Farmington in the war of the revolution; an historical address delivered at the annual meeting of the Village library company of Farmington, Conn., May 3, 1893

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jfarmington in tbc Mar of tbc IRevolution

AN

HISTORICAL ADDRESS

DELIVERED AT THE

ANNUAL MEETING

OF

The Village Library Company

OF

FARMINGTON, CONN.
May 3, 1893

Bf JULIUS GAY

HARTFORD, CONN.

Press of The Case, Lockwood & Brainard CoMTANy
1893

'Of

ADDRESS.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Village Library Company of
Farmington :

I propose this evening to answer, in a somewhat
informal way, certain questions often asked about Farm-
ington in the days of the Revolution. I shall have little
to say of battles and campaigns, and great generals. A
glimpse, and only a glimpse, we may have of Washing-
ton as he rides into the forest toward Litchfield, soon to
learn of the treachery of Arnold. All these weightier
matters every schoolboy knows, or ought to know. My
subject lies nearer home, of little interest but to those
whose grandsires here lived, and from this valley went
out to preserve its liberties.

The visitor to the old cemetery, after passing through
the gateway with its grim inscription, "■Memento Mori,''
and climbing the steep pathway beyond, soon finds on his
left a stone with this inscription : " In Memory of | Mr.
Matthias Learning | Who hars got | Beyond the reach of
Parcecushion. | The life of man is Vanity." There is no
date of death or record of age. It is not so much the
memorial of an individual as of a lost cause. Its posi-
tion, facing in opposition to all the other stones, is itself a
protest. JVfatthias Leaming was a Tory, or, as he pre-
ferred to be called, a Loyalist. At the close of the war
the Tories mostly fled to England, Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick, and Canada, and in 1 790 were allowed fifteen
and one-half millions of dollars by the Crown, besides
annuities, offices, and other gifts, in recompense for their

services and sufferings. So few remained here that we
hardly realize that once, taking New England as a whole,
they were as numerous and wealthy as the patriot party.
We have no time to consider at length the causes of the
war, but certain things we must bear in mind if we would
at all understand the spirit of the times. The orators had
much to say of taxation without representation, and stout
Dr. Johnson replied in vigorous English that taxation was
no tyranny. Other matters, however, less abstract, had
gradually prepared the patriots to resist to the death this
last imposition. The colonists were denied the right to
manufacture for themselves almost all articles of neces-
sity, but must import them from some Englishman whose
sovereign had given him the monopoly. Their commerce
was restricted to British ports. Even the agricultural
products of the neighboring West Indies must first be
shipped to England before they could be landed in Bos-
ton. They were denied a market either for sale or pur-
chase outside of the dominion of Great Britain. The
British merchant could say, " You shall trade at my shop
or starve, and you shall make nothing for yourselves."
Their solemn charters were annulled, authority to elect
their principal officers was denied them, and the right to
assemble in town meeting abolished. Repeatedly his
Majesty asked, in a long list of questions submitted to the
General Assembly of Connecticut, where his dutiful sub-
jects bought and sold, and what they presumed to manu-
facture, and repeatedly he was shrewdly answered. So
long as diplomacy and downright, wholesale smuggling
availed, the crisis was averted, but when the wants of the
British treasury, and especially of the East India Com-
pany, demanded a rigorous enforcement of the laws, the
situation became intolerable. To all this was added the
threat of vigorous government by lords spiritual as well

5

as lords temporal, from which they had once for all

escaped.

The lapse of a hundred years has made the position

of the loyalists, who were ready to submit to all demands

of their divinely anointed king as a matter of course, a

mystery to us whose habitual treatment of our highest

magistrate has not trained us in habits of reverence. The

graceful sentiments of Sir Walter Scott's heroine have to

us an unreal sound :

" Lands and manors pass away,

We but share our monarch's lot.

If no more our annals sh.ow
Battles won and banners taken,

Still in death, defeat, and wo,
Ours be loyalty unshaken ! "

More easily can we understand the sturdy independ-
ence of the patriots. They came to these shores, not for
religious freedom, which was a principle unknown, but to
establish a church of their own and a government of their
own, such as their consciences demanded, narrow, as our
vision, broadened by two centuries, looks upon them, but
established by themselves and for themselves only, where
there was no one to be interfered with, and leaving in the
more genial regions of the South plenty of room for the
colonies of other religious proclivities. How long this
exclusiveness could be maintained, time has shown.
These men, to whom Church and State were one, whose
relio-ion was a covenant with God, between whom and
themselves they allowed no human mediator, were the
men whom George III thought to crush.

On the 31st of March, 1774, the Boston Port bill was
signed, and on the 1st of June it went into effect. Its
reception in this town will appear in the following letter :
"Farmjngton, Connecticut, May 19, 1774.

"Early in the morning- was found the following handbill,
posted up in various parts of the town, viz. :

"'To pass through the fire at six o'clock this evening, in
honor to the immortal Goddess of Liberty, the late infamous act
of the British Parliament for farther distressing the American
colonies. The place of execution will be the public parade, where
all Sons of Liberty are desired to attend. '

"Accordingly, a very numerous and respectable body were
assembled, of near one thousand people, when a huge pole, just
forty-five feet high, was erected, and consecrated to the shrine of
Liberty; after which the act of Parliament for blocking up the
Boston harbor was read aloud, sentenced to the flames, and exe-
cuted by the hands of the common hangman. Then the following
resolves were passed, ncm con."

