentieth as one HARTFORD. 213 might suppose. The chief difference was, that what they said and did, was not as we would say and do it. For instance; the man who wished to air his views, or to " knock " someone in a communication to the public press, existed in seventeen hundred, just as he exists in nineteen hun dred. And, if one may judge from the following communica tion to the New London Gazette, dated in Hartford on June 24, 1768, these eighteenth century "knockers" were just as timid about signing their names as the same genus is now. The com munication is as follows : Mr. Printer — I wish you would put this into your newspaper for the complainant. Sir : — I was at Hartford a little while ago; and I see folks running about the streets after the gentlemen that belonged to the Gen eral Assembly; and I asked what it was for, and an old woman told me that they came a great way, matter of forty miles easterly, to find fault with what the Assembly was a going to do. And what I want of you is, to complain of it; for it does not seem clever to have them gentlemen pestered so by cats-paws, when we have got them to do all our business for us by themselves. And you know -when folks have folks talking to them all the while, it will pester them, I wonder people will act so ; if what I once read in a book is true, " Know, villians, when such paltry slaves presume To mix in treason ; if the plot succeeds. They're thrown neglected by," How entirely nineteenth-century. Crowds of people chasing legislators; old women gossiping; and a reformer writing. The only difference is, that while the chasing of the legislators "pestered" them in 1768; it helps them to lay up treasure where moth and rust does corrupt, and they like it, in the nineteenth century. The early law makers of Connecticut evidently had no sus picion, that in time, the Constitution of the United States would provide that no cruel or unusual punishments should be inflicted, for they certainly showed great ingenuity in devising both cruel and unusual forms of punishment. The Connecticut Courant, of January 4, 1785, thus describes the punishment of a man who was convicted of stealing a horse : The sentence of the Supreme Court was; that the criminal (or victim) " Should sit on a wooden horse for half an hour, receive fifteen stripes, pay a fine of £10, be confined in gaol and the workhouse for three 214 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. months, and every Monday morning for the first month to receive ten stripes and sit on the wooden horse as aforesaid ". The Courant says in commenting upon the punishment: One of the rogues was sentenced to ride the wooden horse, that wonder ful refinement of punishment in our modern statutes. Accordingly, on Thursday last that terrible machine was prepared — consisting of one simple stick of wood supported by four legs; and by order of the sheriff placed on the State House square. Hither the prisoner was conducted, and lieing previously well booted and spurred by the officer, was mounted on the oaken steed. Here he continued for half an hour, laughing at his own fate, and making diversion for a numerous body of spectators, who honored him -with their company. He took several starts for a race with several of the best horses in the city; and it was difficult to determine who -were most pleased with the exhibition, the criminal or the spectators. After this part of the sentence had been legally and faithfully executed, the culprit was dismounted and led to the Avhipping post, where the duties made him more serious. The whole was performed with order and regularity. Another man, convicted of polygamy, was sentenced by the same term of the Supreme Court, " to receive ten stripes, be branded with the letter A, and to wear a halter around his neck during his continuance in the State and if ever found -with it oft", to receive thirty stripes " ^\'hen the news of the death of General Washington reached Hartford, the people of that city were depressed and sorrow-ful. The following account of the services held, and the reproduction of the hymn written by Theodore Dwight for the occasion, are from the Connecticut Courant, of December 30, 1799: In consequence of the afflicting intelligence of the death of Genl. Washington, divine services were performed at the north meeting house in this town on 'Friday last. The town never exhibited a more solemn and interesting appearance. Notice ha\ ing been given to the inhabitants of this and the neighboring towns, the concourse of people was greater than almost ever was known on any former occasion. The stores and shops were shut through the day — all business being suspended — the bells were muffled, and tolled at intervals, from nine in the morning till the ser\ ices commenced. The meeting house Avas greatly crowded, and still a lart;e portion of the people couKl not get in at the doors. The ser\ ices were appropriate, solemn and impressive. A very eloquent and patlie.lic sermon was delivered by the Rev. Nathan Strong, to a most attenli\e, devout, and luourning audience, irmw K.xod. XI. 3. "And the man Moses was \'ery great", &c. The music was solemn and sublime; and the wlmle scene exhibited in the strongest of all possible colors, the HARTFORD. 215 deep affliction of the people at a loss utterly irreparable. The floods of tears, the badges which were universally worn, the church was hung in black, a procession of many hundreds of persons, composed of men of all classes, and the solemn grief pictured in every countenance, made im pressions on the minds of the beholders, which many years -will not efface. We presume that the sentiments and feelings which inspired the persons present, pervade the whole country, on the distressing event which called them together. However divided into parties on political subjects, with respect to the character of this great man, we trust that there is but one opinion in the United States, As he lived, loved and admired, he has died truly lamented ; and his memory will be honored as long as wisdom, virtue and piety shall be esteemed among men. " The beauty of Israel is slain upon the high places ; how- are the mighty fallen " The following was the hymn written by Dwight : What solemn sounds the ear invade ! What wraps the land in sorrow's shade I From Heaven the awful mandate flies. The Father of his Country dies. Let every heart be filled with woe. Let every eye with tears o'erflow, Each form oppressed with deepest gloom, Be clad in vestments of the tomb. Behold that venerable band ! The rulers of our mourning land. With grief proclaim from shore to shore. Our guide, our Washington's no more ! Where shall our country turn its eye? What help remains beneath the sky? Our Friend, Protector, Strength, and Trust, Lies low and mouldering in the dust. Almighty God, to thee we fly — Before thy throne above the sky. In deep prostration humbly bow. And pour the penitential vow. Hear, O Most High ! our earnest prayer — Our country take beneath thy care. When dangers press, and foes draw near. May future Washingtons appear. There is a patriotic nobility of sentiment; fine appreciation of the dead hero, patriot and soldier; and faith in, and devotion to. Almighty God, that is typical of a Dwight in this hymn, which becomes even more striking by two or three readings. 2i6 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. ELECTION DAY. Kendall's account of the doings on election dav in Hartford, toward the end of the first decade of eighteen-hundred, refers to the reforms that were made about the time the new Con stitution was adopted. Among them being, that the clergy were no longer dined at the exiiense of the public, that the elec tion sermon was eliminated and that the Governor's guard was no longer fed at public expense. It will be noticed that leaving the clergy to go hungry was one step in reform and the restrain ing one of their number from exhaling superheated atmosphere for two hours on election day, was another. An ante-reforma tion election day was observed somewhat as follows, according to Kendall : The Governor had volunteer companies, both horse and foot. In the afternoon the horse were drawn up on the bank of the river to receive him and escort him to his lodgings. The mounted guard wore blue cloth and the Governor was dressed in black with a cockade in his hat, -.vhich was of somewhat ancient form (probably the three-cornered chapeau). In the morning the foot guards were paraded in front of the State House, where they afterward remained under arms, while the troop of horse occupied the street on the south side of the building. The clothing of the foot was scarlet coats, white waistcoats and white pantaloo'ns. Their appearance and demeanor were military. The apartments and galleries in the State Hovise w-ere filled by the members of the Legislature and other notable citizens, awaiting the arrival of the Governor, At about li o'clock his excellency made his appearance and took his place at the head of the procession, which pro ceeded to a meeting-house about a half mile distant. Those in the pro cession were on foot and included the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, assistants, high sheriffs, members of the lower house of the Legislature, and all of the clergy of the State. It was preceded by the foot guards and followed by the horse guards. Arrived at the old South Meeting house all of the military, except a few officers, remained outside. Neither the Governor nor any of the other high officials, wore anything like insignia of office. The only women in the church were the twenty in the high gallery opposite the pulpit, who composed the choir. On the large platform behind the pulpit were four ministers; one to open the ceremony with prayer; another to preach the election sermon; another to offer the closing prayer and the last, to pronounce the bene diction. The sermon was on matters of government and when all was finished the procession reliirned to the State House, the clergy on foot, numbering about one hundred. It was in the military aloue, that any suitable approach to magnificence ELECTION DAY. 217 was shown. The Governor was in black, the Lieutenant-Governor wore riding boots and the sheriffs wore their village habiliments (all of which were of a varied nature) and dress swords. At the State House the military formed on either side of the street and presented arms, as the Governor passed through their lines. Then a general division took place. The Governor, Lieutenant-Governor and the assistants going to their special room in the inn; the ministers to another and the members of the Legislature to another where dinner was served. Soon after the dining was finished, the Assembly met in the council room to examine and count the written votes for the officers, when the public, official announcement was made. Then the Lieutenant-Governor administered the oath to the governor, who returned the courtesy and continued it with the other officials elected. At a few minutes past 6 o'clock, the military fired a salute and were then dismissed. On the night after election there was a grand, public ball and on the Monday night after election there was another ball not for the people, but for the few select ones. Election day and in fact the week following that day, was a general holiday in Connecticut. About the only one the people had, for such was the odd state of mind of the Congregational leaders in authority, in the early days in New England, that nearly all that was tender and beautiful in Christ's religion was resigned, without the asking, to the Church of Rome. So the early Christians of the Congregational faith (and Christians they surely were) knew nothing of Christmas, Easter and Whitsun tide, but rather lived " in the fear of the Lord " and election day was their chief holiday. Indeed, so late as 1886, in a Vermont city, a Congregational Church refused to place a beautiful cross, that had been presented by a friend, behind the pulpit on Easter, " because it was so much like Popery ". It was a strange religion that willingly robbed itself of the tenderness, and retained so much of the harshness of Christianity and yet this same unbeautiful religion was a power for good, great good, in the Colony and young Nation and produced many of the Nation's finest and most liberal men and women. A queer old custom that may have originated in a spirit of fun, was the election day of the negro population, when a negro governor was elected. Or perhaps the custom was established by the masters to keep the slaves in good humor and by placing the most intelligent of them over the others, they may have relieved themselves of many of the petty annoyances that exist with slavery. The custom obtained long before the Revolution, 2i8 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY and continued to a few years aft^er the second war with Great Britain, " Nigger election " was usually on the Saturday after the regular election of the Colony, or State. It was an occasion of unusual liberty and delight for the negroes. Much of the voting was done by proxy, as not all of the blacks could attend the election. Often the choice was largely left to the masters, who cIkxsc a black for governor who was able to keep his fellows in ordci' by means of his superior intelligence and great muscular strength. Sometimes the existing black governor passed his office and authority on to another of his own choice, but above all, the whites required that the black governor should be one notable for his honesty. After the election, the governor appointed aids, military offi cers, sheriffs and justices of the peace. In fact, the whole busi ness was carried on with as much dignity and as nearly like an election by their masters, as the farcical natures of the negroes permitted. They had their post-election parade and, generally, this was followed by a feast of some kind. The governor's duties were never definitely defined, any more than the duties of a policeman's club are defined and, like the policeman's club, he was a sort of instrument of punishment to be held over the heads of wrong-doers among the people of his own color. Neptune, one of the negro justices of the peace, generally known as " Squire Nep ", was a terror to evil-doers of his own color for when one of them was brought before him. Squire Nep always inflicted the most severe punishment upon conviction. Nep was a barber, and was as much respected by the wdiites for his integrity, intelligence and influence among the negroes, as he was feared by the latter. (. )n one occasion, a nigger thief had been taken before Jonathan Bull, a white magistrate. Squire Bull ^ent him to " Squire Nep " for trial, Nep found him guilty and sentenced him to receive thirty lashes upon his bare back, and to give up his gun and tobacco as a means of restitution. The execution of the sentence took place at night, by the light of a candle, upon the Soutli Green. WEST HARTFORD. 219 WEST HARTFORD. WEST Hartford was originally a portion of Hartford and was for many years known as West Division. It was owned by a large company of proprietors who voted to divide the district in 1672. Up to that year, nothing had been done toward a survey and division of the land. In fact, nothing was done till 1674, when a strip of land extending north and south for the full length of the Town of Hartford and east from the Farmington line for a mile and a half, was set off and divided into lots, in proportion to the individual interests of the proprietors. At that time, the Farmington line was at the foot of Talcott IMountain. This long, narrow territory was divided into lots that were a mile and a half long and from ninety-one rods in width down to but three rods, the width being in accord with the individual interests of the owners. The western boundary was sometime later moved toward the west, by changing the Farm ington line from the foot, to the top of Talcott Mountain, and by adding a considerable strip of land to the eastern boundary of West Division. The distance of the little settlement in West Division from the two Churches in the Village of Hartford, was so great that the inhabitants petitioned the General Court, in 1710, for a separate Church Society, but the petition was not granted till May, 171 1, when the twenty-eight petitioners were formed into a separate society. The Church was organized in February, 1713, with the Rev. Benjamin Colton its first minister. It was known as the Fourth Church of Hartford. Mr. Colton was the minister for forty-three years. He was succeeded by the Rev. Nathaniel Hooker, a descendant of the Rev. Thomas Hooker, the Colony's first minister, and a grandson of Governor Talcott. The third minister was the Rev. Dr. Nathan Perkins, whose pastorate lasted for sixty-three years, and was only ex ceeded by the pastorate of the Rev. Samuel Nott, who was minis ter of the Franklin Church for seventy-one years. Dr. Perkins was a liberal, progressive man and a warm patriot during the Revolution, and in the second war with Great Britain, in 1812. He was one of the first and most uncompromising opponents of slavery. He, like many of the Congregational ministers of the 220 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. early da}-s, was frequently notable for his keen sense of humor, which was, upon the proper occasions, often dry and biting. The custom of pa_\'ing a portion of the minister's salary in fire wood obtained in his day. Colonel X, one of his parishioners, called Mr. I'erkins out, one day, to pass judgment upon a load oi " salary wood ". The wood was chiefly composed of the small, crooked, tops of trees and being so crooked it did not pack closely, and was far from being up to the standard load of wood. Dr. Perkins looked at the load from both sides and then going to the rear, stooped and, seemingly looking through the middle of the load, at the cattle in front, remarked; " That is a remark ably fine pair of steers you have on the lead. Colonel ". He was the originator of the Theological Institute in Hart ford and the first meeting of ministers, preliminary to its found ing, was held in his home, and he laid the corner-stone of the first building. It is somewhat remarkable, that with the excep tion of a very small and short-lived Society of Quakers, the Congregational was the only religious organization in West Hartford, from the first settlement down to 1843, ^vhen St. James' Episcopal Church was organized. The first four-wheeled vehicle of West Hartford, for carrying persons from one place to another, was introduced by an ancestor of William Faxon, who was Lincoln's Assistant-Secretary of the Navy. Captain Faxon had purchased this " carriage " for the especial purpose of carry ing his family to Church. He probably had no idea that it would be a cause of disturbing the peace of the " Sabbath " and of keeping the people away from their places in Church till after the service had begun. But it did, and the good people con sidered it to be so wicked an instrument of Satan, that the Monday after the Faxon family first arrived at Church in it, a committee called upon Captain Faxon to inform him that such a wonder-exciting contrivance would not be tolerated upon the highway on the Sabbath. The Captain explained that he had purchased the carriage for the express purpose of taking all of his family to Church in it, so finally the committee consented to its use, if he would drive very slowl\- so that the people would not be too greatly excited by it, and so be late to Church. HARTFORD. 221 NOAH WEBSTER. Noah Webster was the kind of man and citizen who belongs to the nation at large. Not alone for his, and his father's ser vice in the Continental army in the Revolution ; nor for his high literary attainments and profound scholarship in the science of philology, which culminated in Webster's Dictionary ; but chiefly for his patriotic and disinterested championship of President George Washington. For this purpose he left his lucrative law practice in Hartford to go to New York City, to establish and HOME OF NOAH WEBSTER, OF DICTIONARY AND SPELLING BOOK FAME, WEST HARTFORD. edit a newspaper devoted to the support of the Washington administration. That Washington could need friends, or that he had venomous enemies, seems impossible to Americans of today (to such Americans as have inherited their citizenship, not to such as have acquired it through the naturalization courts), but such is a fact. President George Washington was maligned, lied about and ridiculed, just as Lincoln and McKinley were maligned, lied about and ridiculed, by the same variety of vermin. 222 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. whose acquired American Citizenship was of that kind which regards dollars and cents more highly than good breeding and honesty. But ^vhile the Nation may claim Noah Webster, the soldier- author, the charming old village of West Hartford claims him as her son, for there he was born on October i6, 1758. New York, New Plaven, and Amherst, also claim him as an adopted son, for he was a resident of those college towns for many years. He was descended from John Webster, one of the first Gov ernors of Connecticut, and from William Bradford of the Plymouth Colony, on his mother's side. His father was a farmer and for the first fifteen years of his life Noah lived at home doing the usual " chores " and light work that falls to the lot of a farrner's son. Just after he was fifteen, in 1773, he began to fit himself for College under the Rev. Nathan Perkins, D.D,, and entered Yale, in 1774. In his junior year he joined the Revolutionary army as a volunteer, and was under the com mand of his father, who was a captain in the " alarm list ", a body of citizens wdio had passed the age of forty-five, and were only called upon in an emergency. Notwithstanding the interruptions caused by his military duties, he continued his studies and was graduated from Yale, in 1778, with honor. After graduation, he taught in a Hartford school, and studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1781. In the summer of 1779, while he was teaching and studying law, he lived with Oliver Ellsworth, who later became Chief Justice of the United States and whose son. Governor Ellsworth, became a son-in-law of Dr. Webster. Noah Webster did not practice his profession, as the war had so greatly impoverished the country that the pros pects for a young lawyer were not bright. He chose instead, the occupation of teaching and took charge of a Grammar School in Goshen, New York. It was in Goshen that he compiled his famous blue-covered spelling book, in which the majority of ^'ankees for many generations learned their a-b abs. This fa mous book was published in Hartford, to which cit\- he returned in 1783. \V'liile in Hartford, he published a grammar and a reading book. To the twentieth century Americans, Dr. Webster is best known for his educational authorship, but in his day, he was HARTFORD. 223 a prolific and convincing writer on political subjects. His sup port of an act of Congress, for pensions for Revolutionary soldiers, by means of a series of articles published in the Con necticut Courant, was of such a nature, that, although the masses, wdio disapproved of the act, were on the verge of revolt, a majority of the members elected to the Legislature in April, 1784, were supporters of the Congressional act. His successful efforts were so highly regarded that Governor Jonathan Trumbull thanked Dr. Webster personally, for what he had done. That the Constitution of the United States was written and adopted may be traced to a pamphlet that he wrote in the winter of 1784-5, entitled; " Sketches of American Policy " in which the FIRST WEBSTER S DICTIONARY. first definite proposal for a Constitution of the United States, to take the place of the "Articles of Confederation", was first suggested in public print. To Dr. Webster may also be traced the copyright laws, for in 1785, he journeyed through the south ern states presenting petitions to the several Legislatures for the passage of such laws. From 1784, to 1788, he was lecturing Baltimore, Philadelphia and in the principal Atlantic-coast cities, and teaching in Phila delphia. In 1788, he published the American Magazine, in New York, for one year. In 1789, he married the daughter of William Greenleaf, of Boston, and returned to Hartford to practice law. In 1793, he became the champion of the Washington administra- 224 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. tion by starting a newspaper in support of it. That paper became The Commercial Advertiser. From that time, his literary labors increased, as did his publications. They included politics, inter national diplomacy, hygiene, finance and history. In 1798, he went to New Plaven and resided there for fourteen years. In 1812, he left New Haven for Amherst, Massachusetts, and lived there for ten \ears, when he returned to New Haven. Another matter of national importance, in educational interests this time, may be traced to Dr. Webster. While living in Amherst he was chiefly instrumental in the founding of an Academy, which later became Amherst College. He received the degree of LL.D. from Yale in 1823. In 1823, he had been at work upon his greatest literary pro duction for sixteen years, for it was in 1807, that he began his Dictionary. Dr. Webster spent several months in Paris, and at the University of Cambridge, in England, in 1824, and it was in Cambridge that the great work was finished. Writers in those days were more apt to appreciate the seriousness of pro ducing a volume than they are now. Books were comparatively scarce and authors were few. This made the production of a book — especially such a volume as Webster's Dictionary — a much more notable and serious event than it would be now. At any rate, Dr. Webster was much affected when his great work was finally finished, as will be seen from the following extract from a letter that he wrote to Dr. Thomas Miner, in 1836: When I finished my copy, I was sitting at my table in Cambridge, England, January, 1825. When I arrived at the last word, I was seized with a tremor, that made it difficult to proceed, I however summoned up strength to finish the work, and then walking about the room, I soon recovered. EAST HARTFORD. EAST HARTFORD, originally a part of Hartford, was the home of the man who had as much to do with the settle ment of the Connecticut \'alley as any man in New Eng land, probably more. This was Wahqinnacut, a leader of the Podunk Indians, who went to Boston and Plymouth in 1631, to urge the English to come to the beautiful valley, with its rich meadows, its fur-bearing animals and its fish, to settle. As has EAST HARTFORD. 225 heen shown elsewhere, this invitation was due to a desire on the part of the River Indians to secure the friendship of the English, whose superior intelligence and more deadly weapons would be a powerful help against their natural enemies. The Podunks had a stronghold on Fort Hill, near the main street and to the east of it. They lived peaceably enough with their white neighbors till Philip's War, when they joined that intelligent and warlike chief and were either killed or dispersed. A few individuals of the tribe lived on the Hockanum River, in 1745, but by 1760, even they had disappeared. Up to its incorporation in 1783, the history of East Hartford was largely the history of Hartford. Joseph O. Goodwin gives the following list of names, as being among the more prominenr of the early settlers, on the east side of the Connecticut. In that portion of East Hartford known as Hockanum — Richard Risley, who died in 1648; Edward Andrews, who settled near the mouth of the Hockanum River, about 1657; William Hills, who was wounded by Indians in 1675. Thomas Burnham, a lawyer who was made a freeman in 1657, settled in the district known as Podunk; William Pitkin, the founder of the family of that name, who became prominent in the affairs of the Colony, settled there about 1659. John Bidwell, who ran a sawmill in partnership with Joseph Bull, at Burnside, settled about 1669; William Warren, whose house was on Main street, below the Hockanum River, was made a freeman in 1665 ; Sergeant Samuel Gaines, 1667; Lieutenant John Meakins, before 1669; Richard Case, who was made a freeman in 1671 ; Thomas Trill, a soldier of the Narragansett War, was the first person to be buried in the old Center Burying Ground; Obadiah Wood, also a soldier of 1675 ; whose gravestone was the first in the same cemetery ; William Buckland, previous to 1678; James Forbes, in that por tion of the town known as Scotland, till 1865, when it became Burnside, settled there in 1688; William Roberts, about 1688 — he married the daughter of James Forbes; Deacon Timothy Cowles, whose house was on the east side of Main street, just south of Gilman's Brook ; Deacon Joseph Olmsted, whose house was on Prospect street, in 1699. In the spring of 1694, the people of East Hartford petitioned to be made a separate society and in the autumn their petition 15 226 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. was granted, and Church was known as the Third Ecclesiastical Society of Hartford. The society, or parish, incluaed the present Towns of East Hartford and Manchester. As was the case in nearly all new Churches, the meetings were first held in one or another of the homes. There seems to have been nothing done in regard to building a church until December 29, 1699, when the records show that a committee was appointed to oversee the work being done on the meeting-house. Seats were put in and the interior finished in 1707, and in 1713, a gallery was added. The same year the meeting-house was started, in 1699, a house for the minister was built. The Rev. John Reed preached to the people for several years, but he was not settled over the parish, although he was asked to become its minister. On March 30, 1705, the Rev. Samuel \\'oodbridge was ordained and so became the first settled minister of the East Hartford Church. He was paid £60 a year and was given £25 with which to finish the parsonage, the understanding being that he should remain as their minister for life. !Mr, Woodbridge was a graduate of Harvard. He was a man of ability and was possessed of qualities which commanded the respect and affec tion of his people. Notwithstanding this fact, for some unac countable reason, when his health failed, in 1736, the people refused to pay his salary and only did pay it when forced to do so by the General Court. In 1734, Air. Woodbridge was selected for the honor of preaching the election sermon. About 1740, the first church building was taken down and a new church built upon its site. Mr. Woodbridge died on June 9, 1746, at the age of sixty-three. The Rev. Eliphalet Williams was the second minister. His pastorate continued from 1748, to 1803. He was chosen to preach the election sermon of 1769, and in October of the same year, he preached the funeral sermon of Governor Pitkin. Another honor that was conferred upon him was the degree of Doctor of Divinity. In 1801, the Rev. Dr. Andrew Yates, of Sche- nect;idy, New \'ork, was ordained as Dr. Williams' assistant. Dr. Yates was a descendant of Joseph Yates who settled in Alban\- in 1664. Dr. ^'ates was greatly opposed to the use of alcohol as a beverage and although few of the ministers of his day agreed with EAST HARTFORD. 227 him, he was never backward in stating his convictions in regard to its use. But at the same time, he was liberal and broad-minded, and although he would not drink anything containing alcohol, he did not condemn others who disagreed with him. A story is told of him in East Hartford, that on one occasion when there was a meeting of clergymen in his house. Dr. Yates produced the usual variety of liquor with the remark ; " Brethren, here is rum, gin, brandy and laudanum, all poison; help yourselves". Dr. Yates left the Church in 1814, to fill the chair of Moral and Mental Philosophy at Union College, Schenectady, where he had previously been professor of Greek and Latin. Up to 1817, nothing as luxurious and worldly as stoves, for heating the church, had been thought of in East Hart ford, but in that year they were put in. As there was no chimney the stovepipe was run out of the windows. Many persons disapproved of the stoves strongly, and some went so far as to let their imaginations run astray. They com plained that the great heat from the stoves caused their heads to ache and that many of the women's large back combs, which were then so fashionable, were warped by the heat. When it was discovered that the headaches and warped combs were caused by stoves in which no fires had yet been lighted, the opponents of the exhibition of world liness had nothing more to say. In 1708, the people of East Hartford agitated the subject of public schools. In 1710, the Rev. Samuel Woodbridge, Samuel Wells and William Pitkin, were appointed to take charge of school matters and to hire a teacher, and a school- house was built. In 1718, there were two schools. One was south of Hockanum River and the other, to the north, was on Main street, just south of Prospect street. The teacher taught in both schools, dividing his time equally between them.. Up to 1730, the parents who had children in school paid a small amount toward the support of the teacher, and furnished the wood for heating the school-house, but in 1730 the whole expense of the schools was paid by the society. At Burnside — then called Scotland — the first school was organized in 1735, and the second, in 1748. The first mills for sawing logs and grinding grain were 228 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY started in 1639, by John Crow and William Goodwin, to the north of the lower falls of the Hockanum, at Burnside. This place was later called Pitkin's Falls, because the mills and water-power were acquired by the family of that name. They also acquired the adjoining mill-sites, and at the lower falls they had a fulling mill. John Bidwell and Joseph Bull built a sawmill at the middle falls, in 1669, and in 1690, the Pitkins had a fulling mill there. About one hundred years later, in 1784, besides the fulling done, paper was manufactured in the mill. This old mill site is now occupied by the East Hartford Manufacturing Company for the making of fine writing-paper. John Allyn owned a sawmill a mile to the east of Burnside, in 1671. He also had a grant of 100 acres surrounding his mill and the right to cut timber on the commons. In 1747, Colonel Joseph Pitkin had a forge on this site, but in 1750, the British Government stopped iron working in the Colonies. As Joseph O. Goodwin remarks, in his history of East Hartford, " By a grim sort of justice the power was turned to the manufacture of gunpowder, to be used against the home government, in 1775 and in 1812". An odd kind of compensation was made to William Pitkin for his losses in the manufacture of powder to be used in the Revolution. It was the exclusive right to manufacture snuff in Connecticut for fourteen years. Possibly it was thought, that as he had lost money in manufacturing one kind of powder that was explosive, it would only be fair to let him recuperate by making another kind of pow^der that would produce explosions. After the Revolution the forge was resumed. This historic water-power was owned by the Hartford Manilla Company. Corporal John Gilbert built a sawmill in South Manchester, on Hop Brook, in 1673. East Hartford's first tavern was kept by Jobn Sadler, in 1638, at Hockanum. Philip Smith kept a tavern in 1710, near the south-ferry road. Thomas Olcott had a tavern at Hop Brook, South Manchester, in 171 1; and Benjamin's Tavern, at the corner of Main and Orchard streets, was a popular stage house in the Revolution. In very early times, the militia of East Hartford was known EAST HARTFORD. 229 as " The Rag-toes ", from the fact that members of the com pany met for training in various and weird garments and often bare-footed. As many of the bare-foots had acquired " stun " bruises, splinters and cuts, they frequently appeared with the injured member done up in a rag, which held a plantain leaf against the sore place. In 1653, the General Court ordered that the inhabitants should meet at the call of William Hill for training. As time passed, the cornstalks and hoe handles and the mixed garments and lack of interest were replaced by muskets, uniforms and enthusiasm. In I755' East Hartford sent a company to Crown Point, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel John Pitkin. In 1775, a company of forty-nine officers and men was organized and sent to Rox bury, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel George Pitkin. Sev eral of the men of the company later volunteered for longer service in the Continental army. Among those who served the Colony in the struggle for Independence on the sea, was Captain Gideon Olmsted, who, with three fellow prisoners on the British sloop "Active ", overpowered the officers and crew and captured the vessel and took it into port. In 1781, when Count Rochambeau was on his way with an army of 15,000 men from Newport, to join Washington on the Hud son, he stopped at East Hartford and was entertained in the Elisha Pitkin Mansion, the army camping on the field to the north of Silver Lane, which was so called from the " hard money " of the French soldiers. On his return east, in 1782, the Count again stopped at East Hartford. The Pitkin family has been one of the most prominent in Hartford County for 250 years. The first American an cestor of that name was William Pitkin, who was born in Marylebone, then a suburb and now a part of London, Eng land, in 1635. In 1659, he arrived i"n Hartford and in 1660, was a school teacher there. In 1661, he purchased land on the " east side " and in 1664, was appointed Attorney for the Colony. With the exception of a few months, he was a member of the General Court from 1675 to 1690. His wife was Hannah Goodwin, daughter of Ozias Goodwin. 230 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. MANCHESTER. PREVIOUS to 1823, Manchester was a part of Hartford. The territory included in the bounds of Manchester was originally a part of the hunting ground of Chief Joshua, of the Niantics. He sold it to Major Talcott as the agent of the Town of Hartford. The Chief died before the transfer was made, but his administrators. Captain James Fitch and Thomas Buck ingham, deeded the property to the selectmen of Hartford in 1682. This tract was five miles wide from east to west and from this fact it was known for ninety years as " Five Miles ". The first settlement of Manchester was made near Hop Brook in the western portion of the town. The settlement was of sufficient size, or at least importance, in 171 1, for the appointment of Thomas Olcott as tavern keeper. This little settlement seems to have been on a highway to Hartford from the east, over which droves of cattle were driven on the way to Hartford. A general division of the land took place in 1731, and by 1753, the land was all taken up and occupied. The exclusive privilege of making glass was granted to Elisha and William Pitkin and Samuel Bishop, in 1783, for a period of twenty-five years. They built a glassworks, the picturesque ruins of which are still in existence. In 1794, the Hartford and Boston Turnpike was opened. This had the effect of increasing the general prosperity of ^Manchester, as the Boston and Providence stages passed over it on their way to New York. The tavern kept by Deodat Woodbridge, and after him by his son, Dudley AA'^oodbridge, was famous in its day and a favorite house for rest and entertainment. It was frequently patronized by men prominent in the pro fession of law and by officers of ^^''ashington's army. Wash ington stopped there once and made the daughter of the pro prietor an object greatly envied by her yroung associates, because of the fact that she had, in response to his request, given the great soldier, statesman and patriot a glass of water. Timothy Cheney, the somewhat famous maker of the old- fashioned, tall, wooden clocks — wooden as to works as well as case — was one of the brothers of that name to whom MANCHESTER. 231' John Fitch, the inventor of the steam-boat, apprenticed him self to learn the clockmaking trade and was only taught to tinker with brass. But however unfairly Cheney may have treated Fitch, his clocks were reliable and the person who owns one to-day possesses something of considerable value. " Five Miles " for some reason was from an early date a manufacturing and inventing center. It may have been due to the waterpower which attracted millwrights who, in turn, attracted mechanics possessed of inventive genius. Een- jamin Lyman made the first cast-iron plows in Connecticut, thus doing away with the old-fashioned wooden plow shod with iron. He was the first maker of anything approaching a light weight pleasure carriage, and by so doing greatly re duced the profits of the makers of pillions, for before his light-weight wagons the woman had to ride in oxcarts or on pillions. The second papermill in Connecticut was built at Union Village on the Hockanum River. Watson and Led yard made the paper on which the Connecticut Courant was printed at the beginning of the Revolution. The first suc cessful cottonmill in Connecticut was built in 1794, in Union Village. This business was regarded as hazardous, for very little was known about it on this side of the ocean. The machinery was made by an English mechanic, on the princi ples of Sir Richard Arkwright, the inventor of the spinning- jenny. This mill was one of the wonders and persons came from considerable distances to see it work. In 1808, John Mather built a small powdermill and glass works. The capacity of the mill was fifty pounds of powder daily and when a wagonload had been made, it was sent over to Boston and " swapped " for cash and New England rum. The fact that Mr. Mather had twelve names on his pay-roll caused him to be regarded with profound respect and almost awe, simply because he could " boss " and give orders to twelve men. There was a mill for the manufacture of woolen cloth in 1780, built by Aaron Buckland. The descendants of Timothy Cheney of clock fame became the founders of the great Cheney silkmills of the present day and it is because of them and the great industry that they built up and not because of John Fitch, the inventor of 232 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. the steamboat, that Manchester is best known to the world. This proves that money makes a much louder noise in the twen tieth century than does genius. Another invention that must be credited to Manchester, although at a much later period — about the middle of the nineteenth century — is the famous Spencer repeating rifle, 100,000 of which were used in the Civil War and later on the plains against the Indians. This weapon, perfect in its day, was invented by Christopher M. Spencer, who by thought, study and experiment produced the result desired; a weapon which General Custer declared to be the finest known. WINDSOR. WINDSOR, the venerable, the ancient, has the pecu liar distinction of being the site of the first house built by white men in the Connecticut Valley. It was at Windsor, near the mouth of the Farmington River, that William Holmes erected the house, the frame of which had been made before the vessel left Plymouth, in which he and his com panions sailed, to make the settlement he was ordered to make by his superiors. The attention of the English settlers at Boston and Plym outh was first attracted toward the Connecticut by the Indians, for the same reason that the Mohawks, of New York, sought and welcomed the Dutch. The River Indians were greatly harassed by the Pequots, who were fast driving them from the beautiful country which had been theirs for centuries. The River Indians felt sure, that could they induce the Eng lish to come to their river as friends (whose good will was to be assured by promises of corn and beaver skins), they would be a source of great strength against the savage Pequots. This was in 163 1. The Bostonians were not enthusiastic in regard to moving so far into the wilderness, but the people of Plymouth, being of a more adventurous disposition, were strongly impressed with his representations, so Captain Holmes was sent with his company of pioneers to settle above the Dutch, on the Connecticut. The claim of the Dutch, who had a small fort at the place where Hartford was afterward situated, was based upon deeds from the Pequot Indians, who had stolen the land from the original Indian owners. But the Plymouth people went back of this ownership by conquest for their authority to the land. Holmes took with him the Sachems who had been driven from their lands by the Pequots and so obtained his deed from the original owners. This made the English the friends of the River Indians. The house Holmes put up was situated about two miles south-east of the First Con gregational Church, on the western bank of the river, near a point of land extending down the river, known as Plymouth Meadow. [233] 234 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. In 1634, the Dutch sent VanCurler to purchase land from the Pequots on the Connecticut, but those self-willed, deter mined Yankees were found to be so firmly fixed and so tough a proposition, that VanCurler did nothing more than to pro test, A little later, a leader with seventy men under arms — and presumably outside of plenty of Dutch courage — made a military display in the hope of driving Holmes and his companions away. When it was found that this could not be accomplished without shedding blood, the Dutch returned to their master, VanTwiller, at Fort Amsterdam, without ,-- having accomplished an}thing, except to ac quire a knowledge that the transplanted Eng lishmen were there to stay. In 1630, the Rev. John \\'areham, with the Ros- siter, Maverick, Ludlow, and \\'olcott families, among others, arrived by ship from England, at a place they named Dorchester, Mass. These families were of a su perior class socially and intellectually and were possessed of more means than the average settlers of the Colonies. In 1635, a number of these people visited Connecticut and, being pleased with the prospects, they began their journey with their families from Dorchester to Windsor, on October 15, 1635. This little company of pioneer gentlefolk, to the number of sixty men, women and children, took with them their live stock, through forest and swamp, over mountains and rivers and arrived at their destination just as the winter was setting in. The people were entirely unpre pared for the great cold, deep snow and bitter wind. The few SCENE ON CONNECTICUT RIVER, NEAR WINDSOR, WINDSOR. 235 cabins were insufficient in number and far from being a protec tion from the cold. The Connecticut was covered with ice on November 15, 1635, and the snow was so deep that it was impos sible for the people to get but a few of their cattle and sheep across. Many of them died of starvation and cold. The house hold goods and much of their provisions had been sent around by ship, but did not arrive. In December their provisions had nearly given out, and what they suffered can hardly be imagined. Thirteen of their number attempted to reach the nearest settlement in Massa chusetts. One of them was drowned by falling through the ice on a river that was being crossed, and had the remaining twelve not received food and temporary shelter from friendly Indians, they would probably have perished. They finally reached a settlement, at the end of ten days of awful hard ship. Seventy persons, including adults and children, worked their way to Saybrook and finally reached Boston in the " Rebecca ", a 60-ton vessel. These were the persons who were mentioned in the chapter on Saybrook. Those who remained at Windsor to keep the settlement in existence suffered greatly. The cattle which were left on the east bank of the Connecticut suffered less, — strange as it may seem — than the few which were taken across to the settle ment. They kept warm in the deep snow and lived by browsing. In the spring and summer following this dreadful winter, large numbers of settlers arrived at Windsor; and at Hartford and Wethersfield. At this time the territory of Windsor was great, the length of the boundary lines being forty-six miles. They included ten small tribes of Indians, who outnumbered the white settlers twenty to one. For a number of years the settlers were troubled with fear of the Indians, not all of them being friendly. Fights were frequent and danger from ambuscades so great that the settlers carried their arms to Church and to the fields, which they worked in small companies for the safety of numbers. As an additional protection they built a large fort to which the people could go, should a general attack by the Indians take place, and where the women and children were sent whenever an attack by Indians was feared. 236 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. Their first minister, the Rev. John Wareham, was a thoroughly good man who was bowed down by an unfortu nate bilious-temperament which was the cause of much misery for him, as he frequently feared that he was unworthy of Divine love and goodness. His doubts were so over powering on occasions, that he would refrain from partaking of Communion while serving his people with that miraculous source of Divine strength and courage. There is a tradition, that he was the first minister in the New England Colonies to preach from notes. This was almost an unpardonable offence, in those days, in New England, but so eloquent and earnest were Mr. Wareham's discourses, that his people for got the fault in their admiration for the man and delight in his sermons. Mr. Wareham died on April i, 1670, after forty years of service as minister ; thirty-four of which were spent in Windsor, the other six in Dorchester. In those days it was a custom for nearly all of the New England settlements to have a minister, and a teacher of the Gospel. The minister's duties consisted chiefly in exhorting the people ; the teacher's duties were to expound and interpret the .Scriptures and to defend the doctrines of Congregation alism. Windsor's teacher was the Rev. Ephraim Huit, who was installed in 1639. In 1640, there were in Windsor the following heads of families according to the town records for that }'ear. Matthew Allen Deacon William Gaylord John Bissell Nathan Gillet Thomas Barber Edward Griswold Thomas Buckland Matthew Grant Thomas Bascom Thomas Holcomb Daniel Clark William Hill Aaron Cook William Hosford Thomas Dibble William Hayden Thomas Dewey John Hillyer Nicholas Denslow \\'illiam Hurlburt Bigot Eglestone Roger Ludlow Lieut. Walter Filer John Loomis Thomas Ford Joseph Loomis WINDSOR. 237 Deacon John Moore Bray Rosseter James Marshall Thomas Stoughton Captain John Mason Henry Stiles The brothers Newberry Return Strong Richard Oldage Isaac Shelden William Phelps Peter Tilton Humphrey Pinney John Taylor Samuel Phelps Stephen Terry George Phelps Owen Tudor John Porter Thomas Thornton Eltwed Pomeroy Richard Vore Elias Parkman Henry Wolcott George Philips John Whitefield Nicholas Palmer Robert Watson Abraham Randall Roger Williams Roger Wolcott, who was born in Windsor on January 4, 1679, was one of the first, so called, self-made men of Con necticut. He rose from the possession of nothing more than a healthy mind and body, a trade and a few clothes, to the possession of the respect and admiration of all classes of his fellow countrymen — from the farm laborer to the college professor — and finally reached the office of Governor of the Colony. Without a single day's attendance at school, he so far cultivated his mind that he was able to write poems which attracted attention all over the Colony. Roger Wolcott was born in that part of Windsor which was most harried by Indians, so no minister or school master was ever seen there during his boyhood. At the age of twelve years he was bound as apprentice, till his twenty-first year, to a mechanic and upon receiving his freedom he started in business for himself at his home. As he was the best in his trade so he was the best in the military and civil offices, which he filled with honor and credit to himself and the Colony. The apprentice boy of 1688 became Commissary of the Colony in 1711, in the expedition against Canada, and in 1745, at the capture of Louisbourg, he was a major-general. In civil life his first office was that of member of Assembly, then member of the Council, judge of the County Court, Lieutenant-Governor, Chief Judge of the Supreme Court, and finally Governor of the Colony 238 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. in i75i-'54, Roger Wolcott's only inheritance was character and this inheritance was so carefully managed and so well invested, that it not only became notable all over the British Colonies in his generation, but has come down as the most valued pos session of his descendants, in the twentieth century. When he finished his work in his eighty-ninth year, on May 17, 1767, it was simplv death of his body, for his influence remained ali\e in the New England Colonies for many generations. OLDEST CHURCH IN WINDSOR. Another of America's famous men was Oliver Ellsworth, also a son of Windsor. Ellsworth was born on April 29, 1745. He possessed earl)- advantages that Roger A\'olcott lacked, but at the same time, his greatness was the result of his own exertions and fine qualities and not the less deserved and admirable, bcciuse of his ad\antages, than were the honors borne by his splendid fellow townsman. It is a fact. WINDSOR. 