The resolves were spirited, but too long for our pres-
ent purpose.

The Rev. vSamuel Peters, of Hebron, notorious as the
author of "A General History of Connecticut ... by
a Gentleman of the Province," and inventor of the
so-called " Blue Laws of Connecticut," comments on
these proceedings as follows :

" Faniiington burnt the act of Parliament in great contempt
by their common hangman, when a thousand of her best inhabi-
tants were convened for that glorious purpose of committing trea-
son against the king; for which vile conduct they have not been
styled a pest to Connecticut, and enemies to common sense, either
by his Honor or any king's attorney, or in any town meeting. We
sincerely wish and hope a day will be set apart by his Honor very
soon for fasting and prayer throughout this colony, that the sins
of those haughty people may not be laid to our charge."

We shall hear enough of fast days, but they were not
proclaimed to bewail the sins of Farmington.

The situation of the once flourishing port of Boston
was now most critical, and donations for the relief of its
suffering inhabitants flowed in from the surrounding
towns. The action of this town on the 15th of June is
chronicled at length in the admirable discounse of Presi-
dent Porter. The following is a letter written by Samuel
Adams in response to this action, addressed " To Fisher

Gay, Esq., and the rest of the Committee in Farmington,
Connecticut.

"Boston, July 29, 1774.

"S/r, — I am desired by the Committee of the Town of Boston,
appointed to receive the donations made by onr sympathizing
brethren, for the employment or relief of such inhabitants of this
town as are more immediate sufferers by the cruel act of Parlia-
ment for shtitting up this harbor, to acquaint you that our friend,
Mr. Barrett, has commtmicated to them your letter of the 25th
instant, advising that yoit have shipped, per Captain Israel Wil-
liams, between three and four hundred bushels of rye and Indian
com for the above-mentioned purpose, and that you have the sub-
scriptions still open, and expect after harvest to ship a much
larger quantity. Mr. Barrett tells us that upon the arrival of Cap-
tain Williams he will endorse this bill of lading or receipt to us.

"The Committee have a very grateful sense of the generosity
of their friends in Farmington, who may depend upon their dona-
tions being applied agreeable to their benevolent intention, as it
is a great satisfaction to the Committee to find the Continent so
united in opinion. The town of Boston is now suffering for the
common liberties of America, and while they are aided and sup-
ported by their friends, I am persuaded they will struggle through
the conflict, firm and steady.

"I am, with very great regard, gentlemen,
"Your friend and countryman,

" Samuel Adams."

Five weeks later, on the 3d of September, the follow-
ing agreement was drawn up in the handwriting of Major
William Judd, and bears the signatures of seventy of the
principal inhabitants of this village :

"We, whose names are hereunto stibscribers, promise and
engage to be in readiness and duly equipt with arms and aiumu-
nition to proceed to Boston for the relief of our distressed and
besieged brethren there, and to be under the direction of such
officers as shall be by us appointed, as witness our hands this 3d
day of September, A. D. 1774."

A roll of honor on which we may well be pleased to see
the names of our ancestors recorded.

8

Town meetings followed in quick succession. On the
20th of .September the Rev. Levi Hart of Preston was
invited to preach to the assembled freemen of Farming-
ton on Liberty. He preached them a sermon on " Liberty
Described and Recommended," but his text must have
sounded strangely in their ears as he read, " While they
promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of
corruption." There was not a word about British tyr-
anny, but a fervid discourse to our merchant princes on
the horrors of the slave trade.

Strange doctrine this. Did not the good men of that
day rejoice in thus delivering benighted souls from the
heathen darkness of Africa? West India shippers, not
only of this, but of all trading communities, universally
engaged in the traffic. Times have changed. Let us
judge men by the light of their own day. We, no doubt,
will need like favor badly enough an hundred years
hence.

The meeting, at the close of the discourse, proceeded
to vote thirty hundred-weight of lead, ten thousand
French flints, and thirty six barrels of powder. A little
later they voted "that the several constables should have
a large staff provided for each of them with the King's
arms upon them." The authority of the King was as yet
unquestioned.

On the 1 2th of December the town approved of the
Association of the Continental Congress and appointed a
Committee of Inspection to carry out its provisions. This
committee of fifty-two men at once met at the tavern of
Amos Cowles, and while they are busy with the public
good, and, very likely, with the good of the house, let us
take a little rest from the contemplation of these warlike
proceedings and look about us. The inn of Amos Cowles
stood just south of the church, on or about the site of the
house of the late Chauncey D. Cowles, Esq. It has long

since disappeared, as have all but about a half-dozen of
the houses of that day, and they, for the most part, have
been reconstructed past recognition. The village street,
certainly not since broadened with age, ran as now, and
along it passed the pedestrian, the horseback rider, and
the unwieldy cart of the farmer. Pleasure carriages were
unknown. When the minister of that day brought home
his bride in the first chaise his parishoners had ever seen
they lined the street to welcome him, and the first man
who cauofht sisfht of the coming chaise shouted, " The
cart is coming." Mail coaches were unknown. In 1778
Joseph Root advertised in The Connecticut Courant as
follows :

" This is to notify those that have friends in General Parsons'
brigade that I have undertook to ride post for the town of Farm-
ington, the letters to be left at my house and at Landlord Adams',
Southington; at Landlord Smith's, New Britain; at Landlord
Hayes', Salmon Brook; at Esq. Owen's, Simsbury; at Joseph Kel-
logg's. New Hartford, and at Robert Mecune's, at Winchester.
Those who have letters to send are desired to leave them at either
of the above places by the first day of next month, at which time
I shall set out. Joseph Root.

" N. B. Letters may also be left at Lieut. Heth's, West Hart-
ford, and at Landlord Butler's in Hartford.

"Farmington, June 12, 1778."

The travel between the two capitals of the colony
then, as now, passed on the other side of the mountain
through Wethersfield and Wallingford, but the exigencies
of war required new lines of communication, and this
quiet street was soon to be familiar with the measured
tread of armies. Thomas Lewis, writing to Lieut. Amos
Wadsworth at Roxbury Camp, says :

"The same night " (that is, July 19, 1775,) "lodged in this

town a captain with a company of riflemen, who appeared to be,

many of them, very likely young gentlemen. The officers

informed me a great number of their soldiers were men possessed

2

lO

with fortunes worth three or four thousand apiece. These are
from Philadelphia and on their march to join the army. The Cap-
tain told me he expected one thousand more of the same troops
would pass the town next week for the like purpose."

After the evacuation of Boston the line of communi-
cation from Newport and Hartford to the Highlands
above New York passed through this village.

Here in 1781 marched the arm}^ of Rochambeau.
The diary of one of his aids, accompanied with a map of
the route, records, under date of June 24th :

" In the afternoim I went to see a charming spot called
Wethersfield, four miles from East Hartford. It would be impos-
sible to find prettier houses and a more beautiful view. I went up
into the steeple of the church and saw the richest country I had
yet seen in America. From this spot you can see for fifty miles
around.

"June 25. In the morning the army resumed its march to
reach Farmington. The coiintry is more open than that we had
passed over since our departure, and the road fine enough. The
village is considerable, and the position of the camp, which is a
mile and a half from it, was one of the most fortunate we had as
yet occui)icd. "

On the return of the army in 1782 Rochambeau made a
halt in Farmington on the 29th of October, and the next
day in Hartford.

Of the journeys of Washington through this town he
leaves its but brief mention. In May, 1781, he writes:

" I begin at this epoch a concise journal of military transac-
tions, etc. I lament not having attempted it from the commence-
ment of the war."

In this journal he writes :

" May 19th. Breakfasted at Litchfield, dined at Farmington,
and lodged at Wethersfield."

Also:

" May 24th. Set out on my return to New Windsor, dined at
Farmington, and lodged at Litchfield."

II

This is all we gather from his own writing, but we
know that on the 1 8th of September, 1 780, he bade adieu
to General Arnold at Peekskill and was in Hartford on
the 2ist. The commonly traveled road between the
places lay through Farmington. After his conference
with Rochambeau, he leaves Hartford on the 23d and
arrives at Litchfield on the same day. Two days later he
heard of the flight of Arnold. On the 2d of March, 1781,
he left New Windsor, and arrived at Hartford on the 4th,
and, returning on Sunday the 18th,- was back at his head-
quarters at New Windsor on the 20th. He seems, there-
fore, to have passed through Farmington six times : on
the 20th and 23d of September, 1780, the 4th and iSth of
March, 1781, and the 19th and 24th of May, 1781.

What house had the honor of entertaining his Excel-
lency is uncertain. An idle tradition one hears over and
over again tells us that once, being overtaken by a sud-
den storm, Washington took refuge in the newly erected
meeting-house, but if there is any one with any military
experience before me, I will leave him to determine into
which the General would most likely turn his stej^s, the
hospitable inn of Amos Cowles, or the house of God with
closed doors, standing there side by side. The means of
entertainment at that day were ample. As he rode down
the mountain slope from the east and first came in sight
of the meeting-house spire, the tavern of vSamuel North,
Jr., greeted him on the left. A little farther on, where the
Elm Tree Inn now stands, Mr. Phineas Lewis would have
been happy to entertain the General. He could also have
been cordially welcomed by Mr. vSeth Lee, where are now
the brick school buildings of Miss Porter. If he suc-
ceeded in passing all these attractions, the newly erected
inn of Mr. Asahel Wadsworth, grandfather of the late
Winthrop M. Wadsworth, Esq., hung out its sign, and
just as he turned off from the main street into the wilder-

12

ness toward Litchfield there was still the well-known inn
of Captain vSolomon Cowles to prepare him for the rough
journey before him. This last tavern was famous in its
day. The weary teamster on his journey with supplies
for the army hailed it with delight. One Joseph Joslin,
Jr., a revolutionary teamster from Killingly, left a racy
diary which ought to please the modern advocates of pho-
netic spelling. He says :

"April 21, 1777. We set out again and went through Harwin-
ton into Farmington, and it was very bad carting indeed, I
declare, and we stayed at a very good tavern, old Captain Coles',
and we fare well, and did lie in a bed, I think."

The hay mow by the side of his cattle was usually con-
sidered good enough for a revolutionary teamster. Three
days later he says :

" I went to Farmington to old Captain Coles' again."