239 that the men of early times in the Connecticut Valley, who be came famous, were so because greatness was in them, whether they started with nothing or with much. Oliver Ellsworth was graduated from New Jersey (Prince ton) College in the class of 1766, and then began the study of law. Possessed of eloquence, elegance of manner, and great mental energy, he rose to the highest legal position in the country and the most honorable office — barring none — in the United States, that of Chief Justice. In 1777, he was a delegate to the Continental Congress; in 1784, he was Judge of the Superior Court of the State of Connecticut and was in fhe convention that formed the Constitution of the country which honored him and which he honored by his splendid citizenship, patriotism, wisdom and profound scholarship. When the Federal Government was organized in 1789, Mr. Ellsworth was elected to the Senate in which he continued till he was appointed to be Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, in 1796. Toward the end of his fourth year as Chief Justice, he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary to France, in 1799. Soon after, he resigned from the chief jus tice-ship because of failing health. After his return to Con necticut he was elected to the State Council and was ap pointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State, but this office he declined as his lack of health would not permit of his acceptance. His death occurred on November 26, 1807. There was an act of Judge Ellsworth's that was not entirely- approved by his strict fellow townsmen, who believed that no human necessity was sufficiently great to warrant the breaking of the " Sabbath ". One Sunday, soon after the advent of the year 1800, a military officer, said to be General Armstrong, was seen by the tithingman, Lemuel Welch, being rapidly driven through Windsor, on his way to Boston, where he had been ordered to report as soon as possible. Mr. Welch stopped the horses with the intention of arresting the man in the carriage, who was breaking the Commandment, and the State law regulating the observance of Sunday. Gen eral Armstrong was indignant and ordered that the horses be released, but the faithful Tithingman, who believed in en forcing the letter as well as the spirit of the law, refused to 240 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. let the General go further on that day. The General, unaware of the strictness of the law in Connecticut, and of the fearlessness of the officers of the law in Windsor, threat ened Mr. Welch with his pistol and ordered him to loose the horses. Mr. Welch told the General that he had seen bigger guns than that in the Revolution, and that he could go no further on that day. General Armstrong ap pealed to Judge Ellsworth, stating the necessity that he should be in Boston with all possible haste, as ordered by LOCATION OF FIRST SHIP Y.\RD, WINDSOR, his superiors, and succeeded in obtaining a pass through Connecticut from Judge Ellsworth, which would permit him to travel on Sunday. Mr. \\'elch was indignant and asked Judge Ellsworth if he was to " fish with a net that would catch the little fish and let the big fish run through ". Mr. Welch's indignation and disgust were so sincere, that he resigned the office of tithingman. This incident had the effect of causing his successors to become careless in their duty and finally, Sunday travel be- WINDSOR. 241 came so general, that Judge Ellsworth and a number of the most influential men of the town, made strenuous efforts to restore the old order of things in this respect, but without satisfactory success. According to the records, the first inns of Windsor were kept by Simon Chapman and Eliakim Marshall, who were appointed at a Town meeting held in December, 1715. On the east side of the Connecticut, the innkeepers were Grace Grant, widow, and Nathaniel Cook — Mrs. Grant kept the inn in East Windsor till 1735, when she was succeeded by her son. Captain Ebenezer Grant, who became the leading mer chant of the east side — the other innkeepers on the east side, before the incorporation of the town, were Nathaniel Porter and Captain Joel Loomis. The latter was succeeded by his son. Captain Giles Loomis, who built an addition to the store to be used by the Masons for a lodge. The first American ancestor of the Grant family was Matthew Grant, who arrived in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in May, 1630, and settled in Windsor in 1635, where he was surveyor of the Colony for forty years and for many years Town Clerk. His eldest son, Samuel, settled on the east side and the property was in the family for nearly 250 years. General U. S. Grant was the eighth in descent from Matthew, and the seventh from Samuel Grant. Captain Ebenezer Grant's business grew to large propor tions and he eventually took his son, Roswell, into partner ship with him. Roswell was given a liberal education.- He] was possessed of excellent qualities and good business judg ment. The Grants bought largely from the great statesman, John Hancock, and from Jonathan Mason, both of Boston. They did a large business in trade with the West Indies, exporting horses, tobacco, lumber, and barrel staves and im porting rum and sugar. The correspondents of the Grants were Samuel Olcott, Samuel Welch and Jonathan Welch, of Barbadoes ; and Thomas Elmer, of Antigua. Besides building several vessels at the mouth of the Scantic River, Mr. Grant was part owner in many other vessels. Ship building in the Windsors was a prosperous and busy industry for many years. The first launch being that of a sloop, 16 242 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. in May, 1724. John Hayden, one of the famous ship builders of Essex, went to Windsor just before the year 1800, and opened a ship yard at the " Old Red House ", near the present station of Hayden. There was another yard at Rivulet Ferry and tliree on the cast side — at Warehouse Point; the mouth of the Scantic and at Higley's Ferry — where vessels were launched till about 1820. There was a type of patriot in the Revolution, few in number. THE ELLSWORTH IIANSION. The home of Oliver Ellsworth, Chief ,Tustice of the United States Supreme Court in 1796. and unselfish and heroically patriotic, which has been portrayed by Cooper in his finest of books, " The Spy ". To this type be longed Daniel Bissell, of Windsor. But Daniel Bissel went further in his patriotism than did the majority of spies, for be sides the great risk, and surety of death should he be discovered to be a spy, he cheerfully sacrificed his feelings, his self-love and his pride by permitting himself to be regarded as a deserter by his neighbors and fellow soldiers. Mr. Bissell was officially reported as a deserter, because Washington feared, that unless he was WINDSOR. 243 regarded as a deserter by his fellow patriots the secret would leak out that he was a spy, and so would reach the British. To be a spy required great bravery ; to allow himself to be regarded as a deserter required a degree of courage that was magnificent. Daniel Bissell was born in Windsor in 1754, and was the eldest son of Daniel and Elizabe'th (Loomis) Bissell. As a youth and young man he was notable for his bravery, caution, self-reliance, and inherited integrity. When war was declared with Great Britain by the Colonies, he enlisted, and served with credit to him self and his town. As a soldier, his cool head and warm heart won the affectionate regard of his fellow soldiers and the confi dence of Washington. Because of this con fidence he was selected by Washington for the dangerous and import ant work of obtaining information in regard to the British forces and their plans, in New York and on Long Island, in 1781. Mr. Bissell took part in the battles of White Plains, windsor. Trenton and Monmouth. The heroism of Sergeant Daniel Bissell is not tradition but fact, as may be found from documents in the War Department in Washington. It is a humiliating fact that Mr. Bissell was not rewarded by Congress, either in the way of promotion or estate. It only adds to the wrong, that although he again and again petitioned Congress for reimbursement for money spent in clothing himself for nearly four years, and for the purchase for his food for thirteen months, all of which money was expended by him while in actual service in the Continental Army, not one cent did he ever get, notwithstanding the fact that Congress had agreed to reimburse non-commissioned officers and privates 244 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. who provided their own clothing. Washington, however, gave to Mr. Bissell an autograph testimonial which compensated him for the indifference of Congress. The testimonial was as follows : Whereas, it hath ever been an established maxim in the American Service, that the road to glory was open to all, that Honorary Rewards and Distinctions, were the greatest Stimuli to virtuous actions, and whereas Sergeant Daniel Bissell of the Second Connecticut Regiment, has per formed some important service, within the immediate knowledge of the Commander-in-Chief, in which his fidelity, perseverance and good sense, were not only conspicuously manifested, but his general line of conduct throughout a long course of service, having been not only unspotted but highly deserving of commendation. Now, therefore, know ye, that the aforesaid Sergeant Bissell, hath fully and truly deserved, and hath been properly invested with, the Honorarji Badge of Military Merit, and is entitled to pass and repass all Guards and Military Posts, as freely and as amply as any Commissioned Officer what ever; and is further Recommended to that Notice which a Brave and Faithful Soldier deserves from his Countrymen. This was written by General Washington in the Highlands, on May 9, 1783. When Mr. Bissell returned from the British in New York to his own army, he was offered an honorable dis charge and a pension. He refused the first because he had been in every campaign and wished to continue in the army till the war was ended, and he refused the pension because he believed his Country was too poor to be able to pay it. Mr. Bissell served in the Indian \\''ar of 1799, as a first lieu tenant, of the i6th U. S. Infantry. Later, he moved to Vermont where he married Rhoda Hurlbert for his second wife, and in 1810, he moved to Richmond, New York, where he died in August, 1824, at the age of seventy. Another of the Nation's fine heroes was Elihu Drake, a Wind sor boy only eight years old. A number of Tories living in Windsor thought to have some amusement with the little Rebel by forcing him to say " God save the King ". Although they threatened to duck him in the river he courageously refused to speak the words. The Tories becoming angry, that even the children were possessed of so fine patriotism, actually did duck the little fellow. When he was pulled out of the water they heard his half-strangled, squeaky voice shout, " God damn the BLOOMFIELD. 245 King " and although he was again ducked no other sentiment could they drown out from that heroic little patriot. Elihu was the son of Adjutant Augustine Drake, of Windsor, and four years later, when he was but twelve years old, he accompanied his father to the war. BLOOMFIELD. DOWN to 1835, when Bloomfield was incorporated, it was known as Messenger's Farms and later, the Parish of Wintonbury, in the Town of Windsor. Wintonbury w^as made up from the Towns of Windsor, Farmington and Sims- bury and it is said that the name was composed from the first three letters of Windsor, the last three of Farmington, and the last four of Simsbury, Win-ton-bury, so that each Town, which gave land for forming the parish, might be honored. The idea is sufficiently attractive for it to be well to have faith in the tradition. The territory included in the bounds of Bloomfield was known for many years after the settlement of Windsor as the Wilder ness, and was so described officially in an Indian deed of 1660. There is not even tradition as to when the first settlement was made. In 1734 the inhabitants of Messenger's Farms petitioned for what was then called winter privileges. This meant, that they should not be required to labor through the deep snow, exposed to the bitter cold, to attend Church in Windsor, but should be permitted to worship in one or another of the homes of the settlement in the winter months. It seems odd that it was necessary to ask permission to wor ship where they chose, when it is remembered that the settlers of New England had left comfortable and even luxurious homes in Old England to obtain entire freedom in religious matters. As a matter of fact, there was no freedom or liberty in religious matters in New England, for a great many years, except that all had liberty and freedom to be Congregationalists, and to live in strict accord with its laws, one of which was, that no one should refrain from attending Church no matter how great the distance or the hardship. So, when the twenty-six heads of families of Messenger's Farms became convinced that the jour ney through the woods, with the snow anywhere from knee to 246 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. waist-high was a menace to the health of their women and children, they did not fear the displeasure of Almighty God, if they remained in their little settlement and worshipped Him in their homes during the winter, but they were in mortal terror of that powerful, well organized Congregational Church. So they humbly asked permission of the Church to worship at home, instead of exposing their women and children to the hardship of the long journey through the snow. The petition was graciously granted and two years later the Parish of Wintonbury was formed from the three towns already named. The new society met in November, 1736, and voted to build a church and to settle a minister. The Rev. Hezekiah Bissell was ordained in February, 1738, as the first minister. He was a supporter of the half-way covenant. A disagreement in the Church between Deacon Abel Gillett (or Gillette) and John Hubbard resulted in the withdrawal of the Gillett faction and the organization of a Baptist Society. EAST WINDSOR. WHEN the First Congregational Church of East \A'ind- sor was 102 years old it had had but two ministers, so it may be seen that the town was as prosperous and peaceful in Church matters as it was in temporal matters. In 1736, individual families began to select sites for their homesteads. The heads of these families were men of worth ; as men, pioneers, and Christians and it is notable that their first homes were not the usual log cabins, but frame houses, small to be sure, but comfortable and neat in appearance. From this it mav be guessed that they were a little better supplied with this world's goods than were the average settlers, who could build their homes only of logs. The first Church society was organized about 1752, and on October 30, 1752, the people voted to raise £500 with which to build a church. There was a little delay in fixing upon a location that \\ould be central. In 1754, the Rev. Thomas Potwine (Sir Thomas Potwine, the old records named him) was called as the minister of the people, but as yet no church edifice had been erected, so he was ordained in a new barn that had not yet been used. The church was not built till a year after his ordination. EAST WINDSOR. 247 and in the meantime service was held in the homes of one or another of the people. After the church had been built a small building was erected near it. Here, those who had come from a distance spent the recess between the morning and afternoon services, and ate the luncheons they had brought with them. It was during this recess that the weekly exchange of news and harmless neighborhood gossip took place. In the winter, they refilled their footstoves with coals for the afternoon service, from the stove in this little building, for in those days a heated church was considered far too luxurious and profane. As was the custom all over the Colony, everybody attended church, generally on horseback, so it was not at all unusual for one hun dred saddled horses to be seen on Sundays, all of them carrying from one to three persons, the father, mother and infant, or small child. When the church became somewhat dilapidated, through neglect caused by a serious division in the Church, some of the people advocated repairing the old building, which they regarded with affection, it being the first place of worship in the com munity, while others, probably the younger element, wished to build a new church. In the evening of October 5, 1801, the church was seen to be on fire and before any thing could be done to save it, the dry material of which it was built turned to ashes and charred embers. It was suspected that the fire was due to the desire of that portion of the congregation which wished to build a new church. Several persons were openly accused of being responsible for the burning of the old church. The families and close friends of the accused ones took sides and many persons withdrew from the society. The burning of the old church, in which he had served for fifty years, was a source of great grief to the venerable minister and, in connection with his failing health, hastened his death, which occurred a year after the fire. Up to the year of its incorporation, in 1768, East Windsor was a part of Windsor and was known as Wii^dsor Farme. More or less confusion in regard to the Towns of East Windsor and South Windsor and the village of East Windsor, is unavoid able. The Towns of East and South Windsor were known as East Windsor up to 1845, when South Windsor was incorpo- 248 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. rated so, while South Windsor did not exist during the period covered by the text, it is referred to in the text in order that confusion in regard to the location of houses and the places where certain historical events took place, may be avoided. For in stance; the house in which John Fitch was born was situated on the boundary between East Windsor and Hartford but the same house is now situated on the boundary between South Windsor and East Hartford. Bissell's Ferry connects the Town of Wind sor with the Town of South Windsor at the village of East Windsor. SOUTH WINDSOR. THE Town of South Windsor, formerly East Windsor, will be notable in New England, for all time, as the birth-place of Jonathan Edwards, the great Congre gational minister of the eighteenth century who discovered that " hell is paved with infants' skulls ". It sliould be notable to the entire civilized world, for all time, as the birth-place of John Fitch, the inventor and builder of the first steamboat of the world. The great-grandfather of John Fitch was an early settler in Windsor, where he purchased one-twentieth of the township. To his sons, Joseph, Nathaniel and Samuel, he left a considerable estate which they squandered. Joseph w-as the only son who married. His inheritance to his two children, Joseph and John, was poverty. Joseph, the father of John the inventor, was taken by a family of means and good position in Hartford society, and brought up by them, and given a good education. He married Sarah Shaler, of Bolton, and of their six children the fifth was John, the inventor. If it is true, as Mrs. Carey has said, that some of the most successful lives of the world are those of men who have died poor and whom the world regards as failures ; successful, be cause reg.'inlless of discouragements, adversity, opposition, mis understanding, abuse and ridicule, they kept their faith in God, tnemselves and mankind, and struggled on hopefully and ener getically to the end, instead of weakly giving up and sinking under overwhelming discouragements. If such men are suc cesses, then John Fitch was the greatest success of the eighteenth SOUTH WINDSOR. 249 century. In addition to possessing the qualities enumerated, he was patient and forbearing, although possessed of a proud spirit and hot temper ; he was courageous and patriotic, but he seems to have been born to be misunderstood, insulted and abused. His fine instincts were treated with ridicule and coarse contempt ; his first act of splendid heroism — performed when but a little boy — won for him a beating and villification at the hands of his elder brother. His repeated efforts to serve his country in the Revolution, in any capacity, were repulsed, and he was sub jected to humiliating insult by his fellow patriots, who, as the world gauges men, were successful, because they had no obstacles such as he had, to overcome. And even after his death, his misfortunes continued, for Robert Fulton, the thief of other men's ideas — at least of John Fitch's — was and is credited by the world as being the father of steam navigation. Notwith standing the fact that Fitch invented, built and successfully navi gated a steamboat for carrying passengers, many years before Robert Fulton knew of the possibility of the application of steam as a motive power for marine purposes, and twenty years before he " plowed the Hudson ", with his misappropriated " inven tion ", Fulton is generally credited with being the inventor of the steamboat. John Fitch, the fifth child in a family of three sons and three daughters, was born in January, 1743, in the home which was situated on the boundary line between East Windsor, now South Windsor, and East Hartford. As the greater part of the house was in Windsor, Fitch claimed that town as his birthplace. He was sent to school at the age of four years and immediately showed a liking for study and books. A few months later his mother died and this greatest of his misfortunes was rapidly followed by others. His father married Miss Abigail Church of Hartford. When he was in Hartford, " courting ", the home was left in charge of the children. On one of these frequent visits to Hartford, John and his younger sister Chloe were in the house and his older brother and sister, Augustus and Sarah, were at the barn milking. Chloe, wishing to show John, a present she had received, lighted a candle and accidentally set on fire two bundles of flax, which burnt with a fierce blaze. Young as John was, he saw the danger and courageously tried to move the 2SO THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. burning flax to the fireplace. This he succeeded in doing, by resting the bundles on his knees. His hands were burnt and his hair blazing. He extinguished the blaze in his hair and then carried the other bundle, which was burning even more fiercely, to the firepl;iee and stamjjed the fire out. In the mean time, Chloe had run to the barn to call her brother Augustus. Notwithstanding that the little fellow's (he was not yet seven) feet, hands and head were burnt and that he w;is suffering greatly, Augustus, without a word or question, gave the little hero a beating. He complained of his brother's treatment to his father, upon his return from the business of courting, but his father treated it with indifference and coldness. In later life, when writing to his friend ; perhaps his only faithful friend ; the Rev. Nathaniel Irwin, of Bucks County, Pennsyl vania, he referred to that act of barbarous cruelty and said : " This sir, being what I may call the first act of my life, seemed to forebode the future rewards I was to receive for my labors through life, which have generally corresponded exactly with that ". When John was about seven, his father married his spinster and brought her home. John attended school till he was ten, but was obliged to help his father with the work, and at especially busy times was taken out of school that he might help. His earnest desire for an education increased. His father was stingy, stern, and entirely unsympathetic. When ten years old John was taken from school to work on the farm, notwithstanding that he was so young and small, even for his age, that he had not the strength to do much. His father was one of those hell- fire-and-damnation Presbyterians wdio thought it a sin to pick up an apple from the ground and eat it on Sunday, but saw no sin in depriving an ambitious boy of an education, nor did he think it wrong to make him do work that was far beyond his strength. He was permitted, however, to study at home, before and after working hours. When he was eleven years old he earnestly wished to own Salmon's ( leograpln-, .As his father refused to buy it for him, John .-isked and olil.-iined permission to raise potatoes on a small p,-itch of gnuiiul so that he coukl buy the book with the proceeds of the sale of the potatoes. He worked on holidays, at noon and SOUTH WINDSOR. 251 at night, on his patch and finally sold his crop for ten shillings. The money was given to a neighboring merchant who was going to New York, and the precious book was finally his, but his delight was somewhat lessened by the fact that the book cost twelve shillings and that his father required him to return a quantity of seed-potatoes equal to what he had let him have. Good fortune enabled him to soon pay these debts and then he mastered his geography. That same year, his eleventh, John had a flattering experience with Governor Roger Wolcott, who was a neighbor of the Fitch family. John's father had taught him as much about surveyin.g as he himself knew (as it cost nothing), and as he was proficient beyond his years at arithmetic. Governor Wolcott borrowed him to help make some surveys. The Governor found the boy even brighter than he thought him. He treated John with kindness and even respect, but -when the work was finished, he not only failed to give him anything for his services, but also forgot to thank him. When he was thirteen, his father opened his heart and per mitted him to again attend school, for six weeks. In that time he acquired as much knowledge of mathematics as the teacher was competent to impart. His father was gratified and again opened his heart by buying him a few simple surveying instruments, and at the end of two weeks he had also acquired all the knowledge on this subject that the teacher possessed. This ended his " schooling ". His father felt that he had performed his full duty by his son, from the standpoint of a hell-fire-and-damnation Presbyterian of those days. When he was fifteen, his father sold his services to Roswell Mills, who kept a general country store in Simsbury, for eleven shillings a month. When he was seventeen, he became heartily sick of the life on the farm and so decided to go to sea. He told his father of his determination and re ceived a Presbyterian blessing and twenty shillings from him. The voyage to Newport and Providence lasted five weeks and ended his life as a sailor. His next venture was to apprentice himself to Benjamin Cheney a self-alleged clockmaker who knew little of the trade. Cheney cheated John shamefully. The little he knew about clocks was never imparted to John. He was never given enough to eat and was obliged to work on the farm instead 252 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. of at his trade. When John insisted upon being taught to make and repair clocks, Cheney gave him some tinkering brass-work to do, which bore about as close a relation to the trade of clock- making as John's father's religion did to Christianity. Finally John refused to do any more farm work, so Cheney gave him his freedom, as he found he could get no more work out of him, and advised his going to his brother, Timothy Cheney, who was a " really and truly " clockmaker. He did so, but he was not permitted to learn an\thing of the trade but was kept at brass- AN'ork. Chene\' even kept his tools locked up so John could not see and become familiar with them. At the age of twenty-one, he started in business for himself as a brass-worker, with debts to the sum of £20, a much greater sum then than it is now. But by industry and economy he paid his debts and had £50 over in two years, and had acquired some knowledge of clockmaking through his own unassisted efforts. John was interested in many things and always succeeded in accomplishing whatever he put his mind and hands to, except the making of money. On December 29, 1767, he married Lucy Roberts, of Simsbury, whose father was a man of some promi nence in that place and possessed of considerable property. Lucy was " something of an old maid " and very much the nagger, scold, and all-round termigant. John was even-tempered and for bearing. He warned his wife, that unless she changed he would have to leave her, but she, thinking he was talking for effect, did not mend her ways. In all other respects she was a good woman. Their first child, a son, named Shaler, was born on November 3, 1768. On January 18, 1769, unable to longer stand his wife's scolding and nagging, he left her, taking only some clothing and less than eight dollars, all his other property being left for his wife and child. Some months after he left home his daughter was born. , Then began a long series of wanderings during wdiich Mr. Fitch applied his unusual mechanical genius and skill, and his brilliant intellect, to many occupations for providing the means for living. His letters to his friend, the Rev. Mr. Irwin, show that the nect'ssily for separating from his wife and child — he kiuw nothing of the approaching birth of his daughter — was a source of sorrow and regret. More than once he was on the SOUTH WINDSOR. 253 point of returning, but something always prevented it. On one occasion, when his wanderings had taken him to the village of Woodbridge, now a part of Rahway, New Jersey, he had determined to return to his home. He stopped at the house of Benjamin Alford to purchase something to eat. The front door was open and inside was an old man who was being given a tongue-lashing by an old woman, presumably his wife. The sound of scolding was too familiar, so he continued his wan derings. In May, 1769, he arrived in Trenton and found employment with Matthew Clunn making brass buttons and later, with James Wilson, a young and wealthy silversmith, where John lived upon threepence a day. In September of the same year, he started out peddling brass sleeve-buttons and cleaning clocks. After two weeks he had sold out his stock and became convinced that there was money in the occupation. He returned to Trenton and made more sleeve-buttons and thus began his only profitable business. Wilson getting into financial difficulties. Fitch bought him out. He ;Was enabled to borrow the money for this purpose because his honesty and strict attention to business were proven. Finally, he employed Wilson and other workmen and built up a business larger than any of the kind in Philadelphia. When the Revo lutionary War broke out, he had accumulated the very consider able fortune of £800. Mr. Fitch being a Connecticut Yankee was, of course, a patriot. Early in the trouble with Great Britain he petitioned for the command of a company, in the Jersey line, and was assured that he would receive it. Nothing shows more strikingly Mr. Fitch's gentle courtesy and high sense of justice than his conduct after receiving his commission as first lieutenant. William Tucker, an old resident of Trenton, was second lieutenant. Fitch thought it not right that he, a comparative stranger, should outrank a lifelong resident, so he proposed an exchange of titles and was actually reduced to a second lieutenancy. Although John Fitch's life was largely made up of just such acts of generosity and justice, he was always misunderstood, insulted and imposed upon. His courage and patriotism were shown, after he was requested to become an armorer, or gunsmith, by refusing to take advantage of the exemption from military 254 THE CONNECTICUT J'ALLEY. service, which exemption was offered to all gunsmiths, and con tinuing with his company. Later, his fearless stand in the inter ests of some poor soldiers was the cause of further trouble for him. A former acquaintance, Alexander Chambers, who was Commissary, refused to provide some poor soldiers with blankets which they greatl\- needed. Mtch stuck to his demand and finally, through higher authority, succeeded in obtaining them. Chambers became his enemy and his sneaking, venomous animos ity eventually drove Fitch out of the Continental army and deprived his country of one of its best soldiers. The strangest part of it all is, that although his superior officers knew of the underhand work, they did nothing about it. It almost seems as if he, in some mysterious and unconscious way, acted as a South Pole or repelling force to other men's better natures. It is evi dent that he was not sufficiently vain and self-conceited for his good. Had he possessed even a small portion of the pride, vain glory and egotism of his famous fellow-townsmen, Timothy and Jonathan Edwards, the world would have treated him better. In twentieth centur\- American, it is called " Front ''. Lieutenant Tucker was promoted to a captaincy and Lieutenant Fitch was entitled to become first lieutenant, but through Cham bers he was humiliated and deprived of his rightful promotion. Even General Dickinson, who had knowledge of Chambers' ani mosity and the power to see that justice was done, utterly failed in his duty in the matter. All this time Mr. Fitch was in charge of the armory and he and his men were providing the soldiers with arms. For the good of the cause and his country which he so dearly loved, Fitch worked from dawn till dark, including Sundays, so that the supply of arms could be kept up with the demand. Plere again did his ill luck pursue him, for he was expelled by the Methodists from their society for " breaking the Sabbath day ". So far as is known, no biblical student has discovered just wdiat locality in space such hypocrites will occupy after death. The final act of injustice, wdiich drove him from the army, occurred in the autumn of 1776. .\ call for three com panies from his battalion had been made, and Colonel Smith appointed Lieutenant Fitch to the command of one of them. Tiirough C'hambers and two men named Green and Smith, Fitch was again humiliated anti degraded, and Ralph Jones, a subor- SOUTH WINDSOR. 255 dinate officer, was given the captaincy. In this case Colonel Smith failed as completely in his duty as did General Dickinson. Had the case been reversed. Fitch .would have refused to accept the appointment that rightfully belonged to another. When the British occupied Trenton, Fitch went to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he devoted as much time as pos sible to study, he having purchased a share in the library in Warminster. From Trenton he had taken as many of his tools, and most valued possessions, as could be loaded on a small wagon. After the battles of Trenton and Princeton, he returned to his home to collect his property. He found much of it gone or destroyed, but what was left he took back to Warminster, Bucks County, and resumed his trade of silversmith, in a part of a wdieelwright's shop owned by " Cobe " (James) Scout. Again the approach of the British made flight necessary, after burying a considerable quantity of gold and silver at night on the Garrison place. He then supplied the army with various luxuries, especially with beer, from which he cleared from $6 to $18 in gold a week, which was, all things considered, about equal to from $25 to $75 now. In June, 1778, this business ceased and he returned to Bucks County only to find that a negro had seen him bury the gold and silver and had stolen it, and given nearly all of it to a young white man of good family, whose father eventually paid Fitch nearly the full value of the metal. He then resumed his trade with $40,000 in Continental money in hand, which he had made as sutler, but it was worth only $1,000 in gold or silver, and finally depreciated in value to but $100 in hard money. That he might save this money, he decided to invest it in land-warrants in Virginia. In the spring of 1780, he went to Philadelphia and obtained a letter of introduction from Dr. John Ewing, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, to Dr. James Madison, President of William and Mary College, in Richmond, who later became the Bishop of Virginia. With this, and other letters from prominent persons, he started on foot for Richmond, where his letters procured for him the appointment of deputy-surveyor. With William Tucker, whom he employed as an assistant, he started and arrived at Wheeling Island, in the Ohio River, in the spring of 1780, where they found eleven boats ready to go down the river. On one of them he and Tucker took 256 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. passage and after a trip full of danger and excitement, including a des])erate fight with Indians, they arrived at Kentucky where the survey was to be made. On one of the boats was a Baptist minister by the name of Barned, between whom and Fitch a strong friendship was formed. Mr. Barned was poor so Fitch, ever on the watch to do good, offered him an interest in his land investments. Mr. Barned was appreciative and accepted with gratitude. The Rev. Mr. Barned, being an experienced woods man, selected desirable tracts and Fitch and Tucker surveyed them. In Mr. Barned, Fitch found a man who appreciated his good heart and was very grateful for his generous treatment. They were exploring and surveying for a year and in the spring of 1781, Fitch returned to X'irginia to have his surveys recorded, leaving Mr. Barned in Kentucky with the expectation of rejoin ing him the following spring, but he never saw him again. He heard of him, however, in 1790, and that he had prospered and was worth £50,000. In the summer of 1781, Fitch returned to Bucks County and disposed of his possessions for £150 in full-value money — gold and silver — with the intention of going down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans. In the mean time, Mr. Barned was still in Kentucky looking after their mutual interests. In March, 1782, Fitch arrived at Fort Pitt, where he invested his money and, with four other men, chartered a boat for the journey. The journey was never finished. Through the mismanagement and cowardice of the captain and crew, they were captured on INIarch 22, by In dians and every dollar invested was lost, with the greater part of their clothing. Although they were not cruelly treated by their captors, they had an exciting and varied experience and suffered from exposure and hardship. Fitch and two of his companions were eventually taken from their Indian captors, by a trader named Saunders, and turned over to the com mander of the fort at Detroit, where they were still prisoners, but of the British instead of Indians. Finally, on Christmas, 1782, they arrived in New York, after nine months of cap tivity by Indians and British, during which they had ad ventures, excitement, and hardships enough to fill several volumes in the telling. SOUTH WINDSOR. 257 The following letter written to his little son in 1781, who was then in his thirteenth year, shows that John Fitch yearned for his family and that his separation was still a source of sadness and regret: l\Iy darling boy — Believe me, when I took you in my arms and kissed you for the last time, and took my farewell, you ihay be assured that I felt every emotion that it is possible for a tender father to feel. How my heart dissolved into tears, and how my sinews wanted strength, I can better feel than express. Be assured, your father loves you, and that there is nothing -would make him more happy than to take you under his parental care. This was written just before his capture by Indians. A few days after his return from captivity in Western Ohio in 1784, he wrote as follows. Heaven forbid that I should endeavor to raise an irreverent thought in your heart against your mother. But our separation, you may be assured, was no trifling matter to me. There was nothing that I more ardently wished for, at the time, than that Heaven would call me to the world of spirits. You, my child, staggered every resolution and weighed more to me than a mountain of diamonds. Finally, I resolved, and re-resolved, and then resolved again, and gave you a sacrifice to the world more un willingly than the patriarch of old, f Soon after peace had been declared with Great Britain, he organized a land company. It was composed of his friend, the Rev. Nathaniel Irwin, Dr. John Ewing, W. C. Houston, Jonathan Dickinson, Sergeant Potts and Stacy Potts, of Trenton; and Colonel Joshua Anderson, of Bucks County, each of whom put in £20 for the expense of exploration and survey, in western Ohio. The company being satisfied with the results, another surveying trip was made the following spring, in 1785. Through an act of Congress this enterprise was a total failure. On a Sunday in April, 1785, as Mr. Fitch and James Ogilbee were returning from hearing the Rev. Mr. Irwin preach, the idea first occurred to Fitch which culminated in the world's first steamboat. Mr. Fitch was somewhat crippled by rheumatism, due to his exposure while a captive of Indians. A Mr. and Mrs. Sinton passed them rapidly, in a " chair " to which a fine horse was attached. The difference between his slow progress and their speed, 17 2s8 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. suggested the idea that some force could be found that might be applied to vehicles and thus make traveling easy and rapid, without the necessity for keeping a horse. At this time he was entirely ignorant that a steam engine had ever been thought of or invented. His Yankee mind had already noted the expansive qualities of steam, so, when he arrived at his home, he began to make drawings of a steam propelled car riage. At the end of a week he realized that the rough, un improved roads of that period made such a vehicle impossible. Had American roads been fairly good, he might have been the father of the automobile. As it happened, the smoothness of water turned his thoughts to that as a highway and the application of steam power to a boat. He spent two or three weeks making drawings which he showed to his friend, the Rev. Mr. Irwin, who became greatly interested. Mr. Irwin took down from its shelf, Benjamin Martin's Philosophia Brittanica, published in 1747, and showed Fitch the description of a steam engine. It was then that Fitch confessed : " Although it was not to my credit, I did not know that there was a steam engine on earth, when I proposed to gain a force by steam ". He immediately began to construct a model with side paddle- wheels, similar to those now used. The machinen,- was made of brass and the completed model was tried on a small stream and proved an entire success. By 1788, he had obtained protec tion by patent from four states and in 1791, from the United States, for the application of steam as a motive power for marine purposes. Fitch met with the same ridicule and heart-breaking opposition by the skeptical, as did George W, Featherstonhaugh thirty years later, in regard to steam railroads, in Schenectady, Albany and New York, Mr. Fitch did not give up the ship. He bore ridi cule as best he could and met the opposition of the ignorant and doubtful with explanation and intelligent reasoning. He finally induci'd twenty iiersons to put $50 each into the enterprise, thus forming a coinj-iany. His first boat was built in Philadelphia, in 1787. The boat was launched and tried over a course of a measured mile and its speed was found to be eight miles an hour. Sometime later, an all-day run was made and eighty miles were covered. SOUTH WINDSOR. 259 The success of the steamboat and the possibihties it opened, so greatly delighted the Governor and Council of Pennsylvania, that they presented Mr. Fitch with a handsome silk flag for his boat. At about this time Mr. Henry Vail, of Troy, the American Consul at L'Orient, who was also one of the company, requested Mr. Fitch to visit France for the purpose of introducing his steamboat invention to that country. The company of persons who had subscribed the money for making experiments and building the boat sent Mr. Fitch to France. France was enjoy ing one of its periodical revolutions, so nothing was done about steamboats and Mr. Fitch returned to America, greatly dis appointed. It seems, that sometime afterward, when Robert Fulton was in France, Consul Vail showed to Fulton, Mr. Fitch's papers and the drawings of his invention. This was an odd thing to do and it shows that Robert Fulton's steamboat was really John Fitch's invention. Fitch, like the majority of men who are a century ahead of their fellows, struggled against dense ignorance, but he left noth ing undone, in his efforts to gain the confidence of someone, so that he might obtain the money required for the perfecting of his boat. Fitch had faith in his invention; he knew that a little money would enable him to make the changes and experiments necessary for success ; he knew that if he could not accomplish it, that before long someone else would, so it must have been heart-breaking work for him. He tried to induce Rittenhouse, one of the company, to purchase his land in Kentucky so that the money for perfecting the steamboat could be had, but without the hoped for result. Fitch predicted that in time, the mode of crossing the Atlantic would be in steamboats ; and on another occasion, when con versing with one of the mechanics who had worked on his boat, a number of other persons being present, he said : " Well, gentlemen, although I shall not live to see the time, yon zvill, when steamboats will be preferred to all other means of conveyance, especially for passengers and they will be par ticularly useful on the Mississippi." After Mr. Fitch left, one of those present remarked : " Poor fellow. It is a pity that he is crazy." An absolute knowledge that his ideas were practical and the disappointment and humiliation that he could not obtain the 200 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. money to prove it, so preyed upon his mind that he sought relief from his thoughts in inebriation. Mr. Fitch, the man who in vented tile steamboat many years before Robert Fulton saw his — iMlch's plans — and twenty years before Fulton brought out his boat, drowned himself in the Alleghany river. John Fitch dieil a suicide in July, 1798, in Bardstown, Ken tucky, lifter fift\' ye;irs of struggling against the worst and most cruel and tireless enemies a man can have, his fellow men. From the time he saved the home from fire, in his sixth year, when his elder brother, finding him with head, hands and feet blistered by the flames, gave him a beating and his father refused to redress the act of barbarity, to the day of his death, he was subjected to just such injustice, misunderstanding, insult and cruelty. It is not possible to doubt that he was in some way lacking in qualities which, had he possessed them, would have made such treatment impossible. Had he possessed more self-esteem, van ity and domineering pride, he might have avoided all the unhappy things that filled his life. His personal appearance has been described by an early writer as follows : He stood six foot two in his stocking-feet, was what was called thin and spare, face slim, complexion tawny, hair very black, and a dark eye, peculiarly piercing. His countenance was pleasing, and somewhat smiling. In point of morals and conduct, he was perfectly upright, sincere, and honorable in his dealings, and was never known to tell a wilful falsehood, or, indeed, to use any guile. For thirty years there was no settlement on the east side of the river, the reason no doubt being, that the passage of the Connecticut was laborious in summer and difficult, or impossible, in winter; that the meadows on that side of the river being lower, were subject to floods and, too, there were the Potlunk Indians to be considered, who occupied the land on the east side of the river. The Bissell family is regarded by historians as the pioneer family of the east side. In 1(148, it was granted a monopoly of the ferry, still called Bissell's Ferry, between Windsor and the hamlet of East Windsor, in the Town of South Windsor. There is a tradition in regard to this grant, that is interesting, if not founded upon fact, as Stiles claims. This tradition is, that John Bissell was sent by the Colony to England, in 1636, to purchase SOUTH WINDSOR. 261 and bring back a supply of cattle as the previous winter had been so severe that many of their cattle had died. Mr. Bissell returned with seventeen cows and a bull and as an equivalent for his services he was granted the monopoly of the ferry across the Connecticut. There was a house near Bissell's Ferry previous to 1662, for in a deed from John Bissell to his son Nathaniel, to property on the east side, near the ferry, mention is made of a house already standing there. Stiles says that John Bissell, Sr., probably moved from Windsor to the east side in 1662. Ten years later, there was a desire on the part of the people on the east side to organize a distinct and separate town. Three years later, in 1675, King Philip's War caused the greatest consternation on the east side, cut off as it was from the larger settlement on the w^est side of the river in Windsor and from help, should the fierce Podunks make the war an excuse for an attempt to exter minate the small settlement. For this reason, several families moved across to Windsor and a little later, all the inhabitants were ordered to move over with their cattle and grain and other possessions. The order also required that certain houses should be fortified and garrisoned for the safety of such persons as were obliged to remain. At the close of King Philip's War the people returned, and the settlement became fixed. The necessity of crossing the river to attend Church in Wind sor caused the people, in 1680, to petition the Legislature for the formation of a separate town, so that they could settle a minister of their own, but nothing came of it. Eleven years later they again presented a similar petition, but nothing was done till 1694, the delay being probably caused by the people of Windsor object ing to anything of the kind, as it would take just so many per sons from the Windsor Church and so increase the cost of supporting the minister in Windsor, for the people of that town. On May 10, 1694, the Rev. Timothy Edwards began preaching as a candidate and in March, 1695, he was ordained. Mr. Ed wards prepared for college in the Grammar School in Hartford, then under the instruction of the Rev. Peletier Grover, of Spring field. He entered Harvard College and was graduated in 1691, receiving the two degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts on the same day, an honor earned by his scholarship. There can 262 THE CONNECTICUT J'ALLEY be no doubt that the people respected and admired Mr. Edwards, but it is hardly possible to suppose that they loved him, or even had affection for him. He was too thoroughly the master, the judge, the keeper of the congregation's conscience. It was not till 1735, that he plainly showed, no doubt unconsciously, his Roman Catholic tendency in matters of Church government. In tliat year in a sermon he laid down the law, that it belonged to the pastor to JUDGE and determine what complaints or accusa tions should be brought before the Church, and what should not, and that the votes of the members to convict or restore an offender would be of no force or validity WITHOUT the CONCURRENCE or APPROBATION of THE PASTOR. The chief difference — perhaps the only difference — between the Church in England and the Church in America was in Church government. The principle of Congregationalism was the right possessed by each separate Church to govern itself, but Mr. Edwards declared that the power was in the pastor. The people were surprised and grieved, but the crisis did not come till Mr. Edwards debarred Joseph Diggins from owning his covenant and having his child baptized, " until he was willing to publicly confess himself guilty of a scandalous offence ", with which Mr. Edwards had charged him. The step between the con demnation of the Roman Priest and the secret confession, and the condemnation of Mr. Edwards and the public confession, was not a long one. Joseph Diggins' offence was, that he married the girl of his choice, against the wishes of her father, William Stoughton. Had Mr. Edwards been a priest, and his Church of the Roman Communion, Iiis decree of excommunication would have been quite natural : as both Edwards and his Church were Protestant, it savors of the busy-body and looks very much like an insolent interference by an outsider, in something that was a jA'rsonal and private matter between the Diggins and Stoughton families. Diggins denied the doing of wrong and demanded a trial by the Church. Again did iNfr. luhvards exhibit his Roman regard for the po\ver of tiie minister, by refusing the trial and sa}-ing; th.'it he had a ne.gative on the Church, and that until he had changed his opinion in regard to the guilt of Diggins, the Church need not trouble itself. SOUTH WINDSOR. 263 The sorrow of the people may be imagined. In England they had suffered persecution; they had been fined, imprisoned and their estates had been confiscated because they dared to object to just such a form of Church government as Mr. Edwards was forcing upon them. They had spent years in thought — with prayers for guidance — in building up the Congregational form of Church government. Finally, they had abandoned their homes in England, to make new homes in a wilderness, so that they could have a Church which satisfied all their desires. After sacrificing everything to build up the substantial, dignified Con gregational Church, on a foundation of self-government, the Rev. Timothy Edw^ards filled his lungs with warm air and puffing it out again, from between his lips, blew down what they had sacrificed so much for, and had been so many years in building, as a child blows down a house of cards. That is, he intended to do so, and he thought that he had done so, but the Church survived both himself and his son. The foundation of self-sacrifice, upon which they had built their Congregational system of Church government, was so soHd and substantial, that even a much more violent tornado than passed from between the lips of the Rev. Timothy Edwards, in South Windsor, or between those of his illustrious son, the Rev. Jona than Edwards, in Northampton, would not have caused a window to rattle. After Mr. Edwards had demolished Congregationalism and declared his infallibility — by telling the people that so long as he considered Diggins guilty, he was guilty, notwithstanding what the church thought on the subject — the case remained where it was till October, 1738, when a council was called which decided to give Diggins a trial. Sometime later, Mr. Edwards called a Church meeting and entered a formal protest against Diggins and charged him with breaking the Fifth and Eighth Commandments. The case was tried and Diggins was acquitted. Mr. Edwards and two of the members dissented from this verdict, and called a council. It met on June 12, and 18, 1739, and while it sustained the decision of the Church in the Diggins case, it commended Mr. Edwards for his tenderness, prudence, faithfulness and caution, and so great was their Christian charity for the mis- 264 THE CONNECTICUT J'ALLEY. guided, egotistical old man, that never a word was uttered of criticism or censure for the man who had wilfully and stubbornly tried to demolish the Church, that he might gratify and tickle his self-esteem. The council further said, that if he cannot with out scruples admit Josejib Diggins, the brethren are advised not to press the matter, and Diggins was advised to apply to some other minister for Church privileges, and the baptism of his child. Although Dig-ins again applied and the deacons urged his cause, Mr. 1'aI wards still refused. Then, the people as a Church, wrote a plain-spoken, affection ately expressed letter, urging Mr. Edwards to admit Diggins and asserting their rights as a Congregational Church. He again refused, pleading conscientious scruples against countenancing such marriages as that of Joseph Diggins. The Church then authorized Diggins to seek elsewhere for Church rights, but he naturally objected to being driven from his spiritual home through the caprice of a self-willed old man, just as he would object to being evicted from his temporal home, by the same man for no better reason. The deacons then asked Mr. Edwards to call a Church meeting, but he refused, so the deacons themselves called the meeting. At this meeting Diggins made a formal charge of mal-adminis- tration against his persecutor, and finally Mr. Edwards was in duced to call a council. It met on April 22. 