But alas ! the hopes of man are deceitful. It was a Fast
day, and all he could get was a little cold, raw pork. But
it is time for us to return to our Committee of Inspec-
tion, whom we left at the house of Amos Cowles. William
judd was made chairman and John Treadwell clerk, and
their business was to carry out the requirements of the
fourteen articles of the A.s.sociation of the Continental
Congress. This agreement, signed by the representatives
of the twelve colonies at Philadelphia on the 20th of Octo-
ber, 1774, was not .so much sustained by law as by the
merciless power of public opinion. The tran.sgressor was
looked upon as Achan with his wedge of gold in the
Lsraelitish camp before Jericho. A single instance will
illustrate the spirit of the times and help you to under-
stand what is to follow. Samuel Smith, merchant, of New
Britain, had been convicted by Isaac Lee, Jr., justice of
the peace, of .selling metheglin at too high a price,
namely, at eight shillings the gallon, and hens' eggs at

13

the enormous price of one shilling the dozen. He
brought his humble petition to the General Assembly, in
which he says :

" But when your memorialist reflects on the disability he is
under, a sort of political death or disfranchisement which must
render him incapable either to provide for or save himself from
insult, or to serve the public in this time of calamity, which he
always has and still wishes to do, he cannot but in the most hum-
ble manner pray this honorable Assembly to take your memorial-
ist's case into your wise consideration and grant that he may be
restored to his former freedom."

The petition was signed by Justice Lee and twenty-
six of the principal men of New Britain. The Assembly
promptly granted his petition. Our committee held sev-
eral meetings, and considered numerous complaints which
the vSons of Libert}^ had to make concerning the patriot-
ism of their neighbors and of each other. It required
cool heads and ripe wisdom to satisfy* this red-hot zeal
and do justice to all offenders. I will note only a few
representative cases. Samuel Scott was accused of labor-
ing on a Continental Fast day. This soleinn day was to
be kept with all the strictness of the Jewish Sabbath, and
in its entirety. " Thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor
thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-
servant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy
gates." It was not alleged that he had himself performed
any labor on that sacred day, but there was some suspicion
that one of his hired men might have done some work
not strictly necessary. For this and similar cases the com-
mittee drew up a form of confession, in which the accused
affirmed his fervid patriotism and regretted any breach of
the fourteen articles he might possibly have been guilty
of. Another case made our worthy committee more
trouble. Captain Solomon Cowles and Martha, his wife,
were complained of for allowing Seth Bird of Litchfield

14

and Daniel Sheldon of Woodbury to drink India tea at
their tavern. P'rom the time of the destruction of the tea
in Boston harbor nothing so roused the wrath of the pat-
riots as any dalliance with this forbidden luxury. Their
wives, who had patriotically abstained from their darling
beverage and looked with regretful eyes on their unused
china, could not endure such intemperance as this. The
guilty parties printed their humble apology in TJic Con-
necticut Coiirant. Seth Bird was exceedingly wroth, and
published in the next paper his version of the affair, this
tempest in a teapot, as it seems to us, laying all the blame
on the landlady, and accusing her and the committee of
making him infamous. It was the old story of the forbid-
den fruit and the ignoble reply, " The woman gave me
and I did eat." He says :

"About the middle of the month of March last past I called
for breakfast at Captain Solomon Cowles'. The landlady said she
would get some, and asked what would suit, and added, says she,
' I suppose you don't drink tea.' I answered that I had not prac-
tised it, to be sure, since March came in, but as I feel this morn-
ing it would not wrong my conscience to drink a dish or two, if I
could come at it, for I had a new cold by riding in the wet the
night before and had slept very little, etc. The landlady replied
that if I felt unwell she supposed she might get me soine, and
accordingly went and prepared it, and I drank thereof."

The committee do not seem to have taken any notice
of Mr. Bird's disrespectful paper. Litchfield was a far
country, and, like the immortal Dogberry, they no doubt
thanked God they were well rid of one offender. More
serious still were the complaints against the Tories.
Some one petitioned that Nehemiah Royce, " a person
politically excommunicated," be prevented from sending
his children to the public school. The committee wisely
declined any such action, and, moreover, voted that the
evidence against him " is not sufficient to justify the com-

15

mittee in advertising said Royce in the gazette." Every
week there appeared on the first page of The Courant, in
the blackest type Mr. Watson possessed, a list of enemies
of their country, and confessions from parties accused
appeared from every part of the State. Matthias Leam-
ing, they voted, should be advertised in the public gazette
" for a contumacious violation of the whole Association of
the Continental Congress," and then voted to defer the
execution of their sentence. By the middle of the fol-
lowing September the committee had had enough of the
business, and voted " to request a dismission from the
office, it being too burthensome to be executed by them
for a longer time." A new committee was appointed,
who passed a few votes, and then we hear no more of
them. There were more important matters to occupy the
public mind. The persecution of ]\Iatthias Learning, how-
ever, was not yet ended. As late as 1783 his petition to
the General Assembly sets forth that, being involved in
debt, he had conveyed his real estate to a brother without
his knowledge and without receiving one penny in con-
sideration. Unfortunately for Matthias, his brother joined
the enemy in New York, and the land, being found
recorded in his name, was confiscated.

A very long and minute report by the legislative
committee is on file, in which they decided adversely.
Three years later another long memorial met the same
fate, but in 1787 the Assembly gave him ;^8o in treasury
notes, payable on the ist of the next February. Before
that day the treasury was virtually bankrupt. In October,
1788, Governor Treadwell drew up another memorial, and
persuaded Rev. Timothy Pitkin, Col. Noadiah Hooker, and
twelve others of the most prominent men of the village
to petition the Assembly to assist him in his old age and
distress. No action was taken. The treasury was power-
less to help. No doubt the Tories were treated roughly.

i6

wSome lost their lands by confiscation. Some were hung-.
It is very easy to sit by the quiet firesides which the valor
of patriotic fathers secured us and coolly moralize on their
severity. War is not a lovely thing, least of all, civil war.
The sight of neighbors with whom we were wont to hold
pleasant converse arrayed against us, side by side with
hired mercenaries and scalping savages, rouses passions
slumbering deep down in human nature, which war
always has and always will arouse, moralize as we will, so
long as warm blood flows in human veins. A single letter
written by Dr. Timothy Hosmer of this village to Ensign
Amos Wadsworth July 30, 1775, illustrates the spirit of
the times, and is, perhaps, quite enough to say about
Whig and Tory hatred. He says :

" The first act I shall give you is concerning the grand Con-
tinental Fast as conducted by that great friend to administration,
the Rev. John Smalley. The Sitnday before the Fast, after ser-
vice, he read the proclamation, and then told his people that fast-
ing and prayer were no doubt a Christian duty, and that they
ought in times of trouble to set apart a suitable time to celebrate
a fast, but they were not obliged to keep the day by that procla-
mation, as they (the Congress) had no power to command, but
only to recommend, and desired they would speak their minds by
a vote, whether they would keep the day. The vote was accord-
ingly called for, and it appeared to be a scant vote, though they
met on the Fast day and he preached to them. We look i:pon it
as implicitly denying all authority of Congress. It hath awakened
his best friends against him. Even Lieut. Porter, Mr. Bull, and
John Treadwell say they cannot see any excuse for him, and I
believe the committee will take up the matter and call him to
answer for his conduct. There hath happened a terrible rumpus
at Waterbury with the Tories there. Capt. Nicholl's son, Josiah,
enlisted under Capt. Porter in Gen. Wooster's regiment, went
down to New York with the regiment, tarried a short time, and
deserted . . . came home and kept a little under covert, but
goes down to Saybrook and there enlisted with Capt. Shipman
. . . . got his bounty and rushed off again. Capt. Shipman
came up after him . . and went with some people they had got

17

to assist them to Lemuel Nicholl's, where they supposed he was.
Lemuel forbade their coming in, and presented a sword and told
them it was death to the first that offered to enter, but one young
man seized the sword by the blade and wrenched it out of his
hands. They bound him and made a search through the house,
but could find nothing of Josiah. The Tories all mustered to
defend him, and finally got Lemuel from them and he and Josiah
pushed off where they cannot be found. This ran through Thurs-
day. The Whigs sent over to Southington for help, and the peo-
ple almost all went from Southington on Friday. They took Capt.
Nicholls, whom they found on his belly over in his lot, in a bimch
of alders, carried him before Esq. Hopkins, and had him bound

over to the County Court at New Haven They had

near loo Tories collected upon the occasion, and were together till
ten o'clock Friday night. They dispersed and there was nothing
done to humble them, but I apprehend the next opportunity I
have to write I shall be able to inform you that Smalley and they,
too. will be handled. "

If the Rev. Dr. Smalley of New Britain, eminent
divine and esteemed pastor, had not at this time deter-
mined which cause to espouse, there was no doubt in the
mind of the pastor of the church in Farmington, the Rev.
Timothy Pitkin. His pulpit rang with fervid discourses
on liberty. He visited his parishioners in their camp, and
wrote them letters of encouragement and sympathy. To
Amos Wadsworth, in camp at Roxbury, he writes :

" These wait on you as a token of my friendship. Truly I feel
for my native, bleeding country, and am embarked with you in
one common cause. . . . What you may be called to is
unknown. I wish you may fill up your new department with wis-
dom, courage, and decorum. My hope is yet in God, the Lord of
Hosts and God of Armies."

To the first company of soldiers marching from Simsbury
he preached a farewell sermon from the words, " Play the
man for your country, and for the cities of your God ;
and the Lord do that which seemeth Him good."

At the opening of the war there stood at the south-

3

west corner of Main street and the Meadow lane, as it was
called, a shop where Amos and Fenn Wadsworth adver-
tised to sell drugs, groceries, etc., etc. Amos, the elder
brother, was one of the first soldiers to march to Boston,
and it is from his extensive correspondence, together with
the orderly-book of Roger Hooker and the diary of Dea-
con Samuel Richards, that most of our knowledge of
Farmington men in the war is derived. The first Farm-
ington company commenced its march on the 1 8th of May,
1775, being the 6th company of General Joseph Spencer's
regiment. The officers were Noadiah Hooker, Captain ;
Peter Curtiss and Joseph Byington, Lieutenants ; Amos
Wadsworth, Ensign, and Roger Hooker, Orderly-Ser-
geant. They were eight days on their march, resting one
rainy day at Thompson. They were stationed at Rox-
bury and there remained during the siege. They were
therefore at a distance from Bunker Hill and took no part
in the battle of Jtme 17th. Deacon Richards, however,
gives a description of the battle as he saw it from elevated
ground at Roxbury. With the exception of this one bat-
tle, the whole army was kept in inglorious inactivity for
want of powder, seldom returning the fire from the bat-
teries in Boston. Deacon Richards says :

' ' The almost constant fire of the enemy produced one eflfect pro-
bably not contemplated by them : it hardened our soldiers rapidly to
stand and bear fire. When their balls had fallen and became still
the men would strive to be the first to pick them up to carry to a
sutler to exchange for spirits. At one time they came near pay-
ing dear for their temerity. A bomb had fallen into a barn, and
in the daytime it could not be distinguished from a cannon ball in
its passage. A number were rushing in to seize it when it burst
and shattered the barn very much, but without injuring any one.