1740, and was asked to give advice in regard to the following questions ; Concerning the power of the pastor to appoint messengers. Concerning his power to negative action taken by the Church. Concerning his i)ower to judge and determine what complaints shall come before the Church. To determine the case of Joseph Diggins. Possibly the council lacked moral courage, at anv rate it refused to advise in all but the Diggins case. This was not at all satis factory. Congregationalism was endangered. Mr. Edwards was trying to destroy it by denying- the right of the Congregation to govern itself, and by insisting upon the power of the priesthood. Mr. Edwards was still charged with nial-administration and for abont tliree years the celebration of the Lord's Supper had not taken place. Diggins was finally induced to withdraw his SOUTH WINDSOR. 265 charge. Then a letter was sent to Mr. Edwards, dated Aug. 11, 1741, which was as follows: It would have been a great satisfaction if you had granted our motion to you (the last time you called us together) to call a Congregational Council to advise us in our controversies respecting our church-order, which was offered to the council that met, which they refused to hear and give their opinion upon. We are still of opinion that a Congregational Council would have been the properest way to haye led us into peace in that matter. But since you have declined this, and we are denied the benefit of such a council, we hope you will suffer us, without offence, to declare that we are still a Congregational Church, and that in our opinion it is not with our pastor to debar us from any privilege belonging to us as such ; but we are ready to receive any evidence from the Scriptures or reason, to convince us that the Congregational Church-order is unscrip- tural or unsound. We are further of the opinion that merely the differ ent understanding between us about our church-order is not a sufficient cause to hinder our Communion, and Mr. Diggins having withdrawn his complaint, we see nothing in the way but we may set down at the Lord's Table together. This was signed by Hez. Porter and seventeen other members. After the receipt of this letter, Mr. Edwards administered the sacrament. It would seem that now Mr. Edwards had found a place in the controversy where he could return to his duty as a Christian and minister of the Church, without hurting his mag nificent self-esteem, but he did nothing of the kind. On Sunday, November i, 1741, he read a letter requesting that a messenger be sent to a council at Hartford. One of the rights he had denied the Church and claimed for himself, was the appointment of messengers, but he condescended on this occasion, " for tbe sake of peace ", to leave the election of messenger to the Church. He then laid himself open to a suspicion of hypocrisy by pur posely refraining from being present at the meeting (which he was invited to attend) so that he could refuse a certificate to the messenger on the ground, that as he was not present at the meeting, he did not know who was elected. It is doubtful if there ever was before or has been since his day, a man of his profound mental attainments, in the Christian Protestant ministry, who was so completely self-centered and self-satisfied as the Rev. Timothy Edwards, unless it was his illustrious son, the Rev. Jonathan Edwards. This is strikingly shown by a manuscript record of the Rev. Timothy Edwards' 266 THE CONNECTICUT J'ALLEY. of what he was pleased to consider especial acts of Providence for his personal safety. Some of them in twentieth century English, are as follows : When I was a little child I fell into a tub of water. The Providence of (lod caused somebody to see me and pull me out. On another occasion, in the school-boy period, he choked with a peach stone, which stuck in his throat when, " God by His power brought it out from me and saved my life." On another occasion he climbed a cherry tree " to show some mates how venturesome and bold I was and yet God brought me safely down again". Was not this truly a marvel? It was probably the first occasion known, from the time of Adam to that of Mr. Edwards, on wdiich a boy had climbed a cherry tree and had come safely down again with or without the help of Provi dence. On another occasion he would have gone under the ice and been drowned, wdiile skating, had someone not warned him of the danger. It must be remembered that this is not the record of a little boy, but of a mature man (who was given two degrees at once by his College on account of his mental attainments) who was regarded as one of North America's greatest and most scholarly divines. It probably never occurred to Air. Edwards that there were hundreds of thousands of other boys in whose safety Divine Providence was equally interested. Finally, after keeping the East ^^'indsor Church in disorder for many years, the Angel of Death came to the rescue of the people and at the same time, probably saved the Congregational Church from disruption and the formation of a separate sect, which Mr, Edwards, in his self-love would no doubt have chris tened, Edwaidsites, Timothy Edwards was a man of profound learning and powerful intellect, who had wilfully smirched the reli.i;ion, the b'ounder of wdiich he professed to serve, that he might set himself above his e(|uals, gratify his vanity and nourish his stubbornness. For this reasi-in his sin was seemingly the greater. Whether Death gathered him into .-Vbrabam's bosom, or caused him to walk over that unique pavement described by his illustrious son, Jonathan Edwards, is not for man to judge, e\-en if Timotln' Edwards did establish the precedent by judging WINDSOR LOCKS. 267 WINDSOR LOCKS. THE Connecticut River Company, which built the Enfield Falls Canal, gave Windsor Locks its name, from the fact that the series of locks at the southern terminus 01 the canal were at that place. Windsor Locks was not incor porated till 1854. Previous to the building of the Enfield Canal the territory was called Pinemeadow. The meadow from which it derived its name, is two miles south of the present village and at one time, far back in the ages, when the Indians possessed the art of tempering copper, this fertile meadow was occupied by them as has been shown by the graves, and stone and copper implements found in them. But ^vhen the English first settled on the Connecticut River, no In dians lived there. Henry Denslow, son of Nichilas Denslow, built the first house iu Pinemeadow in 1662 or '63, on land he had purchased from Thomas Ford, of Windsor. The Denslow family lived there, with William Hayden their nearest neighbor, two miles away. In 1676, just after the beginning of King Philip's War, the family moved to Windsor for safety. A short time afterward Henry Denslow returned to his home alone, contrary to the ur gent entreaties of his family and friends, and was killed by Indians. A large boulder marking the site of his home, was in scribed with an account of his death, on the two hundredth anniversary. Mrs. Denslow, her son aged seventeen and her seven daughters, returned to their home after Philip's War was ended and lived there alone for twelve years, with no neighbors nearer than two miles, and the son continued to live there till his death. His sons, Samuel and Joseph Denslow, built houses on the farm. The site of Henry Denslow's house — the first built in Windsor Locks — -and a portion of the farm has been owned by his descendants for nearly 250 years. Nathaniel Gaylord went from Windsor to Pinemeadow in 1678, and settled there. His descendants, like those of the first settler, Denslow, owned the property for about 225 years. They were the only families in Pinemeadow — the Denslow and Gaylord — for thirty years. In 1708, Amos Dibble, the grandson of Thomas Dibble, moved from Windsor to Pine meadow and built his house near the ravine now called Dibble 268 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. PIollow. In 1752, the Dibbles moved to Torrington, at that time being settled. (.Jther Windsor families which followed, were those of Ezekiel Thrall, who built on the corner of Center and Elm streets ; Palatiah ISirge, in the same year, who built to the north and west of the Thralls, about a mile and a half, and a considerable portion of his property is still owned by members of the family ; Seth Dexter and Jabez Haskell, who came from Rochester, Alassa- chusetts, in 1769; and some time in the five years following. Ensign Samuel Wing and Samuel Coye built houses on ^^'¦est street, but the}- have no descendants in Windsor Locks now. In the summer that the Declaration of Independencfe was signed there were nine families in Windsor Locks. They were Dexter, Haskell, Coye, Wing, Birge, two Gaylords and two Denslows. Their patriotism was such, that with the exception of the Coye family, the heads of the other eight were serving in the Revolution in 1776, and Captain Alartin Denslow had the enviable distinction of being an original member of the Order of Cincinnati. The first school-house was built by Haskell and Dexter in 1776, on land belonging to Mr. Dexter, and in 1783, a charter for a ferry across the Connecticut River was granted. The first saw-- mill, was one built by the Denslows on Kettle Brook, about 1742. They sold it to Isaac and Daniel Hayden. In 1769, it became the property of Haskell and Dexter and in 1784, they built a grist mill below the sawmill. They, and the descendants of the two families, owned and operated the mill for seventy-five years when it became the property of the Dexters and is still in that family. In 1781, Ensign Eliakim Gaylord and Elijah Higley built a grist mill on Pinemeadow Brook. WAREHOUSE POINT. WAREHOUSE POINT, directly across the Connecticut from Windsor Locks, was so called because William Pynchon, the great merchant and financier of his time, north of Plartford, built a warehouse there for storing his merchandise. Fur-pelts and the product of the soil were sent from Springfield around to r>oston, in 1(13(1, by water. Mr. Pynchon built his warehouse as near the foot of the falls as his JJ'AREHOUSE POINT. ' 269 vessels could go and then carted the merchandise from Spring field, a distance of fourteen miles. Sailing vessels seldom went up the Connecticut above Hart ford. In 1820, there were sixty flat-boats of from ten to eighteen tons burthen which carried freight from Hartford to the up-river towns. As a twelve-ton scow was as large as it was possible to pole up the falls, all boats with more than twelve tons of freight discharged their excess at Warehouse Point. This freight was then carted up to Thompsonville in ox-carts and there reloaded upon the flat-boats. These flat-boats were poled up from Hart ford, unless there was a wind from the south strong enough for them to slowly sail up. In going up the falls twelve men were required to pole the heavy boats. The canal that was built in 1829, from Windsor Locks to a point in Suffield, nearly opposite Thompsonville, obviated the difficulty of the falls. SUFFIELD. IT would probably be difficult to enumerate the persons who, as children or grown-ups, have wondered how that queer little square piece of Massachusetts happened to extend down into Connecticut, without any apparent reason, purpose or advantage. This little projection, about two miles square, has been a part of Massachusetts since 1804. In the early days, the bounds between Springfield and \\'ind- sor were not accurately known, with the exception of the point at the north-west bounds of the projection. This point had been fixed. The western bounds of Springfield, which in those days included a portion of Suffield, were erroneously believed to ex tend to this fixed point. The knowledge of the error was ob tained through a warning from Connecticut to a Air. Aloore, who occupied the square of land, to be present for a militia train ing. He refused to obey the summons on the ground that he was not a citizen of Connecticut. The matter was taken to the Legislature and upon examination it was found that this piece of land two miles square must be left to the jurisdiction of Alassachusetts. When John Pynchon settled Springfield he believed that he was included in the Connecticut plantations. In 1642, Alassa chusetts employed Woodward and Safferv to survey the bound ary between the two Colonies. They fixed the eastern end of the boundary and then sailed around through the Sound and up the Connecticut, when they pretended to take up the line and continue it. Their line included a part of ^^'indsor and was many miles south of the boundary claimed by Connecticut. That Colony was naturally dissatisfied. A proposal was made to Alassachusetts for a mutual adjustment of the boundary, but noth ing came from it. In 1694, Connecticut had the line surveyed and found that the sur\-ey made b)- \\'oodwar(l and Safferv was verv much too far south. Under these conditions, the people of Suf field and Enfield, who had settled under Alassachusetts jurisdic tion, continued to encroach upon Windsor and Simsbury. This [270] SUFFIELD. 271 led to heated disputes and animosities, so another attempt was made to settle the disputed boundary, in 1700, but without re sult. In 1702, the line was run by commissioners of both Col onies and was placed by them far to the north of the old bound ary, but Alassachusetts refused to accept their report. In 1708, Connecticut's " dander " was up. Commissioners were appointed to run the boundary. They were given full power, and unless Massachusetts agreed to the boundary, as run by the commis sioners, Connecticut decided to appeal to the Crown. Massachu setts did not agree at once, but in 1713, a joint Commission came to an agreement on July 13. This line was so far north that En field, Suffield and Woodstock were found to be in the Colony of Connecticut. As compensation for encroachments, Massachu setts granted a tract of land, called The Equivalent Lands, in the western part of the Colony, to Connecticut. This was sold by Connecticut in 1 716, for $2,274, the money being given to Yale College. But even then, the boundary was not fixed, for there was the later dispute occasioned by Mr. Moore, in 1800, and the final fixing did not take place till 1804. Suffield was purchased by John Pynchon from the Indians for $200. In 1670, Massachusetts granted the territory to Pynchon with the right to lay it out and settle it as a township, so its set tlement and incorporation took place in 1670, and the township continued under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts till 1752, when it was annexed to Connecticut. It is a town of extensive and beautiful views and fertile soil. One of the most prominent citizens of Suffield was Gideon Granger. Mr. Granger was born in Suffield on July 19, 1767. He prepared for College and entered Yale, graduating at the age of twenty in 1787. He studied law, after graduation from Yale, and was admitted to practice in 1788. As a lawyer, Mr. Granger was notable. When but twenty-six years old, in 1793, he was elected to the Legislature of Connecticut, where for a number of years he made himself a power by his energy, his mental attain ments and his unceasing desire and willingness to serve the peo ple of the State to the best of his ability and, as his ability was great, the service was great. Air. Granger was a strong believer in the public school system and it was chiefly due to his exertions 272 THE CONNECTICUT J'ALLEY that the school fund, for which Connecticut early became famous, came into existence. In 1801, Mr. Granger was appointed to the office of Postmaster General of the United States. He continued to fill that important office till 1S14, In that year he moved from Connecticut to Canandaigua, New York. The people of his adopted home soon recognized the fact, that the famous Yankee was of the class and manner of man they desired for their law manufactory in Albany, so he was elected to the State Senate in April, 1819. He con-- tinued in that body till 1821, when failing health made his resig nation a necessit\'. His death occurred in his home in Canan daigua, on December 31, 1822, Mr. Granger was as prominent as a writer as he was a speaker and, like his public speaking, his writings were generally on political subjects. He wrote strongly in defence of the administrations of President Jefferson and Gov ernor Clinton, over the pen names of "Algernon Sidney " and " Epaminondas ". His writings in support of the school fund were signed " Senectus ". Two other men whose lives reflected honor upon Suffield, but who were not natives of the town, were General Phinias Lyman and Oliver Phelps. General Lyman was born in Durham, in 1716, but he was a resident of Suffield for many years after his graduation from Yale College. After his College days he studied law and opened his first office in Suffield. General Lyman was one of those who took an active part in the boundary-dispute be tween Connecticut and Alassachusetts. For a number of years he was a magistrate. In 1755, in the French and Indian \\'ar, he was a major-general of the Provincial troops in the British Army. After the close of that war General Lyman went to England as the authorized agent of the officers of the Provincial troops, to carry through a claim upon the home government for them. He ^vas opposed and delayed, as was the custom when any of the Colonials \\'ere asking, or demanding rights, or remuneration from Great liritain and was at one time obliged to return to America for an extension of his powers. Finally, he succeeded in obtaining from the Goyernment a grant of an extensive tract of land on the Mississippi, not far from wdiere Natchez now is. Pie sailed for this projierty, that had been granted to the Colonial officers, and sent one of his sons to bring the faniil)- there, but SUFFIELD. 273 before they arrived. General Lyman died, in 1774. Mrs. Lyman died on ship and the Spaniards reclaiming the territory, the other members of the Lyman family left that place. Oliver Phelps was born in Windsor but he grew to manhood and received his commercial education in Suffield. He became one of the greatest property owners and financiers of his day. He moved to Granville, Massachusetts, and there became one of the principal traders of the time. In the Revolutionary period, he was employed by Alassachusetts in the Commissary Depart ment of that State. In this department his transactions were im mense and his own paper was accepted as a circulating medium. In 1789, he and the Hon. Wm. Gorham purchased from Massa chusetts a tract of land in the western part of New York, known then as the Genesee country, comprising 2,200,000 acres. Up to that year it was the largest purchase of land, made by but two individuals, in the entire country. Another great land purchase was made in 1795, by Mr. Phelps, William Hart and other men, in Ohio, consisting of 3,300,000 acres. Mr. Phelps finally set tled in Canandaigua, on his Genesee property and in 1802, he was sent to Congress from the western district of New York. Suffield was a part of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, till 1749. As early as 1660, ten years before the purchase by Pyn chon, it was known as Stony River Plantation, but in 1670, the name of Southfield was officially given to it. The Committee that was appointed to have charge of the affairs of the place, when it should be settled, petitioned for a change of name to Suffield, in June, 1674, and Suffield it has been for 231 years. This committee was composed of Captain John Pynchon, Cap tain Eliazur Holyoke, Lieutenant Cooper, Quartermaster Colton, Ensign Cooley, and Rowland Thomas, of Springfield. This Committee was similar to the one appointed to manage the affairs of Fresh Water (Enfield) and the presence of any three members of it were sufficient to transact business. In January, 1671, a system of rules for the settlement were adopted and the place was laid out in lots very much as was done in Enfield. The rules in regard to settlement and sale were about the same, but the size of the lots was greater, they being forty, fifty, sixty, and eighty acres. A lot of eighty acres was set apart of the Church, and about the same number of acres as a gift to the first minister 18 274 THE CONNECTICUT J'ALLEY. to be settled. Forty acres were appropriated for the support of a school ; 500 for the Colon)-, and from twenty to thirty for a common in the center of the town. About one hundred families applied for grants upon which to settle, but the breaking out of King Philip's War, in 1675, stopped ever\thing for the prospective settlers feared to leave the larger towns. In the spring of 1677, nearly all of the few to wdiom grants had been made returned. After the war, in 1678, additional grants were made and highways were opened. The Northampton road so frequently referred to in the old records was originally a trail between the Connecticut towns on the west side of the Connecticut River and those in Alassachusetts. This trail passed through Westfield, Alassachusetts, which was a trad ing post for many years before it was settled in 1658, thence to Northampton. Later, it was widened and made into a cart-road for communication between the Alassachusetts river-towns and Hartford. It was kept up by the towns as an important and necessary means of communication. On October 12, 1681, the General Court directed the Commit tee to call a meeting of the voters, for the purpose of organizing the town. On January 2, 1682, the Committee met for the last time and granted additional lots so that there were one hundred proprietors in Suffield, sixty-two of the number being men with families and thirty-eight unmarried men. The first birth in the new settlement was that of Ephraim Bartlett, on June 17, 1673; the second was Alindwell Old, on February 4, 1674. Although no one, English or Indian, was ever killed in any war, nor mas sacred by Indians within the bounds of Suffield, still, as early as 1681, there was a compain- of militia in Suffield. The officers were Lieutenant Anthony Austin and Ensign George Norton, Norton became captain of the company in 1092, Notwithstand ing the fact, that the location of the town was such that no fighting took place in it, in an\- of the many Indian w-ars of Colonial da) s or in the Revolution; and that no Indian attacks were made or murders committed, in Suffield, that place furnished its full share of men, for service outside its bounds, in all of the Colonial wars and in the Revolution. In 1810, the manufacture of cigars made of imported tobacco SUFFIELD. 275 was started by a dissolute inebriate of Spanish extraction ; an expert cigar maker who had become a tramp. Simon Viets dis covered his skill as a cigar maker and, purchasing some Spanish tobacco, started the first manufactory of the kind in the Con necticut Valley. The tramp taught the trade to some of the Suf field girls and the cigars were sold to peddlers who distributed them over New England. Anthony Austin was probably the first schoolmaster, in 1696, and the first schoolhouse was built in 1704, on High Street Common. This first schoolmaster's great-great-grandson, Ste phen F. Austin, was the founder of Texas. Stephen's father, Aloses Austin, obtained from the Mexican Government a grant of a vast tract of land in Texas about 1820, where he intended to form a colony, but he died two years later without having accomplished his purpose. Stephen then went to Texas to take charge of the property. He laid out the City of Austin, which bore his name, and was the commander-in-chief of the Texan army and was the director of affairs there for some time. Dr. Sylvester Graham, whose name will be perpetuated so long as graham bread is made and eaten, was born in West Suffield in July, 1794; the son and grandson of clergymen, himself be came a preacher and temperance advocate. He became impressed wdth the belief that the only remedy for intemperance, and the best method for preventing disease, was in correct living — es pecially in proper diet — which he believed was a vegetable diet. The so called " Graham system " of diet and graham bread bear his name. A pamphlet which he wrote on bread making, in 1837, caused so much opposition among the bakers in Boston, that Dr. Graham, his system, and his bread, was given free advertising through their mobs, of a value not possible to estimate in dollars. Dr. Graham was an eloquent public speaker and a fine writer. A work which death prevented his finishing — Philosophy of Sacred History — was written to prove that his vegetarian theory was founded upon the Bible. The first meeting-house in Suffield was built in 1680; and its minister was the Rev. John Younglove, who taught the Grammar School in Hadley for six years previous to being settled over the parish in Suffield. There was but one Church in Suffield from the 276 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. settlement down to 1740. On January i of that year, the second society was incorporated and the meeting-house was built on Ireland Plain. There was a society of New Lights, or Separates, who held meetings in the homes of the members, in 1742. In 1763, they had a Church and the Rev. Israel Holly was ordained as its pastor. Several years later the majority of the members became Baptists and the minority returned to the Congregational Church, Air. Plolly becoming a minister of that denomination. The Bap tist Church mentioned was organized in 1769, with the Rev. Joseph Hastings pastor. ENFIELD. ENFIELD is almost unique in at least one respect, for no history of Massachusetts is complete without including the history of Enfield for the first seventy years of its existence, nor would a history of Connecticut be complete that failed to include the entire history of Enfield. When WiUiam Pynchon, " the father of Springfield," Alassa chusetts, settled on that portion of the Connecticut, he believed that he was within the jurisdiction of Connecticut and so Enfield, which belonged to the territory settled by Pynchon and his com pany of settlers, was believed to be in Connecticut. That this behef was general, is shown by the fact, that Mr. Pynchon, as a magistrate, attended a Court held in Hartford in November, 1636. There is the further evidence, that Agawam — as Spring field was first called - — was assessed, in 1637, with the other towns of Connecticut to provide its quota of soldiers for the Pequot War, and to pay its portion of the expenses of that war. In 1642, through the carelessness or ignorance, or because of both carelessness and ignorance, of two surveyors who surveyed the boundary between Alassachusetts and Connecticut, the line was fixed by them so far to the south that it included all of the Town of Enfield, which was settled in 1681 by people from Salem, Massachusetts, as well as other portions of Connecticut. From 1642 till 1752, Enfield was within the jurisdiction of Massa chusetts, a period of seventy-one years, but it was not without vigorous opposition on the part of the inhabitants of Enfield and the Colony of Connecticut, an account of which is given in the chapter on Suffield. The reason the inhabitants of Enfield were anxious to be a part of Connecticut instead of Massachusetts was, that the Connecticut Colony was more liberal and its system of town government most admirable. No attempt was made by the people of Springfield to settle Enfield, the territory placed in Massachusetts by the carelessness of Woodward and Saffery, the surveyors, for more than thirty years. In the autumn of 1679, John Pynchon, Samuel Marsh- [277] 278 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY field, Thomas Stebbins, Sr., Jonathan Burt, and Benjamin Par sons, were ajipointed a Committee to dispose of the land at the Falls and about Freshwater Brook — Thompsonville — to set tlers. The proprietors were required to occupy their land and build houses upon it within three years from the date of the grant, and they were not permitted to own two home-lots nor to sell the land granted to them till they had lived upon the grants for seven v-cars. The purpose of the grants w-as to settle the place ix-rmanently, not to encourage land speculation. Each grant included a home-lot and thirty, forty, fifty, or sixty acres of farm land. The inhabitants were required to lay out roads through their land when they were needed. At this early period ir the history of America, that systematic care of the trees, which makes Connecticut and Alassachusetts villages and cities notable for the great number and the magnificence of their shade trees, vvas begun. Besides requiring building within three years, seven years' residence and the laying out of highways, the grants in cluded that all trees standing in the highways should be left for shade and ornament. This was not peculiar to Enfield, but it happened to be one of the stated requirements of the grants, instead of becoming a Town law later, after the settlement had been organized. In 1680, at a meeting of the Committee held in Alarch, it was decided that it would be just and right to purchase from the Indians their natural right to the land. The matter was placed in the hands of John Pynchon and £30 were appropriated for the purchase. He secured a deed from Totaps, the chief of the tribe occup)-ing the land, for £2^^. This deed was for that por tion of Enfield that is to the south of Freshwater Brook, A deed for that portion of the town to the north of that brook was obtained b\' William P)-nchon in 1(178. The natives were treated fairly and thc\' and the white settlers lived in peace and even good- will, Enfield never was harrassed, or troubled in anv wav, by Indians, .Sometime pre\ious to the grants by the Committee, a few grants had lieen made to individuals. As the persons to whom tlie grants were made never occupied the land granted to them, no settlement was effecled till the grants bv the Committee, in ENFIELD. 279 The first settlers of Enfield were John Pease and his sons, John, Jr., and Robert, who came from Salem, Massachusetts, with their families and settled on their property, about a mile to the south from Freshwater Brook. In consideration of the fact that they were the first settlers, the Committee made their grant two or three rods wider than the other allotments. Their allotment was made in July, i68q, and it is probable that the two brothers spent the winter there, and doubtless built the log house to which thev brought their families, in the spring or summer of 1681. The settlement grew rather rapidly, for new inhabitants ar rived in considerable numbers soon after the allotments were made. The settlement was made on a ridge rising about 130 feet above, and one-half a mile to the east of the river. The main street was laid out on the top of this ridge, running parallel with the river. The land to the east of the ridge slopes very gently toward the east for about two miles, to the ravine through which the Scantic River flows, so the view was equally good in both directions and gave to the inhabitants an opportunity to see any hostile Indians who might be approaching. In 1683, less than three years after John Pease and his sons arrived, the popula tion of Enfield had increased so greatly, that it was thought the time was ripe for sending a petition to the General Court of Alassachusetts, for incorporation as a distinct town. Springfield, of which Enfield was a part, endorsed the petition. The General Court granted the petition, and named the new town Enfield. Enfield did not have its own officers till the spring of 1688, the Committee being directed by the General Court to manage town affairs. The Committee was composed of broad-minded, liberal men who administered the government in harmony with the wishes of the inhabitants. The first official of Enfield was John Pease, Jr., who was elected to the important office of constable. It was a very important office in those days for the constable was the local representative of the King. The first election was on July 15, 1683, when the Committee called the inhabitants together for the purpose. At the expiration of the term of the constable he nominated three men from among the inhabitants, whom he regarded as being best suited to fill the office, and then the in habitants voted for the man they wanted. Another instance of 28o THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. the Committee's liberal spirit was shown in February, 1684, when it appointed John Pease, Sr., Isaac Meacham, Jr., and Isaac Alorgan to act as selectmen. The powers of the Committee were suspended from 1684, to 1689, by the revocation of the Charter of Alassachusetts by the King. After the restoration of the Com mittee to authority, it continued but three years, the last meeting being held in March, 1692. Before the end of the year, the two surviving members of the Committee turned everything over to the Town of Enfield. The population of Enfield continued to increase. In 1692 pitches were made in the southern portion of Enfield and in 1706, people moved from the center to the eastern portion of the town and made a settlement in what is now Somers. Scitico was set tled about 1713. In 1693, there was a boundary war between Enfield and Windsor, that was founded upon the careless survey made by Woodward and Saffery, in 1642. Windsor claimed that the southern boundary of Enfield was two miles too far south, and Enfield denied it. The matter was fought through the courts for twenty years, and must have been a " gold-mine " to the law-- yers of both towns. In 171 3, the dispute was settled by an har monious compromise. Enfield's first representative to the Gen eral Court of Massachusetts was Joseph Parsons of Springfield, in 1705. From that year till the town was annexed to Connecti cut, Enfield's representation was intermittent. In 1734, the east ern portion of the town was set off and incorporated as the Town of Somers. From 1716, till 1752, the inhabitants of Enfield strove to force Alassachusetts to agree that the town was within the jurisdiction of and a part of Connecticut, and although Captain Ephraim Pease and Captain Elijah Williams took their seats in the Legislature of Connecticut in October, 1749, as the repre sentatives of Enfield, that town was not annexed to Connecticut till 1752. In the Indian Wars, the Revolution, and the War of 181 2, Enfield was as liberal with its men and as active in its patriotism, as' were all the towns of the Colony. In 1C183, the work of building a meeting-house was begun, but a minister was not settled for a number of years, not till 1699, when the Kev. Nathaniel Collins became its first minister. A Baptist Church was organized in 1750, with the Rev, Joseph Aleacliam its jiastor, but it soon ceased to exist and Air. Aleacham ENFIELD. 281 became one of the first American converts of the Shakers. Dis cord in the Baptist Church resulted in the organization of a Society of Shakers in 1788. The first bridge across the Connecticut River, in the State of Connecticut, was built in 1808, from Enfield to Suffield. It was thirty feet wide, 1,000 feet long, and was supported by six mason-work piers. The bridge cost a little less than $26,000. In 1679, the Committee appropriated forty acres to be im proved and worked for the support of a school, but the school was not organized till 1703. A schoolhouse was built in 1704, and John Richards was its first schoolmaster. The Town paid him £14 a year and the parents of all children of five years old and over were assessed a small sum which was added to his salary. In addition, the Town promised him twenty acres of land, should he continue to teach in the school for five years. With the exception of a small ironworks on the Scantic River, in the eastern part of the town, that was established in 1802, there was little or no manufacturing in Enfield, the people being employed in working their farms, until 1828. In that year Orrin Thompson organized the Thompsonville Manufacturing Com pany, for the manufacture of carpets, the factory being in Thomp sonville near the mouth of Freshwater River. Among the most prominent families of Enfield, in the different periods of its existence, were those of the name of Pease, Thomp son and Dixon. John Pease, Sr., the first settler of Enfield — or Freshwater as it was then called — was born in England in 1630. He came to New England with his parents while he was still a child. They settled in eastern Alassachusetts where the father died, not long after arriving in New England. John was left to the care of his grandmother- — who came over with the family, or was already in Massachusetts when John and his parents arrived — and soon after she died. John was left by her will to the care of Thomas Wadeson, who brought him up and gave him what education he had. John Pease was married twice ; his first wife being Alary Goodell, of Salem, Alassachusetts ; and his second, Ann Cummings, of Topsfield, Massachusetts. John settled in Salem and lived there till he moved with his sons to Freshwater — Enfield — in 1681, where he died on July 8, 1689. Of the two sons who settled Freshwater with their father, 282 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY John, Jr., became the more prominent. He was, in fact, the most prominent man in the early history of Enfield. He w-as born in Salem, on Alay 30, 1654, and was twenty-seven when he went to Enfield with his father, and brother Robert. He had served his apprenticeship as a carpenter and joiner before leaving Salem and besides working at his trade, he was interested in all matters of interest to the town, and was an active worker for its advance ment and its welfare. His official life began when he was elected the first constable of Enfield, and it continued, in one office or another, for many years. He was surveyor of the town ; a mem ber of the first board of selectmen, elected at the first Town meet ing; and the first captain of militia in Enfield. His wife was Margaret Adams, of Ipswich, Alassachusetts, whom he married on January i, 1677. His death occurred in Enfield, in 1734, in the eightieth year of his age, Elisha AI. Pease, a descendant of the first settler, was born in 181 2. He moved to Texas w-hen a young man, where he practiced law and was later elected Gov ernor of the State. He was Provisional Governor, by appoint- m;ent of General Sheridan, in 1867. Of the Thompson family, Orrin Thompson w-as the most promi nent in the affairs of Enfield, and may be regarded as the father of Enfield's manufacturing interests. Although he was born in Suffield, on March 28, 1788, li'is family moved to Enfield while Orrin was still a boy of twelve years. He attended the \\'est- field, Alassachusetts, Academy and in 1805, went to Hartford and was apprenticed to a store-keeper, where he obtained a thorough business training. At the age of twenty-one he went to Jewett City, Connecticut, as a clerk in a manufacturing concern. In 1812, he was in that portion of the army that was stationed at Stonington, when a British attack was expected. At the age of twenty-six, in 1814, Air. Thompson returned to Enfield and opened a store, which he conducted with success. The possi bilities of a store being somewhat limited. Air, Thompson went to .\'ew A^ork and entered the firm of Da-^id Andrews and Com pan)-, The firm sold carpets. This business suggested the idea of manufacturing carpets, so Air. Thompson organized the fa mous Thompsonville (.^arjict Alanufacturing Company, in 1828, am' later reorganized it as the Hartford Carpet Company. His wife was Miss Love Lusk, of Enfield, whom he married in 1815. SPRINGFIELD. THE mother settlement of the Valley of the Connecticut in Alassachusetts is Springfield and the father of Spring field was William Pynchon, a man of gentle-birth and refinement, who was a landed proprietor in Essex, England. Besides being one of the patentees of the charter of the Alassa chusetts Colony, he was appointed a magistrate and assistant, when the Governor and other officers of the Colony were ap pointed in England, in 1629. He was one of Governor Win throp's party which settled in Roxbury in 1630. After five years spent in Roxbury an uneasiness possessed the people of that settlement and so a petition was presented to the General Court for permission to go elsewhere. On Alay 6, 1635, the Court granted the petition, with reluctance, to the inhabitants of the several towns which were interested in the proposed exodus. William Pynchon and his followers receiving permission to go where they liked, if their like did not take them out of the jurisdiction of Alassachusetts, and did not encroach upon, or in terfere with any other plantation, chose the Connecticut River. In the summer of 1635, Pynchon sent two men to the Connecti cut River, at the place called Agawam by the Indians, to build a house so that when the other settlers arrived, a place of shelter would be ready for them. These men were John Cable and John Woodcock, It is probable, however, that Pynchon and his son- in-law Henry Smith, and Jehu Burr visited the Connecticut Val ley, in 1634, to explore and select a site for a settlement and that Agawam was their choice. If this is fact, it shows that Pynchon had made the long journey through the forest the year previous to the permission granted by the General Court for the exodus. Cable and Woodcock built a house on the south bank of the Agawam and the west of the Connecticut River. The cost of this house, the first built in Massachusetts in the Con necticut Valley, was £6 and the expense was borne by the pro spective settlers. These two men lived in the house they had built during the summer of 1635. There is nothing to show [283] 284 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. whether thev remained there through the following winter or if they returned to Roxbury in the autumn of 1635. This first house was the cause of the first law-suit for damages in Massa chusetts west of old Aliddlesex County, and Woodcock was the plaintiff while his fellow pioneer and house-builder, Cable, was the defendant. This historic trial took place on November 14, 1639, before William Pynchon. On April 26, 1636, the possessions of the settlers were sent by water in the ship belonging to Governor Winthrop called " Bless- ing-of-the-Bay " and the settlers started — exactly when is not known — sometime just before or after April 26, for their fu ture home on the Connecticut River. That they arrived before Alay 14, 1636, is certain. On that date \\'illiam Pynchon and his company met and adopted rules relative to town government and the division of the land. These rules were signed by William Pynchon, Matthew Alitchell, Henry Smith, Jehu Burr, William Blake, Edmond Wood, Thomas Ufford, and John Cable. Al though but eight persons signed the rules there were twelve heads of families in the company, the four others being Thomas Woodford, John Reader, Samuel Butterfield, and James Wood. It is an odd fact that not one of the first settlers of Springfield died there. They either moved to other settlements in the valley, returned to England, or were totally lost sight of. The settlers were welcomed by the Indians, who were disposed to be on friendly terms with the English. The Indians told the settlers that the place where Cable and \A'oodcock had built the house was not a favorable site for the settlement, as it was fre quently flooded by the river in times of high water. Because of this information the west bank of the river was abandoned for the settlement and a site was chosen upon the east bank, where now is the city of Springfield. The settlement was called Aga wam till l<^o, wdien the name was changed to Springfield. The settlers desired to have at least forty families in the settlement and in the rules signed by the eight men, the)- agreed that it should not contain more than fifty families. The first Indian deed bears the date of July 15, 1630, and was made to Pynchon, Smith and Burr. The houses of the little settlement were all built before the cold weather of 1636 had set in, and although they were made of logs with straw-thatched roofs, they were SPRINGFIELD. 285 homes, warm and comfortable in a homely way. Although very different from the comfort and luxury to which the majority of the settlers had been accustomed, in old England, they were en tirely satisfactory in New England, to these men and women who had come here to devote themselves to the serious and nobler things of this life, that they might be better prepared to enter the Life that never ends. ^^'illiam Pynchon was an extraordinary man. Wise, broad- minded, just and generous as he was, his own fellow pioneer Christians in Boston failed to see it and appreciate him, so they robbed all New England of a man whose life and influence would have been felt to its utmost limits, could he have remained in the Colonies. It was the narrow bigotry of the Government and Church of Boston ; a bigotry that was more intense than was the bigotry in England which they had crossed the ocean to be rid of ; that drove Pynchon back to England. In 1637, the settlers organized the first Church of Springfield and settled the Rev. George Moxon as its minister, and the first meeting-house was finished in 1646. In 1636, William Pynchon was reelected as an Assistant of the Colony and while he did not attend the May Court of Elections, he was present in Sep tember and took the oath of office as a magistrate. Roger Lud low, who had been a Deputy Governor and a magistrate of Mas sachusetts, and was one of the prominent men in Windsor, was commissioned by the General Court, with William Pynchon and others, to govern the new settlement, in 1636. Ludlow's com mission was for one year and was renewed in 1637. In 1637, Alassachusetts ceased to have jurisdiction over the adjoining towns south of Springfield in Connecticut, and Springfield re mained with the Connecticut towns till 1639, William Pynchon actually attending the General Court in Hartford as a magis trate. As has been shown in the chapters on Enfield and Suf field, Connecticut, Pynchon believed that he and his settlement were within the jurisdiction of the Connecticut Colony. Early in the year 1639, Springfield was found to be within the juris diction of Massachusetts when its union with the Connecticut towns ceased. This left Springfield without a town government or any one to administer justice, as the General Court of Massa chusetts had sent no instructions, so the inhabitants drew up a 286 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. form of government and elected William Pynchon as their magis trate. This was to continue only till the General Court should send instructions. When word was received from the Court, the action of the inhabitants was approved and Pynchon was con firmed in his office. Pynchon was chosen an Assistant of the Colony from 1643, to 1649, inclusive. In 1652, Springfield sustained a great loss in the return to England of William Pynchon, Henry Smith, his son-in-law ; and the minister, the Rev. George Aloxon. This calamity was due to OLD DAY HOUSE, WEST SPRINGFIELD. a book written by Pynchon, the title of which was, " The Aler- itorious .Price of Alan's Redemption," It was published in Eng land, and contained ideas so liberal and opinions so dift'erent from those of the Puritans — which, being their ideas and opinions, were of necessity orthodox — that the General Court tried, con demned and executed the book b)- public!)- burning it in the mar ket-place in Hoston, The holy org)- that those narrow, misguided, well-meaning orthodox men of I'.oston had at the burning must have been a sight worth going many miles to witness. In look ing back to that event one can imagine how their infinitesimal SPRINGFIELD. 287 humanity must have shriveled to even smaller proportions as the frigid blood — warmed to somewhere near temperate heat by their religious ardor — became a degree or two warmer while forcing its way through their dessicated hearts, stimulated to this unusually rapid flowing by the religious exhilaration caused by the knowledge that they were establishing their own tiny opin ions more firmly. This was doubtless called, serving God. The General Court su.spended William Pynchon from the magistracy and so deprived not Springfied, nor the Colony of Massachusetts, but all New England, of a man whose love of God and man was so great, that there were not enough men in the town where his book was burned to surround that love. The Court appointed Henry Smith in 1651, to act as magis trate for Springfield for one year, or till further orders were re ceived. Pynchon and his son-in-law, Henry Smith, returned to England in 1652 and never again were in New England. It is probable, however, that Smith expected to return, as he left his wife and two daughters in Springfield. Three or four years later Airs. Smith joined her husband in' England but their daughters remained and married men in Hartford. The cause for the re turn of the Rev. George Moxon to England was not known. Some authorities think it was due to the fact, that he was a believer in Pynchon's advanced ideas ; others, that it was due to witch craft. The first case of witchcraft recorded in New England was in Springfield. The persons suspected, accused and tried for prac ticing the arts of Satan, were Hugh Parsons and his wife. Mr. Moxon's daughters, Martha and Rebekah, were attacked by an illness which was attributed to witchcraft. Mrs. Parsons was aifficted by occasional attacks of insanity and her neighbors at tributed her condition to a social intimacy with the devil. It hardly seems possible, that men and women who were capable of sacrificing so much for a principle as they, could have been so densely ignorant and superstitious, but they were. While in one of her fits of insanity, in March, 165 1, Mrs. Parsons killed her infant. This, of course, was taken as conclusive evidence that she was a witch. The poor demented creature confessed, that both she and her husband were witches, indeed, she rather boasted of it. She was taken to Boston and although she was so seriously 288 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. ill that it was feared she would die in prison before the orgies could begin, she was brought into court and tried, first: on a charge of bewitching the Moxon girls and then on the charge of killing her infant. Mrs. Parsons pleaded " not guilty " to the first charge and was acquitted; to the second she pleaded "guilty" and was condemned to be put to death immediately, but she was reprieved and as no further mention of the case is found in the records, she probably died. In the following year her husband was tried for witchcraft. The jury found him guilty, but the magistrates did not concur so the case was taken to the General Court, when the verdict was set aside and he was discharged. William Pynchon's characteristics were strong and his son in herited them, so, while Springfield sustained a great loss in the removal of the father, it still had his son, John Pynchon, who was an honorable son of an honored and loved father. John Pynchon, Elizur Holyoke and Deacon Samuel Chapin were ap pointed by the General Court as commissioners, who should act as magistrates of Springfield. In 1658, the Court united them with the commissioners of Northampton and ordered that they hold court in each town annually. On Alay 7, 1662, Hampshire County was organized, as an original county, not from portions of other counties. It covered a great territory including the present Counties of Berkshire, Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin and the towns in the western portion of Worcester County. In 1730, Worcester County was organized and Hampshire was reduced to the extent of the ter ritory included in those towns. In 1761, Berkshire County was organized; in 1811, Franklin County was set off, and in 1812, Hampden County was also set off from old Hampshire County. When Hampshire County was organized in 1662, it contained but the three towns of Springfield, Northampton and Hadley. A settled successor to the Rev. George Aloxon was not obtained till 1661, when the son of the Hon, John Glover, of Dorchester, the Rev, Pealtiah Glover, became the minister of the Springfield Church. There had been preaching, however, by the Revs. Messrs, Horsford, Thompson and Hooker, for a few years, and in the years between 1652, and 1661, when they had no preach ing, one or another of the principal men in the Church led the service. Air, Glover was a man of cultivation who attracted and SPRINGFIELD. 