One night a ball passed through my apartment in

the barracks, a few feet over me, as I lay in my berth. Such
things, having become common, we thought little of them."

19

The troops before Boston were mostly farmers, each
at home the absolute lord of his broad acres, impatient of
military discipline, and a sore trial to the patience of
Washington. Over and over again Orderly-vSergeant
Roger Hooker records, "It is with astonishment the Gen-
eral finds," etc., etc. On the 4th of August it is

"With indignation and shame the General observes that, not-
withstanding the repeated orders which have been given to pre-
vent the firing of guns in and about the camp which is daily prac-
tised, that, contrary to all orders, straggling soldiers do still pass
the guards and fire at a distance where there is not the least
probability of hurting the enemy, and where there is no end
answered but to waste their ammunition and keep their own camp
in a continual alarm, to the hurt and detriment of every good sol-
dier, who is thereby disturbed of his natural rest, and at length
will never be able to disting^ush between the real and false
alarm."

Occasionally the men were allowed to gratify their
restlessness in certain madcap adventures. On the 1 2th
of June Amos Wadsworth writes :

"A week ago last Friday about one hundred of our men went
to one of the islands to assist some of the Whigs in getting off
their families and effects. They brought off about 500 sheep,
some cattle and horses, and took a boat belonging to one of the
transport ships with three men as they were fishing near the shore.
They secured the men and drew out the boat in plain sight of a
man-of-war. The ship twice manned out her boats and set off,
but put back without doing anything more. Our men got a team
and cart, loaded the boat into the cart, hoisted her sails, set the
two commanding officers in the stern of the boat, and the three
prisoners rowing, and in this manner drove on as far as Cam-
bridge, where they confined their prisoners in gaol

Eight of our company were in the expedition. She is now launched
in a large pond about 100 rods from us, very convenient for us to
fish and sail in."

Amos Wadsworth, Roger Hooker, and others of their
company were in the somewhat famous boat expedition of
July nth. Amos writes :

20

" It was necessary for us to take the night for the business, as
we had several ships of war to pass. We lay till after sundown,
and then manned out 45 whale boats and set off for Long Island in
order to take whatever we could find on the island. About 11
o'clock arrived at the island, and landed without opposition, and
drove off 19 cattle, about 100 sheep, i horse, 4 hogs. The island
lies between the lighthouse and Castle, and, we supposed, was
guarded by a party of regulars. The island is about one and one-
half miles long, and one large house on it, which contained con-
siderable furniture, which we carried off the most of it. We took
19 prisoners on the island, two of whom were women, one a young
lady a native of Boston, who, they said, was to have been married
to the captain of the King's store ship the next week. The most
of the prisoners, we suppose, w^ere marines and sailors sent on

shore to cut hay for the use of the troops in Boston

We towed the cattle near two miles at the stern of the boats to
another island, where we landed them, and a part of the men
drove them at low water to the main land. There were 7 ships
lying so near the shore that we could hear people talk on board
them, though not distinctly, and see the ships plain. I can give
no reason why they did not fire on us. After we had returned as
far as Dorchester with the boats the prisoners said there was
something of value left in the house. We got to Dorchester
Wednesday morning about 6 o'clock. Ten boats were manned out
with fresh hands to go and make farther search and burn the barn
and hay. They landed in the daytime, and were attacked by a
number of the King's troops in a boat and an armed schooner,
which fired grape-shot and obliged them to retreat with the loss
of one man. However, they fired the house and barn before they
left the island, but had not time to get much furniture on board,
nor was there much for them, as we brought off all the beds,
chairs, tables, a considerable quantity of wool, cupboard furni-
ture, etc."

Amos wrote many entertaining- letters which I have
no time to quote at length. He gave to his brother Fenn,
who kept the shop in his absence, minute directions for
preparing those tremendous medical compounds which
were supposed to suit the hardy constitutions of our ances-
tors. His orders about clothing would horrify the trim

militia man of our time. Every man in the army dressed
as seemed good unto himself. There were no uniforms.
Deacon Elijah Porter, Farmington's first librarian, is said,
on the authority of another deacon, to have worn his
wedding suit to the war. Orderly-Sergeant Roger Hooker
records on the 14th of June :

" That no man appear for any duty, except fatigtie, with long
trousers, or without stockings and shoes."

After Washington took command the orderly-book
announces that the officers

' ' Be distinguished in the following manner. The Com-
mander-in-Chief with a light blue ribbon worn across his breast
between his coat and vest. The Major and Brigadier- Generals
with a pink ribbon in the same manner, and the Aids-de-Camp by
a green ribbon."

Colonel Fisher Gay writes, February 26th :

" Was Officer of the Day. . . . 27th, returned the sash
. at 9 o'clock and made report to Gen. Ward."

This sash or ribbon seems to have been the means of
distinguishing officers from privates. On the 4th of Sep-
tember Lieut. Wadsworth was on the point of joining
Arnold's expedition against Quebec, but was dissuaded by
his friends. Almost the next we hear of him is the
account of his funeral, celebrated with much military dis-
play on the 30th of October, the day after his death. The
procession was headed by an advance guard of twenty
men with reversed arms, followed by the Sergeants as
bearers. The coffin was covered with black velvet and
bore two crossed swords. Then followed the mourners,
his mother and brother, the regiment under arms, and
the officers of the other regiments. The musicians
played the tune, " Funeral Thoughts," and at the end of
every line the drums beat one stroke. The march was a

22

mile and a half long, and during the last half-mile the
Brookline bell tolled constantly. His monument stands
to-day in the old cemetery of Brookline. His brother
Fenn soon entered the army, and was for several years
one of the Committee of the Pay Table in Hartford. He
died just after the close of the war, and a monument in
Saratoga marks his resting-place.