289 retained the affection and respect of his parishioners. His pas torate ended with his death, in 1692, after thirty-one years of faithful service. In the general trouble with the Indians in 1675, which is known as King Philip's War, Springfield suffered greatly. The Spring field Indians, as they were called, had a permanent village and fort on an elevation known as Long Hill. They had lived peace fully as neighbors of the English for so many years, that the set tlers had no fear of them, nor did they suspect them of treachery. Possibly they would never have proved treacherous had their killing, scalping and burning instincts not been aroused by the advent of Philip's War. On the night of October 3, and 4, 270 of Philip's warriors — according to the statement of a squaw — were quietly admitted to the Indian fort at Long Hill, by the Springfield Indians. The proposed destruction of Springfield was known by Toto, an In dian who lived in the Walcott family, in Windsor, Connecticut, and he after much persuasion told all he knew about it. A messenger was immediately sent to Springfield from Windsor to warn the inhabitants. The people of Springfield fled to the home of Air. Pynchon, which was fortified and strongly built of brick and stone, and to other fortified homes. No signs of any trouble from Indians were seen on October 4, the Springfield Indians going about as usual showing no evidence of excitement or enmity. This reassured the people, many of them returning to their homes. Air. Glover, the minister, returned his books and other particular valuables to his home from the Pynchon house, where he had taken them. On the morning of October 5, it was determined to make an investigation. This dangerous work was undertaken by Lieutenant Thomas Cooper and Thomas Miller, both considerably past middle age. While approaching the fort they were fired upon and killed, but Lieutenant Cooper's great strength and vitality enabled him to retain his seat upon his horse till he reached one of the fortified houses, when he fell dead. The Indians immediately began their attack. Three men and one woman were killed and many were wounded, one so ser iously that he died later. The Indians burnt thirty-three houses and twenty-five barns, leaving but fifteen houses standing in the settlement, on the east side of the river. The Indians retreated 19 290 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. before they had carried out their plans to the fullest extent. The old church escaped, but the jail and all the mills, besides the houses and barns, were destroyed. Many of the homeless ones contemplated going elsewhere, but the wiser ones, thinking that such a move would have a bad moral effect upon fhe neighbor ing settlements, and might cause many of them to be abandoned, overruled the timid ones. As there were plenty of provisions for all, they decided to remain. At the time of the attack. Major Pynchon and Captain Appleton were in Hadley, whence they hurriedly returned as soon as word of the attack was received by them. The following -winter, that of 1675 and '76, was mild and the people were well supplied with provisions, but they were in constant danger from Indians and considerable property was destroyed by them. At Longmeadow, no one attended church during the entire winter and a part of the spring. They decided to resume their attendance at worship on the last Sunday of March. On that day, at the brook called Pecowsic, they were fired upon and John Keep, one of the selectmen, his wife and their infant were killed and several were wounded. In the sum mer, two or three other murders were committed by Indians in different parts of the town. After the death of Captain Turner, in the Falls fight, which occurred at what is now Turner's Falls, on May 19, 1676, the command of the English forces devolved upon Captain Samuel Holyoke, of Springfield, who personally reduced the number of the enemy by six, in the Falls fight. The Pynchon mansion, to which many of the inhabitants fled on the night of October 3 and 4, was known as the Old Fort for generations till it was torn down in 1831. This house was the most substantial and expensive of its day, in western Alassa chusetts. It covered a ground space of forty-two feet on the front and was twenty-one feet deep. It was built of brick made by Francis Ilacklinton, of Northampton (not of brick imported from England or Holland as many persons used to sav it was), 50,000 in all, in the year 1659. The foundations were of the red stone that has been common about Springfield and the neighbor ing towns, ever since the first settlements were made. Thomas P.ascom and his son, of Windsor, were employed to get out these stone for the foundations, and to lay the kitchen floor, probably of stone, and the hearths for the fireplaces. Major SPRINGFIELD. 291 Pynchon allowed the Bascoms seven shillings and sixpence for going to Springfield and returning to Windsor, and paid £17/15 for their work. Nearly all the other work was done by Edward Griswold, also of Windsor. He received for laying the stone and brick, £40. The timber, from wdiich the huge frame and the boards were made, was cut on Major Pynchon's property. Corporal Rowland Thomas, one of the wood-choppers, was the man for whom Alount Tom was named. He was a " chummy " sort of man well liked by his neighbors and was familiarly called by them Corporal Tom. Samuel Buell and Timothy Teawle, two other men of Windsor, did the hewing of the trees after tbey were felled, and the sawing was done in the Major's own mill. The shingles cost something more than a pound by the thousand. They were made by Thomas Miller and John Matthews, and were eighteen inches long and an inch thick at the base. The shingling was done by Samuel Grant, still another man of Windsor. On the ground floor in the middle of the house was the hall from the front to the rear. On either side were two large rooms 'and a small room without windows, that was used as a store room. The kitchen, pantry and a bedroom were in a wooden building at the rear, which was probably the house built by Wil liam Pynchon. This building at the rear was about twenty-five feet square and one and a half stories high. On the upper floor of the brick house were two very large bedrooms, that were separated by a hall similar to the main hall on the ground floor. The walls of the lower story were two feet or more thick and of the second, a little more than a foot thick, so it is easily under stood that the house was an impregnable fort against any weapons of offence possessed by Indians. The brick of which the house was built were small, about two- thirds the ordinary size. The severe plainness of the brick walls was broken by a rounded projection of red sandstone, running about three sides of the house, and two feet from the ground. This is what architects call a water-table. The chimneys were at either end of the house, thus giving a fireplace in each of the four rooms. The roof was as high as the main body of the house, that is, the line of the eaves was half the height of the house from the ground to the ridge-pole. It was, in fact, similar 292 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. to the high, pitched roofs of the Dutch in the Mohawk Valley. This steepness of the roof — of the old Dutch houses as well as of iMajor Pynchon's — was doubtless for protection from fire in case of an attack by Indians. It was so steep, that an arrow with a flaming torch of birchbark would not remain on the roof, but would slide to the ground. As originally built, the house had a projection, or inclosed porch in front, two stories and a half high. It hardly seems possible that descendants of those "best of men '' could have been guilty of tearing down the historic home of their ancestors, in 183 1, but such is said to be a fact. Springfield must have been in a state of coma when it was done, otherwise the people of Springfield would have rescued it from the hands of over-practical persons as the people of Boston saved the Old Soutli Church, when it was proposed to tear it down thirty years ago. After the destruction of the jail, or prison, when Springfield was burned by Indians in 1675, there was no place in the county for the confinement of prisoners and it must be remembered that till 1730, Hampshire County included nearly all of w-estern Alas sachusetts. On January 10, 1677, the County Court, in session at Northampton, ordered a new prison and house of correction to be built in Springfield, at an expense as near £50 as was pos sible and not more than £55. Alajor Pynchon selected a site on Aiain street, on the west side, w-here the hotel called the Union Plouse was later built. It was a building of two stories, twentv- five by eighteen feet. One room, with several closets, occupied all of the first floor, and on the second floor were three rooms. The walls and the partitions between the rooms, w-ere of very heavy oak planks, and although such a prison would easily be broken b)- the skilled mechanics who belong to the criminal class of this century, it was then regarded as being entirely satisfac tory and safe. For man)- years this was the only place of con finement in the count)-, for the great variety of off'enders who were declared to be criminals b)- the queer laws of those davs, and it was the place of confinement for the southern part of the comity for 114 )ears, \o deed to the property w-as given bv Samuel Ely or b)- Thomas Merrick, from whom it was purchased by Major P)nchon for the count)-, till 1(183, and 1684, respec- SPRINGFIELD. 293 tively. The house for the jail-keeper stood on the same lot with the jail. L^p to 1794, the courts had met alternately in Northampton and Springfield, but in that year they were transferred to Northampton, on account of its central location, so the jail in Springfield was of no further use, as a new jail was built in Northampton. Aloses Bliss, Warham Parks and Sylvester Judd, w^ere appointed by the court as a committee to sell the county's property in Springfield. They sold the property to the jail- keeper, William Colton, for £200. Colton moved the building used for a jail to the rear of the keeper's house and used a part of it as a kitchen. About 1816, the jail property was owned by Flam Stock- bridge, who lived in the house, and when Bliss street was opened the old jail was torn down and the house was moved to a site further west, on the southerly side of Bliss street. The most exciting events in the history of the old jail were the murder of Edward East by his fel low prisoner, William Shaw, in 1770, and the rescue by a mob in 1782, of Samuel Ely, one of the instigators of the series of mobs which culminated in Shays' Rebellion. Springfield had a fire-engine at least a year before the first in dependent volunteer fire company was organized, possibly nior6 than a year, but the first mention of it was in 1793, when money was spent by the parish for repairing it. The fact that it needed repairing, would make it seem that it had been in use for several years previous to i793- The Fire Company was organized on January 17, 1794, prob- MONUMENT OF MILES MORC-\N, ONE OF THE FOREMOST OF THE E.\RLY SETTLERS 294 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. ablv at Parsons' Tavern, with the following members ; Colonel Dwight, Jonathan and Thomas Dwight, George and Luke Bliss, Colonel Williams, Joseph Williams, William and Charles Sheldon, Samuel Lyman, Zebina Stebbins, Chauncey Brewer, William Pynchon, John Hooker, Bezaleel Howard, Zenas Parsons and James I'yers. The company entered into an agreement, that each would do all in his power to save the property of the others from destruction by fire. They were not the only fire-fighters in the town but they were the onl)- organized firemen. As a matter of fact, nearly every man, boy and many of the women, turned out to do their full share in the efforts to save their own or their neighbors' property. The work done by the men was that of passing buckets, from the nearest well or brook along the line to the engine, when the water was emptied into the tank of the engine and then laboriously pumped through the hose onto the fire. The part taken by the women and boys in this opera tion, was the passing back of the empty buckets. The first fire engine had two sets of brakes, so that it was possible for twenty- six men to work them at the same time. The upper set were worked by six men, who stood upon the top of the engine. When they were not needed they could be folded back, where they \vould be out of the way. The first line of hose was but five feet long, just long enough for the nozzle-man to direct the stream, but in 1809, there were thirty-five feet of hose. The old engine was taken on long trips occasionally, and several times it w-as present at fires in Longmeadow. At such times, a horse was used to assist the men up the grades. The engine house was a tiny affair, but little larger than was necessary to hold the engine. It was built on Market street near the corner of State street, on land owned by the parish. As the land was wanted for the Town hall, it was taken down in 1826 and a new engine house was built, on what later became the south-west corner of San ford and Market streets. In 1702, Springfield had a population of but 1,800 so every body knew his neighbors and when an alarm of fire was rung from the church steeple the interest was general, as was the interest in the firemen and the engine. One of the most active, as a member of the company and a worker at fires, was Elijah Blake who joined the company in 1809, and worked at the same position on the upper set of brakes SPRINGFIELD. 295 for ten years. He was elected as the foreman of the company in 1820, and served in that capacity till 1830. In that year the State organized fire districts and created the office of chief engi neer, to which office Mr. Blake was appointed and served in it for many years. George Bliss was his assistant. The English home of the Holyoke family was in Tamworth, Warwickshire, whence came Edward Holyoke to Chelsea, Massa chusetts, — then called Rumney Marsh — some time in the years 1637 or '38, and his son Elizur Holyoke, then about twenty years old. Edward Holyoke was a farmer, who was possessed of some means and more than the average natural abilities. His worth was recognized by his fellow settlers of Chelsea, who elected him to the lower branch of the General Court for several years. Elizur was attracted to Springfield, soon after arriving in New England, where he settled and became, with William and John Pynchon, Henry Smith and Deacon Samuel Chapin, one of the chief men of the new settlement. The Pynchon and Holyoke families had been intimate friends in the old home in England, where Elizur knew and loved Alary Pynchon, William Pynchon's daughter. His regard for her was not greater than hers for him, so the reason for his leaving Chelsea for Springfield is easily guessed, as they were married in 1640. Elizur Holyoke built his house on the lot that was between those of William Pynchon and Henry Smith, who had married Mary Pynchon's older sister, Ann. His home-lot extended from Worth ington to Bridge street and from Main street back to the Connecti cut River. He also owned his proper portion of farm, pasture and woodland outside of the village, on both sides of the river, and as time passed he acquired a large estate, partly by purchase and partly by grant from the Town for valuable services ren dered. Mr. Holyoke's public life began soon after his marriage and while he was still a young man. In those days, when men were estimated for their personal qualities and intelligence and not by the size of their estates or the money they possessed, any office was an honor. Elizur's first public duties were as juryman and often as foreman of that body. When the land on the west side of the Connecticut River was laid out, in 1642, he was one of a committee of six other men to perform that work, and in 296 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 1651, he was appointed to the office of constable, the import ance of which office has been shown in a previous chapter. . After the orthodox members of the General Court had deposed William Pynchon and so caused his return to England, with his son-in-law, Plenry Smith, in 1652, they appointed John Pynchon, Elizur Hol)oke and Deacon Samuel Chapin a commission to act as magistrates for the government of the town, and the trial of all civil and criminal cases. They were also the magistrates of Northampton when that town was settled. In 1665, three years after the organization of Hampshire County, the court was reor ganized with John Pynchon as presiding judge, and with Air. Holyoke one of the four associate judges, and the recorder of the court. Air. Holyoke was Springfield's first representative to the General Court, the previous representatives being men who were living near, or in Boston. In 1653, he, with Pynchon and Chapin, were appointed by the General Court to lay out a new plantation at Nonotuck and the result of their work was the birth of North ampton. It was probably when this survey was being made that Mount Holyoke was given his name. In 1670, Air. Holyoke, with Thomas Cooper, George Colton, Benjamin Cooley, and Rowland Thomas, surveyed and laid out Suffield in Connecticut, which at that time was believed to be in Alassachusetts. His military career began in 1653, wdien he was appointed by the General Court as ensign of the militia; in 1657. he was pro moted to the office of lieutenant and in 1669, he was a captain, and he was still in that office when Springfield was burnt in King Philip's War, his house being one of the fifteen that was not destroyed by the Indians. In the years wdien Springfield was without a settled minister — 1652 to 1659 — he frequently offi ciated as leader of the Sunday worship. In 1658, Airs. Holyoke died and, as was the custom in those days, he soon married again. Plis second wife was Editha Steb bins, the widow of Robert Day, and later of John Mavnard. In 1676, Captain Holyoke died. He was survived by his second wife and the four sons and two daughters of his first marriage. C)f these four sons, John, Samuel — who was a captain in the Falls fight of 1676— and Edward, died without having married. The youngest, Elizur, moved to Boston and married. One of his sons became president of Plarvard College. SPRINGFIELD. 297 A man who was a little less prominent in the early history of Springffeld than were the Pynchons, the Holyokes, Smith and Chapin, was Miles Alorgan. But a lack of prominence does not mean an indifference to the welfare of the settlement, or a lack of energy, effort, and deeds in its behalf. The unknown man often makes as much history as the man whose name is fre quently spoken. The unknown man is often as much a doer of great things ; of benevolent acts ; a reliever of distress ; a giver of encouragement to the disheartened and sympathy to the afflicted ; and as much a man of courage as is the man whom chance, or demonstrative characteristics, have made prominent. Allies, John and James Alorgan arrived in Boston in April, 1636, on a ship which sailed from the port of Bristol, in the west of England. James settled in Connecticut and was the first Connecticut ancestor of a great number of persons bearing that name. John settled in Virginia, and Miles went to Spring field about 1643, seven years after the settlement by William Pynchon and his company of pioneers. His name is first men tioned in the records in March, 1645, when the birth of his first child. Alary, is recorded. On the ship in which he sailed was Prudence Gilbert, who, with her family settled in Beverly, Massachusetts. The long journey across the ocean provided the opportunity for the young persons to become well acquainted and finally to " fall in love ". There is a tradition in the family, that Miles made the journey from Springfield to Beverly for the purpose of making Prudence his wife. He had proposed marriage to her by letter and she had accepted the proposal in the same manner, when Miles, with two of his friends and an Indian for guide, set out with a pack- horse through the forest to Beverly. After the wedding the pack- horse was loaded with the bride's effects and she, her husband, the two friends and the Indian began the return journey on foot, the distance being 120 miles. It was of such girls, healthy and vigorous in mind, body and spirit, that New England mothers were made and from whom were descended the heroic men and women of the Indian wars, the Revolution, and Civil War. Allies Alorgan's home-lot was south of Cypress street, then Ferry lane, on the west side of Alain street. After the birth of their first child, Jonathan, David, Pelatiah, Isaac, Lydia, Hannah 298 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. and Alercy were born with an interval of two years between births. Mrs. Alorgan died in February, 1660, and nine years later Miles married Elizabeth Bliss, on February 15, 1669. In the mean time. Allies Morgan had become Sergeant Alorgan of the militia. His first public service was in 1645, when he served with George Colton as a committee to secure a blacksmith for the town. In 1660, he was chairman of the Board of Selectmen, and in '62 was one of the committee to arrange with Elizur Holyoke for the management of the town gristmill. Aides Alorgan and Elizur Holyoke did the greater part of the carrying for Pynchon, by boat on the river down to Hartford, and by cart to settlements back from the river. In the Indian attack which resulted in the burning of Spring field, Sergeant Morgan fought with courage and gave repeated evidence of his bravery. THE BRECK CONTROVERSY. Reference has been made frequently to the fact, that as a whole, the New England orthodox Christians were " God fearing people," but there were some notable public exceptions to this general condition of holy-fear and, no doubt, thousands of pri vate exceptions. By public exceptions it is meant that the."e were ministers of the early Congregational Church who — no doubt were inspired by personal experience of it — preached God's Love instead of His wrath. One of these public exceptions was the Rev. Robert Breck who committed a sin against orthodoxy — re garded as being but little lower than a sin against Jehovah — by saying in a sermon preached in New London : What will become of the heathen who never heard of the Gospel I do not pretend to say, but I cannot but indulge the hope that God, in His boundless benevolence, will find out a way whereby those heathen, who act up to the light they have, may be saved. What could possibl)- be more sinful, than for a man, a minister, a Congregational minister, to hope that the heathen — who did not "own a covenant" and had never heard of the Puritans — would be saved ! It may seem like a significant fact, that when Timothy and Jonathan Edwards died, they were buried and no one has ever heard that they walked the earth after death and SPRINGFIELD. 299 burial. When Solomon Stoddard, Robert Breck and the few other " pubhc exceptions " died, they too were buried but their great, loving spirits — which caused them to hope God would save and not damn " those heathen, who act up to the light they have " — penetrated every nook and corner of New England until to-day every minister and member of the Congregational Church not only hopes that God will save the just heathen, but believes that He' will. This horrible sin against orthodoxy soon was known all over New England. The fleetest and most loquacious busybody of the settlement was slow and dumb in comparison with the minis terial news-mongers, whose infinitesimal souls actually glowed with a brilliancy as great as the fire-fly's (in holy anticipation of the ecclesiastical orgy about to begin) as they tattled or scrib bled the news, that this stripling of twenty-two had actually dared to believe that God is what He says He is, instead of the jealous, revengeful Spirit of Wrath they in their pulpits declared Him to be. The advance of civilization and of education had deprived them of the gentle joy of burning a neighbor's wife at the stake as a witch, but the gladsome occupation of proving a great-hearted, God-and-man-loving Christian to be un-orthodox was still theirs. So the Rev. Robert Breck was tried. The news of Robert Breck's sin was sent to Springfield by the Rev. Mr. Williams, of Mans field, Connecticut, in a letter in which he mentioned, that the Rev. Mr. Clap and the Rev. Mr. Kirtland were willing to testify to Mr. Breck's unfitness for the ministry. They even dug back into Mr. Breck's short life and found, that when a child of thir teen — while he was a student in Harvard — he had stolen some books and also that he had called the Rev. Mr. Clap a liar. So long as Air. Breck was orthodox, these childish sins were over looked and probably never would have been mentioned. As soon as Mr. Breck had transgressed the laws of orthodoxy, they resur rected his childish transgressions of the laws of God. The story of the " Breck Contro-versy " is little known. It possesses great historical value because it shows that the early Congregationahsts were not so different from the Church of Eng land. If Episcopalians sometimes forgot the founder of Chris tianity, in their anxiety to observe the proper form and to wear 300 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. CH.M'IN MONUMENT, SPRI Xl^FIELll. Deacon Samuel Chapin was one of the " mighties " of Springfield in 1675, SPRINGFIELD. 301 the correct vestments, Congregationalists also, sometimes, for got Him in their anxiety to maintain their man-made dogmas. When the Rev. Robert Breck came to Springfield, in 1734, he was regarded with suspicion by the clergy. In August of that year he was called by the Springfield Church, and two months later the objections to his settlement were presented to the Hamp shire Association at Suffield. As Air. Breck's terms were not satisfactory to the Church the matter was dropped. It was taken up again, in November, when it was known that certain persons of prominence had obstructed his settlement. The Church asked for the advice of the ministers of the county. It found that six of the thirteen ministers were opposed to again calling him. The advice was not heeded and so Air. Breck returned to Springfield. In April, 1735, the Church formally requested the Association to state its objections to Air. Breck and to suggest a remedy. In reply, the Association recommended that the matter should be re ferred to the Association of Windham, Connecticut, or to a com mittee of Hampshire ministers. The Church rejected the recom mendations, as it did not care to migrate to settle the matter, nor was it wilHng to leave it to the Hampshire ministers as one cf them, the Rev. Dr. Stephen Williams, of Longmeadow, was known to be prejudiced against Air. Breck. From all this, and from what followed, it is plain to be seen that the people of Springfield liked Air. Breck and believed in his Christianity, and that Air. Breck's fellow ministers feared his catholicity. The Church was willing to submit the case to the Hampshire ministers if Air. Williams would withdraw froni the committee, but he refused, and the Association supported him. Thus far, the Church had asked advice only from the Association. The Church had a right to call a council to try Mr. Breck with a view to his ordination. The Rev. Jonathan Edwards — the in ventor of that unique pavement — claimed that the Association was the only proper judge in the matter, but his claim was seem ingly not on Congregational authority. In the hope of improv ing the conditions. Air. Breck asked that ministers from out of the county might sit with the Association to try the case. Alany members of the Association objected to this request, but the moderator, the Rev. William Williams, of Hatfield, did not object openly. Air. Williams was something of a politician. He made 302 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. the people of the Springfield Church believe that he favored Air. Breck's request in regard to ministers from out the country, and at the same time, he was secretly doing all he could to: prevent it. A joint letter was written to the Church by Air. Williams, Samuel Hopkins, Jonathan Edwards, and N. Bull, dated Au gust 14, evidently in Air. Edwards' handwriting, in which they say: We account it preposterou.i for the Church of Springfield to call him or for him to accept a call to the ministry, till the matter objected to against him has been duly inquired into. * * * We hardly think any number of ministers will be found to serve the scheme of Springfield and Mr. Breck. In commenting upon this joint letter. Air. John A. Green says, in his paper on the controversy : The right of Mr. Edwards to stigmatize a regular council to try a minister on definite charges, a " scheme " must be doubted, as must also be his Congregationalism, when a few days before he had said the Asso ciation was the only proper judge of the case. According to history, a Congregational Church has exclusive control of its own affairs, and the association is an organization of ministers — not of Churches — for mutual benefit, having the privilege of fellowship, giving of advice and other things of that nature, October 8 was fixed upon for the ordination of Air. Breck. The Rev. Alessrs. Cooper, Welsteed, and Alather, of Boston, and Cook, of Sudbury, made the journey from Boston through the woods to be present at the ordination. They were coldly and somewhat discourteously received by the Hampshire ministers. The council consisted of the Rev, Alessrs. Chauncey, of Hadley ; Devotion, of Suffield ; Rand, of Sunderland ; Cooper, Welsteed and Mather, of Boston ; and Cook, of Sudbury. Thev met in the morning of October 7, in the parsonage, w-ith closed doors. The dissatisfied brethren of the Sjjringfield Church presented their charges, but they refused to give proofs of the charges, on the ground that the council was illegal. The hostile ministers brought with them some Xorthampton justices. They were visited at the t;ivern, where they stopped, by the dissatisfied mem bers of the Springfield Church and, as a result, many rumors were heard. SPRINGFIELD. 303 When the Council met, the following morning, it demanded proofs of the charges, but they were again refused, and the in formation was volunteered that the Rev. Messrs. Clap and Kirt land, of Connecticut, Mr. Breck's chief accusers, were in the village. A verbal and written discussion followed, between the Council and Alessrs. Clap and Kirtland, and finally they gave a written statement to the Council. Mr. Clap — afterward Presi dent of Yale — read the charges and when Mr. Breck started to answer them, he was not permitted to do so. " This secret chamber trial ", says Green the historian, " was indeed a memorable scene — seven wigged judges, two accusing wigs from another Colony, and the broad-shouldered, high-bred, generous-hearted boy minister, whose large inspirations had charmed a village congregation and given a shock to the Con necticut River Calvinism ". A whispered conversation was held between Air. Clap and a messenger from outside, and soon after an officer appeared and arrested Mr. Breck. When he was taken through the streets to the Townhouse, the people became greatly excited and threatened violence. It was prevented by the advice of the council. At the Townhouse, were Justices Stoddard, Dwight and Pumroy. Mr. Breck's enemies at first intended to arrest the Boston ministers, who were members of the council, but it was not done. The re moval of Mr. Breck to the Townhouse had taken the trial away from the ordaining council and placed it in the hands of the justices. The Council objected to this on the ground, that the prisoner was not being tried upon another charge, but upon the same for which they were trying him. Mr. Breck was confined till the evening, when he was released upon the assurance of mem bers of the council that he would be in attendance when wanted. In the afternoon of October 9, Mr. Breck's confession of faith was read to a crowd in front of the parsonage. It was accepted as an honest statement of belief and caused the outrage practiced upon the Church to be more keenly appreciated. At the Townhouse, the dissatisfied members had won and the justices signed the warrant for the removal of Mr. Breck to New London. When he was brought from the Townhouse in charge of a constable, the people were greatly excited. They accom panied Air. Breck through the village and for a considerable dis- 304 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. tance on the road to New London. The people not connected with the Church came out strongly for Air. Breck, whose broad Christianity and moral courage excited their admiration and respect. "Again the council was called upon to check this popular in dignation ", says Air. Green, "and the following morning, Octo ber lo, the Church undertook a private conference of prayer, but finally the doors of the meeting-house were thrown open, and a characteristic scene — a public meeting of humiliation before God — followed. This was Friday — a ' Black Friday ' of the olden time, caused by an attempted ' corner ' on Calvinism — and we have the simple chronicle that it was a ' large and weeping assembly ', which listened to ' a seasonable discourse '. The next morning — for in those days through prayer or something or other, people had a way of bringing things to pass — Air. Breck returned from New London acquitted, and there were great felicitations among the people. The council, still in session, an nounced Air. Breck to be orthodox, but the ordination was post poned. The case came up before the Legislature, which voted that the council was a regular one; although the justices had a right by law to inquire into the extraordinary facts charged against Air. Breck, yet they ought not, by any means, to have in terrupted that church and ecclesiastical council while it was, in the exercise of its rights, inquiring into the same." "Another and successful attempt at ordination occurred in January, 1736, the Rev. Air. Cooper delivering the sermon. In April, Air. Breck crowned his success by leading to the altar the daughter of his predecessor, and his strong and simple ways, his rugged manner of putting the essentials of religion and forget ting the rest, soon disarmed his enemies, although they were slow in )-ielding. A month later, they (his enemies) petitioned the justices to compel the (.liurch to settle an orthodox minister. '¦¦ '' * but the matter was never pressed. Air. Breck grew in strength, and during the fort) -nine years of good preaching the Church grt'w with him, and he now- lies with his congregation in the Springfield cemcter)', having made a generous contribution toward liberal Christianit)-, It is a curious fact that the more serious charges of stealing books and prevarication were left in the background, the ministers claiming that their printed account- SPRINGFIELD. 305 old mile post on armory hill, SPRINGFIELD, MASS. 20 3o6 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. of it, as given by Air. Clap, was 'without one reflection on that particular ; we never made it an article against him ', which indi cates how theological speculation may be carried on at the ex pense of morals ". The fur-trade in the Connecticut A'alley was the chief business and farming was the chief occupation of the people in the seven teenth century. It was especially important at Springfield and Northampton which were centres for one of the greatest traders of the Connecticut Valley, John Pynchon, of Springfield. In Alassachusetts the fur-trade with the Indians was regulated and controlled b)- the General Court which, in some years, imposed a small tax upon each pelt bought by the traders from the Indians, and in other )-ears, licenses to trade for furs with the Indians were issued for which an annual pa)ment w-as made. John Pynchon paid to the Colony £20 for the trade at Spring field and Northampton while in other parts of Alassachusetts £2, £5, £8 were the annual payments demanded. The difference probably shows the much larger amount of business done by John Pynchon. The chief sources of fur in New- England were the Connecticut and Alerrimack Rivers and the smaller rivers and streams flowing in to them. Pynchon controlled the trade with the Indians and often sold the privilege to others. He also sold to the white traders the goods and wampum required for trading with the Indians. The chief of these traders under Pynchon were : Thomas Cooper, of Springfield ; Joseph Parsons and David W'iltou, of Northampton ; and Dr. John Westcarr, of Hadley. The most valuable of all pelts w-ere those of the beaver, which were nearly all obtained from the Indians, w-ho probablv trapped them in the northern waters of the Connecticut and Alerrimack Rivers. Moose were plentiful, deer were numerous and bears and wolves were not at all rare. The deer, bear and wolf skins were usuall)' kept for domestic use, as were some of the moose, and the other varieties were sent abroad, usually to London. The prices paid for good beaver skins by the traders were, ci.ght, ten, and eleven shillings a pound, according to the quality; for wullaneags, three to four shillings; for moose skins, from nine pence to one shilling a pound. ( ")tter skins brought from eight to ten shillings each; musquashes (muskrats), from four SPRINGFIELD. 307 to eight pence each. The prices were not Sterling, but were based upon the price of wheat per bushel in Springfield. Some idea of the importance of the fur-trade may be had from Pynchon's record of his first six years, from 1652 to 1657, inclusive, showing the number and kinds of pelts and the price they brought in London. Beaver skins, 9434, weighing, 13802 pounds. Otter skins, 320. Aluskrat skins, 148. Aloose skins, 11. Alink skins, 2. Beaver bags, 571. The total value in round numbers was $27,000. The beaver bags contained castor. WESTFIELD. THE Indian name for the territory covered by the City of Westfield was Warronoco, Woronoco, or Woronoak, ac cording to different earl)- writers, and was in the early davs, before its ]jcrnianent settlement, a part of Springfield. It was incorporated as a town in i66(j, and when the matter of a name was being considered, Streamfield was at first talked of, because of its situation between the two rivers which were later called Westfield River and Little River. As Streamfield was not particularly popular, Westfield was decided upon for two reasons. The first was, that it was almost due west from Boston, the Colonial seat of government, and the other, that it was the west ern-most settlement of the Colony. The exact year of its settlement is not known, but the Rev. Dr. Davis gives the time as being between the years 1658, and 1660. In 1658, the Town of Springfield granted to Thomas Cooper a tract of land in Woronoco, on condition that he begin his improvements within a year from the date of the grant, and that he should keep the place up for a period of five years. In 1660, Springfield granted land to Deacon Samuel Chapin un der the same conditions, and in 1661, another grant was made to Captain P)'nchon, Robert Ashley and George Colton, their grant l)'ing on the upland meadows. So the settlers of \\'estfield w-ere families from Springfield. But more than twenty years before this, there were individuals at Woronoco for the jmrpose of trading and hunting fur-bearing animals which were plentiful there. The Colonial records show, that in 1641, certain persons from Connecticut had wrongfully set up a trading-house at " ^^'orollock ". In 1047. the same records show that the General Court had designated Woronoco as a part of Springfield and also that all trading houses estab lished in Woronoco shall contribute to the public charges. This shows conclusive!)- that there were traders and hunters in West- field nearly tweiit)- years before the first permanent settlement. On February 7, 1664, the Town of Springfield appointed Alajor Holyoke, Captain Pynchon, George Colton, and two men named [308] JVESTFIELD. 309 Ely and Cooley, a standing committee to have charge of public matters in Woronoco, including grants of land and the admis sion of new inhabitants. As has been said, the land was granted on condition that im provements were begun within a year and that they were con tinued for five years. At the expiration of the five years, the grants were confirmed to all whom had lived up to the require ments. When the time came to make this confi*-niation it was found that a nuniber of grantees had forfeited their grants through failure to live up to the requirements. Titles were con firmed to the following: George and Isaac Phelps, Captain Cook, Air. Cornish, Thomas D^wey, J. Noble, David Ashley, John Holyoke, John Ponder, and John Ingersoll. Their land was be tween the two rivers near their junction. This was the first set tled portion of the present city. In 1666, Benjamin Saxton was born, he being the first white child born in Westfield. He lived till 1754, dying at the age of eighty-eight. The first meetings conducted by the Rev. Mr. Holyoke for public worship, were held in 1667. In 1668, Aaron Cook, on behalf of the Town, petitioned the General Court for an additional grant of six square miles of territory. This grant was made on condition, that the people settle a minister within two years. A little later a peti tion for incorporation was presented to the General Court. This petition to the General Court for incorporation was endorsed by a vote of the people of Springfield. It was not unusual for a Town to strongly oppose the cutting off of any of its territory for the formation of a new town, so Springfield's ready compliance with the wishes of the people of Woronoco carried weight with the General Court. On Alay 28, 1669, Westfield was set off and in corporated as a separate town. The town was nine by four and a half miles in area, and sometime later additional territory was added, that included a considerable portion of what is now Rus sell and Alontgomery. Being a frontier town with no settlement between it and the Hudson River on the west and Canada to the north, Westfield was strongly fortified, with a palisade two miles in circuit, and a fort of logs built with a deep cellar, where the women and children could retire while the men were taking care of the Indians. 3IO THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. By 1676, many families had settled on farms — or land which they were making into farms by clearing — so remote from the little hamlet within the palisade, that it was thought best to get the people together for the sake of safety in case of an Indian attack. For this purpose a plan was adopted and approved by the General Court, for bringing the people into a more compact settlement. The plan was, for those who owned lots within the limits of the hamlet, to divide their lots with those who lived on their farms at a distance. In compensation, those in the hamlet received two acres of out-lying land for each acre of land in the hamlet that was given up. In 1674, Samuel Loomis was ap pointed ensign, and in 1676, John Alodesley was appointed lieu tenant in the local military company. It was in this year that such general fear was experienced in the settlements north of Springfield, on account of King Philip's War. The authorities in Boston had ordered the smaller and the out-lying settlements to be abandoned, and the people to go to the larger settlements for mutual protection against Indians. A few of the Tow-ns ob jected strongly to abandoning their homes, especially was this true in Westfield. As soldiers and ammunition could not be spared by the Colony for the defence of the smaller towns, thev were obliged to protect themselves. No organized attack w-as made upon Westfield, but the people were subjected to frequent sneaking raids by individual Indians or bands of three or four. They would lie in wait, watching for a chance to make a dash into the settlement, and in the consequent confusion they would kill, if the opportunity offered, and burn houses and destroy prop erty. The settlers, of course, would not know wdiether there were one or one hundred Indians, so terror and confusion on their part greatly helped the Indians, By the time the alarm had called the men in from the fields, the Indians would have accomplished their purpose and have fled. A )oung man named Dumbleton, from Springfield, was killed just after leaving the mill in Westfield ; two brothers named B.rooks, also of Siiringfield, were killed in Westfield while look ing for signs of iron ore. On the same day, the Cornish home and the Saekett home and barn were burnt with all they con tained and one of the settlers named Granger, was wounded by a bullet from an Indian's musket. On Sunday morning wdiile JVESTFIELD. 3" the people were in Church, Indians burnt Ambrose Fowler's house and barn and in the following week, Walter Lee's barn was burnt. Two men returning from working in the fields at Pochassic had narrow escapes from Indians ; one through his quick wit and the other through his quick sight. The first was Air. Phelps who, when he arrived at the ford of the Westfield River, saw three Indians and that they saw him. Mr. Phelps made it appear that that he was hunting for them and, clao- SITE OF RICHARD FALLEY'S ARMORY, AT THE FOOT OF MT, TEKOA, The lower wall is tlie armory; the upper is the dam forming the pond from which the power was obtained. ping his hands, shouted to an imaginary force in the brush to come on and capture them. The other was Noah Ashley. Meet ing an Indian near the Bancroft place, he leveled his gun at the same time the Indian did, but Air. Ashley fired first. The In dian was followed for some considerable distance by his blood and then the trail was suddenly lost. A daughter of Mr. Sackett's second wife was captured by Indians from New York and was taken to the western part of that state. She married one of the braves and became one of the tribe. It is, of course, utterly 312 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. impossible to begin to imagine the strain all this was upon the men, or the agony of mind it was to the women. Battle was bad enough, but each man had a chance in a fight. In battle, death was expected and should a husband or son be brought home dead, the wife or mother knew that he gave a good account of himself before being laid low and that the precious life was given for the safety of the community. But this other fiendish work of the Indians in sneaking up behind a man while he was at work and murdering him, was heart-breaking and the women were kept on the rack all day, never knowing till the men re turned from the field at night whether another loved one had been murdered. It was the suspense that was so hard to bear. The men, but especially the women, of Westfield deserve a monument to their splendid moral courage in refusing to abandon their homes when the General Court had ordered it. So many other settlers were obeying the order, rather hurriedly, the courage of the people of Westfield in remaining to protect their homes is the more notable. In the French War was Dr. Israel Ashley, wdio was surgeon of a regiment. Dr. Ashley was a son of the first settler of that name. He was a graduate of Yale in the class of 1731, and was highly esteemed as a physician and surgeon. He died in the war at Stillwater. Eager Noble was also in the French ^\'ar, en listing while but a youth. General ^^'illiam Shepard, son of Deacon John Shepard, served as a soldier at difi'erent times through a period of thirty-three years and took part in two wars, from their beginning to their end. The Shepard family settled in Westfield in 1700, and William was born in 1737. At the beginning of the French and Indian \\'ar, when he was but seventeen, he enlisted as a private and three years later, he w-as a lieutenant in Abercronibie's army. At the age of twentv-two he was captain of a company in General Amherst's army. After six years of hard service, he having taken part in all of the principal battles, the war coming to an end, he returned to his farm in Westfield and gave it his most intelligent and energetic attention. When the war with Great Britain became a fact. Captain Shcjiard joined Washington in Roxbury and was com missioned a lieutenant-colonel. His Revolutionary record was of the best and cleanest. In 1780, he received a commission as JVESTFIELD. 313 general and was assigned to the division of the army that was under the command of LaFayette, and he was with it till peace was declared. In the twenty-two battles in which he took part, he proved his sound judgment and earned a reputation for fine bravery and courage. As an officer, he was kind and sympathetic and so won the deep respect and admiration of the rank and file under him. General Shepard joined the army at the early age of seventeen and between wars worked hard on his farm, so his " schooling " was rather brief. Notwithstanding this handicap, he was pos sessed of so great native intelligence, his intuition was so ac curate and his judgment so sound, that probably no- one was aware of his lack of education except himself. Although he was not a brilliant man nor an orator, still, he was continued in the public service of his town, county, state and country for many years. One of his strongest characteristics -was an inherent honesty that made him great, and while he filled offices that had made other men of less scrupulousness rich. General Shepard lived and died a poor man. After the war with Great Britain he was elected a member of Assembly, State Senator ; a member of the State Executive Coun cil ; was sent to Congress repeatedly and was a Presidential Elector twice. He was a Commissioner of the State and of the United States, in the negotiations with the Penobscott Indians, and with the Six Nations. In all of his public offices, military and civil, William Shepard was an example of simple honesty, devotion to duty and successful effort. "Wliile Westfield may claim him with pride as her most illustrious son, the Nation claims him af one of its finest citizens. After the Revolution the lack of money and consequent hard times was an excuse for some men, who were the opposite of General Shepard, to stir up riots. In 1787, these riots culminated in a brief rebellion that was led by Daniel Shays, of Pelham, who had been an officer in the Revolution. Shays' purpose was to capture the United States Armory in Springfield and General Lincoln had been ordered to march from Roxbury to oppose him. In the meantime, General Shepard had been ordered to take pos session of the Government Post at Springfield. When Shays attempted to take the post he- had about 1,500 men and General 314 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. Shepard had i,ioo. General Shepard's determination routed Sha)s' rabble and his humanity saved great loss of life, for he refrained from shooting till he saw that further forbearance was useless. Besides General Shepard, Westfield had other sons in the Revo lution. When " that shot which was heard around the world " was fired at Lexington, Captain Warham Parks, Lieutenant John Shepard, Ensign Richard Fallcy and seventy men immediately started for Boston and Adjutant Russell Dewey served through out the war, except for a brief period when he was ill. Captain Parks was promoted to a captaincy. There was no more ardent patriot in New England than Richard Falley. The family originated on the Island of Guernsey and the name was originally spelled Faille. The first American ancestor was Richard Falle)' who w-as kidnapped from his home in Guernsey and taken to Nova Scotia. From there he went to the then " District of Alaine " and married Ann Lamb, and sometime before 1756, they moved to Westfield. Richard Falley, Jr., the soldier of the Revolution, was born in George's River, Alaine, on January 31, 1740. His courage and patriotism, for wdiich he was notable, was shown early in life. \Mien but sixteen years old he enlisted in the Provincial army. At the surrender of Fort Edward he was captured bv Indians and taken to Montreal by a Chief, who adopted him into the Tribe. Some time later, he was ransomed by a lady, the price paid being six teen gallons of rum. After his ransom, Richard immediately returned to \^'estfield. After the battle of Lexington, he went w-ith Captain Park's compan)' to Roxbury, as ensign of that company, and in the Battle of Bunker Hill he commanded a company. His fourteen- year-old son, Frederick, was wdth his father at Bunker Hill in the capacity of drummer. The little fellow possessed his father's patriotic spirit and as the only thing he could do in that historic fi.ght was to drum, drum he did so long as the fight lasted. The little drummer later became a major. In the Revolution Air. Falley made guns for the Patriot army in Alontgomery, Alassa chusetts. The site of the armor)- was a deep glen through wdiich a sniall stream ran, at the foot of Alt, Tekoa. This place was chosen because its seclusion made it nearly impossible for the Briti.sh to know an)thing about it. Air, Falkw's house — still WESTFIELD. 