From this point our sources of information about
Farmington men in the war are sadly lessened. The
orderly-book of Roger Hooker closes with his promotion
to be Second Lieutenant under Ebenezer Sumner, Cap-
tain of the 5th Company in the 226. Regiment, which
office he was holding as early as December i ith. On the
2d of February, 1776, begins the vshort diary of Colonel
Fisher Gay. He says :

"Setoff for headquarters to join the army under command
of General Washington before Boston, and arrived at Roxbury
the 6th of said month. Stationed at Roxbury with the regiment
I belonged to, and quartered at Mr. Wyman's with Col. Wolcott
and Mr. Perry. Was sent for by General Washington to wait on
his Excellency the 13th of said month, and was ordered by the
General to go to Connecticut to purchase all the gunpowder I
could. Went to Providence, and from thence to Gov. Trumbull,
where I obtained 2 tons of the Governor, and then to New Lon-
don to Mr. T[homas| Mumford, and obtained of him an order on
Messrs. Clark & Nightingill, merchants in Providence, and re-
turned to camp the 19th, and made report to the General to his
great satisfaction."

On Sunday, March 17th, he writes:

"Col. Wolcott on the hill. An alarm in the morning. I
ordered the regiment to meet before the Colonel's door after
prayers. I marched them off with Major Chester. Near the
alarm post found, instead of going to action, the enemy had aban-
doned Boston. 500 troops immediately ordered to march into
and take possession of the fortifications in Boston. Col. Larned,
myself, Majors Sproatand Chester, with a number of other olhcers

23

and troops, marched in and took possession, and tarried there till
the 19th at night, then returned to camp at Roxbury. Never peo-
ple more glad at the departure of an enemy and to see friends."

Deacon Samuel Richards also tells of the entry into
Boston in his " Personal Narrative." He says :

" I had the gratification of being selected to carry the Ameri-
can flag at the head of the column which entered from the Rox-
bury side. When arrived in the town numerous incidents crowded
upon our view. I can particularize btit few of them. The burst
of joy shown in the countenances of our friends so long shut up
and domineered over by an insulting enemy; the meeting and
mutual salutations of parents and children, and other members of
families, having been separated by the sudden shutting up of the
town after the battle of Lexington; the general dilapidation of
the houses, several churches emptied of all the inside work and
turned into riding-schools for the cavalry; all the places which
had been previously used for public resort torn to pieces. As I
was the bearer of the flag, I attracted some attention and was
constantly pressed with invitations to ' call in and take a glass of
wine with me.' " •

On the day before the evacuation of Boston Governor
Trumbull closes a letter with the exclamation :

"Hitherto the Lord hath helped us. Although they came
against us with a great multitude and are using great artifice, yet
let our eyes be on the Lord of Hosts and our trust in Him."

And then adds :

" P. S. This moment received a letter from headquarters
requesting me to throw two thousand men .into New York from
the frontiers of Connecticut to maintain the place itntil the Gen-
eral can arrive with the army under his command."

In response thereto the Farmington soldiers marched
by way of Providence to New London, where they took
ship, and, after running upon a rock in Hell Gate, finally
reached New York in safety. Here, on the 22d of August,
shortly before the Americans were driven from the city,

24

died Colonel Fisher Gay. A not very well authenticated
tradition affirms that he was buried in Trinity Church-
yard.

With New York in possession of the enemy, the
towns on the coast were exposed to raid by the British
and Tories. This, with the scarcity of provisions i^ New
Haven, caused the corporation of Yale College to send
the freshman class to Farmington, the sophomore and
junior classes to Glastonbury, and the seniors to Wethers-
field, to meet at these respective places on the 27th of
May, 1777. Again they advertise that the sophomore
class is ordered to meet at Farmington October 22, 1777 :

" Where provision is made for their residence. We could wish
to have found suitable accommodations for the senior class, and
have taken great pains to effect it, but hitherto without success."

Here came their tutor, the Rev. John Lewis, and here in
the old cemetery you will find a stone recording the birth
and death in this village of his son, John Livy.

After the surrender of Burgoyne, General Gates
ordered the captured artillery sent to Connecticut for
safety, and a memorial to the General Assembly states
that Colonel Ichabod Norton, grandfather of the late
John T. Norton, Esq., was ordered

" To take the command of a company and proceed to Albany
for the purpose of guarding the cannon taken from Gen. Bur-
goyne the last campaign, ordered to be removed to said Farm-
ington."

After the expedition was well under way the snow disap-
peared, and the men were a fortnight dragging the heavy
pieces through the mud. They were finally stored in the
orchard of John Mix, where they remained a considerable
time.

During the remainder of the Avar the Farmington
soldiers were located almost exclusively in the Highlands

25

above New York. Of the first occupancy of West Point,
Deacon Richards says :

" I being- at the time senior officer of the regiment present, of
course led on the regiment, crossing the river on the ice. .
Coming on to the small plain surrounded by the mountains, we
found it covered with a growth of yellow pines ten or fifteen feet
high; no house or improvement on it; the snow waist high. We
fell to lopping down the tops of the shrub pines and treading
down the snow, spread our blankets, and lodged in that condition
the first and second nights. "

Concerning this same affair Deacon Elijah Porter says in
his journal:

"When Gen. Putnam was ready to go over on the ice he
called me to come to him. He then loaded me with tools for
building huts, and took a heavy load himself, and bade me follow
him. When we got about half a mile on the ice, he went on some
shelly ice, began to slip about, and down he went with his load of
tools and made the ice crack so that I thought he would go down,
but the ice held him up, and I sprang round and picked up his
tools and loaded him up again. We went on and arrived safe on
the point."