315 standing and occupied by Air. J. J. La Valley, the Springfield artist, as a summer home — was situated on a tiny plateau jutting out from the foot of Alt. Tekoa. His workmen lived at Pochassic on the flats along the Westfield River, in the town of Westfield. Richard Falley died on September 3, 1808, and was buried in West- field. Richard Falley, Jr., was the maternal grandfather of the Hon. Grover Cleveland, foniierly president of the United States. As has been mentioned, the Rev. John Holyoke, of Springfield, conducted the first religious services in Woronoco for a few months in 1767, when he gave up the ministry and was succeeded by the Rev. Aloses Fiske, who preached as a candidate from 1668 to 1671. The first settled minister of Westfield was the Rev. Edward Taylor, who was the minister till his death. In 1674, Mr. Taylor married Elizabeth Fitch, a daughter of the Rev. James Fitch who had trouble with the Saybrook Church, and removing with his adherents to the Thames River, became one of the founders of Nor-wich, Connecticut. One of the daughters of that union became the mother of President Stiles, of Yale College. Mr. Taylor died on June 24, 1728, in the eighty-seventh year of his age and the fiftieth of his pastorate. The next minister was the Rev. Nehemiah Bull, a graduate of Yale in the class of 1723, who was ordained in 1726, two years before the deatli of Air. Taylor, whose health was failing. Mr. Bull was principal of a grammar school in Westfield. His pas torate continued for fourteen years and ended with his deatli in 1740. The Rev. John Ballentine, a graduate of Harvard, suc ceeded Mr. Bull in 1741, and he was succeeded by the Rev. Noah Atwater of Hampden, Connecticut, a graduate of Yale in the class of 1774. Air. Atwater was ordained in 1781, and was the minister for nineteen years. He died in 1802. In 1796, the Westfield Academy was incorporated and in January, 1800, it was opened for work with General Shepard chairman of the Board of Trustees. The Town appropriated $2,000 toward its endowment and in 1797, the citizens of West- field subscribed about $1,000 more to be added to the Town's appropriation. The Legislature granted one half of a township in Alaine to the Academy which was converted into money for the school. The building cost $5,000 and Peter Starr was its first principal. NORTHAMPTON. A PETITION to the General Court was presented in Alay, i'i53, for permission to settle and form a town, on land owned by the Indians and called by them Nonotuck, This petition was signed by twent)'-four men and was endorsed by a petition from John Pynchon, Elizur Holyoke and Samuel Chapin, ¦ — the "three mighties" of Springfield — in which they urged the granting of the other petition, as the site for the proposed settlement was admirable and the proposed settlers well provided in spirit and estate for the enterprise. The equal of these three men has seldom if ever been found in any century or generation in Alassachusetts, and the General Court showed that it considered their approval of the settlement sufficient, for the petition was granted a few days after it had been received, and the " three mighties " were appointed a commission to survey the land at Nonotuck, which later became Northampton. On September 2, 1653, the land was purchased from the Indian chiefs, V/awhillowa, Nenessahalant and Nassachohee, for the usual composite consideration of wampum, clothing and various articles, much valued by the Indians, which may best be described as knickknacks. The territory purchased included the present Towns of North- South- East- and \\'esthanipton, about 100 square miles. On October 3, 1653, the proprietors held their first meeting, ii'i Springfield, and agreed that any proprietor wdio had failed to effect a permanent settlement with his family, by the following- spring, should forfeit his land. This meeting w-as attended bv ten of the petitioners and ten other persons who had joined them. Of the twenty-four petitioners, William Clark, Edward Elmore, Robert Bartlett, William Plolton, ^^'illiam Janes, \\'illiam Aliller, Thomas Root and John ^Vebb, were the only ones to settle in Northampton. Another meeting of the proprietors was held on November 15, 1653, when it was determined that the first twenty families to settle there, in the spring of 1654, should have fort)- acres, each [316] NORTHAMPTON. 317 family, of the meadow land, and that no land could be sold or leased till after four years of residence, unless the Town voted to grant permission for such sale, or lease. Their desire was for a permanent settlement and the elimination of land specula tion. It was also provided, that any property owner who left the settlement permanently before the expiration of four years, should forfeit his land. Although the actual settlement did not take place till 1654, tradition says, that a family built a house near and to the east SMITH COLLEGE, NORTHAMPTON, of what is now Hawdey street, in 1652, and that the family lived there during the winter of 1652, and '53. So Nonotuck was settled and Northampton incorporated in 1654. The different ways in which Nonotuck is spelled in old records, old letters and old books are confusing. Some of them are; Nolwottoge, Nalwottoge, Norwottocke. The meaning is not actually known, but it is supposed to convey the idea, that it is a place in the midst of a river. Both Hadley and Northampton are so situated, for Hadley is bounded by the river on the north, west and south ; and Northampton, on the north, east and south, because of two great 3i8 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. bends in the Connecticut where Hadley and Northampton are situated. y\s Nonotuck was applied to both places by the In dians, this definition is at least a good one, if not the right one. Among the settlers whose names have been continued for the 250 years since the settlement, were Samuel Allen, James Bridge- man, Robert Bartlett, Thomas Bascom, David Burt, Alexander Edwards, William Hannum, William Hulbert, John Lyman, Richard Lyman, John King, Nathaniel Phelps, Joseph Parsons, Thomas Root, William Aliller, Samuel Wright, Isaac Sheldon, and John Stebbins, all of whom had made a settlement before 1659. From 1658, to '62, Alexander Alvord, Edward Baker, William Clark, Aaron Cook, Jonathan Hunt, Enos Kingsley, Eleazer Alather, Aledad Pomeroy, John Strong, John Searl and John Taylor. After 1662, Preserved Clapp, Robert Danks, Samuel Judd, Thomas Judd, Caleb Pomeroy, Israel Rust and Solomon Stoddard, settled in Northampton. The oldest portion of Northampton is the territory bounded by Market, Hawley, Pleasant and King streets. Up to 1658, all but six of the thirty-eight families had built their homes on those streets. As the nuniber of inhabitants increased, homes were built in the vicinity of Alain and West streets and across Alill River, in the vicinity of the northern end of Soutli street, and a little later, a few homes were built down South street, near the clay- pits. Nonotuck was rather thickly populated by Indians — up to the time of King Philip's War in 1675 — but they lived in peace with the English. Notwithstanding this fact, the inhabitants of Northampton felt that it was necessary for the English to have possession of the fertile meadow lands on both sides of the Connecticut River, because of their fertility, and because a settle ment on both sides of the river would add greatly to the general safety in case of an Indian uprising. In order that this inight bc accomplished, they sold to the people of Hartford and \\'ethers- field who were in the midst of a Church war, in October, 1638, the meadow called Capawonk, which was the Indian name for Hatfield. This meadow contained nearly 1,000 acres. The money part of the price was merely nominal, being but £10, to be paid in wheat and ]iease; the other jiart was of great value and im portance to the Northampton people. It was, that the purchasers NORTHAMPTON. 319 should effect settlements on both sides of the river and maintain them for seven years. The whole settlement was first called Newtown, but when it was incorporated in 1661, the portion of the settlement on the east side of the river became Hadley, and in 1670 that on the west side became Hatfield. When the war with Philip began, in 1675, Northampton es tablished a small guard and in the next year it consisted of fifty men. In 1677, the meeting-house was fortified, and in 1690, the village was surrounded by palisades. In the French and W^ '' **J5^?g «r«^g*^^ff '.- i r...:m A BIT OF DEAR OLD NEW ENGLAND. Indian War of 1745, the log towers, called " mounds " were built, and the village was divided into fourteen sections in each of which one house was fortified as a place of safety for the women and children in case of attack. Northampton's first minister was the Rev. Eleazer Alather. He was a son of Richard Alather and was born in Dorchester, Massa chusetts, on Alay 13, 1637. He was graduated at Harvard, in 1656, and began to preach in Northampton in 1658. The meet ing-house had been built three years before, but Air. Alather was 320 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. not ordained till the Church was organized, on June i8, 1661. His wife was Esther Warham, daughter of the Rev. John War ham, the first minister of Windsor, Connecticut. Mr. Mather died July 24, 1669, and his widow married the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, his successor. STODDARD-EDWARDS. The Rev. Solomon Stoddard was possessed of so great a spirit and so great a mind; whose power of loving was so simple and profound ; that he was one of the few ministers — or for that matter men — of very early times who lived in the Love of the Lord instead of the Fear of Him. His life, his example and his teaching have made Northampton famous for more than two centuries, for its broad-minded, catholic spirit in denominational matters. Not that the people of Northampton -were, or are un faithful to their individual Churches or Creeds, but rather, that they recognize the Christian Church is E pluribus unum. The Rev. Solomon Stoddard was ordained as the minister of the Church in Northampton, on September 11, 1672, by the Rev. John Whiting, minister of the Second Church of Hartford and John Strong, Ruling Elder of the Northampton Church. Air. Stoddard was known all over New England, and w-as held in hig'n esteem. His power over his auditors was great and some of the most notable revivals of his time w-ere the result of his strong, earnest preaching. No better idea of Air. Stoddard and his liberal \iews may be had, at a time when liberality w-as not popular in New England, than from the article by the Rev. Dr. George Leon Walker on : " Jonathan Edwards and the Half-way Covenant ". On November 5, 1672, two months after Air. Stoddard's settle ment, he put on record, as was customary, the different forms of covenant to be used in admitting members to the different pri-vi- leges of the Church. One of them was a form to be used in ad' mittin.g members into a state of eilucation, and was known as The Plalf-way Covenant ; the other was for the admission of members into full communion. Prof, Alexander Johnston defines the Half-way Covenant as declaring, that baptized infants were bound to own the covenant and become church members, upon arriving at \-ears of discretion NORTHAMPTON. 321 and that the Church was bound to accept them, if they were not of scandalous life and understood the grounds of religion ; and that the Church was bound to baptize their children. The full Covenant, if it may be so called, required Godliness, sanctification, personal experience of religion, as qualifications for full membership and partaking of the Lord's Supper. The early Congregational Church, it seems, believed that the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was a sort of religious luxury for sanctified members of that Church, until the Half-way Cove- ROUND HILL HOTEL, NORTHAMPTON, The old portion to the right was a famous school for boys kept by George Bancroft and John Cogswell early in eighteen hundred, nant was presented, when a considerable portion of the Congre gational Church believed, as did Mr. Stoddard, that " The Lord's Supper is Instituted to be a means of Regeneration ". In other words, that this Sacrament was a source of spiritual courage, strength and help for such sinners as had repented of their sins and truly wished to get rid of them. Mr. Stoddard preached to his people on this subject: "That Sanctification is not a necessary qualification for the Lord's Sup per " and that " the Lord's Supper is a converting ordinance ". 21 322 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY Air. Stoddard's view, of course, broke down and obliterated the line of distinction between those who had only " owned the covenant " and those who, according to the general New England usage and the very express rules of the Northampton Church, had been admitted to complete membership. Air. Stoddard continued in the Northampton pastorate twenty- nine years after the first public proclamation of his views on this subject, and twenty )ears after his reply to Increase Mather's allegation of " Strange Doctrine " against him ; time enough, as it proved for his views on this subject of the converting char acter of the Lord's Supper and the uselessness of any distinction between the half-way covenant and the full communion member ship, to thoroughly penetrate and take possession of his con gregation. As it proved also, the same view, based largely on the great authority of Mr. Stoddard's name, extended to some other Churches in the vicinit)-, and at the period with which we are dealing it is quite proper to speak of it as the Northampton peculiarity; originating w-ith the Xorthampton pastor and extending by reason of his influence to a few Churches around. The successor to the Rev. Solomon Stoddard was his grandson, the Rev. Jonathan Edwards. He was ordained on February 22. 1726-7. The last trembling entry in the Church record made by his venerable and honored grandfather. Air. Stoddard, was in re gard to his grandson's ordination. Jonathan Edwards continued the same policy in regard to the requirements for full membership in the Church, that had been his grandfather's for many years. The doubtfulness of the propriety of admitting members into the Church who made no pretence to real Godliness, gradually increased upon J^Ir, Kdwards, till hc can-ie to the conclusion that he could not with an easy conscience, be active in admitting any more members in the former man ner (his grandfather's) without better satisfaction. It is a significant token of the dead spiritual condition of things after what is called " the great awakening " in New England, from 1735 'o 174,1. tli.-il Mr. Edwards Iiad lo wait several xears, after arriving at the aforementioned eoiiclusion before any one applied for membership in the Church, upon whom the uew test could be made. In December, 1748, a young man aiiplicd and in February, 174Q. a young woman applied. ^Ir. I'.dwanls stated to them both, his new views concerning the qualifications for communicants, i. e. a personal experience of religion. They both de- NORTHAMPTON. 323 clined. The young man, because he could not come up to the standard ; the young woman, because though she was ready to testify to such religi ous experience, she was afraid, by what she had heard, that there would be a tumult, if she came into the Church in that way. Her reason for not joining Air. Edwards' Church seems to show that the liberal spirit of their former minister, Mr. Stoddard, had taken firm hold upon the people. The announcement of the pastor's stand, that personal piety was a neces sary prerequisite to complete membership in the Church and to sacra mental privileges, threw the tpwn in an uproar. The Church and the minister entered upon a futile and harassing series of attempts to find a common standing ground. The Church voted, overwhelmingly, that it would not hear the minister's arguments. As he could not gain a hearing he tried to reach the people through a pamphlet, but even that the people would not have and Air. Edwards complained, " that only twenty copies were brought to Northampton, and even those were not read ". On June 22, 1750, after twenty- three years spent as minister of the Church, Jonathan Edwards was dismissed and the dismissing body warned him " to take proper notice of the heavy frown of Divine Provi dence in suffering the church and its minister to be reduced to such a state as to render a separation necessary ". Jonathan Edwards was a great man in his day, and a profound thinker. His great ability was known and confessed in Great Britain. This meant much, for the great men of Great Britain were little apt to acknowledge greatness in a Colonial. But, not withstanding his undoubted greatness, from an intellectual stand point, the life of Air. Edwards and the seemingly unnecessary religious controversy which he started, suggests the idea that he was conceited and self-centered, and ambitious. As the successor of his grandfather and minister of the .North ampton Church, Air. Edwards was merely one of many brilliant ministers. This was hardly satisfactory to a man of his make up. After following in the footsteps of his fine, great-hearted grand father for many years, he finally discovered his own greatness, but no one else seemed to be aware of it — in just the way that he was — so, in order that he might impress his greatness upon his grandfather's people, he practically stamped his grandfather as being an ecclesiastical ignoramus and started a new system of 324 THE CONNECTICUT J'ALLEY salvation of his own. And if, as tradition tells us, he ever uttered the sentiment ; " Hell is paved with infants' skulls " ; he stamped himself as being the prince of egotists, for the Alaster whom he professed to serve had, centuries before, declared that ; " Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven ". This view of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards is suggested by his life and acts. He may have been a Christian, who was possessed of as great humility and earnest faithfulness as his grandfather, the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, but if he was, he possessed undoubted ability in concealing that fact. He was, however, from a purely intellectual standpoint, one of the greatest divines of the early- Congregational Church. \Mlliam Edwards was the first American an cestor of that family. He was in Hartford for the first four or five years after its settlement and married the wddow of \^'illialll Spencer of that place. One child, Richard, was born in 1647, ^rid there were three step-children. Richard Edwards be came a prominent citi zen of Plartford. Pie was twice married and was the father of twel\-e children. The first child was Timothy, wdio was born in 1669. Timothy prepared for Harvard College and was graduated with honors, in the class of idoi. Three years later, he married Esther Stoddard, of Northampton, and went to East Windsor (then called Windsor Farms) where he was minister of the Church for sixty-three )ears, Jonathan, wdio became the pro found thinker and ecclesiastical agitator, was born in East Wind- PARADISE, NORTHAMPTON, IN THE REAR OF SMITH COLLEGE. NORTHAMPTON. 325 sor on October 5, 1703. He, with several other boys, was fitted for Yale by his father. Some idea of the profound scholarship required in those days for a College degree may be had when it is known that Jonathan was graduated from Yale just before he was seventeen years old, so, if the course was four years, he passed his entrance examinations just before he was thirteen. Air. Edwards remained in New Haven for two years after being graduated, occupying his time with several studies, some of them being preliminary to the ministry. When but nineteen, in 1772, JONATHAN EDWARDS' ELM, NORTHAMPTON. he was asked to supply the pulpit in a Presbyterian Church in New York, where he remained for nine months. This congre gation was composed of a portion of the First Presbyterian Church which was dissatisfied with the minister, and so with drew to a small building on William street, between Wall and Liberty streets. While in New York, Air. Edwards received a call from the Church of Bolton, Connecticut, a hill-town about fifteen miles east of Hartford. This was most pleasing to his parents and sisters, who lived in East Windsor, and seemingly so to young Edwards, 3-"' THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY for being so near, he could frequently see them. Mr. Edwards accepted the call on November ii, 1723, but although the Church kept the place open for two years, he never went there. The reason was, that at the time of his acceptance he was appointed as a tutor in Yale College, As the head of the College, Rector Tim- oth\' Cutler, and one of the tutors, had become Episcopalians, Air. h'.dwards w;is persuaded that it was his duty to accept the tutor ship as a sort of counter-irritant to the contagion of Episcopacy, which the Orthodox Church (meaning the only right Church) regarded with consterna tion. As has already been said, Air. Edwards became the minister of the North ampton Church in 1727, \\'hile in A'ale Air. Ed wards became acquainted with the girl who later be came his wife, as have so many Yale men of later generations, Sarah Pier pont was but thirteen years old wdien the young student fell in love with her. In a w ritten description of her he savs ; " She is pos sessed of wonderful sweet ness, calmness, and uni- \-ersal benevolence of mind. She will sometimes go about from place to place singing sweetly, and seems to be always full of jo)' and pleasure, and no one knows for wdiat. She loves to bc alone, walking in the fields and groves, and seems to have some one invisible alwa)s conversing- with her ". Evidently, a precocious and somewhat uncanny voung person, but she caj-itured Jonathan Edwards' affections and they were married after he had been installed in Xorthainpton. Jonathan lidwards was honestly pi-issessed of his characteristics for his father, the Rev. Timothy F.dwards, minister of the East ^Vindsor Church, w,-is a man of great will and stubbornness; so PAR.MIISE. SMITH COLLEGE, NORTI-IA.MPTON. EASTHAMPTON. 327 great, that he was willing to see the Church disrupted and Chris tianity smirched, rather than yield his point or his self-constituted absolute authority. They were both, from an intellectual stand point, great divines, probably the greatest of their day in America, with few, if any superiors in the Old Country, but both were pos sessed of what may be described as intellectual vanity and pride of ecclesiastical power, that governed all their acts as ministers. Neither was content to be " the first among equals ". Had they been born Romanists instead of Protestants, nothing less than the Pontifical Chair or the Generalship of the Company of Jesus would have satisfied their ecclesiastical ambition. The elder Ed- w-ards showed these characteristics in the historical " Joseph Dig gins" case ", in the East Windsor Church. The Rev. John Hooker was the fourth minister. He was a descendant of the great preacher, the Rev. Thomas Hooker, Hart ford's first minister. He was settled in 1754. Mr. Hooker was born in Farmington and was a graduate of Yale, in the class of 1 75 1. His death occurred in the twenty-third year of his pas torate and the forty-eighth of his age, on February 6, 1777. The Rev. Solomon Williams was ordained as the fifth minister of Northampton on June 4, 1778, eight years after being gradu ated at Yale. He died at the age of eighty-two, after fifty-six years as minister of the Church, on November 9, 1834. Mr. Williams married Alary Hooker, daughter of his predecessor, the Rev. John Hooker, in 1779. EASTHAMPTON. THE territory comprising the Town of Easthampton was purchased from the Indians by John Pynchon, of Spring field, in 1653, and was a part of Northampton till its in corporation in 1809. Before that year, Easthampton possessed the privileges of a town, except that the people were obliged to vote in Northampton and were not represented at the General Court, individually, the representative of Northampton being their rep resentative. An interesting item of the purchase price paid by John Pyn chon was the plowing of sixteen acres of land in Hadley. The Indians, no doubt, considered this the most valuable part of the purchase price. It may be easily understood, that the turning up 328 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. of sixteen acres with the primitive implements possessed by the Indians, or, even with spades, was slow and tedious and not nearly so good, from a crop standpoint, as the deeper work that would be done with a plow. While the Indians relinquished a vast ter ritory for 600 feet of wampum, ten coats and the plowing, they were well paid, notwithstanding the fact that there are some Quixotically sentimental writers who persist in stating that the English robbed the Indians in all real estate transactions. Be sides the price paid for the land, the Indians retained the right to hunt and fish where they liked, and to live and cultivate, under certain reasonable restrictions. The right to make improvements and profit by those improvements in the future, was about all the Indians sold of their rights. The right to improve was something upon which they set no value ; something they would not have taken advantage of had they known they possessed it. Easthampton was a favorite locality with the Indians. The situation of Nashawannuck, as they called the territory, met with their requirements for a village. The rivers, lowdands and sur rounding hills and mountains, provided all the fish and game and fur-bearing animals they could possibly require. So, although they sold the land, they did not deprive themselves of the shad and salmon, which were plentiful in the Alanhan River, or the deer, bear, beaver, and other fur-bearing animals. The first settlement was at Pascommuck, near the foot of Alt. Tom, where John Webb built a log house some time before 1670, the year in which he died. Up to the war w-ith King Phillip, in 1675, the Indians had lived peaceably near the white settlers. In' that year, they all left to join Phillip and as they never returned, it is probable that the majority of them were killed. The first building erected upon the site of the present village of East hampton was a sawmill, about 1674, and in 16S6, or 1687, Samuel Bartlett built a gristmill, on the * Alanhan near the falls. There seems to be little or no definite information in regard to the vear the first dwelling was built in this part of Easthampton. This mill and the surrounding land was given to Joseph Bartlett by his father Samuel, in 1705. It may be, that the reason there was no permanent settlement sooner was due to a fear of trouble with the French and their Indian friends. However that may be, the * The Indian word was Munhan, the island made at the " Ox Bow " of the Connecticut at Mt. Tom. EASTHAMPTON. 329 people did not go there to make a settlement, for some reason, till about 1725. Joseph Bartlett, and Jonathan Clapp and his nephew, lived there in 1725, and when Bartlett died in 1755, he divided his property between his brothers and the Clapps, as he had no children. The greater part of it was given to the Clapps, who were relatives. This Joseph Bartlett was the principal man of the place, as well as the first permanent settler in that portion of the town that is now Easthampton village. He kept the first tavern, for which he was given a license in 1727, and continued to WILLISTON SEMINARY, EASTHAMPTON. keep it up to his death, eighteen years later. He seems to have been the first person to give money toward the building of a church. The property which he willed to his brothers was given wdth the agreement, that they should pay £4 8s iid to the Church that first held pubhc worship and administered the Sacraments. Up to the building of the first church, religious services were held in Bartlett's tavern. About 1726, there were two or three fam ilies by the name of Wait, who settled in Easthampton, but later, they moved elsewhere. David Bartlett, a brother of Joseph, built a house there. In the Revolution, Colonel Horsford died from 330 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. small pox in David's house, he having been carried there from Northampton. The Rev. John Plooper, who succeeded Jonathan Edwards in Northampton, also died of small pox in this house, soon after the death of Colonel Horsford. In 1744, Benjamin Lyman and Deacon Stephen Wright moved to Easthampton, Deacon Wright's house being in the limits of Southampton when that town was organized. Both of these men had sons who were in the fight near Lake George, on September 8, 1755. Lemuel Lyman was but nineteen years old at the time. His bullet pouch saved his life for the bullet that struck it did not enter his body. This pouch is still in the possession of mem bers of his family. There is a tradition, that the enemy coated their bullets with poison, so it was only necessary for a bullet to break the skin to cause death. Lieutenant Asahel Clark, of East hampton, also took part in the fighting of that day, he being in the fort near Lake George, where the enemy was repulsed. He was also in the attack upon Ticonderoga three )ears later, when the British were defeated. Although the settlement of that portion of the town, now occu pied by the village, was delayed for so many years, there was a small settlement in that portion known as Pascommuck, at the foot of Mt. Tom (Barber spells this word, Paskhomuck), wdiere John Webb built the first house. In 1700, Moses Hutchinson, John Searl, Benoni Jones, Samuel Janes and Benjamin Janes, settled there with their families. On Alay 24, 1704, this little hamlet was destroyed by Indians and nearly everv person being killed or taken captive. The Indians were on the verge of starva tion, but why, does not seem clear. At any rate they had been over to the Alerrimac River in the hope of finding game or fish, but with no success. On their return westward, they expected to with no success. On their return westward, they expected to go to Westfield, but all the rivers were over their banks, the floods of that spring being the greatest known up to that year, so they could not cross the Westfield River. Several of the Indians in the band knew of the little settlement at Pascommuck. These suggested that they could probably obtain food there. The even ing before the attack, all of the Indians ascended Alount Tom to get a view of the hamlet. They found the land almost entirely covered by the flood and the little hamlet so situated that no as- EASTHAMPTON. 331 sistance could be given from Northampton because of the water. The inhabitants seem to have been particularly careless in regard to protecting themselves from attack. The only thing resembling a fort, or place of refuge, was the house of Benoni Jones, which was surrounded with a low palisade. This the Indians burnt down, and when Patience Webb, aroused by the noise and flames, looked out of the window, they shot her through the head. A weak attempt at defence was made and finally all were killed except Benjamin Janes and a few of the youths who were re served to be taken to Canada. Janes escaped by running down to where he had a canoe hidden, in which he paddled to North ampton and gave the alarm. Captain John Taylor and a troop of cavalry immediately started , in pursuit. They caught up with the Indians on the way to West- field, not far from Mt. Tom. As soon as the Indians knew they were being pursued they tomahawked all the youths whom they had saved for captives, except one, but were not able to scalp all of them as the soldiers were too near. This one exception was Elisha Searl, whose quick wit prompted him to grab up one of the Indians' packs and run with them to show that he would be no hindrance to them. Captain Taylor was killed by the first fire of the Indians. They made their escape over Pomeroy Mountain, where they tomahawked and scalped Mrs. Benjamin Janes, leav ing her, as they supposed, dead. She was found by the pursuers and as there was still life, they carried her to Northampton where she finally recovered and lived to the age of eighty. It was her husband who escaped by the canoe to give the alarm. They later raoved to Coventry, Connecticut, where he was deacon of the Church for many years. Mrs. John Searl survived a murderous blow from a tomahawk, although she was in a somewhat critical condition at the time. Four months later, she gave birth to a daughter. Airs. Moses Hutchinson managed to escape before they had gone far. Elisha Searl, the son of Mrs. Searl who recovered from the tomahawking — the youth whose quick wit saved his life, had a somewhat romantic experience. He was taken to Canada and being kindly treated he became fond of che French and the free, unhampered life that he lived with the Indians. He was con verted to the Roman faith. Many years later, when he returned 332 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. to his old home for a visit, he at first refused to remain to settle down to the, in comparison, dull life of Pascommuck, but finally Captain Benjamin Wright and Thomas Stebbins persuaded him to remain, and as an inducement they procured for him a lieu tenant's commission in the Colonial forces. There is a tradition that Lieutenant Searl's faith in Roman Catholicism was greatly shaken several years before his return to his old home, as he was setting forth on a journey. He asked the jiriest what he should do wiiile away in regard to confession. The priest replied, that he could confess to a tree as that would do as well. Of course Searl was sur prised and when he told his Pascommuck friends about it they were shocked, but both he and they utterly failed to understand that all the good Father wanted was a confession of sins and that, as the confes sion was really made to the Creator, it made little difference wdiether the words were spoken to a tree or a priest. To return to the attack b)- the Indians ; another person to es cape from the tomahawk was Samuel Janes, one of the youths who was knocked on the head at the time Captain Taylor and his cavalry appeared. Ten of the Indians who made the attack upon Pascommuck, went to ¦¦ the lower farms ", near Smith's Ferry on the Connecticut River, where the only house was that of Cap tain Benjamin Wright. .As he and Thomas Stebbins, then a young man, were the onl)- occupants of the house, the Indians thought to overcome them easily, but a shot from the house broke an arm of one of the Indians and so made them cautious. They PAYSON CHURCH, EASTHAMPTON. EASTHAMPTON. 333 then tried to set fire to the house by shooting blazing arrows onto the roof. As there was no water in the house, Stebbins tied a feather bed about himself for a protection from arrows, and then went out to the well and drew water to put out the fire on die roof. The Indians dared not make a rush, for Captain Wright's gun was in the hands of a man who shot straight. Finding they must fight to capture the men, the Indians withdrew. There are thousands of instances, in the history of New England, where the attacking Indians withdrew from an inferior number of deter mined men, whom they knew they must fight to overcome. All of these instances prove, that while the Indians were brave they were entirely lacking in courage, and on the other hand the cour age of the settlers was often far greater than their bravery. There were murders committed at different times for a number of years after this attack of 1704. In 1708, Samuel and Joseph Parsons were killed near Pascommuck and in 1724, Nathaniel Edwards, 2nd., of Northampton, was killed and scalped, while on his way home from the Easthampton meadows with a cart loaded with produce. There were several men with carts who were keeping together for mutual safety. At the fording place of the Alanhan River, Mr. Edwards was delayed for a brief time while the other men had gone on. Just as he was crossing a brook, near the ford, he was shot. His negro farm hand, who was asleep on the load, woke up just in time to see his master scalped. The horses continued on to the top of the hill, when the negro unhitched one of them and rode after the other men and told them what had happened, but the Indians were never caught. In King George's War of 1744, Joseph Bartlett's and Major Jonathan Clapp's houses in Easthampton were fortified, and so was Samuel Janes' at Pascommuck. It is said, facetiously no doubt, that the irregular boundary lines of Easthampton were caused by the desire of the different settlers, at the time of the organization of the town, to either be in the town or out of it, and that the lines were run accordingly. The western portion of the town, where the lines are the most irregular, was first settled by Eldad Pomeroy and Samuel Pome roy and their sons, about 1732. Soon after. Sergeant Ebenezer Corse settled in the western portion, on the plain, and then fol- 334 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. lowed Stephen Wright, Aaron and Benjamin Clapp. Corse was reputed to be a man of great courage and fearlessness. When other settlers were going to the larger settlements for safety, at the times Indian attacks were feared. Air. Corse always remained to defend and protect his home. In the northern portion of the town were the families of Joseph and Titus Wright, who went there in 1750, and in the southern portion of the town was Bildad Brewer. In 1773, an effort was made to organize what is now Easthampton into a district. At this time the ter ritory belonged to Northampton and Southampton. But nothing was done, as Southampton strongly objected, and, too, the Revolution was fully occupying the attention of the Gen eral Court, and the people of the towns concerned. There was an other attempt in 1781, and '82, but the district was not organized till 1785, with about sixty families from Northampton and fifteen from South ampton, within its bounds. On No vember 17, 1785, the Church was organized with seventy-two members, in the home of Captain Joseph Clapp. The frame for a church had been set up in the spring of that year, but the building was not entirely finished till 1792. In 1786, a committee was ap pointed to obtain the bequest of Joseph Bartlett of £4 8s iid to the first church in which worship should be held. This sum had grown by accumulation, to £14 is 3d, and was used for the purchase of a Conimunion service. In that year the Rev. Aaron Walworth preached to the people, bnt he did not become their settleil minister although he was invited to do so. < )n .\ugust 13, 1780, the Rev. Payson Williston, the first min ister, was ordained, in the twenty-si.xth -Near of his age. Air. Williston was born in 1763, in West Haven, Connecticut, his father being the Rev. Noah Williston. For several months be- rULPlT ELM, EASTHAilPTON. EASTHAMPTON. 335 fore 1779, he was in the Continental Army. He then entered Yale with the intention of entering the ministry, and was gradu ated in the class of 1783. Among his classmates were the Hon. David Daggett, a well known and brilliant lawyer ; the Hon. J. C. Smith, who later became Governor of Connecticut ; and the Rev. Dr. Holmes and the Rev. Dr. Morse. Mr. Williston studied for the pulpit under the Rev. Dr. Trumbull, of North Haven. In the year following his settlement, he married Miss Sarah Birdsey, daughter of the Rev. Nathan Birdsey, of Stratford, Connecticut. In Alarch, 1833, Mr. Williston resigned, because of advancing years, after forty-four years of faithfulness and devotion to the parish in which he was beloved. His death occurred in January, 1856, at the great age of ninety-two. The first school in Easthampton was at Pascommuck, in 1739, in which year the Town of Northampton appropriated money for its support. The salary of the teacher was six shillings a week and he was to pay his board out of that sum. Obadiah Janes, Philip Clark and Joel Parsons were the earliest teachers of this school. Williston Seminary, one of the notable preparatory schools of the country, was founded by the Hon. Samuel Williston in 1840. The first attempt at anything like manufacturing, was a fuller's mill, which was run by Jonathan Clapp, in 1780, in a portion of the old gri,st-mill. Not long after that year, Captain Joseph Clapp built a mill in which he fulled, dyed and dressed the cloth that was woven in the different homes of the community. About 1792, Easthampton had a library association, consisting of thirty members who paid two dollars each to become share holders. The Rev. Payson Williston was the librarian for thirty- five years. Besides the first tavern, opened by Joseph Bartlett in 1727, Major Jonathan Clapp, a nephew of Mr. Bartlett's, kept a tavern which was well known all over western New England. It was a place of rest for travelers to and from Vermont and Connecti cut. Major Clapp was a keen business man as is shown by an anecdote that is told of him. In the winter of 1760, there was a fall of four feet of snow. This was immediately followed by rain and hail to a depth of eight inches forming what was known as " The great crust ". Of course, all communication was cut off 336 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. between the larger towns and the country, supposedly, and Major Clapp turned this supposition to profitable account. Finding that the crust would easily bear himself and his horse, he went to Hatfield, where he purchased a drove of cattle and then con tinued, on the crust, to Boston. As he was the first man in Boston with cattle he sold them for a large price and netted a sum equivalent to $333, with a time outlay of less than ten days. The old Bartlett tavern was taken by Captain Joseph Clapp, a son of Alajor Clapp, in 1793. The Clapps were the tavern and hotel keepers in Easthampton for about one hundred years. SOUTHAMPTON. 337 SOUTHAMPTON. THE history of Southampton is interesting from the fact that it is commonplace ; that it was not the home of " one of the Nation's great men ", or of even the State's great men ; that no event of Colonial, State or National importance ever took place within its bounds ; that, so far as is known, no great man ever spent the night there, or even passed through the town ; that no powder was ever burnt within its bounds in the conflict with George III ; that it cannot even boast, as can its sister towns of New England, of an Indian deed or that the land was pur chased from the Indians ; that it cannot fall back upon one single man, incident, or occurrence, upon which to boost itself into his torical prominence. And yet the history of Southampton is grand for it is the history of a fine, hardy community — morally, men tally and physically — of men and women who, living remote from the epoch making centers, devoted their simple lives to their fields and their spinning wheels and to the grand work of build ing up, in themselves and their children, a true type of New England manhood and womanhood. An old man from one of the other Hamptons, who was reputed to be an authority on local history, replied to a question : " No, there haint never been no hist'ry written of So'thampton, 's I know of. There warnt never anythin' happend there to write about ". So, while it is true that the men and women of Southampton did not make National history in Southampton, it is equally true that no town gave more generously and cheerfully of its loved sons and its substance to help make the history of the Colonies in the French and Indian wars, and of the Nation in the Revolu tion, than this same town in which " nothin' haint ever hap pened to write about ". The first settlers of Southampton were Judah Hutchinson and Thomas Porter who made their pitch in 1732, but at that time the territory, which became Southampton in 1753, when the town was incorporated, was but a precinct of Northampton. The words prec'nct and parish meant the same in those days. In 1733, these men were joined by fourteen other settlers and between this year and 1740, fourteen families joined the little settlement. The first meeting of quahfied freeholders in the precinct was held in 1741, 22 338 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. and on June 8, 1743, the first Church was organized with the Rev. Jonathan Judd as its minister, and Waitstill Strong and John Clark its deacons. A notable company of clergymen were present to ordain Mr. Judd. They were the Rev. Messrs. Edwards, of Northampton ; Hopkins, of West Springfield ; Woodbridge, of South Hadley; Parsons, of East Hadley (Amherst); Williams, of Hadley ; Woodbridge, of Hatfield ; and Ballentine, of West- field. The ordination sermon was preached by the Rev. Jonathan Edwards. Mr. Judd was given as settlement, 200 acres of land, £100 old tenor, £125 old tenor to be given in work upon his house. His salary was £130 old tenor for the first, second and third years and was to be increased by £5 each successive year till the annual sum of £170 was reached, and later the people gave him his firewood. Mr. Judd was minister of the church for sixty years, death at the age of eighty-three, in 1803, ending his long and useful pastorate. Payments of salaries and settlements of ministers are frequently given as being a certain number of pounds, " old tenor ", and when it so is given, the salary always seems large for the times. This may be accounted for by the fact that old tenor was de preciated money. About 1690, paper money was issued to defray the expenses of the expedition against Quebec. As these bills were not redeemed, . except by a new issue, the bills depreciated till it required seven and a half pounds to equal one pound in gold or silver. In 1750, they had become so worthless that a debt of £11 old tenor could be paid wdth £1 in gold or silver. In the year in which Mr. Judd became the minister of the Southampton Church the horrors of an Indian war were staring the people in the face. At this time, Southampton was a frontier settlement, for to the north-west there was not a settlement be tween it and Canada to give warning of the approach of hostile Indians. That they might be prepared, should the Indians at tempt to reach the large Connecticut River towns of North ampton, Springfield and Hartford, through the unbroken wilder ness to the north-west. Air. Judd's house was turned into a fort or place of refuge, by surrounding it wdth a palisade. A watch- tower was built at the west end of the house, which was entered through one of the windows of the house, on the top of which sentinels were stationed to keep constant watch for the approach SOUTHAMPTON. 339 of Indians. Jonathan Bascom's house was also fortified. A1-. though die people were in constant dread, it was necessary that the work in the fields should go on, otherwise a fight with starva tion would be occupying the people, and a fight with starvation would be much more one-sided than a fight with Indians. So, when the men went into the fields to work, they all carried their arms and one or more, as the occasion required, would be placed on elevations to give warning should Indians appear. When the men were in the fields the women and children occupied the forti fied houses. After a time the people regained confidence and the women and children remained in their own houses while the men were away. In 1745, Elias Lyman, of Southampton, was in the army, under the command of General Pepperell at the reduction of Cape Breton. Not once in that year were any Indians seen within the town, but in 1746, on August 25, a band of them came to the town and entered the deserted homes of Aaron and Elisha Clark, de stroying everything they did not steal. Thinking that they had been discovered, the Indians fled to Pomeroy Mountain, where, on the west side, they killed six cattle and a horse and wounded several other animals. Two weeks later, the Indians were again in Southampton. This time they tried their cunning to entrap one or more victims that scalps could be hung at their belts ; that they could get the found ation for something to brag about in camp ; a fine fairy story that would grow in size and detail and in the nuniber of the settlers whom they had beaten in the fight. But the tale of Indian dar ing and bravery and cunning was never told — by the Indians — for something got into the machinery and the exhibition did not come off. That something was a white man, named Samuel Danks. The Indians had laid their plans carefully by preparing an am bush near some bars, where the cows were driven through to pasture, and midway between two of the settlers' homes. The cows were found in the pasture by the Indians and were driven back into the brush as far from the bars as possible, that whoever came for them would have to pass the bars — and the ambush — to look for them. The Indians were evidently not aware that cows have a habit of feeding toward home as the milking time 340 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. approaches at sunset. When the cows were discovered to be nearing the bars, one of the Indians was sent to drive them again to the back of the pasture. It so happened that Danks went to the pasture b)- a shorter route, from the place where he was at the time, than by the bars. Not seeing the cows in their accus tomed place near the bars, he started up the pasture to find them, with a feeling that there was something queer about it. When he came in sight of the cows and saw their restlessness, he was as alert and vigilant as the most crafty Indian. He remained perfectly quiet, concealing himself, and watched. Soon he saw the Indian trying to keep the cows from going toward the bars, when he quietly slipped awa)- and gave the alarm. The Indians disappeared, evidently convinced that the settlers were too watch ful for it to be safe for them to attempt anything more in South ampton for some time. They were not again seen in the town for nearly a year. The winter of 1746 and '47 was a very hard one for the people of the settlement, for the crops had nearly failed. In the first place, the grain crop was light and on August 12, a heavy frost killed almost the whole crop of corn. In the early autumn of 1747, eleven months after the ambush at the pasture, the Indians began a series of murders and destruc tion of property, which finally became so dreadful that the little settlement was totally deserted for several months. About five o'clock in the afternoon of August 27, 1747, Elisha Clark was sur prised while threshing grain on the floor of his barn, and killed by Indians. How many there were of them is not known, but there must have been at least seven for wdien the neighbors found his bo(h- they saw that it had been pierced by seven bullets. The neighboring settlements were informed and armed men from all about went in search of the murderers. They found that the Indians had killed cattle as they fled and that they had camped in Easthampton, on the place where the home of Noah Strong was situated in 1840. The Indians, knowing the forest and its trails much better than did the settlers, escaped. On Ma)' (), 1748, Noah Pixlc)- was killed in broad daylight by Indians, as he was returning from pasturing his cows. The peo ple in the hamlet first heard one shot, and then three, in rapid succession, as if the)- had been fired as a signal, and then other SOUTHAMPTON. 341 shots were heard. Notwithstanding that so many shots had been fired, Pixley's only wound was in one of his arms. He ran from the Indians, but they overtook him and in their haste to scalp him a portion of his skull was cut away with a tomahawk. The inhabitants armed themselves and started in pursuit. They chased them as far as the home of Samuel Burt, who with his family were away, so the Indians did not stop there but continued their flight and escaped. However brave were the men, or willing were the women to share their dangers, it was more than human nature could stand. Besides the constant dread of unexpected attack in their homes, it was dangerous for the men to work in the fields, even with an armed guard present. The Indians' mode of attack, by making an unexpected dash, killing one or more and then fleeing to. the forest where they were at home and the settlers were strangers, handicapped the settlers greatly, but in a fight to a finish, the settlers would have been on even terms with the Indians. So they decided to abandon their farms and homes. Many of the families went to Northampton ; Mr. Judd, the minister, and his family went to Suffield, where his wife had relatives. About two months later, on July 19, seven families returned to South ampton to protect their own and their neighbors' homes. In the autumn nearly all of the people had returned, and in the winter the minister and his family rejoined the settlement. Seventeen hundred and forty-eight was a trying year for the people. The fields lying uncared for during the previous summer, after the flight, produced but little food for man or beast, so, be sides the Indians they had famine to contend with, and then three of the foremost and most useful men of the settlement died. They were Ezera Strong, Noah Sheldon and Moses Wright, all origi nal settlers. That winter of 1748 and '49 was a terrible one, with the murders by the Indians, the three deaths of valued neighbors and the lack of food for the people and their animals. Hay was brought for the live-stock from Northampton on horseback. The people needed all of that spirit of undaunted courage and bravery ; of determination to not give up, but to stay and conquer every hardship and adversity, that made New England " The place where we grow Men." Added to all this, there was a drought the next year, in 1749, which lasted from March into 342 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. July with but one shower in all those weeks. At last, when the rains did fall, the courage of the people was repaid, for they gathered fine crops of all kinds and they had no further trouble with the Indians. In 1750, a new prosperity arrived. The neglected farms were again worked and produced full crops; new families from other parts joined the settlement and new houses were built, and re newed attention was given to the education of the youth of the community. In 1751, Waitstill Strong, Jr., Eleazer Hannum and Stephen Sheldon were appointed a committee to have charge of the building of a schoolhouse. In 1753, the Town of South ampton was incorporated and the first time that name was used in the town records was on Alarch 5, of that year. In 1755, when the army was raised to take Crown Point, ten men of Southampton joined it and two of them, Eliakim Wright and Ebenezer Kingsley, Jr., never returned. W^hen Fort Willian. Henry was surrendered to the treacherous French, in 1757, upon the promise that they would not give the surrendered men over to the Indians (which was what the French did) Joel Clapp and Nathaniel Loomis, of Southampton, escaped, naked, from the Indians after a terrible run of fourteen miles through the forest. When the war with Great Britain began, the men of South ampton were ready to fight and die, if necessary, for the rights of the Colonies and for independence. So many young men joined the Patriot army that hardly one of them was to be seen in Church. Those men of Southampton who were too feeble, or for any other reason could not join the army as fighters, joined the army as wagon drivers, loaders, in fact in any capac'ty suited to their strength, while still others banded themselves together at home to work the fields, that crops might be raised for the families of those who were smelling powder burnt in fierce battle, and that the soldiers might be supplied with food. In this small settlement of unselfish patriots, who lived in the town " where nothin' didn't ever happen to write about ", the Rev. Jonathan Judd stands out as an example of the unselfish patriotism which distinguished so many of New England's clergymen. In 1768, when the first suspicion of trouble with the C»V\ Country became almost a certaint)-, the Town records show, that Air. Judd volun teered to meet a committee from the people, for the purpose of SOUTHAMPTON. 343 reducing his salary to the lowest living point, so that the people could have that much more to devote to the common cause. Deacon Elias Lyman, who had already been a delegate to the Provincial Congress, which met in Concord on October ii, was i" 1775> again sent to the Congress, at Cambridge, and Jonathan Judd, Jr., Samuel Burt, Elias Lyman, Aaron Clark, Jonathan Clark, Timothy Clark, Samuel Pomeroy, Samuel Clapp, and Israel Sheldon, were appointed a Committee of Correspondence for the Southampton district. The people voted nine days after the fight at Lexington, to pay two-thirds of the cost of the pro visions for Captain Lemuel Pomeroy's company, and a committee was appointed to collect the provisions and send them by wagon to the army. The Rev. Jonathan Judd, who was for sixty years the minister of the Southampton Church, the son of William Judd, was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, on October 4, 1719. He was a great- great-grandson of Deacon Thomas Judd, the first America an cestor of the Judd family in New England, who came from Eng land in the Rev. Thomas Hooker's company, in 1633, and went with him to Hartford from Newtown (Cambridge) where he lived for a time, and then moved to Farmington and was the first representative of that Town to the General Court. After the death of his wife he moved to Northampton, and there married the widow of Thomas Mason. Mr. Judd, the first minister of the Southampton Church, was educated at Yale, graduating at the age of twenty-two, in the class of 1741, which was one of the famous classes of Yale's youth. Among his ck-ssmates were William Livingston, who became Governor of New Jersey; and the Rev. Drs. Samuel Hopkins, Samuel Buel, Richard Mansfield, and Noah Welles. Mr. Judd was ordained in the November after graduation and married Silence Sheldon, daughter of Captain Thomas Sheldon, of Suf field, previously of Northampton. They had four sons and three daughters. Airs. Judd died in October, 1783. Seven years later, in 1790, Mr. Judd married Ruth, the widow of the Rev. Adonijah Bidwell, of Tyringham. Mr. Judd died at the age of eighty- three, in the sixtieth year of his ministry in Southampton, on July 28, 1803, and his second wife died in her eighty-sixth year, in December, 1815. 344 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. In theology. Air. Judd was equally as liberal as was the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton. He was a member of the council that dismissed the Rev. Jonathan Edwards from the Northampton Church, as the result of Air. Edwards' " infallibil ity " pronouncement, which practically declared his grandfather, the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, whose successor he was, unorthodox, misguided and totally wrong. Air. Judd's successor was the Rev. Vinson Gould, who became his assistant, on August 26, 1801, on account of Air. Judd's fail ing health. In Mr. Gould's pastorate, new interest in education was aroused by the opening of Sheldon Academy, which was largely made possible through the generosity of Silas Sheldon. Had this institution grown, as did the Collegiate Institute, of Saybrook, the name of Shelden would be as well known in the educational world as is that of Yale. His gifts of money were as large as were Governor Yale's. All of his money was made on a farm, rather unproductive, by his personal labor and energy while Governor Yale's great fortune was partly an inheritance and partly his salary as Governor of the East India Company. The comparison is not to disparage Governor Yale's much needed generosity, but to emphasize Air. Shelden's magnificent muni ficence. His gift toward establishing the Academy was $2,500. Besides this, he gave in his life time, $1,000 to Amherst College; $1,000 to the Hampshire Education Society and many smaller gifts for other public purposes. Several young men were enabled to study for the ministry because of the money he loaned them and, having no children, he adopted several and gave them good educations. This interest in educational matters continued and increased through the generations that followed. While South ampton has remained a frontier, back-woods settlement, geogra phically, it is doubtful if any other town in the United States, similarly situated and of the same small population, has sent as many men to college and into the professions as has Southampton, where " nothin' didn't ever happen to write about ". The Rev. A'inson Gould, Mr. Judd's successor, was born in Sharon, Connecticut, in August, 1774. In 1795, he entered the sophomore class of Williams College and was graduated in '97. Then, for a )ear, he was in charge of the Sharon Academy, when hfc gave that up to study for the Church under the Rev. Dr. SOUTHAMPTON. 345 Backus, of Somers, Connecticut. From October, 1800, to June, 1801, he was tutor in Williams and then went to the Church in Southampton as assistant to the venerable Mr. Judd. Mr. Gould married Alindwell, the only daughter of Dr. Sylvester Wood- bridge of Southampton. It became evident that Mrs. Gould barkened to the admonition given by her parents at her christen ing — Mindwell — for she became well known all over the county for her extraordinary mental power and cultivation. Air. Gould was dismissed from the Southampton Church, on January 5, 1832, and then went to South Hadley, where he taught school. Mrs. Gould died in 1838, and he in 1841, in his home in Southampton. A home was a somewhat simple and primitive affair in the early days and for the first ten years the only home containing two rooms was Nathaniel Searl's. M,r. Searl had a typical Yankee family of nine sons and this is, no doubt, the reason why he indulged in the luxury of two rooms. For this reason, Mr. Searl's home was where the ministers stopped who preached in Southampton before the settlement of Air. Judd, and where the council, that ordained him, was entertained. The Searl and Edwards families are two of the oldest Hampshire families. The first of the family, John Searl, was one of the settlers of Spring field, where he died in January, 1642. His widow Mary (Bald win) Searl married Alexander Edwards, who moved from Springfield to Northampton and became the founder of the North ampton, Southampton and Westhampton Edwards families. Na thaniel Searl, of Southampton, was the great-grandson of John Searl of Springfield. It is an odd fact, that nearly 250 years later, a descendant of Mary Searl married a descendant of Alexander Edwards, both of Northampton. The men of Southampton who were in the Continental army were Captain Abner Pomeroy, Sergeants Gershom Pomeroy, Jacob Pomeroy, and Lemuel Rust ; Corporals Stephen Clapp, Samuel Edwards, and Ezekiel Wood; Ebenezer Geer, Obadiah Frary, Elisha Edwards, Stephen Sheldon, Roswell Strong, Darius Searl, Aaron Strong, Oliver Pomeroy, Joseph Bartlett, Elisha Bundy, Samuel Coleman, Silas Pomeroy, Gad Pomeroy, Noble Squires, and Phineas Searl. HADLEY. HADLEY bears about the same relation to Connecticut that New England bears to Old England, for it was settled as a place of refuge, where peace from religious troubles might be had. It is difficult to conceive of a more peaceful or charming situation for a valley settlement, than that chosen by Governor John Webster and the Rev. John Russell, and their followers, on the low, level peninsula where Hadley was founded. Hadley is bounded on the north, west and south by the Con necticut River, which makes a great bend there, and the village was laid out with the main street running north and south across this peninsula, either end of the street SWORD GIVEN TO CAPT. SMITH BY BURGOYNE. cndiug at the rivcr. After the surrender, Burgoyne stopped over night in ^ "^ Street IS 3. mUe tiie hospitable home of Captain Smith, in Hadley, Icn?" and '^22 fcCt on his way to Boston. o OOO feet wide, or twenty rods as the stipulation was. A green, or common, extends its entire length, through the middle, with a road on either side of the common and double rows of magnificent trees, mostly elms, between the roads and the houses. In 1659, Governor Webster and Air. Russell settled in Hadley. Governor Webster had thirty followers and the Rev. Air. Russell the same number, but the settlement was made by forty-two per sons, not all of the sixty going there. The majority of the settlers were from Hartford, the others being from Windsor andWethers- field. Air. Russell being the minister of the last named settlement. Professor Alexander Johnson says, in regard to the trouble in the Plartford Church, which was the cause of the settlement of Hadley : The first great church dispute, which rent the Hartford church, from i6.';4, to idSQ, has been so complicated with the names of the actors and with doctrinal points, that one who is not a profound theologian can hardly [346] HADLEY. 347 make anything of it. There are indications, however, that an explanation may be found in the effort to accommodate the original church and state system to the changing conditions of the people, and that the actors, how ever prominent, were merely floating on the surface of opposing currents whose nature even they did not understand quite clearly. Three points are of interest; the church establishment; the connection of church and state, or rather town ; and the changes in the people, with its effects. The first code of Connecticut, in 1650, required that all persons should be taxed for church as well as for state ; and the taxes for support of the minister, and for all other ecclesiastical purposes, were to be levied and collected like other taxes. So long as a trace of the establishment existed, even down to the adoption of the constitution of 1818, the connection with the civil power continued. The church society used the civil tax lists in levy ing its rates ; the conditions of suffrage in society meetings were the same as in civil town meetings ; and the penalties for voting by unqualified per sons were the same. The civil power collected the taxes for the church by distraint. If the church refused or neglected to support its minister, the general assembly settled the proper rate of maintainance and enforced it in the church ; and if a church remained without a minister for more than a year, the general assembly could name a proper amount for minis terial purposes, and compel the church to raise and expend it. * * * Considering the churches recognized in 1650, as established, the com monwealth forbade any persons to form a new church within the colony, without consent of the general court and the neighboring churches. The man, therefore, who, not being a member of one of the established churches, found himself within the territory of a church, was unable to vote in purely church matters ; but he was compelled to vote taxes and pay taxes for the support of a minister in whose call he had had no voice. From their establishment, the churches had been strict in regard to baptism, and their inquisitions into the personal experience of candi dates for membership were searching. As the numbers increased of those who could not respond to such inquisitions and were thus barred from the church, dissatisfaction must have increased with them. It often took the shape of complaints that the children of such persons were refused bap tism; but it may be suspected that the natural wish to share in the con trol of the church whose expenses they helped to pay, had a great deal to do with it. Either the right of suffrage must be restricted to church mem bers, or all voters must be let into the church. * * * In 1657, the general court called for a council of the New England churches at Boston, to consider certain propositions of the general court. The object of these propositions was well understood to be the widening of church-member ship. * * * It declared that baptized infants were bound, on arriving at years of discretion, to own the covenant and become formal church- members; and that the church was bound to accept them, if they were not of scandalous life and understood the grounds of religion, and was bound to baptize their children, thus continuing the chain of claims to church-membership to all generations. * * * it was commonly known 348 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. as the Half-way Covenant. * * * After the death of Hooker in 1647, Goodwin, the ruling elder, wanted Michael Wigglesworth as Hooker's successor ; and Stone, the surviving minister, refused to allow the proposi tion to be put to vote. The Goodwin party, twenty-one in number, in cluding Deputy Governor Webster, withdrew from the church ; the Stone party undertook to discipline them; a council of Connecticut and New Haven churches failed to reconcile the parties ; the general court kindly assumed tbe office of mediator, and succeeded in making both parties furious ; and finally a council at Boston in 1659, induced the Goodwin minority, now some sixty in number, to remove to Hadley, Mass. The Indian name for all this territory was Norwottocke, mean ing in the midst of the river. The Indian word given many dif- SITE OF REGICIDE HOUSE, HADLEY, ferent spellings in the old days perhaps survives as Alt. Nonotuck. The Mt. Plolyoke range was Petowamachu ; Alt. Toby, Kunck- quachu ; and Capawonk, was the Indian name of the lower Hat field meadow. On Alay 28, 1659, Captain P)nchon, Lieutenant Holyoke and Deacon Chapin of Springfield ; \\'illiain Holton and Richard Lyman, of Northampton, were appointed by the General Court to fix the boundaries of Hadley and to take charge of Town and Church work. The northern boundary w-as at Alt. Toby; the HADLEY. 349 southern, at the head of the falls south of Alt. Holyoke. The eastern boundary was a line nine miles east from the Connecticut, but the town never extended so far east as nine miles. The west ern boundary began at Mill River, in the present Town of Hat field, two miles west from the Connecticut, and extended north to Sugar Loaf Mountain, which the Indians called Wequamps. This portion of Hadley to the west of the Connecticut was set- ited by the Dickinson, Graves, Belding, White, Warner, Billings, Aliis, and Meekins families, from Braintree, Massachusetts. By the time Hadley was purchased from the Indians, property values had advanced in the Colonies. The rate paid for Hadley was higher per acre, than had been paid to the original owners by any New England settlers, up to that year. The money value of the articles given to the Indians for the land they sold was £150. Five years later, in 1664, land values had increased so much, that 700 acres in that portion of Hadley on the west side of the Connecticut — Hatfield — a portion of the Bradstreet farm, sold for £200, or £50 more than was paid to the Indians for the whole vast area comprising the Hadley purchase. The village was laid out very nearly as it appears to-day. The rich, low land along the river was called meadows, instead of flats, and were given names, instead of numbers, as was done by the settlers of Schenectady in the Mohawk Valley, which was settled at about the same time as Hadley. They were caHed; to the north. Forty-acre Meadow ; south-east. Fort Meadow ; south, Hockanum Meadow; west, Great Meadow, including the peninsula bounded by the mile's length of the village street and the great bend of the Connecticut River. The few lucky fishermen who have coaxed black bass from the "honey pot ", near the point of the peninsula, where the river bends and turns toward the south-west, probably do not know that this deep hole, where the big black bass hide from the hot sun as well as from man, was named more than 200 years ago bj' the first settlers. Over on the west side of the Connecticut (in Hatfield) were, Capawonk, a meadow at the south toward Northampton; Great and Little Meadows and Wequettayag, or the South Meadow^ which included an Indian reservation called Indian Hollow. 350 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. ^§ HADLEY. 351 Wequettayag and Capawonk were divided by Mill River and were frequently also known as Great and Little Pansett. Hadley began road making as early as 1667, when a cart path was made to North Hadley, then called Alill Brook. Roads were kept in reasonable repair up and down the river, that a com munication with Hartford might be maintained. There were Indian trails to Boston, over which a man could ride a horse, but there was no cart path or road. In fact, no wheeled vehicle made the journey between Boston and Hadley till the end of t'ne seventeenth century. The produce from the rich and fertile meadows was conveyed to Boston, by way of the Connecticut River and the Sound. After suffering from the inconvenience and, in the winter, the danger of crossing the Connecticut and the meadows, to attend Church in Hadley village, the people in that portion of the town lying on the west side of the river, petitioned to be set off as a separate town, and asked that they might have a Church of their own. The reasons they gave why this petition should be granted — in addition to the danger and hardships of the ferry — were, that the w/ork required in getting over the ferry was a desecration of the Sabbath, and that, when the weather and water were rough, it caused the women and children to " screech and unfitted them for the ordinances." And besides they said, it is necessary to leave some of the people at home " a prey to the heathen ". All of which were excellent arguments, and one house had actually been burnt by Indians, wdiile the men were all gone to Church across the river. The usual opposition by the other portion of the town was vigorous. The setting off of a portion of the town, with a Church of its own, added to the cost of maintaining the minister for each member of the opposition party. The matter was argued for three years and finally, in 1670, that part of Hadley lying on the west side of the Connecticut was incorporated and called Hatfield. The Rev. Hope Atherton, of Dorchester, Massachu setts, from whom the Greenfield Athertons are descended, was the first minister of Hatfield. His salary was £60 a year, payable in pork and wheat. Although the New Englanders were practical, hard-headed, unimaginative people, some of the superstition of the Old Country 352 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. still lingered with them. On September lo, 1674, two years before the raid upon Hadlc)- by Indians, when Goff's coolness and militar)- knowledge turned the day for the settlers, strange noises were heard, like the discharge of great cannon, and the earth shook so that ever)- body was terrified. It was believed to be an omen of disaster. Whether it was an omen or not, the disasters followed, terrible and tragic. The worst of them was the attack by 700 Indians while King Philip's War was in progress, on the morning of June 12, 1676, according to Barber. Plans for the attack had been made the previous day, by plac ing a portion of the at tacking party in ambush toward night at the southern end of the village. At daw-n the main body of the In dians began the attack from the north, and the settlers met them at the palisades. The Indians fought with unusual courage and succeeded in capturing a house at the north end of the street, and in burning a barn. They were soon driven back by the settlers with great loss, who fought as men do who are fighting for'their families and tbeir homes. The Indians then attacked several points at once and although they were met with courage and determination, so eager were they to capture the place, that, instead of followdng their custom of retreating when the fight was against them, they still pressed the settlers with unabated fury. Just as matters seemed the darkest for the settlers, General INDIAN TRAIL, HADLEY. HADLEY. 353 Goff, one of the regicides, a man of commanding and venerable presence, and an experienced soldier, came from concealment in the home of the Rev. John Russell, and revived the flagging energy and courage of the settlers. His knowledge of war gained in Cromwell's army made it possible for him to direct and place the settlers in such a manner that the best results could be ob tained. At about the same time that Goff took coramand, a cannon was discharged into the midst of the Indians which, com bined wdth Goff's coolness, had the effect of causing the Indians COLONEL ELEAZER PORTEr's HOUSE, END VIEW, to retire to a little distance. The purpose of the ambush at the southern end of the street, was the slaughter of the settlers when they should attempt to escape from the attack of the main body at the northern end. As the settlers fought, instead of trying to escape, the ambush amounted to nothing. This failure of their favorite mode of attack increased the discouragement of the Indians. The arrival of reinforcements, under Major Talcott from Northampton, just as the Indians withdrew, was most opportune. His force, joined with that of the settlers, attacked the Indians and drove them to the woods. 23 354 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. The men of Pladley were harassed and some were killed by Indians for several years after tins, and houses and barns were burned. In 1688, while Richard Church was hunting near Alt. \Varner, he was killed and scalped by a hunting party of Indians. The Indians were captured near Alt. Toby, tried by the Court, condemned and executed by being shot. This seems to have made Pladley very unpopular with the Indians, and although they mur dered and burned in neighboring settlements, they gave Hadley little or no trouble from that time on. _L1 1 l._l I H.\DLEY, BUILT IN I713. Besides the natural beauties of the village and its splendid street ; and that it was the secret home of \\'halley and Goff the regicides for many years ; Hadley is notable for being the place where the first Church was organized on the Connecticut River, north of Springfield, the Church in Northampton was not or ganized till the next )ear ; and wdiere broom corn was first made into brooms and where the first sc)thes were made. The Town voted to build a meeting house in 1661, but it was not finished till 1670. It was built on a low elevation — long since removed — HADLEY. 355 called meeting-house hill, near the north end of the -village. It contained 128 seats. The men were seated on the right of the minister and the women on the left. If this was done after the manner of separating the sheep from the goats, history does not say. A bell was purchased for a sum equivalent to $25 and was paid for in wheat, at three shillings a bushel. Before the church was built, the people met in one of the homes of the settlement, for worship. In 1676, Hadley had its curfew, or nine o'clock bell, rung every night of the year. This first church was worshipped in for forty-seven years. A committee was appointed consisting of Samuel Porter, Lieutenant Nehemiah Dickinson, Sergeant Daniel Marsh, Peter Alontague, and Samuel Bernard, in 1713, to take charge of the erection of a new church, in the middle of the town. Colonel Eleazer Porter (whose home built in 171 3, is shown in the pictures) asked and received permission to replace the old pulpit and sounding board wdth new ones, in 1739. On the north side of the church was a steeple, the first in Hampshire County. The assignment of seats was a very important business and by it the wealth, station and age of the individuals were fixed, or rather confirmed. This business of seating, and the placing of " Air." before a man's name, was the nearest approach to the various titles of the Old Country, that was to be found in the Colonies. The minister, the Rev. John Russell, was a member of the third class to be graduated from Harvard — 1645 — ^i^d ^ m2in of sound judgment, strong opinions and great moral courage. He did not fail to express himself as he believed duty demanded, because one or another of his parishoners might be offended by what he said. As a public speaker he was regarded with high esteem and in 1665, he was chosen to preach the " Election Ser mon " at Hartford. He was thrifty and even a good man of business, for he left his children the very considerable fortune of £830. The second minister was the Rev. Isaac Chauncey, of Stamford, Connecticut. Pie was a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1693, and a grandson of President Chauncey, the second president of Harvard. He was ordained about 1696. His salary was £80 a year and bis firewood, and the parish gave him twenty acres of meadow, and the home lot with the buildings on it that had 35^ THE CONNECTICUT J'ALLEY belonged to the former minister, the Rev. John Russell. Mr. t hauncey was possessed of a better education than his prede cessor. Air. Russell, but he was not so prominent, not so much a man of affairs in the town as was Air. Russell, probably be cause the times were more settled in his pastorate, less strenuous. Air. Chauncev's death occurred in 1745, in the seventy-fifth year of his age and the fiftieth of his ministry. The third minister was the Rev. Qiester Williams, of Pomfret, FINE SPECIMEN OF COLONIAL DOOR IN COLOXEL ELEAZER PORTER S HOUSE, BUILT IX 1713- Connecticut. Pie was a graduate of Yale in the class of 1735- and for two years after graduation was a tutor. His ordination took place in 1741. That he was a man of the finest courage was shown b\- his o]-)])osition to that ambitious, ecclesiastical auto crat, the Rev. Jonathan F.dwards ; that religious contractor who paved hell with the skulls of infants. Through his wife, the daughter of Colonel Eleazer Porter, Air. Williams became possessed of a considerable fortune. He was a man who was HATFIELD. 357 nice, and even elegant in his dress, and was said to ride the best horse in Hampshire County. The Rev. Samuel Hopkins, a graduate of Yale, became minister in 1755- He was a nephew of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards. As was frequently done in those days, when to be single was anything but to be blessed. Air. Hopkins married' the widow of his prede- JENNIE LYND ELM, HATFIELD. cessor. His ministry continued through fifty-four years, his death occurring- in 1809. It is an interesting fact that the first scythe ever made in the Colonies was made in Hadley. It was made by Benjamin Colt, the ancestor of the inventor of the famous Colt's revolver. HATFIELD. THAT portion of Hadley lying on the west side of the Con necticut River was the first of Hadley 's offspring to ob tain an independent existence by incorporation, in 1670. The situation of Hatfield made it easy of attack by Indians and, *358 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. as a fact, it was a great sufferer from them. Its first experience was in King Philip's War when, on October 19, 1675, an army of nearly 800 Indians made a descent upon that settlement from Deerfield, where they killed and destroyed to such an extent, that they thought to continue their success at Platfield. Several small companies of settlers, which were out scouting, bail been cut off from the settlement by the attacking Indians. The Indians then hurried to the village and attacked it from several directions, but they were met by Captain Poole and Cap- BIRTHPLACE OF FOUNDER OF SMITH COLLEGE (iN FOREGROUXD) AND HOUSE WHERE SHE DIED (IN background). tain Alosely wdio, wdth their companies, w-ere in the village. Cap tain Poole defended one end of the village and Captain Alosely held the center and then, just in time to turn the fight for the settlers. Captain Appleton arrived from Hadley with his company and defended the other eml of the village. But the Indians were not repulsed with ease. The fight was terrific while it lasted, for the Indians were full of confidence from their recent victory at Deerfield and so fought with unusual courage. When they HATFIELD. 359 realized that the day had gone against them, they fled with such ha.ste that many of them lost their arms, and their ammunition was ruined by the water while they were fording or swimming Mill River, across which they were driven by the victorious settlers. They succeeded in setting fire to several buildings be fore they were driven from the village, and in driving off some cattle and sheep. As it was just before dark when they were put to flight the settlers did not pursue them. The next attack was made by 700 Indians on May 30, 1676. MILL RIVER, HATFIELD. Across which tlie Indians were driven in the fight of October 19, 1675. This time they were more successful. While one party was at tacking the fortified houses of the settlement, another burned a dozen or more houses and barns and a third drove off nearly, if not all of the cattle. The loss of life and property wonld have been much greater, had it not been for the fine courage of twenty-five young men of Hadley who crossed the river and, fighting with a savagery that awed the Indians, broke through them and entered the village in time to render much needed as- 36o THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. sistance. Thus, a second time Hadley had saved its first offspring from destruction. In the same year Hatfield men took part in the Falls fight — Turners Falls — and Hatfield's first minister, the Rev. Hope Atherton, was the chaplain in that famous fight. He became separated from the soldiers after the fight and soon was lost in the forest. After wandering about till nearly worn out, he started to give himself up to the Indians, but they regarding him as a great medicine-man retreated before him and would not let him approach them. They knew enough about the settlements to know from his clerical dress that he was the " medicine-man " of the settlers, and the fact that he was seeking them no doubt filled them with fear, as they would naturally regard such ac tion as being due to his power to destroy, or in some way injure them, with his " bad medicine " The poor gentleman wandered about for a nuniber of da)-s, exhausted by fatigue and hunger. At last he came upon the river and follow-ed its course south to Hatfield, The people of the settlement were occupied on September 19, 1677, with a house-raising, when they were suddenly set upon by a band of fifty Indians who captured or killed about twenty of the settlers, two of the captives being Airs. Benjamin \\'ait and Airs. Stephen Jennings. Later in the year, a party set out for Canada to ransom the captives and after eight months absence they returned with nineteen of them. AMHERST. HADLEA' East, or Hadley Third Precinct, became the Town of Amherst in 1759, by incorporation. The Pre cinct had its first Church, and settled the Rev. David Parsons as its first minister, in 1739. The word precinct was an ecclesiastical term synonymous with parish. The land was divided among the proprietors of Hadlev, in 1703, by Captain Aaron Clark, Lieutenant Nehemiah Dickinson, and Samuel Porter, the Town Surveyors. The original highways, or roads, were forty rods wide — about 650 feet — but they were reduced in 1754, some to twenty rods and others twelve rods in width, and in 1788 to six rods. . Just when the first house was built is uncertain, but in 1703, AMHERST. 361 a man named Foote from Hatfield built a house of rough logs near the site of the meeting-house of the second parish. Foote was a hunter and trapper and he expected to make a living at his calling but failed to do so and finally moved away. The neighborhood where he built his hut was known for many years as Foote-folly Swamp. The Indian wars and their frequent raids, between wars, made it dangerous for any one to settle at any distance from the older settlements, so the Third Precinct, or Amherst, was not permanently settled till about 1727. There were eighteen settlers in 1731. They were, John and Jonathan Cowles, John Ingram, father and son ; Stephen, Aaron and Nathaniel Smith, Samuel Boltwood, Samuel Hawley, Nathaniel Church, John and Joseph Wells, Richard Chauncey, John Nash, Jr., Ebenezer Ingram, Ebenezer Scoville, and Ebenezer Dickinson. By 1760, Amherst had increased so greatly in population that it was larger than Hadley, and in 1790, its 1,200 inhabitants made it ju.st twice the size of Hadley in population. In 1734, when the settlement had increased enough for the in habitants to feel that they were entitled to be formed into a sepa rate parish, Hadley opposed it successfully through its representa tive, Captain Luke Smith, v/ho was sent to Boston for that pur pose. In the winter of that year the petition was renewed and granted with the understanding, that a meeting-house should be built and a minister settled (orthodox, of course) within three years. Hadley Third Precinct was seven miles long and two and three-quarters miles wide. In October, 1735, the people voted to build a meeting-house and settle a minister. The Rev. David Par sons, Jr., was the choice. He began to preach as Amherst's first minister in 1735, and was ordained in 1739. Mr. Parsons was a graduate of Harvard. The first meeting-house was begun in 1738, and was worshipped in before it was finished, in 1753. It was situated on what later became the site of Amherst College, not far from the Observatory. Amherst was greatly disturbed by bitter fights connected with religion. Mr. Parsons, the first minister, died in 1781, and was succeeded by his son, the Rev. Dr. David Parsons. Captain Ebenezer Mattoon and his followers strongly opposed his settle ment, and a year or two later the fight became so strenuous that thev left the Church and formed the second parish, at East Street. 362 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. AMHERST. 363 But this was not the first trouble, for when an attempt was made to fix upon a site for the first meeting-house it resulted in a quarrel ; nor was it the last, for when it was proposed to build the second meeting-house, just before the Revolution, " another fight was started, which jarred the foundations of the Church organization, of society, and started feuds between neighbors that lasted for many years. As the first meeting-house was too sniall for the congregation in 1 771, it was decided to build one larger, and the attempt to select a site was the beginning of the trouble. The first perma nent settlers had built their houses near the center of the present village. As all of the lots in that part of the settlement were soon occupied, the new inhabitants, who came along later, were obliged to build their houses on the outskirts of the settlement, toward the north and the south. It was not long before these settlements at the north and south contained more inhabitants than the center. The north and south-enders were keen politicians as well as church members. That they might benefit themselves at the ex pense of the older portion of the settlement in the center, they proposed to divide the District in two, by a line passing through the center from east to west. (A District was a town in every thing but the right to send representative to the Legislature. This was due to the King's fear of the increasing power of the Towns through their representatives.) Their idea was to event ually form each half of the divided District into a separate Dis trict or Town. In 1772, a majority voted to divide the District, and in 1773, it voted to build two meeting-houses remote from the center, but both were to be built at the expense of the whole Dis trict without regard to the division. This plan would have placed the greater portion of the expense of building the two churches upon the inhabitants of the center, and would have left them fur ther from the two churches than the inhabitants at the north and south ends of the settlement. Of the 120 property owners in the District a majority — seventy — were opposed to dividing the District and in favor of building the new and larger meeting-house at the center. And as only property owners could vote on such matters, the north and south-enders would have been in a deep hole had they not been 364 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. resourceful. In those two neighborhoods there were some twenty- five legal voters who were not property owners, and nearly all were sons of farmers. To them their fathers deeded small pieces of land and thus were they made eligible to vote upon the ques tion at issue, and so the majorit)' in the center became the minor ity. The onl)- resource of the people at the center was to petition the Legislature for a stay in the ])roceedings. The Legislature granted the petition and sent Artemus Ward, Air. Pickering and Colonel Bacon as a committee to investigate and report. This AMHERST COLLEGE. was in February, 1774. This action of the Legislature, and the war with Great Britain, stopped all further action in the matter. \ new meeting-house was built at the center in 1788. When the Colonies had decided upon complete independence, Amherst was found to bc well supplied with soldiers and oflficers of experience. These men had been trained to hardship and mili tary service in the Indian troubles at the beginning of the second half of the eighteenth centur)-. In 1744, in King George's War, the followdng men from Amherst learned to shoot to kill, to AMHERST. 365 bear hunger and cold without complaint, to know and fear danger and meet it with bravery and courage; with a hero ism that would have been impossible had they not known and feared it. They were ; Joseph Alexander, Ensign Solomon Bolt- w-ood, Sergeant Solomon Keyes, Corporal William Alontague, Corporal Joseph Hawdey, Hezekiah Belding, William Boltwood, Joseph Clary, Josiah Chauncey, Jonathan Dickinson, Ebenezer Dickinson, John and Samuel Ingram, Joseph Kellogg, Anson Smith, Peletiah Smith, David Nash, Eleazar Mattoon, Gideon Parsons, Reuben Smith, Eleazar Nash, Stephen Smith. In 1757, when Fort William Henry was besieged. Lieutenant Jonathan Dickinson and his company of sixteen men of Amherst, were ordered to help defend the western frontiers. In the expedition to Crown Point, in 1755, Sergeant Reuben Dickinson and five other men of Amherst w-ere in Captain Moses Porter's company. They were in the " Bloody Alorning Scout " of September 8, of that year, in Colonel Ephraim Williams' command. In this same expedition, Samuel Hawley and his three sons were in Captain Nathaniel Dwdght's company. Amherst was full of patriots wdien the Revolution broke out, and a few of her sons were loyal to their King and so proved themselves to be possessed of fine moral courage, for it requires the finest courage, when such a revolution is brewing and is ac tually being fought, to be on the unpopular side. Foremost among the patriots were Ebenezer Alattoon, Jr., and Nathaniel Dickin son, Jr. Among the Tories were the Rev. David Parsons, the minister ; Squire Isaac Chauncey and Lieutenant Robert Bolt- wood. Air. Mattoon was a man of cultivation and wisdom, who became Amherst's most distinguished son in public life. He was gradu ated from Dartmouth College in the class of 1776, and imme diately devoted his intelligence, his energy and his life to the in dependence of the Colonies. As Representative at the age of but twenty-one, and later as Senator in the Legislature ; as Member of Congress, Sheriff of Hampshire County, and Adjutant General of Massachusetts, he proved himself to be " the first among equals ", as Governor Treadwell .of Connecticut happily described the social and political condition of the typical New Englander. Of the same fine patriotism, intellect and energy, was Nathaniel Dickinson. He was graduated from Harvard in 1771, and im- 366 THE CONNECTICUT J'ALLEY mediately began to study law in the office of Alajor Hawley, in Northampton. At the expiration of his law studies, in 1774, at the age of twenty-four, he found himself in the midst of condi tions that offered greater opportunities for doing and accom plishing than had ever before, or have since been presented to the young men of America. " Nat " Dickinson's temper was as hot as his patriotism, and it was well for him, whose lack of patriot ism aroused Nat's temper ; to suddenly remember that he had an AMHERST COLLEGE (CHAPEL). appointment in an adjoining county, and to make all possible speed in keeping it. On one occasion, when the minister. Air. Parsons, was obliged to read a proclamation issued by the newly created State of Alassachusetts, which ended with ; " God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts", Air. Williams added: "But I say, God bless the King"; Air. Dickinson sprang up in his pew and shouted ; " I sa)- you are a damned rascal " Air. Dickinson was a delegate to the first Provincial Congress and also to the second, wdiich met in Cambridge, in February, 1775, and to the third, in Watertown, in the same year. He was SOUTH HADLEY. 367 a Representative in the Legislature in 1778, 1780, and 1783, but the Town Committees of Correspondence, of which he was a mem ber, gave him the best opportunities for the display of his uncom promising and fiery patriotism. In the offices of clerk, treasurer, assessor and selectman of the town he displayed excellent busi ness ability and careful, painstaking work. In 1781, he was gen erally known as " 'Squire Nat " because of his appointment by Governor Hancock as a Justice of the Peace. His death occurred in his fifty-third year, in 1802. Amherst's Committee of Correspondence in 1774, was composed of Aloses, Reuben, and Nathaniel Dickinson, Jr. ; Jacob McDaniels and Joseph Williams. There were just enough Tories in Amherst to make the patriots unusually suspicious and cautious. Josiah Chauncey had been commissioned as a captain of militia by Hutchinson, the Royal Governor, in 1773, and the Captain's patriot fellow citizens were not satisfied with his protestations of patriotism, until he had burned all Royal commissions, of every kind, which he had re ceived. This ceremony took place under a large tree with con siderable formality. As an educational center, Amherst has been notable for many generations. Noah Webster, the famous lexicographer, taught in the Amherst Academy, which he had helped to organize, and which was the beginning of Amherst College founded in 1821. In addition to the Academy and College, there was a seminary known as Alount Pleasant Institution. SOUTH HADLEY. IN 1 72 1, when a few families settled in South Hadley, having moved there from Hadley, the settlement was called the South Precinct, it being a part of the old Town of Hadley. For a number of years the people of the new settlement were obliged to travel six or seven miles, to Hadley, to attend Church. In 1732, the settlers had put up the frame for a church and the fol lowing year they voted to partly finish the building, that it might be worshiped in, but it was not finished till 1737. This meeting house was a tiny affair with only nine pews. The people were too few and too poor to have a bell, or even the customary drum for 368 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. calling the congregation to meeting, so a conch shell was used for that purpose. Later, as the number of inhabitants increased, a little gallery was added for their accommodation, and in 175c the church was too small to seat all the people so it was decided to build a new and larger meeting-house. There were many church-site fights in the old New England towns, but it is doubtful if any of them continued for thirteen years as did the dispute in South Hadley and even then it was only settled by calling upon a number of ministers to act as peace makers. After holding more than fifty meetings for the purpose of fixing upon a site, without success, it was finally decided to leave it to chance. Lots were drawn for the site and when the result was announced, that portion of the inhabitants which fa vored another site was still dissatisfied, so a council of ministers -was called. It was composed of the Rev. Dr. Stephen Williams, of Longmeadow ; the Rev. John Ballentine, of AA'estfield ; the Rev. Robert Breck, of Springfield ; and the Rev. Joseph Lathrop, of AVest Springfield. This council decided that the site chosen by lot must stand. The first minister of the Church was the Rev. Grindall Rawson, who was settled in 1733. The second minister was the Rev. John Woodbridge, who -was in charge of the Church from 1742, till 1782, and so was there during the dispute over the site. The falls at South Hadley were famous for the size and great number of the shad caught there, and w-as resorted to bv men from considerable distances. This made the business of inn keep ing profitable, as the fisherman, whether he is such for sport, food or profit, is proverbially thirsty and hungry. Samuel Smith kept the first inn in 1729, on the road to Spring field, north of the falls. The first inn in the district known as Falls Woods was kept by Elijah Alvord, in 1755. Alvord also had a warehouse at the mouth of Stony Brook, wdiere he carried on a considerable trade. Besides these inns, there were several others opened and all of them did a good business on account of the fishing and the transportation of produce and merchandise around die falls. As late as 1820. the Canal Hotel, on Front street at the falls, frequently provided dinners for from seventy- five to one hundred fishermen in a day. DEERFIELD. WHEN the people of Dedham, Alassachusetts, were at tacked by an irresistible desire to move from their homes in the east, to that far and fertile portion of the Colony in the Connecticut Valley, they sent out men of ex perience whom they trusted, to explore the country and find a place for the new settlement. These men explored carefully and finally chose that portion of the valley called Pocomtuck by the Indians, where Deerfield and Greenfield are situated. These explorers chose Pocomtuck because of the fertility of its soil and the great natural beauty of the locality, which combines meadows backed by uplands, and several individual, precipitous hills in the midst of the meadows. These hills seem like mountains be cause of their isolation from other eminences, and the consider able height which they attain. So, they chose their homes in the midst of great natural beauties, that are unsurpassed of their kind, and also upon a soil that has been famous for nearly three cen turies for its fertility. In 1669, the General Court, in Governor Bellingham's adminis tration, granted 8,000 acres of land at Pocomtuck, to the people cf Dedham. The proprietors met for the first time on March i, 1670, in Dedham, to make arrangements for the laying out of the grant and in 1673, the General Court incorporated the 8,000-acre grant as the Town of Deerfield which thus became the oldest town in Franklin County. The original territory of 8,000 acres ex tended from the north bounds of Hatfield to the Pocomtuck River — which became the Deerfield River when the incorporation took place. Additional grants were later made that included the territory which later became the Towns of Greenfield, Conway, Shelburne Falls and Gill. A deed for a part of the original grant was given, in 1665, by Sachern Chauk, of the Pocomtuck Indians, to William Pynchon, cf Springfield. Wequonock was the witness for his tribe. This deed had the usual provision, that the Indians retained the right 24 [369] 370 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY to hunt and fish, and to gather the natural products of the forest and fields, such as nuts and berries. The actual settlement began about 1670, the main street of the little settlement being laid out north and south, on the upland to the west of, and immediately joining the meadows, which ex tend down to the western bank of the Connecticut River. It is one of the most charming village streets in the valley. The situa tion of Deerfield was unfortunate in one respect. It was in the midst of an Indian country and its immediate neighborhood was REV. WILLIAMS HOUSE, DEERFIELD. a natural stronghold for the Indians on account of the high, pre cipitous hills, from the tops of which they obtained an extensive view of the English settlements. These same hills, Toby and Sugar Loaf, also served as look-out places, in time of trouble with other tribes. Deerfield was burnt and the people killed by Indians at different times, for so long a period as ninety years. The poptilation increased rather fast during the first four or five years, and when the first Indian attack was made, five years after the settlement, there was a well built village. King Philip's War began in 1675, and in September of that year an attack was made DEERFIELD. 371 and one of the settlers was killed, and a little later, another at tack was made upon the people as they were on their way to meeting, but nobody was killed. The settlers of all that portion of the valley were alarmed by these and other attacks by the Indians at other settlements and, as there were 3,000 bushels of grain stored in Deerfield, they decided to remove it to a place of greater safety. This duty was assigned to Captain Lathrop and about eighty of his men, who were stationed at Hadley. Captain Lathrop and his men, with a great number of carts SITE OF PATRIOTS' LIBERTY POLE. drawn by oxen, passed over the fifteen miles between Hadley and Deerfield in safety, and loaded the grain upon the carts. They started on their return to Hadley, on September 18, 1675. The first three miles of the return was over level ground that was heavily wooded. At the southern end of Sugar Loaf Mountain the road passed through a swamp, which was covered by a dense thicket, and across Bloody Brook — now Muddy Brook. Although the march had been through conditions most favorable to an 372 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. ambush by Indians, Captain Lathrop did not take the precaution oi sending out scouts to give warning of an ambush, or the I)resence of Indians. As a matter of fact, 700 Indians had secreted themselves in the thicket at the place where the swamp road crossed Bloody Brook. The Indians permitted the soldiers to cross the brook, and when they halted, to allow the teams to catch up with them, the Indians made their attack. They first fired a volley upon the soldiers causing the greatest consternation and confusion. Before the soldiers had time to recover in the slightest degree from their dismay, the Indians rushed in for a hand-to-hand fight. The large nuniber of the Indians made it possible for them to attack the bewildered soldiers from all sides, at once. The soldiers, adopting Indian tactics, took to the trees and rocks and shot carefully and only when a human target was in sight. Captain Lathrop and his men fought desperately, but the greater number of the enemy made the result a certainty from the first. Captain Lathrop was killed early in the fight and when it was over, seventy-three of his soldiers had been killed, and about sixteen of the men with the teams. Of the whole number under Captain Lathrop but seven or eight escaped, to give an account of the disaster. Captain Mosely and his company, who were stationed at Deer field, hearing the firing, hastened to the scene of the fight only to find the Indians slaughtering the wounded and stripping the dead of their scalps and clothing. Alosely and his men made a des perate attack upon the greatly superior number of the enemy and for several hours held them off, and finally made it so hot for them that they were forced to hide in the swamp and woods. It happened that Alajor Treat, of Connecticut, was on a scout along the river with one hundred men consisting of English, and Mohegan and Pequot Indians. As soon as he heard the noise of the battle he hastened with his men and arrived in time to take part in the final utter defeat of the Indians, who scattered in all directions. Incredible as it may seem, when the great number of the Indians is considered. Captain Alosely lost but two men and only seven or eight were wounded, while between ninety-five and one hundred Indians were killed. In the report of the fight Lieutenant Savage and Lieutenant Pickering were especially men tioned for their coolness and bravery. DEERFIELD. 373 Toward night. Major Treat and Captain Alosely returned with their men to Deerfield and camped for the night. The next morn ing they returned to the scene of the fight to bury the dead. Later in the day after the fight, the Indians returned to Deerfield and attempted to intimidate the soldiers by whoops and the dis play of the bloody scalps and clothing of the men they had killed. At this time there were but twenty-seven men in the fortified house, but the officer in command made signals to make it appear that a large force was but a short distance outside of the village. CAPTAIN JOHN SHELDON S HOUSE. One of the chief points of attack by the French and Indians on the morning of February 29, 1704. and in addition, he and his men shot so straight and so rapidly that the Indians believed a much stronger force was within the fort than was really the case, so they withdrew without attacking. Not long after this the soldiers and the settlers left Deerfield for Hadley, whereupon the Indians returned to Deerfield and destroyed the settlement. In 1677, the General Court ordered the return of the garrison and of the settlers, that the village might be rebuilt. They obeyed 374 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. the order, but several of the settlers being killed by Indians the place was again abandoned and the little work of rebuilding they had been able to do was undone by the Indians. In tbe spring of 1682, the settlers again returned to Deerfield and rebuilt the village, and for ten or eleven years they were left in comparative peace and quiet. In 1693, the second period of Indian attacks began and con tinued till 1704. They culminated in the expedition sent out by Governor Vaudrieul, of Canada, under the command of Alajor de Rouville, who had 200 Frenchmen and 142 Indians. It is rather odd that the conditions were so nearly exactly the same as were those when the French and Indians attacked and destroyed Schenectady, New York, fourteen years earlier, in 1690. At this time, the attack was made in the midst of winter with several feet of snow on the ground and the cold most intense ; conditions which caused the garrison at Schenectady to become careless in its watchfulness, because it was believed that it would be impos sible for an attack to be made from Canada at that time of the year, with the snow so deep and the cold so intense. Another point of similarity between this attack upon Schenectady and that upon Deerfield in 1704, was the statement made by the French commander in both instances, that had the garrison been reason ably prepared, and had it made even a weak defence, the French would have been obliged to surrender, for thev w-ere nearly perished from cold and hunger. As a full account of the destruc tion of Schenectady was sent to the Governors of Connecticut and Alassachusetts — as well as to those of New Jersey and Pennsylvania — it is strange that Deerfield should have allow-ed itself to be caught in a similar trap by the French. The attack upon Schenectady took place in the night of February 8 and 9, 1690 ; that upon Deerfield, in the early morning of February 29, 1704. When de Rouville and his army arrived at Deerfield they found the garrison asleep, with no guard or sentinels on duty. The ground was covered wdth snow to a depth of four feet or more, and the snow was covered with a crust strong enough to bear the weight of the attacking army. The snow- being so deep, the\- were able to easily climb the palisades. When the)- had distributed themselves all over the village the attack was made upon the DEERFIELD. 