Deacon Porter soon returned home and his journal
closes, but Deacon Richards remained at West Point and
was an eye-witness of the execution of Andre. To
Timothy Hosmer, formerly the village doctor of Farm-
ington, and now army surgeon, was assigned the duty of
laying his finger on Andre's pulse and reporting him
dead.

Deacon Richards was at West Point during the build-
ing of the fortifications the subsequent spring under the
direction of Kosciusko. He says :

" I was quartered a considerable time with him in the same
log hut, and soon discovered in him an elevation of mind which
gave fair promise of those high achievements to which he attained.
His manners were soft and conciliating and at the same time ele-

26

rated. I used to take much pleasure in accompanying him about
with his theodoHte, measuring the heights of the surrounding
mountains. He was very ready in mathematics. Our family now
consisted of Brigadier-General Parsons, Doctor, afterwards Presi-

ent Dwight, Kosciusko, and myself, with the domestics

When the weather had become mild and pleasant in April, I went
one day with Dr. Dwight down to view the ruins of Fort Mont-
gomery, distant about eight or ten miles. There was a pond just
north of the fort, where we found the British had thrown in the
bodies of their own and our men who fell in the assault of the
fort."

He closes a very gruesome account of the spectacle with
the exclamation :

' ' Had the fort held out a little longer, I very probably might
have lain among them."

I shall close this rambling paper with a notice of a
proposed invasion of this quiet village, a bill for which
actually passed the Lower House of the General Assembly
near the close of the war in 1781 :

" Resolved by this Asseinbly that considering the peculiar
difficulty that many of the members of this Assembly meet with
in procuring subsistence for themselves and forage for their
horses, it is expedient this Assembly be adjourned to the town of
Farmington to transact and complete the business of the pi-esent
session, as soon as proper accommodations can be made and that
the selectmen of said town be desired to make the necessary pre-
paration for the reception of the Assembly as soon as possible.
" Passed in the Lower House,

"Test, John Treadwell, Clerk, P. T."

The reply to this request by the Selectmen of Farm-
ington was as follows :

'• To the Honorable Lower House of Assembly now sitting in
Hartford. Being desired by your Honors to make inquiry whether
the General Assembly may be accommodated in their present ses-
sions in this town, we have to observe that from the knowledge
we have of the circumstances of the inhabitants, we are of the

27

opinion that should the Honorable Assembly signify their deter-
mination to adjourn to this place, the members might be conveni-
ently, though perhaps not elegantly subsisted, and their horses
well provided. The greatest difficulty will be to provide a house
in which it would be convenient to transact business. The Meet-
ing House, though elegant and well finished, would be inconveni-
ent for want of a fire at this inclement season. The dwelling
house of Mr. Asahel Wadsworth, situate in the center of the town,
may be obtained for the purpose, and is as convenient as any in
the town. It is 42 feet in length and about 22 in breadth. The
rooms on the lower floor finished, and one of them may well
accommodate the Honorable Upper House. There are two stacks
of chimnies, one at each end. The chambers are unfurnished, the
floor laid but not divided into several apartments. One fire place
is finished, and the room, if proper seats were made, which might
soon be done, would be large enough for the Lower House. The
house is covered with jointed boards and clapboards upon them,
but neither ceiled nor plastered. This is an exact description of
Mr. Wadsworth's house, and if the Honorable Assembly shall
judge it will answer the ptirpose, upon suitable notice might be
accommodated and other preparation made in a short time.

' ' We are, with sentiments of the highest esteem and regard,
■ " Your Honors' most obedient and most humble servants.

"Farmington, February 26, 1781.

James Judd, ^ Selectmen
Isaac Bidwell, ( of Farmington.

A letter from Elijah Hubbard offering- the Assembly
accommodations at jNIiddletown equally magnificent was
also sent.

Time fails to speak of the after-life of these worthy
men, of William Judd, famous in the political history of
the State ; of John Treadwell, last of the Puritan Gover-
nors of Connecticut ; of Samuel Richards, first post-
master of Farmington ; of Roger Hooker, sittino- of a
summer evening under his noble elm tree and delighting-
the assembled youth of the village with tales of a seafar-
ing youth, of shipwreck, and of his long service in the

28

Continental army ; of Timothy Hosmer, village doctor,
army surgeon, judge of Ontario county. New York, and
pioneer settler of that western wilderness ; of Noadiah
Hooker, honored with many public trusts, and finally, as
a white-haired old man, standing on the hillside above
Whitehall and dropping a • not unmanly tear over the
graves of a hundred of his soldiers buried by him during
the terrible days of the pestilence at Skenesborough ; of
John Mix, for twenty-six years the representative of this
town to the General Assembly of the State, and of Tim-
othy Pitkin, welcoming his children home from their vic-
torious struggle, their beloved pastor and faithful friend.
There were other, many other, worthy men of whom we
would know more, who deserved well of their country.
If this paper shall prompt any one to preserve the scanty
memorials of them which still exist, my labor this even-
ing will not have been in vain.

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