375 sleeping soldiers and inhabitants. The chief difference between this affair and the one at Schenectady was, that once they were awake the inhabitants of Deerfield fought for their lives and their homes desperately, while in Schenectady, the only inhabitant who made a desperate and successful defence of his home, was that fine specimen of a Dutchman, the hero of " 1690", A.dam Vroo- man, who made it so hot for the French that they granted him an unconditional surrender. The part of the village where the attack was made in 1704, CAPTAIN JOHN SHELDON'S HOUSE, DEERFIELD. contained within the palisades about twenty acres. Some of the houses within the paHsades were built in the form of blockhouses with the spaces between the timbers filled with brick to make them bullet proof, and with loop holes in the sides and through the floor of the overhanging second story. In addition there were " mounds ", which were built of massive hewn timbers, from the tops of which a watch could be kept — but on this sad occasion was not kept — and from which a strong defence could be made. When the door of the house of the Rev. John Williams was 376 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY forced he fired at the first Indian with his pistol, but the flint did not spark and he was immediately overpowered and kept standing in the intense cold, in no other covering than his night shirt. Two of his children and a female slave were killed, but Airs, \^'illianls and the five other children were permitted to dress. At Captain John Sheldon's house they met with a stubborn re sistance. The eneniy was unable to force the door, so a hole was cut in it with a tomahawk through which Airs. Sheldon was killed as she was getting out of her bed. The Captain's son and his BLOODY BROOK, SOUTH DEERFIELD. wife hoped to escape by jumping from a window, but young Mrs. Sheldon sprained her ankle so badly that she could not walk. Woman-like, she persuaded her husband not to remain for them both to be captured. He finally consented to leave her and fled through the woods to Hatfield. Young Airs. Sheldon was taken to Canada, wdience she returned to her husband after thirty months of captivity. Captain Sheldon's house was used by the French as a place of confinement for their prisoners, so it was not set on fire till they were about to leave. It was saved from being burnt by the set- DEERFIELD. 2,77 tiers who had escaped and returned as soon as the French with drew. One of the settlers who was confined in the Sheldon house was a man named Bridgeman. He managed to reach the attic without being seen, where he hid himself under a quantity of bark, but he was found by the Indians. Bridgeman made another attempt by following the Indians to the cellar and secret ing himself behind the cellar door, but as the last of them was passing up the stairs he followed, as he feared they would kill him should he be found in the second attempt to escape them. Just as the French were leaving the place a young Indian ap proached Bridgeman and deliberately cut off one of his fingers. But this did not end his adventures. Loitering in the rear when the march began, he watched for an opportunity and made a dash for the town, but he was shot and seriously wounded as he was at the top of the hill near the fort. This fort, by the way, was a smaller one about sixty rods to the south of the larger one, where the attack took place. It probably escaped capture as the enemy had enough to do with the main portion of the village, and. by the time they had subdued the larger fort, day was dawning and they feared to stop longer on account of possible reinforcements. Soon after' the French and Indians had left the desolate settle ment, all of the settlers who had escaped and a few who had arrived from Hadley and other places, followed the retreating French and made a vigorous attack upon them, about a mile out of- the village. So desperate was their attack that the French commander, fearing they would be hampered by the prisoners, sent an Indian to tell the guard to kill them all. The Indian was shot before he reached the guard and the odds being too great the attacking settlers withdrew, and the necessity for killing the prisoners no longer existed. The night after the march toward Canada began, the French and their captives camped on the bluff where the village of Green field was later built. Sometime in the night one of the captives, named Alexander, escaped. In the morning the French com mander instructed the Rev. Mr. Williams to tell the prisoners, that if any more escaped all of the others would be burnt to death. On the second day of the march Mrs. Williams, the wife of the minister, who had but a few weeks previously given birth to a child, became exhausted. In her weakened condition the Indians 378 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. regarded her as too much of a nuisance so she was murdered. The Rev. Mr. Williams and four of his children were eventually ransomed, but his daughter, Eunice, who was ten years old at the time of the capture, remained in Canada. She married an Indian and, what was much worse in the estimation of her friends, became a Roman Catholic. Although she visited her relatives in New England on several occasions, they were never able to induce her to remain, or to give up Romanism. One of her grandsons was educated at Longmeadow, Alassachusetts, and be came a missionary to the Oneida Indians. KING Philip's seat, south deerfield. On February 29, 1704, Deerfield contained 280 inhabitants, including women and children, while the French had 342 fight ing men. The odds were irresistible and the fight was soon over, but at one of the fortified houses the few defenders held the enemy off for several hours till it was finally set on fire. Of the 280 inhabitants, 112 were captured and 47 were killed. Nine teen of the captured were murdered on tlie march to Canada and two, David Hoyt and Jacob Hix, died of starvation. Of the 91 survivors of that terrible journey to Canada through the snow and DEERFIELD. 379 cold, 62 were ransomed after two years and a half of captivity and 29 never returned. There is a tradition that one of the causes of the attack upon Deerfield, with its murders and torture, was due to Roman Catholic superstitution. The priest of the St. Regis Indians had induced them to provide sufficient furs for the purchase of a small bell for the mission, in which the French taught them the gentle art of saving their souls, by murdering and torturing their fellow Christians of a different creed. The ship in which this bell was being brought to Canada was captured by a British cruiser and, with its freight, was sold in Salem, Massachusetts, to provide the prize-money for the captors. The bell was bought at auction and eventually reached Deerfield, where it was hung in the tower of the little Church. That a Holy Catholic bell should call those heretics to their mock worship of the Creator was more than that gentle Father of St. Regis could bear, so he persuaded the St. Regis Indians to offer their services in an expedition against the heretic settlement that they might thus recover the bell. The good Father recovered his bell and incidentally, no doubt, his children of the forest saved themselves many of the pains of Purgatory by dashing out the brains of heretic infants and by the murder of Mrs. Williams, the wife of the prime heretic. The only part of this that is not tradition is, that the bell was captured, that it was sold and hung in the Deerfield Church ; that the French and their good friends and fellow Romanists, the Indians, burnt Deerfield and murdered its inhabitants ; that they rescued the bell from the heretics and took it with them on the march as far as Lake Champlain, where it was hidden and removed to St. Regis in the following spring. Besides the two great tragedies of Deerfield, when the village was destroyed by fire and many of the inhabitants killed or taken as captives to Canada by the Indians, the people were harassed by Indians for about ninety years, as has before been said. While the actual number killed in the many attacks by small parties of Indians, and the number of buildings burnt, were not large in any individual instance, the total was considerable and the terror in spired was great and constant. The following is a fair sample of the kind of warfare that was kept up by the Indians during those trying ninety years. 38o THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. In the last week of August, 1746, Samuel Allen and his daughter; two brothers named Amsdell, a soldier named Gillet, from Connecticut, and Eleazur Hawkes, Jr., were making hay in a field on Mr. Allen's farm, when a band of about forty Indians attacked them and killed the five men and frightfully crushed the skull of Aliss Allen, who was tomahawked on both sides of her head. The inhabitants of the village, hearing the shooting hastened to the lot and drove off the Indians, one of whom was killed and one seriously wounded. Aliss Allen was still alive STEBBINS HOUSE, DEERFIELD. and was carried to the village. Aldiough so frightfully injured she lived, but was always an invalid and was much disfigured. A curious effect of her injuries was, that after recovering, the odor of liquor alwa)'s caused her to faint. Aliss Allen was living as late as 1804. The body of the Indian who had been killed was thrown into a pond in the hope that the settlers would not find it. They did, however, and removed its scalp. Lieutenant Alehuman Hinsdell, who was the first white child born in Deer field, in 1673, had an exciting and varied experience as an Indian fighter, and was twice captured by them. He escaped, or was ransomed, and finally died in his home, in Alay, 1736. GREENFIELD. NOTWITHSTANDING that the New England settlers prided themselves upon their devotion to the stern un beautiful realities of life and religion ; that they tried to eliminate from their lives an appreciation of all that was beautiful, in nature and art, as an evidence of their faithfulness to the Church they had crossed three thousand miles of ocean to build up and maintain ; the fact still remains, that the inherent love for, and deep appreciation of, the beautiful dominated the hearts and minds of the men who chose the site of Greenfield for their future homes. It is difficult to imagine a site more charming for a settlement than the bluff upon which Greenfield is situated, above Green River, that winds through the meadows to empty into the Deerfield and so with the Connecticut. Pro tected from the east winds by a high range of cliffs, and on the north and west by hills that nearly reach the altitude of moun tains, and to the south the beginning of the meadows, the situa tion is nearly ideal. Alen who were capable of choosing such a lovely spot for their homes proved, by so doing, that they were utterly incapable of crushing out the inherent love of Jehovah's exquisite handiwork. That their shell of reserve had cracked and was torn away is shown by the words of the men who went out to select a place for settlement, to those who had remained at home. " Providence led us to that place. It is indeed far away from our plantations, and the Canaanites and Amalekites dwell in that valley, and if they have any attachment to any spot on earth, it must delight them to live there." For people who worshipped God by fearing Him, this burst of admiration for the natural beauties of Greenfield and the valley to the south means more than all the prose and verse that has been written about it since that day, when the God-fearing Con gregationalists forgot themselves and became God-loving human beings, and champions of the beautiful in Nature. Greenfield was originally part of the Town of Deerfield, which is the oldest settlement in Franklin County. The General Court [381] 382 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. of Alassachusetts granted to a company of men in Dedham a tract of 8,000 acres at Pocomtuck, and a later grant included the territory within the bounds of the present Town of Greenfield. Nathaniel Brooks was probably the first settler of Greenfield, in 1686, when he was granted twenty acres on the Green River, which the Indians called, Picomegan, meaning the boring river. Later in that year, grants were made to John and Edward Allyn and Joseph and Robert Goddard, on condition that they should live on the land for three years after their coming of age ; that they pay taxes and their proportion of the price paid in the pur chase of the land from the Indians. These were the conditions of all the grants. In the following year, 1687, grants of twenty acres each were made to Jeremiah Hall, Ebenezer Wells, Samuel Smead, Phillip Mattoon, Nathaniel Cooke, both of the Allyns and both of the Goddards. About this time the lots on the street were owned according to their numbers as follows: Beginning at the west end, on the south side of the street, Ebenezer W'ells, i ; David Hoyt, 2 ; William Brooks, 3 and 4; Edward Allyn, 5. On the north side, from the west end were ; Samuel Smead, i ; the Alill lot, 2 ; Joshua Goddard, 3; Robert Goddard, 4; John Severance, 5; Jeremiah Hall, 6 ; John Allyn, 7. There can be nothing that more strongly emphazises the almost entire lack of money, in the form of coin or bills, than the record in 1695, that the Deerfield Town rate was made payable in pork and corn, good and mer chantable. Attention was paid to the education of the children at an earlier date than in some other river towns. There w-as no compulsory education in those days by Legislative enactment, but a Town law was passed that was about the same in effect. It was, that the fathers of children between the ages of six and ten were com pelled to pay toward their " schooling " whether they attended school or not ; under six and over ten years of age, they only paid for actual attendance. Another interesting fact shown by this Town law was, that the elders believed that the youngsters had accumulated a sufficient education for all practical purposes by the time they were ten years old. This early age was no doubt fixed upon through necessity. The community was small and the work of clearing the land and cultivating crops, and of spinning and weaving was so great, that every available pair of hands GREENFIELD. 383 was an absolute necessity. At the age of ten the boys could re lieve their older brothers and their fathers of the " chores " about the barn and the house, and the girls were even more helpful in the housework and the work having to do with the spinning and weaving. In this same year, 1698, the greater value of oxen over horses for farm work, was shown by the taxable rate fixed upon stock that was in every way perfect. An ox was valued for taxing pur poses at £6, a horse at £3, and a cow at £2, and inferior specimens of each variety were rated lower but in accordance with this ratio. For nearly two hundred years after that date, oxen were more highly prized for farm work and logging than horses, in New England, especially in the hih-towns. There are still portions of New England in which the slow, sure-footed oxen are more valued for heavy work than horses. For taxing purposes swine — not being fattened — were rated at ten shillings and less, ac cording to age and quahty, and sheep at five shiUings and less. In 1699, grants were made of thirty acres to Samuel Root, Joseph Petty, Martin Kellogg, John Severance, Zeb Williams, and Alichael Mitchell, on the Green River, and Alitchell was also granted four acres for a homelot, the homelot being in the village. The destruction of birds was not considered an offence in those days. There is little doubt, had anyone suggested that the time would come when men would be fined and imprisoned for killing birds, that his neighbors would have considered him as being a little queer. There was a Town law requiring every householder to kill twelve blackbirds in the summer of 1699, and for each bird less than that number, not killed, a fine was imposed. For each bird killed in excess of twelve, there was a small bounty paid by the Town. The bounty paid for dead crows was four pence. There are parts of New England in 1905, where a fine of five dollars is imposed for killing crows. Another odd law, because it had to do with the height of the animals about which the law was made was, that swine fourteen inches high, found on the commons, should be liable to be impounded and their owners fined six pence per head, and that the owners should also pay a certain quantity of grain toward the support of the school master for that year. In the winter of i738-'39, the people of Green River petitioned the Town of Deerfield for permission to be set off as a separate 384 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. parish, but the petition was refused. A petition was again pre sented in 1743, and this time the desired permission was granted, but for some reason not stated in the records, the Green River people did nothing about it till 1753, when the Town of Greenfield became incorporated. At a Town meeting held on July 3, 1753, the following men were elected to office. Moderator, Benjamin Hastings ; town clerk, Benjamin Hastings ; selectmen and assessors, Ebenezer Smead, Samuel Hinsdell, and Daniel Nash ; treasurer, Eben Arms ; constable, Benjamin Hastings; tithingmen, Nathaniel Brooks and Shubael Atherton; fence-viewers, James Corse, Jonah Smead, and Ebenezer Wells ; surveyors-of-highways, Amos Allen and Ebenezer Wells ; deer- reeve, Aaron Denio ; hog-reeves, James Corse and Amos Allen ; sealer-of-weights-and-measures ; Joshua Wells ; sealer-of-leather, Benjamin Hastings ; field-drivers, Thomas Nims and Gad Corse ; committee on preaching, Daniel Graves, Daniel Nash, and Aaron Denio. These were the first officers of Greenfield. It is an interesting fact, that while the people in those days killed birds by law if they were destructive to crops, they were equally practical in protecting animals whose flesh and hides had value. That was the duty of the deer-reeve. So far as can be found from local histories of towns on the Connecticut River, south of Greenfield, this was the only town with a law regulating the hunting of game, as early as 1753. Two months after incorporation and the election of officers, the important duty of calling a minister was taken up. The people voted, that August 16, 1753, should be observed as a day of fasting and prayer, as a preliminary to that important event. After advising with the Revs. Edwards, of Stockbridge ; Hopkins, of Sheffield, and Williams, of Long Aleadow, the committee in vited the Rev. Edward Billings to come to Greenfield as the minister of the Church. Air. Billings accepted in what was one of the shortest letters of acceptance that had been written up to that time. It contained less than one hundred words. Air. Bil lings was born in Sunderland, Alassachusetts, and was a graduate of Plarvard. There was slight opposition to him at first, as he was a follower of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards in the matter of Qiurch membership, as opposed to tbe more liberal views on the same subject maintained by the Rev. Solomon Stoddard. Air. Bilhngs GREENFIELD. 385 was something of a politician, as well as very much of a minister, for he saw lo it that the council was packed with ministers who were followers of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, and in fairness it must be confessed, that the other side had attempted the same thing, the leader of the opposition, a Mr. Ashley, of Deerfield, taking wdth him a half dozen delegates who were Stoddard men. The Edwards men showed their superior political acumen by voting in council, that the voting for and against Mr. Billings should be by Churches instead of by individuals, so Mr. Ashley's delegates had no vote in the matter and Air. Billings was ordained. The opposition seems to have accepted defeat gracefully, for Air. Billings remained as minister of the Church up to the time of his death, a few years after his ordination. The precise date when he died is not known, but it must have been before Decem ber, 1760, for in that year, the Rev. Bulkley Olcott was called, but did not accept. In August, 1761, the Rev. Roger Newton was called and began his pastorate on November 18, 1761. He was born in Durham, Connecticut, and was a graduate of Harvard. He was a man of tact and wisdom, and was possessed of qualities which attracted the affections, as well as commanded respect. Although the parish was divided in respect to the Edwards and Stoddard Schools of Congregational doctrine, Mr. Newton's wisdom, for the fifty- six years of his pastorate, was such that entire harmony existed in the Church. Air. Newton married Abigail Hall, daughter of Timothy Hall, of Middletown, Connecticut, in August, 1762. He died at the age of eighty, in 1816, and his wife's death occurred in 1805. Air. Newton kept a diary, not only of his daily acts, but also of his thoughts. Extracts are given because of their interest in showing that men's thoughts and acts differ but little from one century to another. Read the Monthly Alagazine for June, and several papers from the printer of New York, I found little in them either profitable or enter taining; * * * but I think there might be a great saving to the people without any injury, by diminishing the number of Printers, This emphasizes very strongly the fact, that conditions change very little from one generation to another ; that the men of those " fine old days ", as they are now regarded, thought and did very 25 386 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. much as men think and do now. In 1790, there were not as many publications in the entire world as are now issued in New York or London and \et, a typical, liberally educated man of 1790, was convinced that there were too many publications, just as the same type of liberally educated man knows it to be a fact in 1905. The only difference between then and now, or a thousand years ago and now, is one of comparison. One often hears very religious persons lament " the good old days ", and especially the highly religious manner in which Thanksgiving day was observed in them, but another entry in Mr. Newton's diarv dispels this fiction and shows that men and women have not changed in 115 years. Nov. 25, 1790, Thanksgiving Day, * * » » * -phe day spent among us as usual, in visiting and recreations. Air. Newton must have been a very liberal minded minister; one of those who loved God instead of " fearing Him ". Indeed his diary shows this to be a fact. On this same Thanksgiving, which was spent in the usual i\.'a\, a Aliss R. refused to attend the dancing party in the evening, because she thought dancing wrong. In commenting upon it Mr. Newton says : But in my own mind I conceive of dancing being au innocent diversion in itself, though usually carried to excess and attended with unbecoming behavior. An entry of December 19, 1792, shows that spirit of helpful ness ; of community of interests ; of all living for one and one for all, that was a striking characteristic of New England. The home of Eliel Gilbert was burnt to the foundations that winter and ¦wdthin a few hours voluntary subscriptions, for himself and his family, amounted to £100. This is but a specific instance of the kind of great-heartedness that obtained, from one end of the Con necticut Valley to the other ; all over New England, for that mat ter. When it is remembered that very few families in the smaller settlements had more than enough for themselves ; that they were generally poor in everything except the nobler qualities ; the sacri fice necessary for the raising of a sum of £100 in a hamlet of less than sixty families and at a time when, in proportion to the entire population of New England, there were fewer fam ilies which possessed a dollar in cash than now possess one hun dred, may be appreciated. GREENFIELD. 387 The change of sentiment in America in regard to Russia, since ninety-nine years ago, is shown by the entry of February 24, 1806. In the evening read the New York Herald and was glad to find that it confirmed that victory turned in favor of the Russians, in that great battle of the 2d, 3d and 4th of Dec. last. From the earliest days, Greenfield was in a territory that was harassed by hostile Indians. Many of the inhabitants were killed and at all times the dread of Indians was ever present. The women were provided with loaded muskets, and by practicing they acquired considerable skill with them, as more than one Indian found to be a fact. This frequency of trouble from Indians may have been caused by the fact, that the site and neighborhood of Greenfield had been the resort of Indians, for a longer time than the Indians had traditions reaching back to. In the first place, Greenfield was at the northern end of the great meadows which extended south to Mounts Tom and Holyoke ; it was also at the southern end of a series of very high hills, and near the junction of the Green, Deerfield and Connecticut Rivers, which abounded in shad and salmon, while the meadows and hills were alive with game which furnished food and valuable fur-pelts. It was a sort of " Happy Hunting Ground " for the Indians before death. On account of the familiarity of the men with Indian warfare, they were dead-shots and fearless. Hence, when the war for In dependence occurred, they were entirely ready and glad to offer their lives, their courage and their markmanship to the Cause. The response of the men of Greenfield (and the women too) to the call that was sent forth over the American Colonies by the first shot fired at Lexington, has been so quaintly and stirringly told by David Willard, who wrote seventy years ago, that it is given here. It was immediately proposed that Thomas Loveland, the drummer, should take a station on the horse-block, under an elm at the south side of the common, and beat the long roll for volunteers. It was accordingly done, and sounded far and wide among the woods and fields. The officers of the company. Captain E. 'Wells, Lieutenant Allen, and Ensign J. Sever ance were there, but stood aloof, dissuading from the adventure as savoring of treason and rebellion against the Government. They had not made up their minds to join the patriot cause. (As a matter of fact there were hundreds of militia officers holding royal commissions, who held aloof at first, not because they lacked patriotism or courage, but because they feared by their example to urge the people into rebellion. But after the people 388 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY had chosen a war of rebellion rather than submit to injustice and tyranny, many of these officers gave full sway to their suppressed patriotism and became rebels.) But the long roll of Thomas Loveland had done its work. There was an overwhelming majority for the contest. 'We can see their eager, anxious, determined countenances, and significant, animated ges tures. The cautious advice of their respected and beloved officers, hitherto li.sfened to with respect, and obediently followed, was now no more re garded than the passing breeze, or the twittering of the swallow, or the crickets' nightly song. Upon the first beating of the long roll, first and foremost stoi)d out, that hardy, industrious and bold yeoman, Benjamin Hastings, a William Wallace in intrepidity and determined bravery. Who so daring as to come next and risk the halter? It were difficult to say; the whole mass was in motion * * * * Xhe assembled townsmen vol unteered almost to a man. The long roll of Tom Loveland and the ex ample of Hastings, were electric and contagious. We have no captain to lead us to avenge the blood of our slaughtered brethren. Who shall it be? Benjamin Hastings, said one; Benjamin Hastings, said every one. It was by such a spirit as actuated this indi vidual that the most glorious revolution recorded in history w-as accom plished. * * =K * * Daybreak of the morning ensuing found them on their march to Cambridge, Stouter hearts never buckled on a knapsack or a broad sword, or handled a musket, or fought at Thermopylae. Xo braver men fought at Bunker Hill, at Bennington, at Yorktown, How could hireling Hessians expect to conquer such a people, contending for their homes, liberty, wives, children and friends? They had mothers w-ho sat up through the night to fry nut-cakes for the wants of their husbands and sons on the march, and to run bullets to be used to destroy their enemies ; mothers who practised firing at marks and watched the forts in Indian wars, with a gun on one side and a spinning-wheel on the other, while their men-folks were putting the sickle to the harvest. They tthe mothers] were not of the, don't meddle -with that gun Billy, stock. The officers who declined going to Cambridge were among the fi.rst in respect ability and esteem in the town. No one thought of passing Captain Wells without uncovering his head in token of respect. But he and others thought it madness to attempt, in the then feeble state, impoverished means and small population of the colonies, to resist the soldiers of the mother coun try. They did not, however, lose the respect and confidence of their townsmen, \Mien Sergeant Benjamin Hastings was chosen as the captain of the company, he did the same thing that John Fitch, the in ventor of the steamboat, did at about the same time, down in Xew Jersey. Sergeant Hastings refused to take command of the com pany because that office belonged, by right of exj-ierience and title, t and soon he was followed by a few other settlers, but the breaking out of King George's War caused them to abandon the place. Another attempt to settle the town was made in 175 1, but the Indian attack on Charlestown, New Hampshire, caused it to be again abandoned, some time in 1754 or '55. In 1761, a per manent settlement was effected and ten years later, in 1771, West minster was the largest town in eastern Vermont, so far as popu lation was concerned. The early history of Westminster was not materially different from the other neighboring towns, until the beginning of the period immediately preceding the Revolution. On March 13, 1775, Westminster was the scene of one of the most exciting incidents of that distressing and frenzied period, and the murder of William French by Tories was the first life sacrificed in Vermont, in defence of the principles which culmi nated on July 4, 1776, in the Declaration of Independence. The Courts at this time were still officered by " King's men " and justice was administered ( ?) by Tory judges, in Vermont — as the territory concerned became later — but the people felt that they could not longer trust their interests and themselves to the kind of justice dealt out by the enemies of the Colonies. Ver mont at this time was under the jurisdiction of New York. The County Court was to convene on March 14, 1775, in West minster. The Patriots were so greatly excited that trouble was feared should the court convene with a King's Judge on the bench. Sometime before March 14, forty Patriots, of Rockingham, 28 U33] 434 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. went to Chester, the home of Judge Thomas Chandler, to urge him ncit til attend the ctiti;-i!ite .IS SET-HtREat-r.. ¦,-'': CtTlUNS OF c.harl'e^towh W!tH THE CO-OPERATfffN ffPTHE. tINlOfi HiSTORICAi-SBCIETYOP,' CHARLESTQvy.S. N.H. SPRINGFIELD VT-. SOC lET* OF :Ct)LpNMt,fWAfiS' . K THE STATE ar-NEw "mfflPSHiRE' to MARK THE SiJecE'tKEi- - OLD FOPT^BUttl -W'.:!74.3' ¦< stm fHE.t:50i:lJSiteRs?iM If "^^^ 'fAA AT CHARLESTOWN. a year to have his grain ground into meal. Chariestown was also the trading center for all this great territory. Charlestown became an important military center in the Revo lution. So far as furnishing men for the Continental Army is concerned, at the beginning of the war the town was reasonably patriotic, but not up to the average of the towns on the river in iMassachusetts and Connecticut. In 1775, but twenty-two men out of 116 between the ages of sixteen and fifty, were m the armv from Charlestown. In one Connecticut town — Wmdsor 448 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. Locks — the heads of every family but one in the town were in the Continental Army at the same time. The men who composed Charlestown's Committee of Safety were Samuel Hunt, William He)wood, Abel Walker, Samuel Ste-ens and Elijah Grout. As a military center, the town was a State depository for military stores, with Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Hunt custodian and Elijah Grout distributing commissary. It was also a recruiting station. Later on, so many of Charlestown's men were taking part in the war that it was difiicult to obtain men to do work of any kind. Charlestown did not have a settled minister till fourteen years after the settlement in 1740, but there was occasional preaching. This was probably due to the unsettled conditions caused by the French and Indian War, rather than to indifference in the matter of worship on the part of the inhabitants. The first minister was the Rev. John Dennis, of Ipswich, Massachusetts, a graduate of Harvard, in 1730. He was ordained on December 4, 1754. From 1737, to 1749, he had served as chaplain in the army. After a few months more than a year. Air. Dennis was dismissed for cause. The second minister was the Rev. Bulkley Olcott, a descend- ent of Thomas Olcott, one of the early settlers of Hartford, Con necticut. Air. Olcott was a graduate of Yale, in the class of 1758, and was ordained over the Charlestown Church in Alay, 1761. He was not only a studious, well educated minister, and an agreeable companion in society, but he was also one of the strongest champions of Charlestown's temporal prosperity. His wife was Martha Pomeroy, a daughter of Colonel Seth Pomeroy, of Northampton. His death occurred in June, 1793. The Rev. Dan Foster, who had settled in Charlestown and had opened a school there, was the principal supply of the Church from 1796, till 1809. SPRINGFIELD. THE first settler of Springfield was John Nott, in 1752, on the meadows, where he built a log house. It is possible and even probable that this John Nott was a descendant of Sergeant John Nott, of Wethersfield, Connecticut, the first American ancestor of that family. In the following year he was joined by Daniel, Jacob and Oliver Sartwell; Combs House, Oliver Farnsworth, Joseph and Samuel Douglass ; Noah Porter, Nathaniel, Simon, Sr., and Simon, Jr., Powers. It is believed that they made their pitches on the ridge near the Stoddard Tower. As settlers, they were such in the primitive meaning of the word for they had no title to the land by purchase or grant, but were what was later called squatters. They, however, made an effort to obtain a title from Governor Wentworth, of New Hampshire, and later, after the New Hamp shire grants had been turned over to the jurisdiction of New York by the King, they petitioned the New York authorities for titles, but nothing was done for them in either instance. But they were not easily driven away from the land they had reclaimed from the wilderness, and made valuable by their energy and labor, ©n the contrary, they defended their homes and nearly all of them later became permanent settlers. The first charter of Springfield as a town was given by Gov ernor Wentworth on August 20, 1761, to a company of pro prietors, nearly all of whom were residents of Northampton, Massachusetts. The territory granted was six miles square, on the west bank of the Connecticut River. Joseph Little was the only one of the original proprietors who settled in Springfield. The meetings of the proprietors were held, and ah business of the town transacted, in Northampton for the first three years. The records are complete from 1761, to September 3, 1764, when they cease till August, 1771. This last meeting, of August, 1771, was held in Springfield, with the proprietors — Simon Stevens, John Barrett, and Abner Bisbee — present to transact business for 29 [449] 450 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. themselves and the other proprietors. The town was divided among the proprietors by lot. In 1762, they elected Gideon Lyman, of Northampton, to act for them in ejecting any person not a proprietor whom he found occupying and improving land in the township. Encouragement for those who should make improvements was offered in 1763, by a vote to give to any person who should build a sawmill, twenty acres of the undivided land, but the building of the mill and its site had to be in accordance with the approval of a com mittee appointed for that purpose. The individual was required to keep the mill in good repair, to retain his ownership; and he was loaned a " set of mill irons " for fifteen years, on condition that they should be kept in repair and be returned to the Town at the expiration of fifteen years. The records of the meetings of May, 1763, and Alarch, 1764, are not pleasant reading, for it was voted to raise money for the ejectment of John Nott — the original settler — and Nathaniel Powers, at the first meeting and at the second, it was voted to allow Gideon Lyman four shillings a day for thirty-nine days, for ejecting the two settlers named. Judging by the number of days required for their ejectment, they must have put up a stiff fight. There was as little sentiment in those days as there is now, when money, or its equivalent, was to be considered ; but it really seems a pity that the man who first opened the territory was not permitted to retain possession of the little land he required for his home. By 1771, the inhabitants of the town had organized a town government and were managing their affairs with success and wisdom. On July 20, 1764. the King and Council fixed upon the western bank of the Connecticut River as the boundary between New York and New Hampshire, and by so doing mixed matters greatly. The governor of New Hampshire had made many grants of land, to the west of the river, but after the fixing of the boundary by the King, the Governor of New A'ork not only claimed jurisdiction over the territory, because of the King's act, but he also claimed that the western bank of the Connecticut had always been the boundary between the two Colonies and so, of course, the grants made by the Governor of New Hampshire SPRINGFIELD. 451 were worthless, from the point of view of the Governor of New York. -But the people of the New Hampshire Grants had views of their own on this subject. The Northampton proprietors of Springfield, petitioned to have their titles confirmed and Sir Henry Moore, the Governor of New York, seemed disposed to grant their request, but be fore he did anything in the matter, he was succeeded by William Tryon who granted the land to Richard Morris and Colonel John Barrett, who had presented a similar petition after Gideon Par sons the representative of the Northampton proprietors, had pre sented his. The first Church and first school of Springfield came into existence in the same year, 1773, and in the same building, the home of Joseph Little, but it is probable that religious meetings were held before that year. It appears that the Church did not have a minister in 1773, for Hezekiah Holmes read sermons, probably written by some one else. Because of his sermon reading Air. Holmes was called by his neighbors " Bishop ". The early records seem to be lacking or very vague for, while £56 due the minister was appropriated in 1779, no mention of his name is made. At the same meeting at which this appropria tion was made, the people voted to settle the Rev. James Tread- way. He was born in Colchester, Connecticut, and was gradu ated from Yale in the class of 1759, and preached in Alstead, New Hampshire, from 1773, to 1777. In 1777, Mr. Treadway went to Vermont and probably to Springfield, but there is no record of his pastorate. There seems to be no doubt that he ceased preaching in Springfield in 1780, for in May, 1781, the people voted to raise money for preaching and to secure a minis ter. A vote was also taken to fix upon a site for a meeting-house. l!i July of the same year, the people voted to give the Rev. John Foster a call and to pay him a salary of £45 a year for two years, and to increase the salary by £5 a year tih the sum of £65 was reached. The Churches of Claremont, Charlestown, Lebanon, and Rockingham, were called as a council to organize the Spring- fi.eld Church. The Revs. Bulkley Olcott, of Charlestown, and AEigustine Hubbard, of Claremont, with their delegates, formed the council which met on October 3, 1781. The Rev. Mr. Olcott drew up the Covenant and the Church was organized with a 452 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. membership of eight men and eight women. They were, Lemuel and Thankful Whitney ; Newcomb and Abigail Bourne, Simon Stevens, Samuel and Ann Cobb, Abigail Barnard, Sarah Draper, Lucretia Burge, Simon Spencer, John Barrett, Asher Evans, Hannah Walker, Isaac Smith and Betsey Tower. Mr. Foster did not remain long after that important event. The war with Great Britain, and another war between the people in regard to the location of the proposed meeting house, were so greatly disturbing to the little community that there is little information in regard to preaching and ministers till after 1788. The Rev. Abishai Colton preached in 1788 and '89. Air. Colton was born in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, in 1761, and was gradu ated from Yale in the class of 1783. His death occurred on Jan uary 12, 1823. Air. Colton was given a call to be the settled minister but refused it. From 1789, till 1792, the Rev. Thomas Russell and the Rev. Benjamin Stone officiated. Air. Stone was ftillowed by Elder J. Watkins, a Baptist minister. Then followed the Rev. Joseph Prince, and the Rev. Stephen Williams, in 1796; then the Rev. Nicholas B. Whitney, who was invited to become the settled minister, but his terms were not satisfactory ; and the Revs. Messrs. Stoddard and Remington, in 1799. This makes it seem that the Church was in a very disrupted condition. At this time the salary of the minister was raised, by tax on the grand list, from £45 to £100 a year. In 1800, the Rev. Robin son Smiley preached as a candidate and the next year he became the settled minister of the Church, his ordination taking place on September 23, 1801. Mr. Smiley was born in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, on April 19, 1771, and was graduated from Dart mouth College, in 1798. " Father " Smiley, as he was called bv his people, was a man who saw the bright and beautiful side of life, before and after death. He was sociable, refined and pos sessed of a keen wit which he used, upon occasions, to silence his adversai;ies. It was his custom to bow smilingly to the congrega tion as he entered the church, and after the benediction the con gregation would remain standing, while Father Smiley passed out, bowing with the same courtly manner. One prayer of the service was usually a half hour long, and the people were required to stand while this long petition was being made. An example of SPRINGFIELD. 453 his ready wit and appreciation of humor was strikingly shown one Sunday after meeting. He had preached a powerful sermon upon •'' Woridliness ", which seemed to fit one of the parishioners so closely that he was much stirred up about it, so he determined to give the minister a dig. As they passed out of the church he said to " Father " Smiley : Yon preached a very excellent sermon to-day Mr. Smiley, and I am obliged to you for it, but wouldn't you better take a little of it for yourself? Oh, most of it, most of it, but what little I do not take, I hope you will make good use of. " Father '' Smiley was as fond of the good things of this life as was any one of his parishioners, for he believed they were Divine blessings, but he strongly disapproved of the abuse of these blessings. It is rather odd that, although the Church had been organized for twenty years, " Father " Smiley was its first regu lar minister. The second minister was the Rev. Eldad W. Goodman, who w^as born in South Hadley, and was graduated from Union Col lege, in the class of 1820; and the third was the Rev. Oliver Alorton. Air. Morton was born in Winthrop, Massachusetts, and was a graduate of Aliddlebury College in the class of 1812. In Mr. Morton's pastorate the new meeting-house was built and 290 persons joined the Church. Mr. Morton was the father of Hon. Levi P. Morton, former Governor of New York, and Vice-Presi dent of the United States. In 1795, there was a Universalist Church; and a society of Freewill Baptists in 1787; in 1801, the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized; in 1803, there was a Baptist Church in North Springfield. Springfield's first school was in 1773, in the home of Hezekiah Holmes, in which the first Church meetings were held, and Miss Sarah Stevens was its teacher. The second school was in Eureka. It was buih in 1794, and Mr. Coffin was its teacher in 1795. This schoolhouse was situated on the corner opposite the present school building. While there is reason to believe that there were societies formed soon a>fter 1800, - for the purchase of books, for entertainment and instruction, there is no record of anything of the kind before 454 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 1819. Such persons as were interested in the institution of a library met in the home of Colonel Aloses Fairbanks, in 1819, for the ]5urpose of organizing a library association, under the act of the Legislature of November 6, 1800. On January 12, the society adopted the name of the Springfield Central Library and on January 18, the by-laws were adopted and the officers were elected. Vermont Lodge, No. 17, F. and A. AI. of Springfield, received its charter from St. Andrew's Grand Lodge, of Alassachusetts on November 10, 1781. This was the first lodge in the State of Vermont. The first meetings of this lodge were held in Charles town, in New Hampshire. This was no doubt due to the fact that thirty-five New Hampshire towns on the east side of the Connecticut river in New Hampshire were admitted into the State of Vermont, in 1781. This union was dissolved seven years later and Vermont Lodge was moved to Springfield and became No. i. Colonel John Barrett, who held the office for several years, was elected the first master of A'ermont Lodge, on December 18, 1781'. In 1795, the lodge was moved to Windsor and when the anti-masonic feeling was strong, in 1831, it w-as suspended. In 1850 the lodge was revived and was given No. 18 instead of No. i. Roger and James Bates and James Alartin were among the prominent members before 1788. Jesse Sanderson was the proprietor of Springfield's first store, which he kept at the Ferry, in 1788. The chief source of profit was obtained from the sale of liquor. There was a store in Eu reka, in 1790, kept by Ashabel \\'ells, who was succeeded by Jo seph Selden. This store was on the road from Boston to northern Vermont and a large business was done in it. In the same build ing with the store was the tavern, jail and court. Other early stores were those kept by Michael Lincoln on the Common, in 1800; Goodwin & Lynde, on the Common, in 1803; Daniel Lock- wood, on " Ginnery" Hill, in 1804. The first doctors were ; Dr. Samuel Cobb, whose home was in Eureka, in 1781, where he practised till his death in 1806; Dr. Samuel Brown, also of Eureka, lived on the Streeter farm in 1789. In 1806, he built a house in Springfield and moved from Eureka to it. The Hon. Jonathan H. Hubbard was the first lawyer, in 1790. SPRINGFIELD. 455 He moved to Windsor and became justice of the Supreme Court. The Windsor County Court was organized in 1782, with Judge Joseph Marsh presiding and Lewis R. Morris clerk. The Record of the Times was Springfield's first newspaper. It was started in 1834, and was published by Horatio W. Houghton. At the same time, his brother Horace Houghton published a paper in Castleton, Vermont. One side of this paper was printed by Horace and then sent to Horatio who printed the other side. The brothers Houghton were the originators of the " patent in- sides " with which every country paper, and many small city papers, are to-day supplied. Springfield's first Post Office was established in 1817, with the Hon. S. W. Porter, its postmaster. He was postmaster from November of that year to July, 1828, and his remuneration for those ten years was the munificent sum of $847.03. The historical military road known as the " Old Crown Point Road", connecting the Connecticut River, at Springfield, with Lake Champlain, by way of Otter Creek, was begun in 1759. The making of this road was a great undertaking but it paid well for it opened interior, western and northern Vermont to settle ment, as well as provided a means for troops to rapidly reach Lake Champlain, the great water-highway to Canada. WEATHERSFIELD. ALTHOUGH differing in orthography, Weathersfield in Vermont was named for AVethersfield in Connecticut, the early settlers of that part of the Connecticut River Valley in \ erniont being from Wethersfield and neighborhood. The situation of the Vermont town is fine and the surrounding scenery is a mixture of the beautiful and grand, and that the first settlers chose it for the little village is but another of very many instances, that the Yankee settlers had an appreciation of natural beauties as well as for fertile and easily worked soil. In the vicinity are the Connecticut River and rich meadows. To the north is Alount Ascutney, rising abruptly to a height of more than 3,000 feet and just west of it is its diminutive offspring — Little Ascutney — a partially isolated peak of 1,200 feet elevation. To the west are the lower heights of Pond Hill and Black Hill, and Black Alountain. The grant of the township was made by Governor Benning Wentworth, on August 20, 1761. The usual Wentworth reserva tions were included, such as a large tract of land for himself, and other tracts for the Church of England, the first minister, etc., and the provisions of the charter were similar to those of other towns. When the town had a population of fifty families there were to be one or two public market-days in each week, and fairs could be held ; proprietors were required to cultivate five acres of each fifty they owned before the expiration of fi\e years from the date of the grant, and for each successive five years; all of the gigantic pines which were plentiful in the forests, were reserved for masts for the Royal Navy. For cutting them without a special license, there was a heavy penalty. Near the center of the town, land was reserved for the village wdiich was laid out in town lots, or home-lots, as thev were generally called. The tax for the first ten years was one ear of corn. After ten years, every land owner was required to pay a tax of one shilling for each hundred acres owned. Many of the proprietors were from New Haven, Connecticut, [456] WEATHERSFIELD. 457 and Northampton, Alassachusetts. Among them being Enos, Benjamin and Stephen Ailing ; Thomas and Joseph Trowbridge ; John Alix, Silvanus Bishop, John Pierpoint, Joseph Wooster. Of the Bradleys there were, John, Jr., Phineas, Josiah; of the Lymans, Gideon, Daniel, Sr., and Jr., Phineas, Elijah, Phineas (of Hadley), Naomi, John, Jr., George, Elias; of the Wrights, Silas, Reuben, Elnathan, Ephraim, Jr., and Bildad ; of the Thomp sons, Abraham, Jacob and Joseph ; Wiseman Claggett, and Ben jamin Sheldon. The proprietors held their first meeting in the home of Daniel Lyman, in New Haven, on September 16, 1761. At this meeting Samuel Bishop, Jr., was elected clerk and treasurer. Phineas Bradley, Abraham and Joseph Thompson, of New Haven; Phineas Lyman, of Hadley; and Silas Wright, of Northampton, were appointed a committee to view the property and lay out the town. Benjamin Ailing spent some time in Weathersfield, in 1764, for the purpose of making roads. He made three miles of roads there, but he did not make a settlement at that time. There was no actual, permanent settlement effected in the town till 1769, when this same Benjamin AUing with Moses Ailing, Aaron Blakslee, William Rexford, and Gershon Tuttle settled in the southern and the eastern portions of the town. From the time of this first settlement till after the Revolution, the growth in popu lation was very slow. In 1772, Joseph Douglass, Timothy Park- hurst, William Richardson, Eliphalet Spafford, Dan Tuttle, Benoni Tuttle, Asa Upham and Captain William Upham become inhabitants. In 1773, they were joined by Christopher Brockett, Israel Burlingame, Edward Grannis, Hezekiah Grout, Tucker Hart, Oliver Kidder, John Marsh and Amos Richardson. Grout settled in the western portion of the town where his wife was cap tured by Indians and taken to Montreal and after three years of captivity was ransomed. Grout, Burlingame and Kidder became two of the most prominent men in the welfare and prosperity of the town. In 1774, William Dean settled near the foot of Ascut ney. He was from one of the Connecticut settlements. Either through ignorance of, or in defiance of the law, he cut down some of the great pines reserved for masts for the ships of the Royal Navy, and was arrested and taken to Albany, New York, where 458 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. hi: case was disposed of. In the years from 1775 to 1780, there were but five new inhabitants. They were Asaph Butler, Abra ham Downer, Samuel Lewis, Levi Stevens and John White. Butler and Stevens were on the first board of selectmen. Between the years 1780, and 1784, the increase in population was, in comparison, rapid. Among those who took a more promi nent part in the public life of the town and the state were Waters Chilson, Ambrose Cushman, John Bennett, Edward Goodwin, C^liver Chamberlain, Thomas Dunphy, Thomas Hutchins, Josiah Hatch, Joseph Hubbard, Oliver Diggins, Daniel and Josiah Dartt, Abijah White, Nathaniel Stoughton, Stephen Steel; Clark, David, Henry and John Tolles ; Samuel Newton, Joseph Alason, Daniel Graves, Colonel Elijah Robinson, Thomas Prentice, Gershom Clark, Captain John Williams, Joseph Joslin, Gideon Lyman, Daniel Babcock, Asa Field, Samuel Cummings, David Polk, John Hill, Elijah Cady, Amos Boynton, Gideon Chapin, David Paulk, Benjamin Warner, Samuel Sherman, Jonathan Nye, Colonel John Boynton, and Levi Field. Chilson and Joseph Hubbard were Weathersfield's first Justices of the Peace. In 1781, Goodwin owned and operated the only gristmill in the town. Dorcas, daughter of Eliphalet Spafford, one of the settlers of 1772, was the first white child born in Weathersfield. The first Town Aleeting was held in the home of Garshom Tuttle, on May 11, 1772. 'Squire Stevens who issued the warrant for this meeting wrote the date — " nth Alay Ana- dominy, 1772 ". When George III decided that the New Hampshire Grants (Vermont) were within the jurisdiction of New York, Weathers field was more fortunate than some other towns for the Governor of New York, because of petition from the inhabitants of Weathersfield, granted the territory to them. This was practi cally a confirmation of the original grant from \\'entworth and saved the inhabitants of Weathersfield from the land grabbing habit acquired by tbe " Yorkers ". Wdiile the surveyors and agents of the " Yorkers " were dispossessing some and trying to dispossess all of the original proprietors, settlers and inhabitants, Weathersfield settlers were not troubled because of the New York grant they had received. It was but natural therefore, that when the people of the vast territory (which the ignorance and partial- JVEATHERSFIELD. 459 ity of Great Britain's German King, George III, had given to New York) known as the New Hampshire Grants proposed in 1777, to organize the Grants into a new and independent State, the people of Weathersfield voted to remain within the jurisdic tion of New York, until the proper authority had annuHed the authority and jurisdiction of New York. Weathersfield's greatest population was in the decade beginning with 1820, when it was 2,301, but before 1830, there was a de crease which slowly continued to the present time. From the year of the settlement down to 1785, the people of Weathersfield, who wdshed to attend Church, were obliged to cross the Connecticut River to Claremont, New Hampshire, with the few exceptions on which the Rev. James Treadwell preached in Weathersfield, from 1779, to 1783. In 1785, the Rev. Dan F'oster became the first settled minister in Weathersfield. His salary was £45 yearly, to be paid, one-third in cash and two- thirds in beef, pork and wheat. His salary was to be increased £5 yearly till it amounted to £75, and it included his firewood or, if he preferred, £5 extra yearly in place of the wood. The Town placed a penalty of £100 upon itself in case it did not live up to its agreement with Mr. Foster. A parsonage was built in that year at an expense of £60, but there was no meeting-house till several years later when the first one was built at Weathersfield Center. Mr. Foster was minister till 1799, and on February 10, 1802, the Rev. James Converse was ordained. The Converse family originated in Navarre where the name was spelled Coigniers. The first member of the family to go to England was Roger de Coigniers, toward the end of the reign of William the Conqueror, as ic shown by the records in Battle Abbey which was built by William. The Rev. James Converse was of the twenty-second generation from Roger, who was ap pointed Constable of Durham Castle by William. The name was Anglicized in spelling to Conyers and finally to Convers and Converse. In the troublous times between the Romanists and Protestants, the Coigniers family were Huguenots. At the massacre on St. Bartholomew's day, 1572, Pierre Coigniers, see ing his kinsman, the famous Protesant, Admiral Coligny mur dered, fled to England and settled in Essex. The first American ancestor of the family was Deacon Edward 46o THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 9 Converse wdio was born in Wakerly, England, in January, 1590. He came to America in one of the ships of Winthrop's fleet, in 1630, and settled in Charlestown, Alassachusetts. He died in Woburn, Alassachusetts, in August, 1663. The General Court of Alassachusetts, granted to Deacon Converse a monopoly of the first ferry between Boston and Charlestown. Deacon Converse was a selectmen of Charlestown from 1635 to 1640. He was a member of the Commission appointed to settle Woburn, Alassa chusetts, in w hich town he settled and was a selectman, from 1644 to 1663, the year of his death. He was one of the founders of the Congregational Church of Woburn and one of its deacons. Deacon Edward Converse's son. Ensign James Converse, was prominent in the military affairs of Alassachusetts ; his grandson was Joshua ; his great-grandson was Joseph — whose daughter married Levi Mead and so became the grandmother of Larkin G. Alead ; and his great-great-grandson w-as the Rev. James Con verse, minister of the Weathersfield Church. The Rev. James Converse was born in Bedford, Alassachusetts, on July 26, 1772. He was a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1799, and studied for the ministry in Rindge, New Hampshire, under the Rev. Dr. Seth Payson. He was ordained as minister of the Weathersfield Congregational Church, on February 10, 1802, and continued as minister of the parish till his death, on January 14, 1839. Air. Converse was married twdce. His first wife was Alehitable Cogswell, daughter of William Cogswell, of Alarlboro, Alassachusetts, -vhoni he married on June 17, 1802. Mrs. Converse died on April 10, 1810. His second wife w-as Charlotte White, whom he married on January 18, 1813. Air. Converse was a Representative in the A'ermont Legislature in 1819, and he served as State Chaplain for one term. A sawmill was built in the hamlet called Amsden, on Alill Creek, in 1782, by Levi Sterns; and a few years later, a saw- and grist mill was built by a man named Culver and improved later bv Joseph Spafford. In Weathersfield village, Captain John \\\\- liams built a gristmill, in 1798, which he sold to his son, J. R. Williams, and Nahuni Duncan, in 1805. From about 1800, down to 1825, Weathersfield Center, where the first Church was organized, was a busy, prosperous little vil lage, but as time went on, the railroads and the better oppor- WEATHERSFIELD. 461 tunities elsewhere for making money depopulated the Center — just as similar causes depopulated many charming and prosperous Yankee villages — till now it is hardly a hamlet. In 1789, the Legislature granted permission to John Hubbard to manage a lottery, that he might raise thereby the sum of £150 for the erection of a brewery. In 1791, a similar act permitted Hubbard and Abraham Downer to have a lottery to raise £200 more for the brewery. CLAREMONT. ABOUT ten years before the settlement of Claremont, a hunter and trapper of fame in his line, named Eastman, left the Town of Killingworth for a long journey up the Connecticut River in search of fur-bearing animals. At Sugar River and its tiny tributaries, in Claremont, he found beavers and otters in great numbers. Eastman extended his trapping as far as what is now Newport, and returned to Connecticut with a large number of valuable skins. He gave a glo.wing description of the country and of the rich harvest of pelts that could be ob tained there, to his fellow townsmen and after disposing of his pelts returned to the same locality for more trapping, but he was never heard of or seen again. His skeleton was found near Alink Brook, however, by some of his Killingworth neighbors who had gone to Newport to settle. It was believed that he had been killed by Indians who were jealous of his success as a trapper. The first settlement was made in 1762, two years before the charter was granted, by David Lynde and Aloses Spafford, and at different times in the following five years a few other home- makers joined them and cleared land and built very primitive cabins of logs in the warm months, and returned to their homes when the cold weather set in. The greater number of these clear ings were made in the western portion of the town, along Sugar River, which was so called from the great number of sugar miaples upon its banks. Claremont was granted by Governor Benning W^entworth to Josiah Willard, Samuel Ashley and sixty-eight other men, in 1764, and like the other grants made by Wentworth, there were reservations of land for himself; for the Society for the Propaga tion of the Gospel in Foreign Parts ; for the Church of England ; for the first minister to be settled, and for education. Nearly all of the proprietors were non-residents. Of the seventy to whom the land was granted only Samuel Ashley, his son Samuel, and Oliver Ashley became inhabitants. The pro prietors offered inducements to settlers in 1767, and as a result [462] CLAREMONT. 463 some families came to Claremont from several Connecticut towns, chiefly from Farmington, Hebron and Colchester. By 1769, the first settlers, and those who foHowed them and had made clearings and built rude cabins, did not return to their homes for the winter months. They had so far progressed with their clearings and the building of substantial loghouses, that they sent for their families. The first wedding in Claremont was that of Barnabas Ellis and Elizabeth Spencer. The minister, the Rev. Bulkley Olcott, came from Charlestown — which was settled twenty-two years before Claremont — and as there was no road between the two settlements, the bride's brother acted as the minister's guide and also as the bearer of some new rum for the occasion. Being the first wedding, it was an event of great im portance in the lives of the settlers. The marriage took place in the largest of the log houses — a pretentious affair for those days as it included three rooms and a chamber under the roof — with the entire population present. Major Otis Waite in his admirable, exhaustive and very entertaining history of Claremont, gives the following description of this first wedding : The guests were seated upon benches, stools, and blocks of wood. In front of the happy pair was a stand upon which a Bible, hymn book, and a full tumbler of the beverage provided. The pardes being in order the minister approached the stand, and with becoming dignity took up the tumbler — of rum— and after a generous sip of its contents, said: "I wish you joy, my friends, on this occasion." A chapter from the Bible was read, a hymn was sung,— the minister reading a line and those present singing each line as read. The marriage knot was then solemnly and duly tied, a long prayer offered and the ceremony was complete. Then followed toasts, jokes, and merriment, interspersed with black-strap. Barnabas Ellis became one of the most prominent men of his day. In civil life he filled, with credit to himself and satisfaction to his fellow townsmen, several offices. In the Revolution he was a lieutenant and was with Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, in 1775, and took part in the Battle of Bennington, in August, 1777. His farm was on Town Hill and is still owned by one of his descendants. ' One of the settlers who came from Farmington, Connecticut, as a resuh of the inducements offered by the proprietors in 1767, was Benjamin Tyler, a typical Connecticut Yankee, whose in- 464 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. genuity was unlimited. He could do, and did do, nearly every thing from his share of populating New England to mending a broken gun, building and running a mill and serving as a town official. Being a millwright, the proprietors gave him the water- power on Sugar River and two acres of land for a mill yard, on condition that he build a mill and maintain it for ten years. Benjamin Tyler was born in Wallingford, Connecticut, in Feb ruary. 1732, where he married Alahitabel Andrews, and later moved to Farmington, where his seven children were born. In the spring of 1767, he came to Claremont and in the summer fol lowing he built a dam on the river at West Claremont, which later became the site of the Jarvis dam. This was the first mill dam in the town. In the spring of 1768, having returned to Farmington, he started on an ox-sled over the snow and the ice on the Connecticut River, with his family and household goods for Claremont. While on the way to Claremont he was honored by his future fellow townsmen by being elected as one of the selectmen. The Tylers were snow-bound for several days at Alontague, Massachusetts, and that fact demonstrated his ingenu ity referred to, as he paid for the board and lodging of himself and his family at the tavern in Montague, by making a pair of cartwheels for the landlord. In the summer of 1768, Air. Tyler built a gristmill and a sawmill on the north bank of Sugar River, and then began to grind grain for the settlers in Claremont and for many miles about, the grists being brought to his mill on the backs of the farmers. He also sawed lumber and built, or super intended the building of, many of the first framed houses and barns in the town. The house he built for himself was the largest in town at that time. The early settlers were about equally divided in their religious beliefs, half of them being Churchmen and the other half Con gregationalists, but as the population increased the Congrega tionalists were soon in the majority. This was no doubt due to the fact that so many of the inhabitants came from Connecticut, where the people did not confess their creed to be, in one Catholic and Apostolic Church, but in one Orthodox and Congregational Church. On April 28, 1769, the Churchmen of Claremont wrote to the Clergy and Alissionaries of the Society for the Propagation of CLAREMONT. 465 the Gospel in Foreign Parts, who were to meet in New Milford, Connecticut, stating their great need of a teacher. " We beheve ", they said, " that a good school lays the foundation for a sober! godly and righteous hfe; and since Samuel Cole, Esq., has been employed in keeping school and is an inhabitant and proprietor among us (whose character and qualifications some of you know well) we humbly desire you would be pleased to represent our state to the venerable Society, and endeavor that he may be ap pointed Catechist and Schoolmaster among us a few years till we have got over the first difficulties and hardships of a wild, unculti vated country." The first rector to officiate at a service of the Episcopal Church in Claremont was the Rev. Samuel Peters, of Hebron, Connecti cut, a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The Rev. Mr. Peters was evidently one of that variety of rec tors of the Church of England, not scarce in those days, who lacked in sympathy, was fond of his stomach and body as well as his soul, and was incapable of distinguishing a diamond till the lapidary had removed its rough exterior. This was shown in his account of his journey through the river towns of Vermont and New Hampshire in 1770. He said of them: Yet in both are several thousand souls, who live without the means of grace, destitute of knowledge, laden down with ignorance and covered with poverty. Under similar conditions, a Jesuit missionary or a minister of the Congregational Church would have seen the diamonds and would have been thankful that he had been given the opportunity to cut and polish the gems. In those days, the Rector, the Priest and the Minister were, undoubtedly, equahy good Christians, but one of them had the knack of concealing it. Although Mr. Peters did not mention the fact in his narrative — possibly he was not proud of organizing a Church with such ignorant poverty covered parishioners — he did organize a Church in Claremont in 1771. The Episcopal Qiurch in Claremont — and doubtless in other northern New England towns — had a very great struggle with adversity. It was not the Church of the people. It was the Church that the people had forsaken their homes in Great Britain to be rid of, so it is not difficult to imag ine how great a struggle the Churchmen of Claremont had to 30 • 466 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. keep their parish alive. That it did survive, is an evidence of the sincerity and noble courage of the parishioners. The Rev. Ranna Crositt, the opposite of Mr. Peters, became rector, about 1773, or a little earlier. He must have lived upon faith and good works. Certainly his salary would not purchase an existence for himself alone, with enough left over to bury his family after it had died from starvation. His salary at the start was £30 paid by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In 1777, the people of the parish agreed to pay him an additional £30, but in 1778, they were obliged to reduce it to £15. The inability of the Church to support the rector may be the better understood, when it is known, that the people were obliged to pay their rate towards the support of the Orthodox, the True, the Congregational minister. So it is easily seen that their re ligion was a great and expensive luxury and that while their rector was barely existing, the Congregational minister was living. The clergy and laity of the Established Church of England in New Hampshire and A^ermont were inclined to be Tories. Alany were self-avowed Tories, and they paid a heavy penalty for their loyalty to the King. While it seems strange that their short sightedness prevented them from seeing that the spirit of the Briti.sh colonists in America, especially in New England, was ir resistible and would be satisfied with nothing less than Inde pendence once the war was begun, their faithfulness to their prin ciple and their King was as admirable as the patriotism of the Rebels. Letters from Colonel John Peters to his brother the Rev. Samuel Peters, the organizer of the Episcopal Church of Claremont, and from the rector of that Church, the Rev. Ranna Crositt, to the Society give information that shows how dearly they paid for their loyalty. Colonel Peters says in his letter of July 20, 1778; Rev. Dr. Wheelockj President of Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, in conjun'ction with Deacon Baylcy, Mr. IMorey, and Mr. Hurd, all justices of the peace, put an end to the Church of England in this State, so early as 1775. They seized me. Captain Peters and all the judges of Cumber land, Gloucester, the Rev. Mr. Crositt and Mr. Cole, and all the Church people for 200 miles up the river, and confined us in close gaols, after beat ing and drawing us through water and mud. Here we lay sometime and were to continue in prison until we abjured the king and signed the league and covenant. Many died ; one was Captain Peters' son. We were CLAREMONT. 467 removed from the gaol and confined in private houses at our own expense. Captain Peters and myself were guarded by twelve rebel soldiers, while sick in bed, and we paid dearly for the honor; and others fared in like manner. * * * Captain Peters has been tried by court-martial and or dered to be shot for refusing to lead his company against the King's troops. He was afterward reprieved, but still in gaol, and was ruined both in health and property; * * * Crositt and Cole * * * had more insults than any of the loyalists, because they had been servants of the Society, which, under pretense (as the rebels say) of propagating religion, had propagated loyalty, in opposition to the liberties of America. The Rev. Air. Crositt's letter was written in New York, on June 6, 1779. I arrived in this city last Sunday, by permission, with a flag, and am to return in a few days * * * I have been by the committee confined as a prisoner, in the town of Claremont, ever since the 12th of April, 1775; yet God has preserved me from the people. » * * The numbers of my parishioners and communicants in Claremont are increased, but I have been cruelly distressed with fines for refusing entirely to fight against the King. In sundry places where I used to officiate, the church people are all dwindled away. Some have fled to the King's army for protection, some were banished; and many died. Air. Crositt left the Church in 1785, and was appointed as chaplain at Sidney, Cape Breton Island, where he died in 1815. After Mr. Crositt left, in 1785, the Church had no rector for several years, but the services were continued by Ebenezer Rice, a layreader, who also kept the records of the parish. In 1785, the Church had a pewter Communion service which was in use till 1822. In 1787, the Rev. Abraham Towlinson officiated for seven months, and in 1788, the Rev. Solomon Blakeslee became rector, with a salary of £52, the use of the parish land, or glebe, and the back rents due on that property. Mr. Blakeslee must have been an unusually eloquent and persuasive preacher for the member ship of the Church was greatly increased and on one occasion, thirty Congregational families became Churchmen, or, as a promi nent inhabitant of Old Saybrook, who was weary of paying taxes for the support of the Congregational minister and wished to avoid it by " signing off ", expressed it ; "I hereby renounce the Christian religion that I may join the Episcopal Church ". In 1794, the Church was incorporated as Union Church, by the Legislature. On May 13 of that year, a most extraordinary 468 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. proposal was made by the Congregationalists to the Episcopalians. It was that a (.'ongregational minister, named Whiting, should be employed by both denominations as a minister-rector. While the Congregationalists and Episcopalians were of one mind in regard to creed and church doctrines, they were widely separated in Church government form of service. How the Rev. Air. Whiting could serve two such masters, without a prick of conscience, is a mystery. As there had been a great many families who had proselyted from the meeting-house to the Church, this proposal may have been a clever bit of ecclesiastical politics ; an attempt to win them back, but if it was, it did not succeed. The com mittee appointed, or chosen, from the Church to confer with a committee from the Aleeting-house, was composed of, Bill Barnes, Ebenezer Rice, Ambrose Crositt, David Dodge, Sanford Kings bury, John W. Russell and Captain George Hubbard. This com mittee agreed to the proposal with the stipulations, that the Rev. Air. White, having been ordained according to the rites of the Congregational Church, should also receive Episcopal ordination, and that he should officiate alternately at the church and the meeting-house. The Congregationalists refused to accept the terms. As the stipulations were entirely fair; as they were just, and even less than could be expected ; as nothing was said in regard to the Sacraments and Church government ; the refusal of the Congregationalists makes it seem as if their proposal was entirely due to shrewd ecclesiastical politics. In 1795, the Rev. Daniel Barber became rector of the Church. Air. Barber was a proselyte, or a convert, or was in some other w-ay induced to give up Congregationalism for Episcopacy. In 1818 Air. Barber was dismissed from Union Parish because he had again discovered the error of his wa)s and faith and this time had been proselvted, or converted or in some odier way wheedled into the Ronian Catholic Church. The Rev. Daniel Barber, minister-rector-priest died in 1834, but just wdiat his religious belief was after that, is, of course, only to be guessed at. Soon after the settlement of the town, in 1762, the Con gregationalists held public worship in one or another of the homes, and in 1767, Samuel Cole, a graduate of Yale, was ap pointed their reader by the settlers. In 1771, Thomas Gustin took steps to interest the people in the settlement of a minister and in h^bruary, 1772, the Rev. George Wheaton was settled CLAREMONT. 469 as the first minister, but the records do not show that there was an organized Church at that time. There is much that is humor ous in the Rev. Air. Wheaton's brief acceptance of his call to the pastorate of the Claremont Congregational Church, but of course, the good young man was entirely ignorant of it. His acceptance is addressed to " The Church of Christ and otlier Inliabitants of the town of Claremont ". The " Other Inhabitants " doubtless being Indians, Episcopalians and Baptists. He then tells the people that he had been " at the Throne of Divine Grace for direction of Almighty God, in so weighty and important a matter ", and then he adds; " I have also taken advice of my friends and Fathers in the Gospel Ministry ", thus it would seem that his first adviser did not respond, or that the advice was not given in strict accord with the Cambridge Platform. The ordination took place in the South Schoolhouse and the Rev. Abiel Leonard, of Woodstock, preached the ordination ser mon. Air. Wheaton's health was failing at the time of his ordina tion. In April, 1773, he was obliged to give up his ministerial duties and go to his father's home in Norton, Massachusetts,, where he died in June, 1774, at the age of twenty-two. The second minister was the Rev. Augustine Hibbard. He was settled in October, 1774, and dismissed in December, 1785. Air. Hibbard was a graduate of Dartmouth College in the class of 1772. He was inconsistent, eccentric and a disturbing element in the congregation and little good resulted from his pastorate. The Church was without a minister from 1785, till 1796, when the Rev. John Tappan was ordained. He was dismissed in 1802, and was expelled from the Communion of the Congregational de nomination in 1803. Mr. Tappan was born in East Kingston, Massachusetts, and was graduated from Harvard in 1790. After his expulsion from the Church, he remained in Claremont and kept a store. In 1785, the Town voted to relieve all Baptists from being taxed toward the support of the Congregational minister. In the Revolution, Claremont had a larger proportion of Tories than were to be found in many other towns. That Claremont might not be a haven of rest for these Tories, the Atkins brothers, and several other young men of great stature, strength and patrio tism, formed a band for their extermination if need be, and elimi nation any how. They solemnly agreed to try to capture all 470 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. Tories and if capture were not possible, to shoot them. A famous resort of these king's-men was a place called in later times, " Tory Ilole ". It is situated between the Rich farm and Red Water Brook. It is surrounded by a swamp on three sides that was then filled by a dense thicket. On the fourth side is a steep rise of thirt) feet, that is precipitous o*" the side towards the " Hole ". Access to the " Hole " was through a ravine in the precipice, and also b)- a path winding along the foot of the precipice which en tered the " Hole " near the Rich farm. The surface of the " Hole " is slightly elevated and so, dry and a very snug hiding place. Such Tories as were passing through Claremont with information, or in search of it, for the British army, stopped at the " Hole " and their friends in the village took them food, while a fine spring in the " Hole " provided them with w-ater. The inhabitants were suspicious of every stranger till he had given a satisfactory account of himself, and this fact led to the discovery of " Tory Hole ". In the autumn of 1780, a stranger with a large pack upon his back was seen passing along near the Rich farm towards night. The watchful ones followed him till he suddenly disappeared from sight, ^^'ord was sent to the vil lage and soon a large number of men were on the spot. A search was made and finally the path leading to the " Hole " was dis covered. It being too dark to see anyone in the " Hole ", a guard was placed on the path with instructions to capture or kill any one trying to pass. Just before sunrise tbe men reassembled and began to search the " Hole ", when two men suddenly started up and ran toward the ravine, rapidly pursued by the patriots. The pursuers frequently lost and regained the trail, and finally arrived at the Connecticut River where they found that the two men had swam across. Slinging their guns across their backs the Patriots followed across the river. The)- had been followdng the two men since dawn and had traced them to Ascutney Alountain, at the foot of which the pursuers camped for the night. The ascent was begun early tbe following morning, from several dif ferent places, and at the top of the mountain the men were found asleep. They were held as prisoners of war, since, being armed, they could not be regarded as spies, and were taken to Charles town, Nl'w Hampshire, and from there sent to Boston and were later exchanged. WINDSOR. THE charter of Windsor was granted in 1761, but the set tlement did not take place till 1764. There is a diversity of opinion in regard to who the first settler, or settlers, were. The editors of the History of Windsor County dismiss this very interesting and important fact — important in the history of every town — with " * * * nor is it a matter of any con siderable importance ". There seems to be no dispute that Solomon Emmons and his wife had put up a very primitive httle cabin in Windsor some time before 1764 — perhaps several years before — but as they had made no attempt at clearing or cultivating the land they cannot be regarded as settlers. It is quite probable that Mr. Em mons was one of those hardy Connecticut hunters and trappers v/ho went into the far north, up the Connecticut Valley, to trap and shoot animals for their valuable pelts. Another reason why Emmons and his wife should not be regarded as the first settlers or as settlers of any kind is, that they had purchased no land and were simply living there by the same right that the Indians would have lived there, the matter of ownership not being con sidered till after the King began to give away land that he had never seen and could show no title to. Captain Steel Smith, of Farmington, Connecticut, is generally acknowledged to be the first permanent settler of Windsor. When he and his family arrived in August, 1764, they found Mr. and Mrs. Emmons there before them. Some authorities say, that Joab Hoisington was there with the Smiths but whether this is so has not been finally determined. In 1765, the Smiths were joined by several persons, among them being Major Elisha Hawley, Captain Israel Curtis, Deacon Hezekiah Thompson, and Deacon Thomas Cooper. This was a collection of military and Church dignitaries that must have impressed the actual possessors of the place whom the settlers shot for their flesh and their valu able pelts. One of the first cases of a hunter who " thought it was a bear " happened in Windsor. This same Joab Hoisington was hunt- [471] 472 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. ing, with a companion named Bartlett, for bear. The men sepa rated in the woods and when Hoisington heard a rustling and saw something move, without taking the trouble to investigate, he shot his friend. It is evident that the same kind of criminal who commits the same kind of crime in the twentieth century cannot boast of originality. When the troubles arose over the act of the King which gave the New Hampshire Grants (Vermont) to New York, Windsor OLD COURT HOUSE, WINDSOR. was a strong partisan of the settlers against the unlawful claim of the " Yorkers " to the improved lands and homes of the set tlers. In this Windsor differed from Weathersfield, Brattleboro and some other places. At the same time Windsor was remote from the scenes of the conflicts of the Green Mountain Bovs — under Ethan Allen and Seth ^^'anler— with the " Yorkers " and so was not able to render or receive assistance from that sniall but terrific army of determined men. The people of Windsor had made valuable improvements to the land they possessed by grant, or by purchase from the original proprietors, and they were natu- WINDSOR. 473 rally loath to give it up, without compensation, to the favorites of the Governor of New York, to whom he had given and was giving, the improved farms and the homes of the Green Moun tain Yankees. There is a tradition, that when a Vermont Yankee is born he is possessed of a small receptacle that is packed full of resources of many kinds and, in later life, when he cannot obtain his rights by his daring, his muscle or his bravery, he resorts to this little receptacle — wdiich anatomists call the head — to obtain his rights. The people of Windsor used some of the resources that were stored away, to retain their rights. On October 29, 1765, the property owners presented a petition to the Governor of New York in which they explained how they came into possession of the land; that they had made valuable improvements at the ex pense of a great deal of time and some money, and were very desirous that the Governor of New York would grant this land to them. But the Governor of New York did nothing about it. The petition of October 29, 1765, failed. The inhabitants of Windsor then tried a perfectly legitimate scheme — it was better than legitimate for the Windsor people w^ere dealing with New York land grabbers who regarded neither justice nor honesty — which worked to perfection. The property owners of Windsor deeded their land to Nathan Stone. It was understood between themselves and Stone, that he was to act as their trustee and that, when he had obtained the grant from the Governor of New York, he was to deed back to each inhabitant his land. Nathan Stone then induced a number of men who lived in New York City, to join him in a petition to the Governor of New York for a grant of a township in that portion of New York, which was formerly known as the New Hampshire Grants — which was, of course, the Town of Wind sor — and the Governor, seeing the names of good and loyal citizens of New York signed to the petition, granted it on March 28, 1772. On Alarch 31, 1772, Nathan Stone's New York City friends deeded their interest, under the grant from the Governor of New York, to him, and Stone paid each of them ten shillings for the use of his name on the petition. In November, 1772, Nathan Stone deeded back to each of the inhabitants of Windsor the land which he had deeded to Stone while he was acting as the 474 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. agent of the property owners in obtaining the grant from the Governor of New York. So Yankee " cuteness " was more than a match for " Our Royal Governor of Our Royal Province of New A'ork with its Royal Institutions ". In order that they inight keep their own, upon which they had spent so much care and labor in improving, the people of Wind sor even let their neighbors in the surrounding towns look upon them as traitors who favored the authority of New York, and so were against the interests of every settler of the New Hampshire Grants. But when the time came for the organization of the Grants into a separate and independent State, the people of Wind sor were among the most earnest supporters of that movement. Windsor was loyal to the interests of the towns of the New Hampshire Grants in the controversy wdth New York, and it was even more loyal to the interests of the United Colonies in the controversy with Great Britain's German King, George III. The first Constitution of the State of Vermont was adopted at the con vention held in W^indsor on July 2, 1777. The new State came very near to being called New Connecti cut. A good name and one that would have been highly re spectable, although entirely lacking in individuality. But A'er mont ! there is a word that has brought joy and happy remem brance to many a son of the Green Mountain State in foreign lands ; a word which ; borne aloft on the banners of Allen and Warner in '76 and on the banners of the " Boys in Blue ", in '61 ; caused terror and dismay to enter the hearts of the enemies of the United Colonies and meant defeat to those misguided brothers who hoped to disrupt the Union. It is only necessary to hear a real son of the soil pronounce the word — \"rmornt — to know that it tastes good in his mouth. This change of name was de cided on at a previous convention held in Windsor on June 4, 1777. Between the western and eastern portions of the Town of \\'ind- sor is a range of high hills running, in a general direction, north and south. The hardship of having to cross these hills to attend Church in Windsor village, resulted in the formation of two Church societies by the Legislature, in 1785. After many at tempts had been made to divide the town for the same reason; and also because the inhabitants on the west side of the sepa rating hills felt that they were not receiving their share of rep- WINDSOR. 475 resentation among the town officers; this was accomplished by act of the Legislature in 1814. As soon as they had been granted the divorce they so much wanted, they again became dissatisfied, and in 181 5, the Towns of Windsor and West Windsor were reunited. In 1848, they were again separated and have remained independent since that year. The Old South Church was organized in 1768, and is the first Congregational Church of Windsor. It was called the Church THE FIRST COURT HOUSE, WINDSOR. of Cornish and Windsor at the time of the organization — Cornish being across the Connecticut River in New Hampshire. The Covenant was adopted in Windsor on September 21, 1768, and in the following week its adoption took place in Cornish, and at the same time, the Rev. James Wellman was installed as the first minister of the twin Church. His salary was £40, New Hamp shire currency, of which sum the people of Windsor paid one- third A provision of the agreement — for the fulfillment of which the people gave a bond -was that this salary could be paid in cash, or in grain, beef, pork, or labor by the day. No doubt the labor as an equivalent of cash had its value then, but it is 476 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. somewhat difficult to appreciate its value now, for labor was neither food, raiment nor heat. Mr. Wellman was engaged for five years. Pie received as a settlement 200 acres of land. He preached a third of the time in Windsor, and two-thirds in Cornish. The membership in the Windsor portion of the parish had in creased sufficiently by 1774, for eleven members to separate them selves, by letters of dismission, that they might organize a Church in Windsor. The year in which the first meeting-house was built is not known, but it was before 1779. The " Old South Church " was built in 1798, at the then great cost of $5,000. The first Baptist Church of Windsor was organized in 1785, b)' eleven persons who had been members of the \\'oodstock Bap tist Association. The Rev. Roswell Smith was the first pastor, but there was no church building till 1802. The Church mem bership increased sufficiently for it to be possible for the society to build a new brick church in 181 5. The Rev. Leland Howard became its pastor in 1816. Although there was no Church edifice in AVindsor till about 1822, there were Churchmen and an Episcopal Parish as early as 1785. In that year the Rev. Ranna Crositt — the Tory rector of the Claremont Church — appointed Alexander Parmlee warden of the Parish of Windsor and Reading, adjoining towns. Ser vice was no doubt held in the homes of the Churchmen in Wind sor until they were able to build a church, in 1822. In 1S16, the Biennial Convention of the Eastern Diocese was held in \\'indsor. The business of the Diocese was transacted in the home of Judge Hubbard and the services were held in the Baptist Church. This convention had a stimulating effect upon the desire of the Epis copalians for a rector. Thomas Thomas wrote to the Rev. James Alorss, of Newburyport, Alassachusetts, urging him to come to Windsor to organize a Church and become its rector. Air. Alorss accepted a part of the invitation, by spending the last Sunday in November and the first in December, 1816, in ^^'indsor. He organized St. Paul's Parish, celebrated Holy Communion and ad ministered the Sacrament of Baptism to thirty persons. He did not, however, remain as rector of the Church, but left Colonel Alexander Dunham to conduct the services as lay-reader. There was a large congregation for tbe times and services were held in the Courthouse, on Common Hill. After his return to his home, WINDSOR. 477 Mr. Morss was repeatedly urged by letter to accept the rector ship of St. Paul's Church, but although he did not accept, he did spend two more Sundays in Windsor, in August, 1817. In the winter of i8i7-'i8, the Rev. G. Leonard came to Windsor. In that winter the church was built and was consecrated by Bishop Griswold in November, 1822, and Mr. Leonard was or dained the. day after the consecration of the church as its rector. The military organizations of Windsor were Jefferson Artil lery, organized in 1810, with Captain Tileston and Lieutenant Cutting its officers. In 1820, there were two uniformed com panies, and two ununiformed which were called in derision, " The Floodwood ". Of the first two companies, one was an artillery company and the other light infantry. INDEX Abbott, Israel 108 Abbott, Robert 148 Ackley, Ezera 142 Ackley, Nicholas 75 Ackley, Stephen 142 Adams, Margaret 282 Alexander, John 408, 413 Alexander, Joseph 365 Alden, John 44 Allen, Amos 384 Allen, Elij ah 440 Allen, Ethan. .36, 418, 463, 472, 474 Allen, Joseph 392 Allen, Lieut 387 Allen, Matthew 236 Allen, Rev. S. C 398 Allen, Samuel 118, 380,410 Allen, Samuel 318 Allen, Thomas 92 Ailing, Benjamin 457 Ailing, Enos 457 A.lling, Moses 457 Ailing, Stephen 457 Allyn, Edward 382 Allyn, John 228, 382 Alsop, John 95 Alsop, Richard 95, 96, 108, 109 Alvord, Alexander 318 Alvord, Benjamin 253 Alvord, Captain Jonathan 142 Alvord, Elijah 368 Alvord, Seth 142 Amherst 360 Amherst College 360 Andre, Major 66 Andrew, Rev. Samuel 32 Andrews, Daniel 166 Andrews, Edward 225 Andrews, Gov 205 Andrews, Jeremy 204, 205 Andrews, John 166 Andrews, Joseph 166 Andrews, Joshua 166 Andrews, Mahitable 464 Arms, Ambrose 394 Arms, Eben 384 Arms, Major John 413 Arnold, Joseph 75 Ashley, David 309 Ashley, Israel '. 312 Ashley, Oliver 462 Ashley, Robert 308 Ashley, Samuel 462 Atherton, Eben 393 Atherton, Rev. Hope 351, 360 Atherton, Shubael 384 Atkins, Brothers 469 Atkinson, Theodore 401, 424 Atwater, Rev. Noah 315 Atwood, Elijah 80 Austin, Lieut. Anthony. .. .274, 275 Austin, Moses 275 Austin, Stephen F 275 B. Babcock, Daniel 458 Bacon, Nathaniel 92 Backus, Rev. Simon 169 Bailey, Elijah 143 Bailey, John 75 Bailey, Recompense 142 Baker, Edward 318 Baldwin, Mary 345 Ballentine, Rev. John 315 Barber, Rev. Daniel 468 Barber, Thomas 236 Barker, James 407 Barnard, Abigail 452 Barnes, Bill 468 Barrett, Col. John 4Si Barrett, John 449, 452, 454 Barrett, William 410 Bartlett, David 329 Bartlett, Ephraim 274 Bartlett, Joseph 328, 329, 333 335, 345 Bartlett, Robert 316, 318 Bartlett, Samuel 328 Barton, William I34 Bascom, Jonathan 339 Bascom, Thomas 236, 290, 291 318 Bates, James 75, 454 Bates, Roger 454 Bayley, Deacon 466 [479] 48o INDEX. PACZ. Beadle, William. . .153, 154, 155, 156 Heelie, Juii.-ith.-ui 80 lieei her, Kev. Wm I04 lUenian, John 407 Heekley. Sgt Richard ... 166, 167 Beers, t'.-ipl.-iin 397 Bclelier. .Viidrew 403 Belcher, Jnii.ithan 401 Belcher, William 121 Belden, Benjamin 151 Belden, Captain E. P 151 Belden, John 151 Belding, Hezekiah 365 Bell, Abraham 148 Bellows, Benjamin ..424,425, 428435 Bellows, Falls 401 Bellows, John 428, 432 Bellows, Rebecca 432 Bement, Samuel 108 Benedict, Lieut. Peter 119 Benedict, Rev. Joel .... 119, 165 Benedict, Rev. Abner 118 Benedict, Sarah M 165 Bennett, John 458 Berlin 187 Bernard, Samuel 355 Betts, Roger 148 Bevin, John 143 Bevin, William 142 Bidwell, John 225 Bidwell, Ruth 343 Bill, James 142 Billings, Rev. Edward 384 Birge, Palatiah 268 Bisbee, Abner 449 Bishop, Samuel 230 Bishop, Samuel, Jr 457 Bishop, Sylvanus 457 Bissell, Daniel. .. .242, 243, 244. 391 Bissell, Elizabeth (Loomis)... 243 Bissell Family 260 Bissell's Ferry 260, 261 Bissell, Rev. Hezekiah 246 Bissell, John 236 Bissell, John, Sr 261 Blackball 57, 60 " Blackball Boys " 61 Blacksmith, Learned 177 Blague, Col. Joseph 07 Bl.ake, Elijah 204 Blake, Willi.im 2S4 Blakslee, Aaron 457 Blakslee. Rev. Solomon 467 l!l,-d 166 Smalley. Rev. John 85 Smead, David 389 Smead, Ebenezer 384 Smead, Samuel 382 Smead, Jonah 384 Smeed. Captivity 138 Smeed, Mrs, John 138 Smiley, Rev. Robinson 452 Smith, .\aron 361 Smith, .\iison 365 Smith, Capt. Luke 361 INDEX. 491 PAGE. Smith, Capt. Luther 121 Smith, Capt. Steel 471 Smith, Chloe 416 Smith, Daniel 80 Smith, Ebenezer 410 Smith, Henry- . . . .284. 286, 287, 296 Smith, Hon. J. C 335 Smith, Jonathan 156 Sraith, Joseph 92, 120 Smith, Matthew 80 Smith, jMichael 143 Smith, Nathaniel 361 Smith, Peletiah 365 Smith, Philip 228 Smith, Ralph 143 Smith, Reuben 365 Smith, Rev. Joseph 121 Smith, Rev. Roswell 476 Smith, Richard 151 Smith, Samuel 152, 156, 368 Smith, Simon 75 Smith, Stephen 361 Smith, Thomas 75 Smithson, Elizabeth 72 South Hadley 367 Southampton 237 Southmayde, Otis 152 South Windsor 248 Sowheag, Real name of 174 Spafford, Capt. John 440, 447 Spafiford, Dorcas 458 Spafiford, Eliphalet 457, 458 Spafford, John, Jr 438, 439 Spafford, Joseph 460 Spafford, Moses 462 Sparhawk, Thomas 428 Spencer, C. M 232 Spencer, Elizabeth 463 Spencer, Hon. Joseph 82 Spencer, Jebez 391 Spencer, Jared 44, 75, 82 Spencer, Sarah 44 Spencer, Simon 452 Spencer, Thomas 44 Spencer, William 324 Sprague, Jonathan 410 Springfield, Mass 283 Springfield, Vt 449 Squires, Noble 345 Stannard, William 43 Starkey, Austin 54 Starkey, John 53 Starkey, Noah 54, 55 Starr, Jehosaphat 109 Starr, Peter 3I5 Steadman. Ebenezer 4io Stebbins, Editha 296 PAGE. Stebbins, John 318 Stebbins, Thomas, Sr 278 Stebbins, Thomas 332, 233 Stebbins, Zebina 294 Steel, Dr 88, 89 Steel, John 205, 207 Steel, Stephen 458 Stephauney, Dr. John S 132 Stephens, John 156 Stephens, Timothy 174 Sterns, Levi 460 Stevens, Capt 440, 442, 443 444, 445, 446 Stevens, Levi 458 Stevens, Phineas 437, 438 439, 442, 446 Stevens, Samuel 448 Stevens, Sarah 453 Stevens, Simon 449, 452 Stiles, Henry 237 Stillman, Allyn 152 Stillman, Charles 152 Stillman, Francis 152 Stillman, George 152 Stillman, Joseph 152 Stillman, Simeon 152 Stillman's Tavern 151 Stockbridge, Flam 293 Stocking, " Father Jeremiah ". . 178 Stocking, Sabin 180 Stocking, Sabura 180 Stocking, Samuel 120 Stocking, Selah 180 Stockig, Septerius 180 Stocking, Sophronius 180 Stocking, Solon 180 Stoddard, Col. John . .412, 439, 444 Stoddard, Esther 324 Stoddard, Rev. Solomon 150 299, 318, 320, 321 Stone, John 99 Stone, Nathan 473 Stone, Rev. Andrew L 104 Stone, Rev. Samuel 150, 191 192, 194 Storey, Isaac 429 Stors, Lemuel 95 Stoughton, Nathaniel 458 Stoughton, Thomas 237 Stow, Jedh 108 Stow, Rev. Samuel 92, 103 Strong, Aaron 345 Strong, Elder John 320 Strong, Ezera 341 Strong, Hon. Nehemiah 176 Strong, John 318 Strong, Noah 340 492 INDEX. PAGE. Strong, Return 237 Strong, Rev. Nathan 85 Strong, Roswell 345 Strong, Waitstill 338 Strong, Waitstill, Jr 342 Suffield 270 Swan, Benjamin 394 T. Taintor, Charles 148 Talcott, Col 172 Talcott, Major 230 Talcott, Matthew 96, 100 Tappan, Re\-. John 469 Taylor, Isaac 80 Taylor, John.. 156, 237, 318, 331 332 Taylor, Rev. Edward 315 Teawle, Timothy 291 Temple, Archelaus 422 Tenney, Rev. C. J 150 Thomas, Isaiah 429 Thomas, Rowland ....273, 291, 296 Thomas, Thomas 476 Thompson, Abraham 457 Thorapson, Anna 135 Thompson, Deacon Hezekiah. . 471 Thompson, Jacob 457 Thompson, Joseph 457 Thompson, Orrin 281, 282 Thornton, Thomas 237 Thrall, Ezekiel 268 Tiley, Charles 54 Tileston, Captain 477 Tilton, Peter 237 Tisdale, Joseph 433 Tomlinson, John 402 Tower, Betsey 452 Towlinson, Rev. Abraham.... 467 Treadwell, John ...85, 184, 185, 186 Treadway, Rev. James 451 Treat, Major Robert 398 Treat, Matthi.is 02 Trill, Thomas 225 Trowbridge, Joseph 457 Trowbridge, Thomas 457 Trumhle, Gov 100, iSd Trumble, John 85 Tucker, Jobn 54 Tiuker, Richard 54 Tudor, Owen 237 Tully, Rev Dr 123 Turner, C-iptain 396 Tutlle, Benoni 4.=;7 Tullle, Dan 157 Tuttle, Gershon 457 PAGE. Tyler, Benjamin 463, 464 Tyler, Chief Justice Royal. .429, 431 Tyler, Thomas 108 Tyron, William 451 U. Ufford, Thomas 284 Uncas 115, 116 Upham, Asa 457 Upham, Capt. William 457 V. VanCurler 234 Van Twiller 234 Vail, Henry 259 Ventres, William 75 Vermont 399 Vernon 405 Viets, Simon 275 Vore, Richard 237 Vose, Roger 429, 432 W. Wadeson, Thoraas 281 Wadsworth, Capt. 205 Wadsworth, John i8.( Wait, David 394 Wait, Mrs. Benjamin 360 Wait, William 394 Waite, Major Otis 463 Wakeman. Rev. Samuel 150 ^^'ales. Samuel 85 Walker, Abel 448 Walker, Hannah 452 Walpole 424 Walworth, Rev. Aaron 334 Ward, Artemus 364 Ward, John 148 \\'ard, William 92 Warehouse Point 20S Warliam, Esther 320 \\'arham. Rev. John, 234, 236, 320 Warland, John 410 Warland. Owen 410 Warner, .-Vudrew 49 Warner. Benjamin 458 W.-irner, John 80 Warner, Ri-ibert 02, 109 Warner, Seth .... 36, 418, 472. 474 Warren, Daniel 423 Warren, Josiah 423 Warren, Rev Joseph 105 Warren, A\'illiam 225 \\'arwick. Earl of igi INDEX. 493 PAGE. Washburn, Cyrus 4og Washington, General 65 Waterhouse, Mary 44 Watkins, Elder J 452 Watrus, Lazarus 143 Watson, Robert 237 Wetherbe, Ephraim 437, 439 Weathersfield, Vt 456 Webb, Col. S. B 151 Webb, James 143 Webb, John .... 75, 316, 328, 330 Webb, Joseph 152 Webb, Patience 331 Webber, Col. Christopher 428 Webster, Gov. John 346 Webster, Noah loi, 177, 221 222, 223, 224 Webster, Ariel 391 Webster, Robert 92, 120 Welch, Lemuel 239, 240 Welch, Jonathan 241 Welch, Samuel 241 Wellman, Rev. James 475, 476 Welles, G&a. Arnold 172 Welles, Gurdon 153 Welles, Gov. Thomas .... 170, 172 Welles, Samuel 172 Wells, Ashabel 454 Wells, Capt. Agrippa ..389,390, 391 Wells, Capt. E 387 Wells, Col. Samuel 413 Wells, Dr. Henry 413 Wells, Ebenezer 382, 384 Wells, John 361 Wells, Joseph 361 Wells, Joshua 384 Wells, Oliver 436 Wells, Reuben 391 Wells, Samuel 227 Wendell, Jacob 410 Wentworth, Gov 401, 413, 422 424, 449, 456, 462 West, Capt. Frank 54 West, Samuel 429 West, Rev. Joel 141 Westbrook 41 Westcarr, Dr. John 306 Wethersfield, Conn 149 West Hartford 219 Westfield 308 Westminster 433 Westmoreland 422 Wetmore, Rev. James 104 Wetmore, Samuel 118 Whalley, Regicide 354 Wheeler, Jethro 422 Wheelock, Rev. Dr 466 PAG4.. Wheaton, Rev. George 468, 469 White, Abijah 458 White, Charlotte 460 White, John 458 White, Nathaniel 92, 120 White, Rev. Calvin 105 White, Rev. Mr 468 White, William 143 Whitefield, Rev. George 151 Whitmore, Thomas 92 Whitemore, James 410 Whiting, Rev. John 320 Whitney, Lemuel 452 Whitney, Rev. Nicholas B 452 Whitney, Thankful 452 Whitway, Thomas 148 Wiat, John 75 Wilcox, John 92 Williams, Capt. Ephraim 136 Williams, Capt. Elijah 280 Williams, Capt. John 458, 460 Williams, Charles 53, 56 Williams, Col. Ephraim 365 Williams, Col 294 Williams, Eunice 378 Williams, David 54 Williams, Joseph 367 Williams, J. R 460 Williams, Rev. Dr. John .... 375 Williams, Rev. Chester 356 Williams, Rev. Dr. Stephen. .. .301 452 Williams, Rev. Dr. John 106 Williams, Rev. Eliphalet 226 Williams, Rev. Elisha 168 169, 170 Williams, Rev. Dr. John 375 Williams, Rev. J. L 122 Williams, R. P 54 Williams, Roger 237 Williams, Rev. Solomon 327 Williams, Rev. Thomas 83 Williaras, Rev. Williara. .. 168, 301 Williams, Samuel 54 Williams, Stephen 156 Williams, Thomas, Sr 156 Williams, William 436 Williams, Zeb 383 Willard, Col 407, 424 Willard, George 50 Willard, Joseph 436 Willard, Major Josiah . . 440, 462 Willard, Moses 437, 438, 439 Willard, Oliver 410 Willard, Samuel 50 Willard, William 410 Williston, Hon. Samuel 335 494 INDEX. Williston, Rev. Payson 335 Willaube, Rev. Jonathan .... 77 Willoughby, Rev. Jonathan .... 150 Wilson, James 253 Willoii, David 306 Winchell, Jedediah 441 Winebester, Captain 442 \Vind.sor, Conn 222 Windsor Locks 267 Windsor, Vt 471 Wing, Ensign Samuel 268 Winthrop, (iov. John. .21, 23, 50, 131 Wolcott, Gov. Roger 61, 237 2.38, 251 Wolcott, Oliver 61, 66 \\'oleott, LIrsula 61 Wood, Corp. Ezekiel 345 Wood, James 284 Wood, Obadiah 225 Woodbridge, Dudley 230 Wood, Edmond 284 Woodbridge, Mindwell 345 Woodbridge, Rev. Benjamin,. 69 Woodbridge, Rev, John.... 69, 150 Woodbridge, Rev. Samuel.. 226, 227 Woodbridge, Rev. Timothy.... 32 Woodbridge, Dr. Sylvester. .. 345 Woodbury, Corelius 410 Woodcock, John 283 PAGE. Woodford, Thomas 284 Woodhouse, Sophia 153 Woodward, Colonial Surveyor. 270 277 Woodward, Rev. John 23 Woodward, William in Wooster. Joseph 457 Worthington, Rev. Wm 43 Wright, Bildad 457 Wright, Benoni 407 Wright, Capt. Azariah 434 Wright, Capt. Benjamin. . .332, 333 Wright, Deacon Stephen. . .330, 334 Wright, Elnathan 457 Wright, Ephraim, Jr 457 Wright, Joseph 334 Wriglit, Moses 341, 410 Wright, Reuben 457 Wright, Samuel 318 Wright, Silas 457 Wright, Titus 334 Wythe, George 102 Y. Yale College 25 Yates. Rev. Dr. Andrew. . .226, 227 Young, Simeon 142 Younglove, Rev. John 275 Literary Ginger " If all the towns and cities of our land could be written up by such entertaining historians as Mr. Rob erts, one would find less people who know nothing about the places in which they live. " Few novels prove such fascina ting reading as does this record of the old Dutch town on the Mohawk." The above is from a thousand word review in the Utica Observer in praise of Mr. Roberts's first book, "Old Schenectady." Robson & Adee, Schenectady, N. Y., will gladly send this to any address on approval ; price $4.50 net. IN PRESS Historic Towns OF THE New England Coast GEORGE S. ROBERTS ROBSON & ADEE PUBLISHERS SCHENECTADY, N. Y. 00527 8958 mmi ij'li ¦M^>%